VRChat Kmart is an eerie metaverse time machine
VRChat Kmart recreates the feeling of actually being in a Kmart store to such a degree that you have to experience it to really understand. Once a big box fixture across the United States, Kmart has all but disappeared from America – only three stores remained open as of April 2022. But even if you don’t live near one of these last few locations (there’s one in Long Island, one in Westwood, New Jersey, and one in Miami), you can still experience the true heyday of Kmart thanks to a dedicated group of VRChat roleplayers.
The fluorescent lighting, the odd modular shelving, and the blandly specific Kmart music remind me more of my own experience of the early 1990s than anything else I’ve ever watched or played.
The main difference – and this is a big one – is that this version of Kmart is typically packed with anime characters.
There are three VRChat Kmart stores. There’s the more modern VRChat Super Kmart Center, which includes a full-service grocery section. Then there’s the regular VRChat Kmart, which is reportedly a 1:1 recreation of the store creator Ericirno worked in back in 1992. There’s also a Kmart Express, which is about a third the size of a standard store – and more compatible with the Meta Quest headset. It even includes a Little Caesar’s pizza station, for maximum authenticity (although you’ll have to supply the Crazy Bread aroma yourself).
The stores all have items to buy and working “state of the art, IBM point-of-sale systems” at the registers, where associates will be happy to scan your items and check you out – or you can do it yourself at one of the new self check-out stations.
These are all periodically staffed by a brigade of VRChat Kmart roleplayers, who organise shifts and duties on a dedicated
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