Retail Watchers

Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade was once a vibrant outdoor mall, but now it is a ghost town. There are many possible causes: homeless people, loss of chain stores, etc. They are thinking that perhaps Eatertainment may save it. Who knows. I was in the area in 2019 and the pier and beach were p...

Indie bookstores are thriving. The idies have survived by emphasizing service and understanding who their customers are. They also have multiple ways to drive traffic---the surviving stores do a lot of author events---DC's Politics and Prose has quite a few of these on C-Span which creates an audien...

You guys are slipping. S&S took advantage of a slow news day to announce an unspecified number of closures. This link has more details than the others: https://www.retail-insight-network.com/news/ahold-delhaize-stop-shop-closures-us/ It also mentions more investment in Food Lion and Hannaford. T...

The idea of mixing building types is nothing new and probably more promising than a lot of other efforts to redevelop malls. Lifestyle centers mix housing and retail and seem to do fine. urban neighborhoods have been mixed like this forever. The earliest large shopping centers were designed to funct...

Cranberry Twp is a growing area that has a lot of big box retail where the Turnpike crosses I-79. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/wegmans-in-discussions-to-open-first-store-in-the-pittsburgh-area-report-says/ Pittsburgh could work for them--Giant Eagle is a has a lock but is basically just ...

Cranberry Twp is a growing area that has a lot of big box retail where the Turnpike crosses I-79. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/wegmans-in-discussions-to-open-first-store-in-the-pittsburgh-area-report-says/ Pittsburgh could work for them--Giant Eagle is a has a lock but is basically just a...

True, but the market area is more condensed and more homogenized in decoration than before. Beer and wine, has, however greatly increased in visibility in the chain. Even Wegmans in Pennsylvania have added alcohol sales, or relocated that out of the Market Café bubble. Wegmans has already pared dow...

It has nothing to do with the shrimp. Ridiculous media interpretation trying to distract from the real issue the private equity rape of the chain. Must have assigned the politics reporters to this story. Tying up contracts has a lot to do with these things, in this case, Red Lobster's majority owne...

The problem with many stores in today's outlet malls is that they are often just a regular store with the word "outlet" slapped on the outside with no difference in pricing or quality. Once they lose the concept of "outlet" people shop elsewhere. No. They're a store with cheaper...

Interesting post-mortem on the bankruptcy. A co-founder was the successful bidder for the assets. The banker took their offer which essentially shutout employees, suppliers, etc. who were planning to sue. https://slate.com/business/2024/05/foxtrot-venture-capital-businesses-bankruptcy-creditors-pay-...