Retail Watchers

Smiths has started remodeling in Carson City, NV.

So far they are off to a bang.

They seem to be keeping the old tan/brown shelves from when the store opened. In the late 1980's. I really hate the way those shelves look. They should all be replaced. The Sparks Smiths had a lot of those until its last remodel too when they finally switched them out.

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 11:50 pm Smiths has started remodeling in Carson City, NV.

So far they are off to a bang.

They seem to be keeping the old tan/brown shelves from when the store opened. In the late 1980's. I really hate the way those shelves look. They should all be replaced. The Sparks Smiths had a lot of those until its last remodel too when they finally switched them out.

This store is getting a Starbucks as part of the remodel, so that’ll be good for the nearby state employees when the line at Dutch wraps around the block.

bryceleinan wrote: ↑March 18th, 2024, 9:32 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 16th, 2024, 11:50 pm Smiths has started remodeling in Carson City, NV.

So far they are off to a bang.

They seem to be keeping the old tan/brown shelves from when the store opened. In the late 1980's. I really hate the way those shelves look. They should all be replaced. The Sparks Smiths had a lot of those until its last remodel too when they finally switched them out.

This store is getting a Starbucks as part of the remodel, so that’ll be good for the nearby state employees when the line at Dutch wraps around the block.

I think they will do a pretty good Starbucks volume in that store. It gets a lot of state employee traffic in the mornings/lunch and a ton after work. I am assuming it will be straight inside the entryway the way they have it placed in Sparks. There are also three dead "alcoves" in that Carson City Store:

One is between bakery and the restrooms, that is a walled off kitchen which had a hot chinese food counter. Sparks did not have that department so no local basis for comparison of what they may do with the space. That thing got walled off by the late 90's.

The other dead alcove is between produce and service meat at the back wall and was a floral department. That is walled off with meat refrigeration in front of it. Sparks when it was remodeled demolished that out and installed a short lived bulk foods department in that alcove which COVID quickly killed. Now it has some random snacks on display.

The third dead alcove is the US Bank space.

Remodel is moving along well. They are getting through the rearrangement of the aisles. Soda is now over on the far side wall where paper products were, then snacks the next aisle. Giant cuts in space to all non food departments. Baby no longer is a full aisle it now has auto/office and some other stuff mixed in. Pet is still a full aisle. Cosmetics is still almost a full aisle which is interesting, more of that than any other Smiths in the area and I never see anyone buying it. Greeting cards no longer a full aisle either.

They are taking apart the segregated Nutrition aisle now.

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 21st, 2024, 9:24 pm Remodel is moving along well. They are getting through the rearrangement of the aisles. Soda is now over on the far side wall where paper products were, then snacks the next aisle. Giant cuts in space to all non food departments. Baby no longer is a full aisle it now has auto/office and some other stuff mixed in. Pet is still a full aisle. Cosmetics is still almost a full aisle which is interesting, more of that than any other Smiths in the area and I never see anyone buying it. Greeting cards no longer a full aisle either.

They are taking apart the segregated Nutrition aisle now.

I think it helps that liquor is in an alcove in Carson instead of taking up an aisle like it does in Dayton and other locations. I also think the old Hot Wok area is now Clicklist.

bryceleinan wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 6:04 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 21st, 2024, 9:24 pm Remodel is moving along well. They are getting through the rearrangement of the aisles. Soda is now over on the far side wall where paper products were, then snacks the next aisle. Giant cuts in space to all non food departments. Baby no longer is a full aisle it now has auto/office and some other stuff mixed in. Pet is still a full aisle. Cosmetics is still almost a full aisle which is interesting, more of that than any other Smiths in the area and I never see anyone buying it. Greeting cards no longer a full aisle either.

They are taking apart the segregated Nutrition aisle now.

I think it helps that liquor is in an alcove in Carson instead of taking up an aisle like it does in Dayton and other locations. I also think the old Hot Wok area is now Clicklist.

In Sparks they removed the liquor alcove and put it approximately where the seasonal aisle in Carson was (opposite side of frozen). It will be interesting to see if they keep the liquor alcove in Carson City. With how they moved soda/water to the aisles in front of the alcove, in my opinion, it actually makes a lot of sense to keep the alcove. Group all of the "beverages" together.

