America has a reputation for bulldozing the past, but plenty of buildings here get a second act. Some transformations are so seamless you’d never guess what came before, while others keep their history on full display. In North Anderson, a massive storage facility falls into the latter category- the 73,000-square-foot building1 spent thirty-seven years as a Kmart.
Believe it or not, Anderson was once home to three Kmarts. The first, an 80,000-square-foot building with parking spots for a thousand cars, opened at Southdale Plaza in 19632. The second on Nichol Avenue opened a decade later3. Finally, the store at Broadway Avenue and Hartman Road came online in 1980 next to an extant Marsh Supermarket4.
Is there any retail presence more anachronistic than Kmart these days? Once a titan of American shopping, Kmarts dotted the landscape from coast to coast! Their bright red “K” logos beckoned families in for everything from clothes and toys to lawn furniture and layaway deals. Unfortunately, times have changed. Competitors modernized, consumer habits shifted, and one by one, the familiar blue-light specials faded into memory.
Growing up, we weren’t really a Kmart family. My best friend’s dad managed one of the Muncie stores, but Walmart and Meijer were closer, cleaner, and frankly, more appealing. I remember tagging along to the adjacent Marsh plenty of times as a kid, but I only ever ventured into Anderson’s Broadway Kmart once. It was a last-minute mission to snag some cheap camping gear for a fishing trip. True to form, Kmart had the best prices.
Unfortunately, the Broadway Kmart’s run came to an end in September 20175 as part of a sweeping round of closures that wiped out thirty-four Kmarts and eight Sears stores in one fell swoop6. Storage of America moved in shortly afterwards and eventually grew to encompass the shuttered Marsh next door.
Sources Cited
1 Fan of Retail (2018, May 23). Former Kmart – Anderson, IN. Flickr. Web. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
2 New K-mart Unit To Open On Thursday (1963, July 17). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 29.
3 Remonstrators Lose Fight Against Northwest Development (1973, October 26). The Anderson Herald. p. 1.
4 First reading on joint power plan approved (1980, May 10). The Anderson Daily Bulletin. p. 18.
5 Stephens, C. (2017, July 7). Kmart on Broadway is latest retailer leaving Anderson. The Anderson Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
6 Montgomery, G. (2017, July 7). Anderson Kmart, 3 Sears in Indiana on company’s closing list. WISHTV [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved October 15, 2025.
K-Mart was the originator of the famous “Blue Light Special”, an unadvertised sale that was on for only a short time (30 minutes?) And marked by a police-car style blue light.
I agree that by the time Wal-Mart went on a growth jag, old K-Mart stores seemed dingy and low-class.