Prologue
As the CEO of Marine Company Freight, America’s newest up and coming members-only grocery store, you might not think I’d feel nostalgia for K-mart.
But there was a time when I, Alexander Hugo, wasn’t the multimillionaire America knows and loves. I was once a child myself, whose favorite day of the year was the day before Christmas, when my mom, Catherine, would take me to K-mart, and I’d pick out the toy of my choice, usually a Micro Machines set. Back then, K-mart was all the rage.
They had this wonderful department called Layaway. I never quite understood what that was exactly, but it allowed my mom to save so much on fancy new purses that even to my working class single mom, widowed when I was just five, buying a fifteen dollar Micro Machines set seemed like nothing.
I was 10 years old when I finally completed my set with my favorite one of all: a secret military base in a mountain. Finally, my little car-themed village, Hugotown, was complete. I enjoyed so many happy days playing with that set. I always used it as a supervillain headquarters, where the evil Dr. Pain would plot to take over the town. He almost always failed at it, but he and I had a lot of fun doing it.
I never forgot that day in 1999. And I never forgot what it was like to have a K-mart Christmas! If I could help it, my kids were gonna have one just like mine.
And thank goodness, I’ve been able to give it to my five year old and my three year old every year of their lives. Thanks to one phone call I made in the year 2023.
K-mart 😁 Ah, those were the days. The blue-light specials, the cherry icee's, and the toy isle's. Definitely brings back memories.