Retail Watchers

Getting back to the topic,what I have noticed that at least some of the California Rite Aid closures in recent years have been due to either getting squeezed out due to redevelopment(the 2 Mountain View locations both of which were formerly PayLess Drug)or objection to rent hikes(the Lawrence Statio...

Kroger has the best self checkout experience of any retailer. They seem to be the only one that actually "gets it." Their self checkouts are, without fail, every store, every division, always staffed. The employee handheld makes it so it is very fast for them to clear out any error, proce...

I live a couple blocks from a Safeway(west Fair Oaks),and the signs of Albertsonification(at least in NorCal)are more subtle than obvious:While the unified slogan 'It's Just Better" and the '3's a crowd" campaign are in use,the Signature brand products(which have shown up in the Sacro loca...

There will be some interesting reprocussions with this merger(if green-lit by the FTC,they could block this a la Staples-Office Depot/Max but they may not have enough grouds to do so):one question is whether the base WAG stores will begin carrying GNC products and/or join the the Plenti program(both...

I never understood why they didn't use the Lucky name for the former Albertson's (many of which were former Lucky's) in Sacramento. Lucky had a long history in Sacramento, while SaveMart was only known for its television commercials for its stores in Stockton and Modesto. Maybe they wanted to use a...

Another factor that hasn't helped Save Mart in recent years is that with the NorCal ABS purchase,some of the inherited stores that eventually shuttered weren't great volume in the first place even as as Albertsons and/or Lucky(Laguna,Folsom/Bidwell,Foothill Farms,specific Bay Area Lucky locations,an...

http://fortune.com/2015/11/05/walgreens-rite-aid-store-closings/ http://consumerist.com/2015/11/05/if-walgreens-and-rite-aid-merge-thousands-of-stores-might-close/ No wonder I'm rooting for Albertsonsafeway to revive the standalone Sav-on/Osco chain.If this doesn't have the same outcome/scrutiny as ...

Sacramento has always been a kind of volatile grocery market and with all of the WinCos, Sprouts, Wal Marts, etc., it just doesn't look good. Nugget is also non union I believe? The unique thing about Sacramento is there were many small independent 1-5 store unionized chains (Comptons, Vic's, Corti...

Even in the Sacramento Valley,K-mart has become a shadow of its former self:The only ones in the TV market that I know remain are in South Sac(Stockton/Fruitridge),Citrus Heights,Auburn,Placerville,Grass Valley,South Lake Tahoe,Lodi,and Stockton.Citrus Heights(my closest),in fact,still has Big K-mar...

Here in Sacramento at the present time,the three largest union chains are Safeway,Raley's/Bel Air,and Save Mart/Foodmaxx.As recently as 20 years ago however,before the age of mega-mergers and big-boxes,the local unionized grocery scene was a lot more varied and competitive.Being a longtime UFCW memb...