AUBURN – Martha Stewart got a bum deal. Or she got off far too easily. It really depends on who you ask.

At Kmart in Auburn Friday, customers offered mixed opinions about the sentencing of the style maven. To some, five months behind bars seemed excessive. To others, justice had been served.

“It think it’s just right. You do the crime; you do the time,” said 37-year-old Chris Jones of Auburn. He was on his way into Kmart, which carries many products from Stewart’s home fashion line as well as other goods.

Nearby, 32-year-old Samantha Ouellette was leaving the store. Ouellette was not so happy with the way Stewart has been treated by the press and the courts.

“I think they made an example out of her,” the Lisbon woman said. “If it had been a man, I don’t think it would have been such a media circus.”

Stewart, who turned the art of elegant living into a media empire, was sentenced five months in prison. Unless overturned on appeal, that would be followed by five months of home confinement and two years of supervised probation. She was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine. All this for lying about her sale of ImClone stock in late 2001.

“I suspect a lot of other people out there have insider information and they don’t get prosecuted,” said 59-year-old Dwight Mills of Greenwood. “It’s not like she robbed a bank or something.”

Some people complained that Stewart was being punished in part for her celebrity status. Others suggested that the cooking and crafts czarina’s fame probably worked to her advantage. After all, five months in prison is much less than she could have faced.

“If it had been an ordinary person, someone not as popular, they probably would have gotten three years,” said 49-year-old Fern St. Claire of Litchfield. “I think she should have been sentenced to a little more time.”

At Kmarts around the country, home products are sold from Stewart’s Everyday line, from bedsheets and bath towels to curtains and chrome kitchen accessories. Many Kmart shoppers had kept up with the news about the billionaire.

Sitting in his car outside the store, 67-year-old Richard Creighton confessed that he was a fan of Stewart’s popular television shows. He has bought paint from Stewart’s line for his own home. Overall, Creighton likes Martha Stewart. He was disappointed in the sentence, but confident about Stewart’s character.

“I think she got a raw deal, but I also think she’s going to handle it well,” the Richmond man said. “She’s a tough woman.”