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OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 21st, 2018, 9:30 pm
by storewanderer
Looks like Lowes is pulling the plug on the entire OSH Chain/Format.
Odd to see this given that they even expanded the chain to FL.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 21st, 2018, 9:51 pm
by babs
storewanderer wrote: ↑August 21st, 2018, 9:30 pm
Looks like Lowes is pulling the plug on the entire OSH Chain/Format.
Odd to see this given that they even expanded the chain to FL.
Not so odd when you consider the stores were always empty. Prices were crazy high. Nice patio furniture, though.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 21st, 2018, 10:06 pm
by pseudo3d
What was Orchard Supply Hardware like, just a Sears hardware department (well, before they sold it anyway) with a merchandise mix like an Ace Hardware? Sure looks that way from Yelp...
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 21st, 2018, 10:37 pm
by Super S
pseudo3d wrote: ↑August 21st, 2018, 10:06 pm
What was Orchard Supply Hardware like, just a Sears hardware department (well, before they sold it anyway) with a merchandise mix like an Ace Hardware? Sure looks that way from Yelp...
They were more like a "higher end" hardware store. They seemed to be staffed better than a typical hardware store (in some cases Lowe's itself) and had a better than average merchandise mix. Pricing wasn't great though. They did have a few locations around the Portland area. Nice stores, but not something I would drive out of my way to visit.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 22nd, 2018, 10:52 am
by reymann
kind of a bummer that they are closing. their prices were higher but, they had great customer service. a lot of the stores in the fresno area could be doomed to sit vacant for a while based on the size and location. i'm gonna miss the train calenders they publish every year.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 23rd, 2018, 7:18 pm
by storewanderer
I ran a calculation and see the average OSH Store does about $116k per week in sales. Given the amount of labor they had in these stores, I can see why they were losing money.
I am sure some Ace operators will take some of the better locations over.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 23rd, 2018, 8:41 pm
by Alpha8472
A new OSH opened up a few years ago in Pleasant Hill, California near me. OSH took over a Lucky supermarket.
I will never forgive OSH for that. That Lucky store still had the Jewel Osco interior decor. It opened around 2000 as an Albertsons and was the largest and nicest supermarket in the area. There was a Starbucks cafe inside. Safeway later copied this idea and placed Starbucks cafes into their stores years later. It spurred Safeway to remodel its stores and create the Lifestyle format.
As a Lucky, it was by far the best run Lucky supermarket in Save Mart's entire chain.
It was the crown jewel.
OSH had many helpful employees unlike Home Depot and offered customer service beyond a typical big box store. The selection tended to be more upscale with random fancy things that don't typically sell well.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 23rd, 2018, 10:57 pm
by storewanderer
Alpha8472 wrote: ↑August 23rd, 2018, 8:41 pm
A new OSH opened up a few years ago in Pleasant Hill, California near me. OSH took over a Lucky supermarket.
I will never forgive OSH for that. That Lucky store still had the Jewel Osco interior decor. It opened around 2000 as an Albertsons and was the largest and nicest supermarket in the area. There was a Starbucks cafe inside. Safeway later copied this idea and placed Starbucks cafes into their stores years later. It spurred Safeway to remodel its stores and create the Lifestyle format.
As a Lucky, it was by far the best run Lucky supermarket in Save Mart's entire chain.
It was the crown jewel.
OSH had many helpful employees unlike Home Depot and offered customer service beyond a typical big box store. The selection tended to be more upscale with random fancy things that don't typically sell well.
OSH was down to 60something stores when Lowe's bought it and it is now up close to 100 stores. So Lowe's opened quite a few new OSH Stores. I don't really understand why they did that, and now are closing it.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 23rd, 2018, 11:28 pm
by babs
storewanderer wrote: ↑August 23rd, 2018, 7:18 pm
I ran a calculation and see the average OSH Store does about $116k per week in sales. Given the amount of labor they had in these stores, I can see why they were losing money.
I am sure some Ace operators will take some of the better locations over.
I expect Target to take a closer look at some of their locations. They are the right size at +/- 30k sq ft. I can think of several that would fit their urban store model.
Re: OSH Closing All Stores
Posted: August 24th, 2018, 1:21 am
by wnetmacman
storewanderer wrote: ↑August 23rd, 2018, 10:57 pm
OSH was down to 60something stores when Lowe's bought it and it is now up close to 100 stores. So Lowe's opened quite a few new OSH Stores. I don't really understand why they did that, and now are closing it.
Because for Lowe's, it's easier to concentrate on one chain than to worry about two. OSH and Lowe's couldn't have been more different, and they had to make a business decision. It's a shame they couldn't have sold it off (again).