Senior employees in western New York have finally realized the pattern -- when a Kmart store lease is up, the store closes about a month later. The writing is on the wall for the Victor, NY store because the pharmacy closes 11/14 for good. The in store Little Caesar's Pizza will be the next sign if it closes too.
You can also see there is a significant grab for a cash revenue boost in the SYWR promos this fall. A whopping $50 back in points for spending $50 is new. They also tried a $10 off $10 promotion that blew up when the coupon code generator handed out a new code on every page refresh. They yanked that and most other general dollar off promos last week and are pushing points back instead.
SYWR continues to alienate customers because points often don't work because of hidden restrictions, quick expirations, or glitchy registers that don't apply them to the account. The list of restricted categories keeps growing, and now include mysterious exceptions if you don't spend enough out of pocket. Even long time devotees of the program who know all the tricks just give up fighting the glitches and inconsistencies.
Employee turnover has gotten the worst I've ever seen it with some employees sticking around for only a few months at most. Doing more with less workers seems to be pushing even more out the door. The hours and duties have gotten very crazy and it is now common to find nobody manning electronics, layaway, and the jewelry counter. They are likely handling UPS or truck deliveries, or registers when regular employees don't bother to turn up.
Another fact of life - unemployment compensation is often not that far away from the salary many Kmart employees made at closed store locations.