WestBend (Fort Worth) Tom Thumb closing after less than a year

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pseudo3d
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Re: WestBend (Fort Worth) Tom Thumb closing after less than a year

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:If they were squatting, they wouldn't be operating the stores there at all, it would be like H-E-B and old Albertsons/their older stores, or Albertsons and Dominick's.
Retail squatting is the practice of holding a lease on a building and not opening it up for anyone. Albertsons and WD are big culprits of it. I believe this will happen here.
No, they aren't. The only notable example I can think of is the former Dominick's locations, which was an unusual situation where Safeway pulled out shortly before Albertsons bought it, which already had stores in the area. Albertsons rarely abandons stores for newer, larger ones (like H-E-B, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, and sometimes Publix have done, I'm sure there are others). Most of the closed stores were sold off (who may have engaged in subleasing shenanigans, but that's their problem) or leased to other owners soon after (especially the ones that were miserable locations for full-service supermarkets).
And you can believe what the news channels told you about Mandeville. It was closed because the center operator (Stirling Properties, a Louisiana company) felt that Whole Paycheck Foods could bring higher rent percentages than Albertsons was doing. Rent is more than a flat fee, it's also a percentage of sales. If Albertsons pays 10% of sales, and sales are $1million, (I know this isn't realistic), then rent is $100k. If WFM pays the same 10%, but sales are $3million, then rent is $300k, thus they make a bigger profit. Also, part of the building was split with Forever 21 Red, so they pay part of the rent too.
That's my point, is that Albertsons didn't close due to lack of business, and the landlord wanted a different store. Many, many Albertsons closed due losing money because they were in the wrong neighborhood and/or couldn't weather intense competition and/or were part of a market pull-out related to the previous two.
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Re: WestBend (Fort Worth) Tom Thumb closing after less than a year

Post by klkla »

wnetmacman wrote:Retail squatting is the practice of holding a lease on a building and not opening it up for anyone. Albertsons and WD are big culprits of it. I believe this will happen here.
I think there is some validity to your theory. They didn't spend much money on that store and closed it pretty quick. They now have control over who leases the location and I would be very surprised if the eventual tenant sells groceries.
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Re: WestBend (Fort Worth) Tom Thumb closing after less than a year

Post by architect »

klkla wrote:
wnetmacman wrote:Retail squatting is the practice of holding a lease on a building and not opening it up for anyone. Albertsons and WD are big culprits of it. I believe this will happen here.
I think there is some validity to your theory. They didn't spend much money on that store and closed it pretty quick. They now have control over who leases the location and I would be very surprised if the eventual tenant sells groceries.
In many cases, this would definitely be true. However, in this particular location, there is very little threat of other grocery competition moving in at least in the near term due to a lack of walkable residential areas nearby. My guess is that this store was simply underperforming with little prospect for a turnaround. I doubt that we will see another grocer in this space, but due to economics rather than squatting.
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