Before Kmart had Kenmore - General Electric

[gansky1]

These brochures are from David's collection who was moving and so generously shared them with all of us at the Minneapolis wash-in back in May. I remember these machines vividly at Kmart, I probably even brought these same brochures home. They had Whirlpool, Frigidaire 1-18's and General Electric. Aside from the GE - Hotpoint feature sets, these looked very similar to the JCPenny laundry styles of the same period.

 

[gansky1]

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[gansky1]

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[gansky1]

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[gansky1]

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[gansky1]

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[goatfarmer]

I've seen those washers and dryers on the trade piles over the years. Never connected them with KMart!

 

[appnut]

I remember seeing these too. I always thought they were illegitimate GEs since they had knobs and no toggle switches or pushbuttons. I remember when Kmart had rollermatics before the 1/18s.

 

[lebron]

K mart

Make sure you look for these quality features: "rugged transmission"... Going to Kmart today just isn't the same..

 

[a440]

This is wild....Our Kmart did not sell appliances in New Orleans.
Our Woolco stores had every major brand.
Even our Kroger sold appliances at one time!
Not Kmart.
The panels on these look so interesting.
Brent

 

[mayguy]

When did K-Mart had GE? I do not recall seeing those!

 

[circlew]

Were all the appliances sold there (of whatever brand) special models made only for Kmart? I remember them selling major appliances at certain of their locations in the 70's.

 

[chestermikeuk]

GE

Great scans, good to see different models & specs,

What would have been the equivalent model from Frigidaire, Kenmore & Maytag at the time of the TOL GE WWA8359V??

 

[retropia]

The advantage of stores carrying exclusive brands or exclusive models of existing brands is that it makes it more difficult for shoppers to do price comparisons.

Plus, some stores offer a price matching guarantee, but only if the competing store carries the exact same model. If the product is an exclusive brand or exclusive model, then the store doesn't have to match pricing.

 

[randycmaynard]

I remember the K-Mart GEs very well..........

The big K-Mart here in Knoxville was Northgate Plaza in north Knoxville (K-Mart still there) and I remember many, many times as a child and early teens going to the NGP K-Mart and seeing all those GE washers and wondering why we we didn't or couldn't have such fascinating, wonderful machines. We always had Kenmores - not that that was bad..... we just never had top of the line machines - usually mid or bottom line machines with few features. No Mini-Baskets, 3 speed, 4+ water levels, multi-temp water settings or multi-cycles. Everytime we went to K-Mart I would end up looking at all those gleeming TOL GEs..... lots of memories. Would have been nice to have ventured out past Kenmore and Craftsman.

 

[randycmaynard]

Additional on K-Mart GEs.............

Don't know about other parts of the country but the K-Mart(s) here in Knoxville seemed to carry GEs almost exclusivly and offered bottom, mid and top line machines - washers and matching dryers and carried them through several redesigns such as the toggle switches, push buttons etc on the control panels.

 

[cfz2882]

i can remember looking over GEs at Kmart in 1979,do not
remember which town it was-my local kmart did not sell major
appliances

 

[norgeway]

Ames!!

We had a store called Ames,I remember them having Westinghouse,when K-Mart bought them out in the late 70s,I remember the GE stuff,wasnt long before they stopped selling major appliances.

 

[circlew]

Don't remember seeing major appliances in the Milford Kmart, but did see them at the one on Ridge Rd., which I'm sure Pete (Rollermatic) will remember.

 

[supersuds]

randy

That's what I also remember about that K-Mart...all GEs. But it was a long time ago.

I don't remember the recently closed West Knoxville store, on Kingston Pike near Morrell Road, ever having any appliances. It was open by 1969 or so.

 

[randycmaynard]

SS......

We never ventured to west Knoxville very much when I was a kid - the two big stores we frequented were Sears on North Central and K-Mart in North Gate Plaza. I think the North Gate Plaza was the largest K-Mart in town followed by the one on Kingston Pike. The NGP K-Mart had everything including major appliances and a complete furniture department which was on an upper level loft in the back of the store - had a huge grand type stair case that you could enter from the left or right on the main floor. Underneath the furniture loft was the resturant - had pretty good burgers, various plate type meals etc and nice fountain for carbonated sodas as I remember too.

Spent about equal time between Sears and K-Mart back then - sure do miss those places - K-Mart is still at NGP but is not anything like it used to be and the North Central Sears building is still there and was renovated for county government offices back in the early 90s after sitting vacant for a few short years after Sears moved to West Towne Mall.

In many ways, back then, those were the best of times...... would that we could have some of them back - sigh.... Don't know how long you've been in Knoxville (from here?) but if you have been here very many years you might remember the old Zayers over off Baxter Ave which ran off North Central at Holy Ghost church just below Sears. That was an interesting old place - sort of a bargin basement type store but had that huge wood staircase to the 2nd floor that sounded like it was ready to fall down with every step up or down the thing. It was a hoot!

 

[supersuds]

Zayre

Yep, it was the old Brookside Mills, I found out later. It must have been a textile mill area at one time. The factory that made Palm Beach suits was still across the street.
We shopped at Zayre a lot. I still have an LP of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass ("Whipped Cream and Other Delights") I got there.

The old Sears was just charming. Such style! Remember how each exit had a sign showing what street you were exiting to? That seemed so sophisticated. My mom remembers when they had an Allstate car (rebadged Kaiser Henry J) in one of the windows back in 1950. And it was open until about 1985. My parents got their 1955-ish Frogeye Kenmores there, and later a '77 dryer.

But we seem to have hijacked the thread....

 

[sensi-temp]

Never heard of K-mart selling large appliances, never saw that aronnd here.

 

[DADoES]

 
I remember the K-Mart we frequented in the 1970s selling Whirlpool for sure, and vaguely GE.

 

[mrb627]

Whirlpool

Yep. I remember Whirlpool at Kmart too. Those were the days...

Malcolm

 

[supersurgilator]

SO neat to see the brochures. I have a pair of these machines that I got from our neighbors. The washer is model# WWA7059V and the dryer Model# DDE5309

 

[lebron]

Question about GE suspension

If the outer basket is stationary and the inner basket is spinning... how do they control it?

 

[mayguy]

They had a rubber boot between the tub and the shaft.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Might be where my grandma’s came from—except for yellow plastic knobs on a black control panel, and actually a LEFT-opening lid, her’s was much like one of those...

— Dave

 

[paulg]

Kmart exclusives

Years ago I worked for a large repair company in Illinois that did almost all of the Kmart TV/Stereo/Microwave repair work for the state.
Indeed Kmart did have some exclusive models. Sharp microwave ovens had exclusive Kmart model numbers as did Admiral Corporation and Warwick Electronics. Gold star followed. I am sure there were others. This was a long time ago.
Usually a “ K” was added to the model. Sometimes the TVs and appliances had the original brand and sometimes they were branded “KMC”. Warwick supplied both Sears and Kmart years ago with TVs.
In those days you could drop off your TV at Kmart and it would be delivered to a repair center for your convenience. Their system worked well. We did a lot of work for them and they were a good client.