I had a friend who worked at Kmart during the Sears transition and stayed until it closed a few years ago (or so). He worked there for maybe 12 years total, and maybe 7 of that as a manager.

The first week after he started there, he started to wonder how they could stay in business. He said most of his time (in the 12 years) was spent walking around, cleaning, organizing or just watching TV just because there wasn't anything else to do, and no one coming in.

For years, it was a ghosttown in there. I would go after work (5-6pm), and still not see a single other customer. I know it was a smaller Kmart, but they still had some new items show up, and always had some employees around. Must have made enough to cover most of it's expenses, or been too small for Sears to notice.

/just looked it up. That Kmart closed in Jan of 2017.