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Waupaca’s Kmart to close

Store opened in early 1990s

By Greg Seubert


Waupaca will soon be without a department store for the first time in decades.

Transform KM LLC notified the state Department of Workforce Development that it will close its Kmart store on West Fulton Street by the end of the year.

“Due to a change in business circumstances, Transform KM LLC will permanently cease its entire operations and close its Kmart facility at 830 W. Fulton St., Waupaca,” the notification reads. “Employee separations are expected to begin on our about Nov. 17. Based upon the best information currently available to us, the closure will result in the permanent separation of approximately 41 employees.”

According to the notification, dated Aug. 15, the list of affected employees includes 12 checkout service associates; three pharmacy technicians; three service desk associates; two office associates; one pharmacy manger; one pharmacist; and one store general manager.

The closure will leave Wisconsin with four Kmart stores in Ripon, Mauston, Racine and Kenosha, according to the store’s website.

The announcement regarding Waupaca’s Kmart store comes less than four months after the city’s Shopko Hometown store shut its doors. That store opened in 2012.

Kmart opened its Waupaca store in the early 1990s. At that time, Waupaca also had a Prange Way department store in the Waupaca Woods Mall. That store opened in 1989 and closed in the mid-1990s after the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Prange Way store was formerly a Schultz Bros. variety store, which had opened in 1926 in downtown Waupaca before relocating to the mall.

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