Retail Watchers

rwssandiego---you completely missed my reference of Jewel having evidence of stores that probably went back to the 50s. It isn't Hoosier anymosity toward Chicago per se (although I heard much hilarious stereotyping of Chicago, where I also have lived), it's toward anything that isn't from Indiana. The Indiana tags always vanish when you drive a cross a border.

buckguy wrote:rwssandiego---you completely missed my reference of Jewel having evidence of stores that probably went back to the 50s. It isn't Hoosier anymosity toward Chicago per se (although I heard much hilarious stereotyping of Chicago, where I also have lived), it's toward anything that isn't from Indiana. The Indiana tags always vanish when you drive a cross a border.

I saw the reference to Jewel having stores dating back to the 1950's. My question was whether Jewel had a much larger number of modern-sized stores than the 4 they have now. For some reason, I thought they had ten or fifteen large stores in NW Indiana in the 1970's.

Regarding the "rivalry" comment, what I'm trying to say is Indiana's attitude toward Chicago is different than Milwaukee's. That wasn't related to Jewel, but to the relationship between Northwestern Indiana and Chicago in general.

Looking at the stores Jewel-Osco acquired, they deliberately excluded a number of stores in the Chicago area that had Jewel stores nearby (or flat out didn't want--like the Gary store) but still got others, like the Chesterton S&VT. At first glance, the Chesterton store is only about 57k square feet (compared to the "other" Jewel at 63k square feet) with the other Jewel-Osco being less than 2 miles away. I guess it can work but the area doesn't look particularly dense or large. The S&VT is located near a golf course/subdivision though so it probably brings in a decent amount of customers, though. It also is also a relatively new store. From reading, it opened in 2004 as a WiseWay, replacing a store downtown (Costas prior to 1998) and remodeled under Strack & Van Til following the store's purchase in 2012 (photos from Google, obstinately from May 2017, show the original produce department with white floors, and red/yellow/purple banners and the Strack & Van Til remodel with baby spotlights). If it wasn't remodeled in the last five years, I think it would probably just sit unused, but then again, Albertsons has tended to remodel "outsider" stores relatively quickly. Already a number of A&P Fresh-era ACME stores have received LLC, Paul's had the renovation announcement after buying it, G&G got a really slapdash version of Lifestyle, Lamb's was renovated also before opening, and of course all the Haggen stores lost their décor.

The debtors of Strack & Van Til filed something to delay the auction of the 19 stores another week or so. I wonder why, almost as if they're reluctant to let Jewel buy the stores...

http://www.nwitimes.com/business/retail ... fd62b.html

Re: Upthread....

Jewel-Osco did have a small number of modern stores in the 70s, as did National. The market was dominated by independents in those days.

Marsh's DCs were in Yorktown (their longtime HQ) and Indianapolis--the Indy structure had been built by National/Standard not long before their exit. C&S used those facilities to supply them. SuperValu has used its own facilities instead.

Today is the day for the delayed auction of the 19 stores Jewel-Osco wants to buy. If they get outbid, then they get a $500k breakup fee. I don't know of any bidders that might potentially outbid them, but is it just a coincidence that on the day they'll potentially buy 19 new stores that they start hiring full time positions for drivers and order selectors?