Retail Watchers

My perception as an outsider? I see more independent pharmacies in Oregon and Washington than other states. It's noticeable, and if those guys can keep their doors open in this rough environment where chains like CVS actually own insurers but still survive that means less opportunities for the chai...

I am kinda curious if the closure of pharmacies has hurt the sales overall at any Bi-Mart locations. The ones I go to in Vancouver, WA still seem as busy as before, but I have noticed that they seem to be really ramping up on running TV ads lately, where in the past they tended to only advertise he...

I was in this Stater Bros. in Rancho Cucamonga a couple months ago. The store was much busier than the other stores in the area (2 Ralphs, 1 Sprouts, and one Alberston's). The store was clean and well merchandised. The decor package looked warm and friendly. And the employees were great. Even the f...

This entire liquidation of categories that were not replaced is another indication of the cash flow and possibly vendor confidence issue. I also doubted the Deutsche assessment that they would completely be worthless with less than a $400M EBIT but that was before the story about the $123M fine/jud...

I wonder how Trader Joes would do with that price list.

Assuming they had all of the items...

I think Kroger is pricing more and more off of Target. Not sure what QFC is doing being so much more expensive than Albertsons, that is really off.

Reno, NV is converting to AutoZone according to recent building permit filings… Sparks, NV isn’t anything as of yet. That explains why the Reno unit has all of the windows blacked out but Sparks windows are just visible. Since Sparks already has Auto Zone nearby and O'Reilly with a couple locations...

The Sam's Club in Concord is near the airport. The parking lot is huge and there is plenty of room for a gas station. I don't know why there is no gas station there. You literally have private jets parked not too far from the store. They probably thought that having a gas station so close to the ai...

Went into the non-closing Alhambra Rite-Aid yesterday. The store is in a sad state. Only one employee in the whole store (not including pharmacy. there may have been more in the back but I didnt see any on the floor itself), full aisles were empty with "new stuff coming soon" all over, an...

Price seems to be creeping up again.... wonder what the current excuse is. I thought the summer blend isn't required this summer to keep prices down.

Even in El Lay the closures aren't slowing down:Echo Park(Glendale/Alvarado)closes on the 19th according to a tweeter.Surprising that in a state where 60-day WARN-notices have long been customary the closures that have occurred within the past six months have been occurring with just days or weeks ...