Retail Watchers

Probably a combination of things. In some way, it makes sense that they would keep the smaller stores when they are the "only place in town" as they would likely do fairly well, even without the upgrades and extra service options. It may also depend on what else is the next nearest - if, s...

I also saw that they were selling some random drawers of electronic part such as fuses, transistors, etc. Not surprising as that was one of their main markets - having the "bits and pieces" to fix whatever it was that you had - unfortunately much of the newer stuff isn't designed to be &q...

Yesterday I was at the Burien, WA Haggen on SW 128th St and 1st Ave S. I knew what the look was going to be from seeing other conversions of Albertsons and Safeway stores. I will say that the store looked good and well stocked. Also while there was a crowd, there were no unusually long lines, thank...

The Kmart stores built during the 1990s had a lot of Walmart influence. Some aspects of the layout (in non-supercenter stores), such as the service desk, restaurant, and other parts of the store layout including the doors, were very similar to Walmart's non-supercenter stores from the same time per...

Something to do with the fact that AmEx (at least the original ones) had to be paid off each month (they didn't allow you to carry a balance over like a Visa or MasterCard would). So some people preferred that, knowing they wouldn't charge too much that they couldn't afford to pay. Also a reason tha...

Safeway's register system seems to be unable to really do any discounting without the card. Up in Canada after Sobeys went card free, when they were still on the Safeway registers, a fake card had to be scanned on every transaction for sale prices to come off of the transactions. It is like the ite...

Sounds similar to what Price Chopper and Hannaford did when they bought several Grand Union stores during Grand Union's bankruptcy. Just a quick clean up and resetting of stuff to bring in whatever items might be different (their store brands and such) and switch out some signage, maybe reprogram or...

Another thought: Do any of the Safeways being acquired have fuel centers? Albertsons spun theirs off a couple years back, but Safeway still owns theirs, at least for now. I don't think Haggen has ever operated them, and it seems like the fuel centers, if any are involved, could end up being sold to...

I could see one or two stores divested back east also. Acme and Safeway touch on the MD Shore. Maybe just one store. Also maybe in DE there is some overlap. And there is still that one PA Genuardis that Safeway had to keep open due to its lease which is still open. http://weeklyspecials.genuardis.c...

The ones that concern me right now are Sears and others that are now using ipads to ring up sales. The problem is that the card readers are attached to the ipad which isn't bolted to anything. It wouldn't be too hard for somebody to walk in with a lookalike ipad and set it on a counter for an emplo...