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'All sales final,' as are shifts at stores
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT, Times Staff Writer
Like swarms of locusts, customers have descended on both Hernando County Kmart stores since January when the company announced it would close both locations. As prices incrementally fell, bargain hunters returned time and again, rummaging through boxes and filling their shopping carts with discounted goods. "It's all been a blur really," said Steve Rosenka, a sales associate at the Brooksville location. "The store has just imploded. It just seems so big now." On Sunday, the last day of business for both locations, all remaining Brooksville stock -- including a rack of men's shorts, a display of assorted earrings and some brightly colored ribbon -- had been consolidated at the front of the store. Yellow and red signs hung from the walls, ceiling and fixtures, all proclaiming that "Everything Must Go" and "All Sales Are Final." After more than two years at the store, Rosenka, 40, said it seems a bit sad to leave for good. But he, like most of the remaining 20 employees at the Brooksville store, already have new jobs lined up. "You're here for a time, and it's almost like a family," he said, just minutes before his final shift ended. "I knew these people when my baby was born." In a strange twist, Rosenka's new job is at a Big Lots closeout store just across U.S. 41, the former home of a Kmart that closed when the current store opened in 1994 -- at the time the largest retail outlet in the county. The Kmart closings eliminated 175 full- and part-time jobs in Hernando County. Corporate officials say they chose those stores to close because of tough competition. The stores are among 326 to be closed nationwide; both are less than a mile from a new Wal-Mart Supercenter. The company culled the unprofitable stores in preparation for leaving bankruptcy protection, which it is scheduled to do in the spring. At the Brooksville store, Tommy Moore, 21, pushed his year-old son around in a shopping cart -- one of the few store fixtures that wasn't for sale. Though they live in Brooksville, Moore said, he and his family travel to both stores and have found the Spring Hill location typically had more of a selection. "Ever since we found out they were going out of business, we've been finding all kinds of deals," he said. Mostly, he and his girlfriend have bought clothes for Tommy Jr. that cost about $1 apiece. "We've gone ahead and bought them ahead of time," he said. "He'll have clothes until he's 3. We couldn't pass it up." At the Spring Hill location, Christine Cox pored over shelves picked nearly clean by shoppers who had come before her. It was the fifth time she has been to the store looking for closeout bargains since January. "Yes, I will miss this store," said Cox, who has shopped in the store since she moved to the Heather 10 years ago. "I would come here for the selection, but I suppose I'll go over to Wal-Mart like everyone else."
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