Kmart is an all-purpose, all-American chain store. In the last decades of the twentieth century, it came to represent the typical shopping experience for millions of blue collar and middle-class Americans. Kmarts generally are single-story, parking lot-size structures, where customers can find and purchase an astonishing array of items at a reasonable price. Everything from bookcases to baby clothes, clocks to CDs, earrings to edibles, paint supplies to perfume to picture frames can be found at Kmart.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Americans made most of their purchases in small, specialized stores known as "mom-and-pop" stores. Meat was available through butchers; dairy products were procured directly from dairy farms; and a range of edibles lined the shelves of grocery stores. Tools, nails, and screws were found in hardware stores. Dresses and suits could be purchased in men's or women's clothing stores. Then, throughout the twentieth...