Dive Brief:
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Martha Stewart wishes she had bought Kmart when she had the chance, the media mogul told the Associated Press Wednesday.
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The now Sears Holdings Corp.-owned retailer for a decade had a cozy relationship with Stewart, but that ended in 2009.
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Martha Stewart’s empire is on track to be bought by brand management company Sequential Brands Group for $353 million, (well below its valuation when it went public in 1999). Stewart will remain as creative director and serve on Sequential's board.
Dive Insight:
Perhaps it’s true that Stewart could have taken Kmart on a different track. She and the retailer did have great, if not enduring, success with her lines of furniture, home goods, and even paints, as part of Stewart's once-thriving retail enterprise, a precursor of sorts to today's celebrity-owned brands.
"We thought about buying it, but we didn't do it, and we should have," Stewart told The Associated Press. "That could have been our store — KMartha!”
Stewart said she fought with a Martha Stewart Living executive who at the time was "less bold" and against the idea. "We'd have a fantastic chain of stores right now," Stewart said.
Instead, Kmart has been almost like a poor stepchild of Sears Holdings Corp., which is struggling in general as it tries to bring back its Sears and Kmart retailers from the brink. Kmart’s performance as been a drag on that company since Sears CEO Eddie Lampert merged it with Sears in 2005 after snatching it up, on the brink of bankruptcy, in 2002.
