WESTWOOD—The Kmart at 700 Broadway opened in autumn 1982. Forty years later it is one of only three remaining Kmart stores in the country, and the last in New Jersey. This week we go back to its first holiday season.
Westwood Kmart of the 1980s was a hopping place with a lively atmosphere. There was a little café inside, so you could make your visit an extended outing with lunch. Loudspeaker announcements about Blue Light Specials (“Attention Kmart shoppers…”), complete with a rotating blue light in the style used by police cars, would send customers running for markdowns. With more than 2,000 stores, Kmart was the second largest retailer in the United States, behind only Sears. Times were good.
The advertisement here dates to December 1982. We see the usual fare, like robes for mom and ties for dad; and back then, just as now, electronics were a popular Christmas gift. Just look at those gadgets!
For months leading up to Christmas Kmart had been pushing the Commodore VIC-20, marketed as “The Wonder Computer of the 1980s.” The Commodore, pictured top right on this flyer, was an early computer affordably priced for home use. It came with 5KB of RAM, which could be upgraded to 21KB, and was the first computer in history to sell more than a million units.
Below the Commodore, two classic video game systems that were competitors on the market in the early 1980s: an Atari 2600 (top), originally called the Atari Video Computer System, and Mattel’s more expensive 16-bit Intellivision. No wireless controllers in those days! Kmart also sold a variety of games for each of these systems. The Atari came bundled with “Combat.”
Shown at bottom center, Kmart also had this boombox—a 1980s staple. It was $138 (worth $425 today) for this stereo that played cassette tapes in the days before CDs hit the market. It could also record cassettes—perfect for making mixtapes off the radio—and came with two blank ones.
The final tech gadget featured, at a price of about $80, was the Timex Sinclair 1000. Produced only from 1982-1983, this was the cheapest home computer on the market at the time. It had 2KB of RAM, black-and-white graphics, and no sound. It would be hooked up to a television set, which served as the monitor.
Kmart’s arrival in Westwood had been years in the making and was fraught with controversy. From the project’s conception in 1973, it took nine years for the Westwood Plaza shopping center to open. The $8.2 million plan saw opposition and legal action from the Borough Council, Chamber of Commerce, and residents, who thought it would cheapen Westwood, put Westwood Avenue merchants out of business, compound flooding issues, and cause a traffic nightmare. After the Planning Board approved the site plan in 1974, the Borough Council tried unsuccessfully to overturn the decision at the State Supreme Court.
Did you know? The “K” in Kmart stands for Kresge. The company’s founder was Sebastian S. Kresge, who opened his first store in 1899. Kresge’s aim was to have a discount store, and at first he tried to restrict the price of the merchandise to not more than 10 cents. Today only three Kmart stores remain in America. In addition to the one in Westwood, there is one in Bridgehampton, Long Island, and another in Miami, Florida.
— Kristin Beuscher is president of the Pascack Historical Society