Kmart to close grocery, lay off workers at Military Hwy. store

NORFOLK

Kmart will eliminate the grocery section, reduce hours and lay off workers at its store on Military Highway, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Kmart will convert the store near Norview Avenue from a Super Kmart to a Big Kmart, said Kim Freely, a spokeswoman for Sears Holdings Corp., which owns Kmart. That means the store will no longer carry a full line of foods.

Because the store is being converted to a Big Kmart, Freely said, its hours will be reduced - to about 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. from around the clock.

The elimination of the grocery section will begin March 10, and the store will cease 24-hour-a-day operation March 14, Freely said. The conversion should be complete by April 23, she added.

Freely said she did not know what the store would put in place of the grocery section.

She declined to discuss the store's profitability but said the change would provide it "the best chance to succeed. The grocery section is its own business and has its own expenses and needs."

A notice Kmart recently filed with the state under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act said 184 employees could be subject to mass layoffs. That is the store's total work force, Freely said, but "the overall impact will be significantly smaller." She said she did not know how many jobs would be cut.

Kmart opened the Military Highway store in 1996, she said.

Sears announced Monday that it would shut 13 Kmart and eight

Sears stores, none in Virginia. Last year Kmart closed its store on 3901 Holland Road in Virginia Beach.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com