Retail Watchers

I am guessing Macy's did not spend much to get into that former Gottschalk's store in Tracy in the first place, and it is really interesting to me they are going to be the last department store anchor in the mall. JCP closures of orange carpeted stores in Delano and Los Banos aren't real surprising...

West Valley Mall in Tracy needs to be redeveloped into an outdoor shopping center. Tracy was too small for a decent mall when it was built. It's big enough now, but it's too late. Sears is gone and JCPenney is closing, and it's only a matter of time before that sorely lacking Macy's leaves. Keep Tar...

Arden Fair and Escondido don't surprise me. Pleasanton does. I worked in the Macy's Mens Store there for years and they were a formidable competitor. I'm guessing it's because Walnut Creek is only about 20 minutes away and fits Nordstrom's demographics better - Pleasanton is sandwiched between Dubli...

This isn't all Safeway's fault. Part of the problem is that the distribution center is in Tracy, which is just over the border of Alameda County in San Joaquin County - it's in the Valley and not in the Bay counties. When the Bay counties initially went on lockdown, the Valley counties did not, whic...

A Cincinnati company downgrading an upscale Chicago chain?

Gee, that's never happened before.

Sears failed on many fronts. Merchandise mix was bad, pricing was bad, commissioned sales structure led to situations where customers were not being taken care of in their best interests, heavy pressure on selling extended warranties to customers and in some cases refusing sales if customers did no...

Being a native of Northern California, but having lived in Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas for a large portion of my adult life, I really wish Kroger would buy Save Mart. And since the Save Mart brand has little value anymore outside of Modesto or Fresno, it would be even sweeter if they...

Macy's never went into small towns on their own. Either they were inherited from buyouts of other chains like May Company and Carter Hawley Hale, or were lured in some other way, like the Tracy, CA store, which is a one-story former Gottschalks that the city paid Macy's with a surplus to move into. ...

All of Save Mart's new logos look pretty terrible but the redesigned Save Mart logo and its colors have grown on me a bit. It is bright, vibrant, and happy looking. Maybe a copy of some Ahold logo but that is okay, they are far enough away. Considering most of their stores are dreary, old, and depr...

I don't like the logo. The whole purpose of resurrecting Lucky was the brand recognition. My understanding is that eventually they want to rebrand all Lucky stores as Lucky California. That's fine, but Lucky has had the same basic logo, though modernized, since 1946. This is a drastic change. Replac...