More than one hundred years ago, Sebastian Spering Kresge opened a modest five-and-dime store in downtown Detroit...and changed the entire landscape of retailing. The store that Kresge built has evolved into an empire of more than 1,800 stores and an Internet presence that reaches millions of customers. The Kmart name has become a symbol of Americana, standing for quality products at low prices.

When Kresge opened his first store, he sold everything for 5 and 10 cents. The low prices appealed to shoppers and allowed him to expand to 85 stores in 1912, with annual sales of more than $10 million.

War and financial depressions hit America hard over the next decades, but Kresge stores were always there to offer families products at prices they could afford. They also offered people what other businesses at the time could not - jobs to support their families.

As time went on, prices may have changed, but the business philosophy stayed the same - offer consumers products they need at prices they can afford - and they’ll keep coming back.

By the mid-1920s, the S.S. Kresge Company was opening locations that sold items for $1 or less, a precursor to the current discount store. These ''green-front'' stores often were right next to the traditional red-front five-and-dime Kresge stores.

Ten years later in 1937, Kresge opened a store in the country’s first suburban shopping center - Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.

STAYING COMPETITIVE
The retail environment was getting more competitive, and again Kresge blazed the trail for future retailers by launching a newspaper advertising program to entice shoppers to its stores. Those print ads were the precursor to radio promotions, which followed 20 years later, and then TV commercials which began to air in 1968. Kmart is still the leading print promotional retailer, with weekly circulars reaching more than 70 million households each week.

By the 1950s, it was evident that the company needed to change to continue to be a leader in the growing competitive retail environment. That change came through Harry B. Cunningham who became Kresge President in 1959. Cunningham had been studying other discount houses and developed a new strategy for the Kresge organization.

Under Cunningham’s leadership, the first Kmart discount department store opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. Seventeen additional Kmart stores opened that year, leading to corporate sales of more than $483 million that year.

Just four years later in 1966, sales in 162 Kmart stores and 753 Kresge stores topped the $1 billion mark. In 1976, S.S. Kresge made history by opening 271 Kmart stores in one year, becoming the first-ever retailer to launch 17 million square feet of sales space in a single year.

In 1977, nearly 95 percent of S.S. Kresge Company sales were generated by Kmart stores. To reflect this dramatic impact, the company officially changed its name to Kmart Corporation. Ten years later, Kmart sold the remaining Kresge stores to fully concentrate on discount merchandising.

BACK TO BASICS
In 1990, Kmart unveiled a bold new logo and a bold new plan - a five-year, $3.5 billion new-store opening, enlargement and modernization program to focus the business back on what mattered most - its Kmart stores.

In 1991, as part of the new plan, Kmart opened the first Kmart Supercenter in Medina, Ohio, offering a full-service grocery along with general merchandise 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In 1996, a complete redesign of the Kmart store was launched, making them cleaner, brighter and easier to shop. A ''Pantry'' department selling frequently purchased consumable goods was moved toward the front of the store and a new focus was placed on the Children’s and Home Fashions departments. These ''big'' changes were signified by a new name for the remodeled stores - ''Big Kmart.''

To further expand the reach of the company, in December of 1999 Kmart launched a new Internet presence, BlueLight.com. By initially offering free Internet service, BlueLight was able to register a record-breaking number of users in its first few months. The site, now known as Kmart.com, still reaches millions of shoppers each month.

As the 21st Century dawned, Kmart solidified its place as one of America's leading retailers. Expansion of customer outreach, modernization of distribution systems, growing availability of the Kmart credit card and the return of the Blue Light Special renewed the company's emphasis on meeting the diverse needs of shoppers.

MOVING FORWARD WITH DETERMINATION
Kmart, which filed in January of 2002 to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, currently employs more than 220,000 associates, a far cry from the staff of 18 first employed at Kresge's five-and dime.

A turnaround expert, James B. Adamson, was named as Chairman and CEO in March of 2002. Adamson and his new executive leadership team are focusing on stabilizing the business, while bolstering Kmart's strengths, to enable a rapid completion of the reorganization.

Kmart is still facing the future with the kind of determination that would have made S.S. Kresge proud. As Kmart continues to operate stores across the country, customers can be assured that their communities will always have "the stuff of life" -- a broad selection of top-quality products at exceptional values.