KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

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dooneyt63
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by dooneyt63 »

Famous Eddie's was generally used in the Super Kmart Centers for the food service located at the front of the store across from the checkstands. It was more like a fast food restaurant than a coffee shop; the cheeseburger and fries I had at one in the old Jackson, MS Supercenter before its first demise was excellent. The graphics looked like some time had been devoted to their creation, and the logo was even printed on the wax wrapping around the sandwiches.
pseudo3d
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

The Jackson, MS, one when it opened featured "Little Caesars Gourmet Pizza and Little Caesars International Submarines", according to Kmart World when it opened as American Fare. I don't know about why the Gourmet pizza is there--LC's has been never been gourmet--nor the submarines. I remember when salads and such were pushed at the local Little Caesar's (as well as the old Baby Pan Pan, sniff), but never submarine sandwiches, ever.

Apparently mid-1990s Super Kmarts had a "food court" of sorts with a variety of food. I first read about it on this site where it mentions this:
In this picture, we can see the food court and the Flag Pole. When the store first open, the food court had a huge array of choices. Italin, American, Mexican, ect... food. It musn't have gone over good because they closed the resturant and put in a hamburger station and Little Ceasers. The tore out the the eating area, and put in books. A few tables still remained near the grill though, for customer to sit and enjoy a meal.
The "hamburger station" led me to Famous Eddie's (which likely filled it in) and the food court bit led me to this article here, where it talks about the "food court" in more detail--"American, Oriental, Italian, and Mexican fare, as well as sandwiches and salads."

I've always been a bit curious of the "food court" in these Super Kmarts.
dooneyt63
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by dooneyt63 »

The Jackson, MS, store started out as an American Fare (the venture with Bruno's). It was
fairly short-lived, and the Kmart that had been located slightly south of the American Fare was
moved and made a Super Kmart Center. It operated for a while, then closed. It was reopened after community lobbying. It was during the Kmart non-American Fare period that Famous Eddie's was the food service outlet. Other Super Kmart Centers had the "food court" arrangement, but I don't think this location ever had more than a single outlet at a time since it was converted from the old American Fare experiment.
pseudo3d
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

So let me get this straight...American Fare closes and reopens as a Kmart Super Center. As it reopens, a smaller Kmart closes nearby. Then the Kmart Super Center closes. Then it reopens. Then it closes again for good? Confusing.
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47of74
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by 47of74 »

I just happened into the Kmart in Dubuque (4018) today as I needed a couple things and didn't feel like running to the nearest Hy-Vee which would be really busy this time of day. Been over a year since I was last in there. They still have a K-Cafe/Little Caesar's open in that store, although it looks like they took some of the space from that portion of the store and turned it back into space to display clothing. Also looks like they pulled some of the registers out as well.
winndixiepublix
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by winndixiepublix »

I remember the Kmart K-Cafe in the (newer)
Kmart in West Palm Beach off Okeechobee and Military
that one was late closed around the mid/late 2000's ,
a another Kmart with a K-Cafe
it was the Kmart off Northlake Blvd in Lake Park which opened in 1974
having the K-Cafe the K-Cafe lasted inthe early/mid/2000's when it closed
winndixiepublix
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by winndixiepublix »

Phil53 wrote:Raised in Central California and San Diego, I remember KMart would have a yellow company cafeteria inside all their stores til the early 1990's. I vaguely remember the name, but it had a 70's yellow exterior glass around it. It was usually in a box centered in the back of the store, there was a counter and a 70s set of tables and chairs.

I believe they phased them out when Little Ceasers moved in or when most KMart Stores were upgraded in the 90's.

I don't remember what they served, but it was probably short order items. Around that time, this was in addition to the popcorn and ICEE machine desk at the front of the store next to the cashiers.

Can anyone provide any additional information about this hidden yellow cafeteria, as well as old pictures of KMart interiors?
the Little Caesars were put in when the store was remodeled
Ampersand
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by Ampersand »

The last i seen of K-Cafe was in the Herkimer NY KMart which closed a long time ago but remained sitting unused for a long time before they finally walled it off... I suspect it might still be used as a breakroom for employees or just storage
pseudo3d
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

Just wanted to add that the Wendy's inside the Michigan store aforementioned did exist, at least for a while.
Buckethead
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Re:

Post by Buckethead »

RandallFlagg wrote: I was an area supervisor and can remember the deli calling me to help them make ham sandwiches. I would alway make a healthy batch and buy them at closing for almost nothing [hah blue light specials]. I remember around 8 or 830 pizza and taco snacks were a quarter. A couple of those and and icee, whoohoo. I worked at the store from 82 to 85
Those pizza, taco, and burrito snacks were heaven on earth. I've never had anything quite like them since. Only thing that came close were the fried burritos at Jack in the Box in the late 70s/early 80s and they got rid of those.

The ham sandwiches were killer but only had them a few times because I loved the subs so much. I think a bag of 3 ham sandwiches was like $1.69 or something.

pseudo3d wrote:The Jackson, MS, one when it opened featured "Little Caesars Gourmet Pizza and Little Caesars International Submarines", according to Kmart World when it opened as American Fare. I don't know about why the Gourmet pizza is there--LC's has been never been gourmet--nor the submarines. I remember when salads and such were pushed at the local Little Caesar's (as well as the old Baby Pan Pan, sniff), but never submarine sandwiches, ever.
.
I remember sandwiches along with some bland spaghetti but this may have only been used in specific markets to test it out. It was in early 1993 at Little Caesars in MO.
pseudo3d
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

Buckethead wrote:
RandallFlagg wrote: I was an area supervisor and can remember the deli calling me to help them make ham sandwiches. I would alway make a healthy batch and buy them at closing for almost nothing [hah blue light specials]. I remember around 8 or 830 pizza and taco snacks were a quarter. A couple of those and and icee, whoohoo. I worked at the store from 82 to 85
Those pizza, taco, and burrito snacks were heaven on earth. I've never had anything quite like them since. Only thing that came close were the fried burritos at Jack in the Box in the late 70s/early 80s and they got rid of those.

The ham sandwiches were killer but only had them a few times because I loved the subs so much. I think a bag of 3 ham sandwiches was like $1.69 or something.

pseudo3d wrote:The Jackson, MS, one when it opened featured "Little Caesars Gourmet Pizza and Little Caesars International Submarines", according to Kmart World when it opened as American Fare. I don't know about why the Gourmet pizza is there--LC's has been never been gourmet--nor the submarines. I remember when salads and such were pushed at the local Little Caesar's (as well as the old Baby Pan Pan, sniff), but never submarine sandwiches, ever.
.
I remember sandwiches along with some bland spaghetti but this may have only been used in specific markets to test it out. It was in early 1993 at Little Caesars in MO.
I do have an ad from 1994 about my local LC (not Kmart based) offering a bucket of spaghetti, but we weren't a major market unless it was considered part of Houston.
RPAmesandKmartan26
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by RPAmesandKmartan26 »

Most of our stores (Lincoln {1992-2003}, Warwick 2 {1993-2003}, Johnston {1972-2003}, South Attleboro {1992-2017}, Cranston {Both}, and other New England stores) featured Little Ceasars Pizza Station in-store.
retail_person_247
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Re: KMart Cafeteria and Other Restaurants

Post by retail_person_247 »

Kmart used to have stand alone restaurants known as "Kmart Chef" back when S.S. Kresge was starting to open their early Kmart stores
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