, Kmart really doesn't have any threat of competition. Caldor, another discount retailer, was an up and coming threat to Kmart but then couldn't handle the pressure and began to sell some stores.
             Kmart is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as the symbol KM. The 52-week high for the stock was $12.07 and is currently traded for about $5.62.
             Kmart's mission statement is as follows: Kmart will become the discount store of choice for low and middle income households by satisfying their routine and seasonal shopping needs as well as or better than the competition. They are basically saying that they are to become the store of choice for all shopping needs. As I mentioned earlier, Kmart is the nation's second largest discount retailer and the world's third largest general
             merchandise retailer. They are pretty close in what they have stated if you look at the facts.
             The discount retail industry is a $420.7 Billion industry. Kmart has an 8% claim on that total. Their biggest competitor, Wal-Mart, has a 22% stake in the market. In 1998, Kmart had a sales per selling square foot of $222 while Wal-Mart had $459 sales per selling square foot. Kmart had a sales growth of 4.8% while Wal-Mart had a 9.0% sales growth for that year. However, Kmart had had an earnings per share amount of $1.01 while the dominating competitor Wal-Mart had only a $.99 earnings per share. Overall, Wal-Mart did rise over Kmart in earnings.
             In 1998, Kmart had total annual sales of $33,687 Million while in 1999 it had annual sales of $35,925 Million. In 1998 Kmart had annual Net Income of $519 Million while in 1999 it had an annual Net Income of only $403 Million. The reason for this was that in the second quarter, they had discontinued operations in a few locations and had reported a loss of about $238 Million.
             Kmart's corporate level strategy is one of a single business. They are concentrating on the discount and ...