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Attention, Kmart shoppers. Welcome to Home Depot.
The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is setting up shop in more than a dozen former Kmart stores across the nation, including one in Marietta at Shallowford and Sandy Plains roads.
Home Depot bid for lease rights to 22 Kmart stores around the country, and got 15 of them, said John Simley, a Home Depot spokesman. Home Depot faced competition from Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) for those sites, he said. The sites were acquired through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Illinois, where Kmart Corp. (Nasdaq: KMRT) filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2002.
Kmart, which operates stores in 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, emerged from bankruptcy in May. Earlier this year, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved the closure of 316 Kmart stores.
With the April 14 acquisition, Home Depot will enter one new market in Alaska and continue its in-fill strategy in cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Detroit Oakland, Syosset N.Y., and St. Louis, Simley said. Home Depot did not disclose terms of the acquisitions and information about...