Kmart

Kmart Corp. surprised Wall Street yesterday with more evidence that it is struggling in the discount-store wars, revealing that its profit for this quarter will be sharply less than expected.The nation's second-biggest retailer said strength in its specialty divisions won't be enough to make up for poor sales in its flagship Kmart discount-store unit. As a result, profit from continuing operations for the three months that end tomorrow will be "well below" the 12 cents a share earned in last year's first quarter, Kmart said.

A half-empty former shopping mall in Eldersburg will be remade as a Walmart-anchored plaza under plans announced Monday by owner Black Oak Associates. In a move long awaited by many in the community, the Owings Mills-based developer will spend $50 million to renovate Carrolltown Center into Eldersburg Commons, with new restaurants and home, fashion and beauty retailers. For a decade, Carrolltown Center has been a community sore spot. The interior of the small community mall was closed in 2005, and the property languished with a diminishing roster of tenants and an abandoned movie theater.

A tidal wave of shareholder opposition yesterday swept away Kmart Corp.'s plan to raise $600 million to $900 million by issuing new stock tied to the performance of its specialty store units, despite the company's last-ditch efforts to win support.The defeat was an embarrassing setback for Kmart's management, which has been under increasing pressure from shareholders unhappy with its inability to rejuvenate the company's flagship discount store business.The opposition's victory took Wall Street, the company and even the leaders of the dissident shareholders by surprise and came in spite of Kmart's last-ditch efforts to get out the vote by extending the balloting deadline by eight hours.

Police captured a man Wednesday evening after he barricaded himself inside a beer distribution facility in eastern Baltimore County, bringing to an end a standoff that followed a disturbance at a Kmart and a break-in at an empty home. The chaos, which led authorities to evacuate two businesses and place nearby Colgate Elementary School on lockdown, lasted most of the afternoon. Authorities initially said the man might have been holding a hostage, but police said they did not find anyone with him. Officers initially responded to the Kmart in the 200 block of North Point Blvd.

The Kmart in Columbia is helping the Oakland Mills High School girls basketball teams raise money for new uniforms.The store has bought 500 promotional candy bars that it will sell for $1 each, with all money going to the team.The new uniforms for the junior varsity and varsity teams will cost $5,000. A candy bar can be purchased at the service desk at the store, 6405 Dobbin Road.

The Kmart Corp. yesterday stripped its chairman, Joseph E. Antonini, of that title and gave it to one of the more outspoken board members, Donald S. Perkins.At a news conference at the company's headquarters in Troy, Mich., Mr. Perkins said that while he would spend about one-third of his time on Kmart business, Mr. Antonini, who continues as the president and chief executive, would keep running Kmart's operations. Still, many analysts speculated that the events foreshadowed Mr. Antonini's eventual end at Kmart.

TROY, Mich. -- They're playing around more than ever at some Kmart stores -- and it's serious business.Kmart's store managers and senior executives are playing around with new concepts, new departments, new merchandise and new ways of displaying and selling it -- all aimed at making Kmart more appealing to current and potential customers.The experimentation indicates that Kmart's culture may be changing, to accept and even encourage more risk-taking and innovation.Until recently, Kmart had not changed its concepts much, and the renewed tests bode well for the Michigan-based retailer, analysts say."

More than 800 pieces of jewelry, valued at approximately $250,000, were stolen from a Kmart store in the 5400 block of Baltimore National Pike during a nighttime burglary last week, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Police said the robber was caught on videotape by a store surveillance camera. The tape showed the man entering about 1 a.m. Friday from a rear loading dock, opening several jewelry cases and placing the items in bags. A store spokesman said the items included diamond rings and gold and silver bracelets and necklaces, with a total retail value of about $250,000.

Two youths tried to come up with their own Blue Light Special in the shotgun department at an East Baltimore Kmart last night.The two 15-year-olds hid inside the Kmart store in the Parkside Shopping Center in the 5100 block of Sinclair Lane when it closed at 8 p.m., according to city police spokesman Sam Ringgold. The youths loaded shotguns and ammunition into a shopping cart. The plot fell apart when the burglars were discovered by a janitor at 9:15 p.m. The janitor had a brief discussion with the two youths, fled and hid in the store's cafeteria, where he called police.

