Her "other family", as she called the store's employees, welcomed her with open arms and wide smiles.

It wasn't long before Mrs Farmer earned the affectionate nickname "the 'Mumma' of Kmart", for her work showing young "newies" the ropes.

But from June 17, she will be the "Mumma" no more. She is one of an estimated 130 full-time, part-time and casual staff set to lose their jobs when Kmart Warrawong closes this month.

Mrs Farmer said staff were first made aware of the closure via an article in the Mercury in February.

The store's management pinned a notice confirming the news to a board in the staff room on March 1.

Paperwork provided to employees, obtained by the Mercury, assured staff the Kmart team would do all it could to "redeploy" them to other Kmart stores, and other companies under the Wesfarmers banner, before handing out redundancies.

But Mrs Farmer yesterday claimed Kmart had not fulfilled its moral responsibility to help employees find work.

"We've got men and women who have worked at this store for 20, 30, 40 years or more and given their heart and souls to this job," she said.

"Some of the women are the sole earners in their families because their husbands have just lost their jobs at BlueScope.

"The situation is really stressing people out and is affecting their health - it just breaks my heart."

Mrs Farmer described the promise of redeployment options in other Wesfarmers companies as "a joke".

Advertised vacancies, for which a number of soon-to-be redundant Kmart employees had applied, had been snapped up by new, younger employees.

"I saw them [store staff] doing an induction with a group of teenage workers at Kmart Shellharbour a few weeks ago," she said, adding she did not know of any of her workmates who had been redeployed.

"The company is not looking after us."

But Kmart said it was doing all it could to help staff and had provided training and tips on interviewing and writing resumes.

A Kmart spokeswoman said it was exploring all redeployment options available for its staff, but would not say how many, if any, had found new positions at Kmart or other Wesfarmers companies.

"Until the last day of trade, Sunday June 17, Kmart will continue to work to explore all possible redeployment options ... to avoid team member retrenchments," she said.

"Team members were given the opportunity to nominate their preferences for redeployment, and where positions that align with these preferences have become available, Warrawong team members have been given the opportunity to fill these roles."