Kmart’s Family Roots

Born to modest means, Sebastian Sperling Kresge was taught to count his pennies. He worked as a farmer, teacher, and tin salesman before taking a half-interest in a Detroit novelty store. In 1899 he bought out his partner and opened Kresge & Wilson with his brother-in-law. Several stores later he bought out his brother-in-law, too, changing the store name to S.S. Kresge Co.

Kresge believed that working people would pay no more for an item than he would pay himself. That notion, plus the “five-and-dime” concept begun in the 1870s by Winfield Woolworth, guided his pricing policy. But he also believed in impulse buying. To encourage it, he implemented the revolutionary idea of putting unpackaged merchandise out where people could see and touch it. He introduced a radical store design that lured people with cheap prices, placing 5-cent items out on the sidewalk to pull in shoppers. Inside, goods were grouped according to their uses—clothing on one wall, paper goods on another, soaps here, metalware there. The counters were loaded with 5-cent goods too—another impulse opportunity. There were over 11,000 different items in one store.

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