Retail Watchers

Family Dollar has been more aggressive in building in Nevada but seems to be missing in California. So far two Reno Family Dollars have closed and converted to Dollar Tree. I expect more to close. Family Dollar is a dog. I could see conversions happening in cities or even places with diverse retail...

The two closures in Roseburg and North Bend, OR do not surprise me. Those are small not so well off markets and those were awfully small Macys. Pony Village Mall in North Bend also lost JCPenney last year. This leaves Sears as the only 'traditional' department store left in that area. Two locations...

But getting back to Main & Vine, I could a North Seattle store and a Eastside store getting converted from QFC to Main & Vine. Or, maybe on Capitol Hill where QFC has 3 stores? Although, all are well-maintained and certainly doing OK I think. The 15th Ave store was so crowded and small, but...

The "Cully" neighborhood Albertsons store saw a major face lift and added some important amenities, such as a Starbucks and adjacent seating area. New store signs, refresh This store was previously a "blue-gray" Albertsons in need of some work. Interestingly, they seem to have ma...

Sounds really popular on Yelp, so not sure why it didn't end up penciling out for them:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/beverage-market-fallon

I must say, NV has products I would never be able to buy at our state-licensed / distributed liquor stores here in Oregon.

Website is up:
http://www.mainandvineshop.com/

If anyone was curious about an Associated Foods member store being built from scratch, here's a link to a story about Broulim's new 50,000 sf store, opening in the Idaho Falls area. Broulim's is a regional chain with locations all around eastern Idaho. It looks like their 10th store took a lot of c...

Safeway in the Portland metro still have legacy pin pads / swipe only options. As far as I can see, no upgrade seems to be on the horizon. Using a card at Safeway still remains the most lengthy process of almost any store I've been in due to number of prompts on the pad. The Fred Meyer (and many oth...

Are you sure that's not a Smith's? Man, all Kroger stores are getting the same decor, aren't they? Smith's Food and Drug in Idaho Falls, Idaho looks exactly like this except with stained ceiling tiles. The lighting there is 100% on most of the time, but I've seen it at half illumination in evenings...