Retail Watchers

It's hard for me to see how Albertsons and Kroger thought this new deal would entice the FTC any better. I know someone said maybe it was simply to get the states that were suing off their backs, but the FTC was very clear that C&S is simply a questionable buyer, and it's going to take actual l...

It appears stores set to close on 4/28 are now giving a 40% "employee discount" on all transactions. So stuff still scans 5% to 30% off then they give extra 40% off like a coupon at the bottom of the receipt. Discounts don't quite come out to what is posted. For instance Sign on shelf says...

Costco has something like 10 new store projects going in NorCal. It is quite interesting. I think they're trying to play chess to prevent Sam's Club from doing any expansion in the market. After Sam's Club closed two stores in metro Sacramento it doesn't bode too well. I think Costco may be hitting...

Grocery Outlet has found a way to source Asian products from a distributor and this is one of their initiatives to try to fill the shelves up. They sell the stuff at a slight discount 10%-20% less than what the Asian chains like 99 Ranch or Seafood City sell for and also hope to capture business fr...

The inconsistency is still very strange. Where is the site visit data from though?

50,000 visits per month is probably great compared to a couple of Save Mart units in my area.

I am not convinced any store on the "keep list" is actually safe even if the lease was renegotiated. They have too many areas where now their presence is 10% or less of what it was prior to bankruptcy which means that it would be unprofitable to continue to operate when you factor in mark...

I have seen many Grocery Outlet operators who are aggressively targeting Asian customers here with expanded assortments. Lots of Korean, Vietnamese, and especially Filipino foods added to these stores which makes sense because of the stubborn refusal of Albertsons to give up any of their locations ...

Safeway in Northern California luckily is still open until Midnight. Some are open until 2 AM. A small number are open 24 hours. Lucky is mostly open until 11 PM except for the Lucky stores in really bad areas such as Oakland. Those close at 10 PM, but are very rare. Sprouts is open until 10 PM. Gr...

Costco has something like 10 new store projects going in NorCal. It is quite interesting. I think they're trying to play chess to prevent Sam's Club from doing any expansion in the market. After Sam's Club closed two stores in metro Sacramento it doesn't bode too well. I think Costco may be hitting ...

Their stores looked great when I was last in them, which was under the prior ownership and at the time they were not supplied by AWG. So a lot has changed in the background. I expect Hy-Vee to maintain the quality of the operation. Hy-Vee staffs pretty heavily (not as heavily as they once did)... an...