this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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You guys still have KMarts?!
USA Kmart expanded into Australia decades ago in a 50% joint venture with the Australian supermarket chain Coles. US companies have a habit of divesting their assets here in tough times. Australian retail giant Wesfarmers purchased Kmart and made massive changes. Wesfarmers also owns the Target brand here but that was always just a brand, no US involvement. KMart just about wiped out Target and Wesfarmers seems to focus on developing Kmart and their Anko in store brand (Chinese manufactured stuff built to a price like everyone else).
Outside Australia they brand themselves as Anko. They had a small US trial in 2018-2020 where I think they were testing different concepts, not going for an expansion into the US market. They may be more interested in higher growth SE Asia as they apparently have stores in Manila.
https://ankoglobal.com/about-us.html
Fair point. The clothing tends to be Bangladesh/Vietnam etc like a lot of other retailers. Hardly anything locally manufactured or made in a country with equivalent wages or labour rights including some sources which have been accused of modern slavery practices (eg China Uyghyer camps).
I would prefer higher quality and ethical labour practices but I couldn't afford higher prices so I shop there anyway. We have to keep the share holders happy.
Yes and is the most popular of three mainstream department stores. Big W is owned by Woolworths, but somehow is much more trusted that the Supermarket.
Kmart is different to the US Kmart due to the different demographic of Australia and New Zealand.
Target is the least popular; it is ironically known as “Targét” as parody of Popular Fashion trends and is on the decline.
Unfortunately, yes. They also bought target and made them have a shit store layout aswell.
Holy shit. They’ve actually done well enough to buy out Target. You guys are fucking wild down there.
Kmart didn't buy out Target. Both Kmart and Target are owned by Westfarmers, one of the largest Australian business conglomerates. The above comment was probably referring to a restructuring within Westfarmers around 10 years ago which combined the two into a single division called "Kmart Group".
To be clear, there is also no connection between the Australian companies and their US namesakes. They are completely separate companies and have never shared the same owners.
Didn't it happen the other way around in the US?
No. Kmart went bankrupt a long time ago, got bought out by Sears which also went bankrupt, and some random company picked up the remains of Sears. But the whole time Kmart stores were closing. I think there’s one left in Florida?
Target is a separate entity and that thing has blown up. They’re everywhere. They even made lil mini stores to stick in downtown areas.
target was originally everywhere in the west, but those direct stores, and some stores have since closed down, the mini-targets dint have traffic at all the whole time they were open, and some were so hit hard "5-finger discounts" it closed.
target is its own corporation, they try to look like a "bougie walmart" but more expensive and less options. target is pretty much on par with walgreens prices.
Kmart Australia is notoriously a very different beast from the dystopian wasteland the US ones are
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long long time