Retail Watchers

JCPenney was moving in the right direction by building the freestanding locations. But they failed by not bringing some of the same aspects to the mall stores such as centralized checkout. Kohl's has gone in to some malls but brings many aspects of their freestanding stores and has a more consisten...

I've seen plenty of malls that have been expanded numerous times and feature multiple exterior looks. The only time I've ever seen the exterior updated is on a super upscale mall, and anchor stores that survived after the mall they anchored was demolished. But JCP creating concept interiors reminds ...

Honestly, if the company wasn't owned by Lampert it would've probably liquidated in 2010/2011. Sears actually was a decent store until 2010 or so when the wheels started to fall off. Kmart pretty much died in the 2002 bankruptcy and has been limping along ever since. If Sears wasn't owned by Lamper...

There was a pretty good article about their demise in the LA Times earlier this summer. Apparently, as the chain expanded into larger stores and began expanding its product assortment, its primary audience soured. Apparently, 17-year-old girls (a) don't want to shop at a large store and (b) don't wa...

Stater Bros does well in middle income suburban and rural areas of SoCal. Their product line doesn't offer much diversity or sophistication but their customer base is just looking for the basics at good prices. What sets them apart from the rest of the pack is their service meat counters. That's us...

Well, Kroger needs to ensure the Ralphs customer experience is just as consistent there in Malibu as it is over in some other neighborhood with radically different demographics and competition. So why not just dumb down the store that had better stuff. It makes perfect sense (not). What is funny is...

It appears they're changing the signage as they remodel the stores. Stater Bros. has been aggressively remodeling its stores, so maybe they felt a new logo was a good way to attract new consumers. While Stater Bros. has a larger-than-life reputation in the Inland Empire, in the O.C. it's known as th...

Last month, I visited the Malibu Ralphs for the first time in roughly three years. I hadn't noticed the store had been remodeled (let alone twice).... I did notice they yanked most of the "fancy" prepared foods and the high-end baked goods, both of which were unique to this store. It now l...

South County's last remaining Vons is nearby this Ralphs... who would've thought that Vons would've prevailed? That said, I find it surprising Ralphs would close a store in South County, and even more surprising that Target keeps opening small format stores in all the locations Ralphs is abandoning ...

When’s the last time Albertsons, Vons or Ralph’s opened a new store (NOT an expanded or replacement store)? The last Von’s I can think of built from the ground up was the Pavilion’s that opened in Irvine in 2007. (Interestingly, at the time of the merger, despite Irvine growing past 250K residents, ...