Burlington stores shrinking

Alpha8472
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by Alpha8472 »

These stores also do not have self checkout. The reason is that many items do not ring up at the right price. There are many unique or closeout items that have no match. If the price tag is lost, you will never be able to figure out the price. It is up to a manager to make up the price.

Customers would probably just ring up another 99 cent clearance item.

It was only in the 2000s that they switched to a single checkout line at these types of stores. You have this single super long line and no express lanes. Often the checkout is a counter style checkout which has very little counter space to put all of your merchandise. They should consider supermarket style checkout lanes.
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 22nd, 2022, 12:56 am These stores also do not have self checkout. The reason is that many items do not ring up at the right price. There are many unique or closeout items that have no match. If the price tag is lost, you will never be able to figure out the price. It is up to a manager to make up the price.

Customers would probably just ring up another 99 cent clearance item.

It was only in the 2000s that they switched to a single checkout line at these types of stores. You have this single super long line and no express lanes. Often the checkout is a counter style checkout which has very little counter space to put all of your merchandise. They should consider supermarket style checkout lanes.
The line only looks super long as everyone is in the same one. 8 customers in one line is no worse than 4 registers with 2 customers at each (probably a bit better, as you no longer need to guess who will get done first if you are the 9th person walking up and wind up picking the slowest moving line).
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

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I noticed that JCPenney has this single line format at some stores. I waited almost an hour in a single line. Somehow they should have an express lane for people with 10 items or fewer. The only people who want to wait 30 minutes or more are people who have a cartful of merchandise. You can never expect a short wait time.
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by Brian Lutz »

While I was out doing some shopping today I saw that a new Lynnwood Burlington store will be opening soon near Alderwood Mall in what used to be a DSW shoe store (that store appears to have moved into a smaller location a couple of doors over from their old location into what used to be a David's Bridal store.) Judging from the appearance of the space, this new store seems to be roughly the size of a TJMaxx/Marshalls or Ross store.
Alpha8472
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by Alpha8472 »

DSW is not a place that is doing well these days. You can buy shoes at Ross, Marshall's, etc. Does DSW even sell men's shoes? I have never set foot in one. However, Ross, Burlington, etc. appeal to everyone.

Burlington is trying to figure out the perfect sized store. Just a few years ago 60,000 square feet was OK for them. Now they realize that something smaller is acceptable. Ross built some big stores in the past, but the newer ones are smaller. Marshall's built a gigantic store with two entrances near me around 2006. I think it was 90,000 square feet. That is too big now.

A new TJMaxx near me opened inside of a tiny Fresh and Easy. That one is small. I would say 15,000 square feet. It was a relocation from a 30,000 square foot store.
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by Brian Lutz »

90,000 square feet is definitely too big for a Marshall's store on its own, but in some places I have seen a concept where they have a larger store and split it in half where one side is a Marshall's store and the other half is a HomeGoods store. The Issaquah Highlands location is like this, with open walls between the two. Even then I don't think the store was anywhere near that size though. There's also a shopping center in Bellingham where they took over part of what used to be a Costco near Bellis Fair Mall (the Costco relocated to a nearby new build) and split the space between a HomeGoods store and a Sierra store (there's also a TJMaxx elsewhere in the same shopping center) but I believe those stores are separate from each other. The remainder of the space in the old Costco store went to a Hobby Lobby and a trampoline park.

That said, Ross and Burlington don't operate the same multiple store concepts that TJX does, so I don't know if they would be able to do something like that. During COVID I've also seen that Burlington can have issues with keeping their stores stocked at times, especially during the transition from one season to another. There were times shortly after the Everett Burlington store reopened after the lockdowns that there was so little merchandise on the shelves and racks that it looked like a liquidation sale in progress. I've seen similar situations at Ross stores as well, but those seem less common.
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Re: Burlington stores shrinking

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Marshall's store was probably lucky to get such a large space. Originally, the mall was an indoor mall. Then they made it an outdoor mall. Marshall's got most of the interior area of the mall to create a store with an entrance on each side of the mall. It was a small mall originally. When it opened, it was packed with clothes and customers. These days it is hard to fill. This Marshall's should probably downsize.
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