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Kmart Manager Delivers Heartfelt Speech As Store Closes For Last Time

Video of a Kmart manager giving an emotional farewell to his coworkers and store where he'd worked for the last eighteen years has gone viral online. 

Joshua Englert, 34, has worked at the the Kmart located near Donaldson's Crossroads ever since he was sixteen years old, helping shoppers at the discount retailer. Sears filed for bankruptcy earlier this month and announced they would be closing more than 142 Kmart and Sears stores across the country - which included Englert's store. 

"I wanted to take this opportunity not to sell you 40-cent plaid skirts or 5-cent panties, but to instead thank you for supporting a lifetime of memories," Englert said, choking up. "I worked for Kmart for 18 years, more than half my life. I am the man I am today because of the people I have met here at Kmart." 

The reaction to Englert's video was huge, with thousands of people sharing and reacting to his heartfelt goodbye. 

In an interview with NBC News, Englert said he didn't mean to get choked up like that. 

"I always use the intercom to announce specials and make sales announcement and I’m sort of known for adding some fun to them, so I thought on the last day the associates would appreciate me saying something sentimental. I didn’t know what I was going to say five minutes before I said it," Englert told NBC News in an interview on Saturday.

Englert says his local community is sad to see their local Kmart close, but they understand the "business of it all."