Cunningham took over S. S. Kresge with a vision to convert the retail chain into a discounter. Cunningham opened the first K-Mart discount store in a Detroit suburb in 1962. When Cunningham embarked on his mission, company sales were $483 million, less than half of Woolworth’s. In just a few years, K-Mart had overtaken Woolworth. Cunningham opened K-Mart stores at a pace of about 150 per year during his tenure. By 1980, S.S. Kresge, now renamed K-Mart Corporation, had sales of nearly $13 billion.