Post by Supercenter on Feb 15, 2022 3:06:43 GMT
Hello, I was referred to this community by an acquaintance. It’s nice meeting you all.
I’m hoping you folks might be able to help me find these presumably “lost” CD-i discs for Kmart associates in training. I’ve already done a lot of research on Google and did some searching on archive.org. Other than learning that the discs were most likely CD-i discs (along with the whole story behind what the CD-i format even was), I came up completely empty-handed. I did learn about the CD-i training program at Sears though, so there’s that.
Anyway, this is where I’m hoping you internet strangers might be able to help me.
Just for some background context, I started work as an associate at the Kmart store in Braintree, MA (around the time it first opened) in the mid-1990s. I was very young at the time and in desperate need of some money, but my résumé was in shambles. Ultimately, I had to make a compromise and accepted a low-paying job at the Kmart store that had conveniently just opened in the Marketplace at Braintree. It was a very long strip mall in the suburbs that housed a lot of (now defunct) retail chains.
Me and all of the other applicants had to be bussed all the way to Boston for the interview session. It was such a bizarre experience (and a massive pain at that). The barriers to entry were very low, so I was easily accepted. In the following days, I drove to the Kmart store for “training days” as the manager called it. He was an irritable guy who clearly had to deal with corporate screaming in his ear all the time.
Sorry though. Let me stop rambling and finally cut to the chase.
The first day of training was fairly mundane (we were taught the basics of retail, store policy, emergency protocol, etc), but everything from then on was absolutely mind-blowing. During the second day of training, the manager pulled out a Philips CD player (or so I originally thought) and put in a disc labeled “Kmart Associate Training” or something like that. I wish I remembered what it said, but it happened so long ago that it’s mostly just a blur now. Anyway, we were introduced to how the CD-i worked. It was so impressive and awful at the same time. In the mid-1990s, I had never been introduced to anything so interactive. I vividly remember how weird the controller looked. It must’ve been uncomfortable in the manager’s hands. For years, I was never able to stop thinking about the experience I had being trained there. The other applicants seemed to have zero interest in it at the time, but even thought I forgot many details about it, something just resonated with me on a whole different level.
I only remember one of the discs with reasonable detail. It mostly centered around the “BIG Kmart” format that had recently been introduced and rolled out. The new format also ushered in the “Martha Stewart Everyday” product line, which was yet another big (haha, see what I did there?) focus of the disc.
Unfortunately, that's all I remember. The CD-i was presumably thrown out shortly after the format was discontinued. I worked at that Kmart store until the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002. They laid off half of us, including me (apparently as a means of cutting costs in order to spare the store from being liquidated). I rarely received a raise when requested and only ever received a promotion twice. Regardless, that Kmart store would end up being liquidated exactly fourteen years after the bankruptcy (and if you’re curious, here are some images of the store). It really opened my eyes to how expendable workers can be. After being recommended that 2013 “Shipped My Pants” Kmart commercial on YouTube a couple months back, my interest in the company was reignited, which definitely helped me take a deeper dive into its troubled history and the mystery surrounding it. Soon after, I would later learn about Kmart's merger with Sears, and from the beginning, I could tell that it was a terrible idea, but that's besides the point.
Together, I hope we can find those discs and finally put my pondering to rest. Thank you.
I’m hoping you folks might be able to help me find these presumably “lost” CD-i discs for Kmart associates in training. I’ve already done a lot of research on Google and did some searching on archive.org. Other than learning that the discs were most likely CD-i discs (along with the whole story behind what the CD-i format even was), I came up completely empty-handed. I did learn about the CD-i training program at Sears though, so there’s that.
Anyway, this is where I’m hoping you internet strangers might be able to help me.
Just for some background context, I started work as an associate at the Kmart store in Braintree, MA (around the time it first opened) in the mid-1990s. I was very young at the time and in desperate need of some money, but my résumé was in shambles. Ultimately, I had to make a compromise and accepted a low-paying job at the Kmart store that had conveniently just opened in the Marketplace at Braintree. It was a very long strip mall in the suburbs that housed a lot of (now defunct) retail chains.
Me and all of the other applicants had to be bussed all the way to Boston for the interview session. It was such a bizarre experience (and a massive pain at that). The barriers to entry were very low, so I was easily accepted. In the following days, I drove to the Kmart store for “training days” as the manager called it. He was an irritable guy who clearly had to deal with corporate screaming in his ear all the time.
Sorry though. Let me stop rambling and finally cut to the chase.
The first day of training was fairly mundane (we were taught the basics of retail, store policy, emergency protocol, etc), but everything from then on was absolutely mind-blowing. During the second day of training, the manager pulled out a Philips CD player (or so I originally thought) and put in a disc labeled “Kmart Associate Training” or something like that. I wish I remembered what it said, but it happened so long ago that it’s mostly just a blur now. Anyway, we were introduced to how the CD-i worked. It was so impressive and awful at the same time. In the mid-1990s, I had never been introduced to anything so interactive. I vividly remember how weird the controller looked. It must’ve been uncomfortable in the manager’s hands. For years, I was never able to stop thinking about the experience I had being trained there. The other applicants seemed to have zero interest in it at the time, but even thought I forgot many details about it, something just resonated with me on a whole different level.
I only remember one of the discs with reasonable detail. It mostly centered around the “BIG Kmart” format that had recently been introduced and rolled out. The new format also ushered in the “Martha Stewart Everyday” product line, which was yet another big (haha, see what I did there?) focus of the disc.
Unfortunately, that's all I remember. The CD-i was presumably thrown out shortly after the format was discontinued. I worked at that Kmart store until the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002. They laid off half of us, including me (apparently as a means of cutting costs in order to spare the store from being liquidated). I rarely received a raise when requested and only ever received a promotion twice. Regardless, that Kmart store would end up being liquidated exactly fourteen years after the bankruptcy (and if you’re curious, here are some images of the store). It really opened my eyes to how expendable workers can be. After being recommended that 2013 “Shipped My Pants” Kmart commercial on YouTube a couple months back, my interest in the company was reignited, which definitely helped me take a deeper dive into its troubled history and the mystery surrounding it. Soon after, I would later learn about Kmart's merger with Sears, and from the beginning, I could tell that it was a terrible idea, but that's besides the point.
Together, I hope we can find those discs and finally put my pondering to rest. Thank you.
