Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Before you go further, note that this is a follow-up to a viral video that I created over 10 years ago located here, which might make more sense if you watch first.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8t5TYw2bkOk
I collected Kmart in-store music cassettes between 1989 and 1992 when I worked at the Naperville Illinois store #3066. These are the tapes that were played as background music while you were shopping. Cassettes were played prior to satellite music delivery and today music programming is delivered over the Internet to retail stores.
Why did I collect these? For fun. It was my first job. It supported and perhaps started my hobby of collecting things.
Years later, these would become a very interesting and important part of Americana and retail history. I’ve been interviewed and have spoken about these multiple times to various news outlets. Perform a Google search and you will find various articles, podcasts and interviews.
I was recently approached by a film crew out of Detroit, who is looking to create a documentary on Kmart. Prior to my initial filming with them I wanted to reconcile the cassettes once again.
Here’s the video of my walk-through of the cassettes.
Here’s another link to a great podcast which talks about this when it really started hitting the media:
youtu.be/zLX_KrO-KQk?si=-kzQwH0N6l_JCO28
Before you go further, note that this is a follow-up to a viral video that I created over 10 years ago located here, which might make more sense if you watch first.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8t5TYw2bkOk
I collected Kmart in-store music cassettes between 1989 and 1992 when I worked at the Naperville Illinois store #3066. These are the tapes that were played as background music while you were shopping. Cassettes were played prior to satellite music delivery and today music programming is delivered over the Internet to retail stores.
Why did I collect these? For fun. It was my first job. It supported and perhaps started my hobby of collecting things.
Years later, these would become a very interesting and important part of Americana and retail history. I’ve been interviewed and have spoken about these multiple times to various news outlets. Perform a Google search and you will find various articles, podcasts and interviews.
I was recently approached by a film crew out of Detroit, who is looking to create a documentary on Kmart. Prior to my initial filming with them I wanted to reconcile the cassettes once again.
Here’s the video of my walk-through of the cassettes.
Here’s another link to a great podcast which talks about this when it really started hitting the media:
youtu.be/zLX_KrO-KQk?si=-kzQwH0N6l_JCO28
