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Kmart Speeds Pace of Store Closings: The Troy, Mich.-based retailer said it plans to close 196 stores and pull out of 71 U.S. markets this year. Kmart Corp. said it already has closed 91 of those stores since the start of its fiscal year in late January. In its 1994 annual report, the company also said it cut in half this year’s capital-spending budget for its discount stores. Kmart has been steadily losing market share to its leading discount-store rivals, and analysts have predicted Kmart will have to close hundreds of additional stores, perhaps eventually slimming down to a core of 1,500 stores or fewer. There were 2,316 Kmart stores in the United States at the start of the fiscal year. The discount retailer projected a total of 2,185 by the end of the fiscal year next January.