Retail Watchers

The characterization of the northern NJ market sounds an awful lot like Southern California in the sense that there's a lot of specialty competition. If Kroger can't win with Ralphs in Southern California, they're not going to do it in Northern NJ. Their usual level of mediocrity and defensive play ...

The merger was engineered by the private equity that was financing their rapid expansion. The Foxtrots in DC generally seemed to do an ok business with the exception of the one near me, which had opened last year. Interestingly, they had just constructed an enclosure for outside seating at that one....

If a chain is in long-term decline, then rising rents will give them more reason to keep closing stores. I'm surprised when I see any of these places that have been named, because they've gotten fewer and fewer. International operations probably keep some of them afloat--chains like Shkey's and Kenn...

ClownLatch brings up some excellent points. I don’t agree chains have a natural flight — many (Denny’s,, Chili’s, Friday’s, etc.) have a managed to stay revelant even as their peers perished. And Texas Roadhouse continues to grow and thrive while Outback does the opposite… even though Texas Roadhou...

ClownLatch brings up some excellent points. I don’t agree chains have a natural flight — many (Denny’s,, Chili’s, Friday’s, etc.) have a managed to stay revelant even as their peers perished. And Texas Roadhouse continues to grow and thrive while Outback does the opposite… even though Texas Roadhou...

These are relatively high density areas, so more visits wouldn't be unusual, and individual sales might be on the low side. NJ is still a relatively small part of their footprint. These stores may be attached to something more profitable, otherwise I suspect Ahold would have sold them. They seem to ...

The main thing is that physical media has become a small niche item and no large national retailer is going to sell a lot of it. There always will be people who want to own rather than rent and collectors who like the "hunt" but they are not going to build volume for a Walmart or Target. ...

I was in a rather new one in Ohio a couple weeks ago. It was clean, busy and well kept. What struck me was the odd contrasts--they've spent some more on "decor" (3-d graphics and bright colors) particularly toward the back fo the store, whereas the front end is plain and nondescript. The o...

Handleman was the company that served the big discount and variety chains, as well as Best Buy. They also supplied books to the same stores and various other media. Kresge was their first big client and they grew from there, but they never had a big presence in other retailers other than selling che...

Rather than make huge cut and pastes, let me follow-up on a couple excellent points form Clown Leach: The real estate based strategy for cutting costs should ultimately cause as many/more problems as it solved. Some businesses have made it work in the past and, at least right now, they may be tellin...