The Kmart Corp. decided to clean house in the fourth quarter, writing off losses on two specialty store chains it sold and taking a big charge for renovations and other improvements in an effort to make its core discount-store business competitive.As a result, it reported a loss yesterday of $1.19 billion, or $2.61 a share.But analysts said that even without the string of one-time charges, Kmart's fourth-quarter results were disappointing. The retailer's sales growth was good but failed to translate into better earnings, in part because of heavier-than-expected markdowns.

In the old days, when you saw something you really liked but couldn't afford, you didn't just charge it and take that sucker home. You put it on layaway. Over a period of some weeks or months, you could make payments in installments - which was a little easier than forking out all the dough all at once. This meant you couldn't take home what you wanted right away, but it was yours once you paid in full. It was a great concept that went the way of the dinosaur once credit started getting handed out like so much candy corn on Halloween.

Sears Holdings Shares declined $2.35 to $111.85. The Kmart and Sears parent bought an almost 14 percent stake of Restoration Hardware Inc. - which has already agreed to be sold to private equity firm Catterton Partners.

I would like your opinion of my shares of Sears Holdings Corp. I'm not sure about its future. - C.L., via the Internet The famed retailer, with about 3,900 full-line and specialty stores in the United States and Canada, has a shopping list of concerns that include the economy. High energy costs, a weak housing market, the need to upgrade stores and strong competition from narrowly focused retailers have all contributed to sales declines last year and this year. Meanwhile, it has made some improvement in profit margins and inventory in portions of its business.

CHICAGO -- Some companies have dress codes, but Sears Holdings Corp. now has a bag code. Employees of the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based owner of Sears and Kmart stores are being discouraged from bringing bags, packages or anything else with the logo of a retail competitor to any company property. The request was made this week in a letter to Sears Holdings workers from Aylwin B. Lewis, who took over the job of chief executive officer from Alan Lacy yesterday. Lewis, a fast-food industry executive until about a year ago, also asked Sears Holdings workers to visit their nearest Sears or Kmart store three or four times a month, as well as to post product suggestions on internal company Web sites.

CHICAGO - Billionaire hedge fund manager Edward Lampert thinks he can succeed where a host of others have failed: selling more merchandise at Sears. Lampert, who orchestrated the takeover of Sears, Roebuck and Co. in March after bringing Kmart Holding Corp. out of bankruptcy, said yesterday that he will oversee marketing, merchandising, design and online businesses at Sears Holdings and its Lands' End clothing unit. His management shake-up at the nation's third-largest retailer also included the demotion of Sears Roebuck Chief Executive Officer Alan Lacy, whose four-year tenure as Sears' leader was marked by falling sales and capped by the takeover of the venerable retailer by Kmart.

Carrolltown Center, Carroll County's oldest mall and a gathering place for its most populous area, is about to undergo a major transformation that could take as long as three years and cost about $30 million. R. Dixon Harvey Jr., who bought the mall in 1992 when it was in receivership and sold it six years later for $13 million, has repurchased the 335,000- square-foot enclosed shopping center on Liberty Road. He settled in December, paying $10 million for the property. "I have always thought Carrolltown Center was a great retail opportunity," he said.

County police arrested a Ferndale man Wednesday and charged him with stealing merchandise worth nearly $800 from a Pasadena Kmart, county police said.Anthony Ramondo Gattuso, 27, of the 7100 block of Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. was charged with felony theft.Mark Webster, a security guard for the store in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway, told police he saw a man place 29 videotapes, two videocassette recorders and three dart sets in a plastic tub and walk out of the store without paying at about 12: 45 p.m.Webster stopped the man outside the store and held him for police.

Steve Granger, Suzanne and Joseph Verdecchia bought a Sears dealer store four years ago in Chester on Maryland's Eastern Shore with the intention of growing the business. Now, they wonder about the future of their store because a Kmart less than two miles away sells the same Craftsman products they do, after Kmart Corp. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. merged this spring. "I don't feel like I have a business that's salable," said Joseph Verdecchia, 63, who had planned to sell the shop by the end of next year.

CHICAGO - Giving its first glimpse into its financial performance, the recently formed Sears Holdings Corp. disappointed investors yesterday with a first-quarter loss amid declining sales. The company formed by the March merger of Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Holding Corp. lost $9 million, or 7 cents a share, in the fiscal quarter that ended April 30. The company also disclosed that it laid off 850 workers during the quarter, mostly from Sears Holdings' headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill. The quarter includes all 13 weeks of Kmart's results and five weeks of Sears' results.