So what, then, do we know about the Smart family? The family that cleverly hyphenated its own name, thereby creating the iconic brand which would play host to such slaughter? Let’s look closer.
As we know from the official record, S-Mart’s first location was founded by Theodore Smart in 1967 as a convenience store, and shepherded to chain-store franchisement by his son, Theodore Jr, throughout the 80s and 90s. After the ruinous financial collapse of 2008, the franchise was eventually sold to the South Korean conglomerate the Mok-Nan Group, who closed many locations and rebranded those that remained as ValueStops. At this point, the Smart family was completely removed from the proceedings.
At least, they were… until the Smart family’s third generation emerged to reclaim the reins. Bradley Smart. A driven young up-and-comer anxious to restore the S-Mart brand, Bradley attained a Master’s of Business Administration from Michigan State University in 2012. He was then unaccounted for over the next three years; I could not find any record of his activities beyond a vague reference to post-graduate personal-journey-enhancing world travel. He re-emerges in 2015, when he successfully resurrected the S-Mart brand and reacquired the flagship Detroit location from the Mok-Nan Group.
In 2017, S-Mart reopened its doors at the original Detroit store, as well as a Satellite location in nearby Royal Oak. Then, in late 2018, an additional store was opened in Elk Grove, where property prices were at an all-time low following the massive earthquake, the magnitude of which was so severe that it had required US National Guard response. In the fall of 2019, a fourth location was opened in Morristown, Tennessee, and now S-Mart has, within the past few months, announced the imminent opening of a fifth location in Estes Park, Colorado.
But let us for a moment, turn our attention back to the man who started it all. Theodore Smart. Prior to opening his convenience store, Mr. Smart was a veteran of not one, not two, but three American wars.
As a young man, he served in World War II, where he participated as a paratrooper in all four combat jumps undertaken by the 82nd Airborne; Sicily, Salerno, Normandie, and Holland. After that, his record becomes a little murkier. He served in both Korea and Vietnam… but this time in Military Intelligence. The details of his service remain mysterious. The official record contains reference to data collection and analysis.
Following his medical discharge from Vietnam, Theodore returned to the states and, within 6 months, had opened his convenience store. He was, at this point, a lifelong soldier who was done fighting and wanted to spend his later years giving back to his community by providing them a pleasant place to buy their magazines and soda pop, or to just gather to have a chat. It is tempting to believe in this Rockwellian portrait of an American hero who simply wants to spend the rest of his life in peace.
But what if that was a lie? What if Theodore Smart never actually left military intelligence? What if his discharge was a ruse… and was in fact his next assignment?!