They think the liquor alcoves cause theft as they are far from employees. For a while in Carson they were locking up the liquor alcove after a certain time. That store was having some shrink problems and it got onto some kind of bad list for shrink within Kroger maybe 5 years ago now and they did some weird things, a lot of security tags on meat and some other things. I think eventually there was some employee turnover and they figured out the theft issues were internal not external and most of those theft prevention moves stopped.

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 6:10 pm In Sparks they removed the liquor alcove and put it approximately where the seasonal aisle in Carson was (opposite side of frozen). It will be interesting to see if they keep the liquor alcove in Carson City. With how they moved soda/water to the aisles in front of the alcove, in my opinion, it actually makes a lot of sense to keep the alcove. Group all of the "beverages" together.

They think the liquor alcoves cause theft as they are far from employees. For a while in Carson they were locking up the liquor alcove after a certain time. That store was having some shrink problems and it got onto some kind of bad list for shrink within Kroger maybe 5 years ago now and they did some weird things, a lot of security tags on meat and some other things. I think eventually there was some employee turnover and they figured out the theft issues were internal not external and most of those theft prevention moves stopped.

Sort of surprising that they wouldn't put something like liquor in a fairly visible spot (thinking like make an "island" across from the customer service area, or similar).
Then again, they don't here in NY either, but that is just beer (not that people wouldn't take it, but it tends to be larger container(s) and less costly than some of the actual liquor).

BillyGr wrote: ↑March 26th, 2024, 3:37 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 6:10 pm In Sparks they removed the liquor alcove and put it approximately where the seasonal aisle in Carson was (opposite side of frozen). It will be interesting to see if they keep the liquor alcove in Carson City. With how they moved soda/water to the aisles in front of the alcove, in my opinion, it actually makes a lot of sense to keep the alcove. Group all of the "beverages" together.

They think the liquor alcoves cause theft as they are far from employees. For a while in Carson they were locking up the liquor alcove after a certain time. That store was having some shrink problems and it got onto some kind of bad list for shrink within Kroger maybe 5 years ago now and they did some weird things, a lot of security tags on meat and some other things. I think eventually there was some employee turnover and they figured out the theft issues were internal not external and most of those theft prevention moves stopped.

Sort of surprising that they wouldn't put something like liquor in a fairly visible spot (thinking like make an "island" across from the customer service area, or similar).
Then again, they don't here in NY either, but that is just beer (not that people wouldn't take it, but it tends to be larger container(s) and less costly than some of the actual liquor).

The liquor alcove in the back corner of Smiths was their late 80's large store prototype. Keep in mind at that point Smiths was a Utah based company.

By the time the mid 90's came and they re-did their prototype, the liquor alcove got moved to a more visible location in the front corner of the store next to the bakery.

In the final Smiths prototype before they sold to Fred Meyer the liquor was in a VERY visible location, with significantly more floor space than entire alcove design, on normal aisles basically right in front of you as you walked in from the entrance.

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 27th, 2024, 12:27 am

BillyGr wrote: ↑March 26th, 2024, 3:37 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 23rd, 2024, 6:10 pm In Sparks they removed the liquor alcove and put it approximately where the seasonal aisle in Carson was (opposite side of frozen). It will be interesting to see if they keep the liquor alcove in Carson City. With how they moved soda/water to the aisles in front of the alcove, in my opinion, it actually makes a lot of sense to keep the alcove. Group all of the "beverages" together.

They think the liquor alcoves cause theft as they are far from employees. For a while in Carson they were locking up the liquor alcove after a certain time. That store was having some shrink problems and it got onto some kind of bad list for shrink within Kroger maybe 5 years ago now and they did some weird things, a lot of security tags on meat and some other things. I think eventually there was some employee turnover and they figured out the theft issues were internal not external and most of those theft prevention moves stopped.

Sort of surprising that they wouldn't put something like liquor in a fairly visible spot (thinking like make an "island" across from the customer service area, or similar).
Then again, they don't here in NY either, but that is just beer (not that people wouldn't take it, but it tends to be larger container(s) and less costly than some of the actual liquor).

The liquor alcove in the back corner of Smiths was their late 80's large store prototype. Keep in mind at that point Smiths was a Utah based company.

By the time the mid 90's came and they re-did their prototype, the liquor alcove got moved to a more visible location in the front corner of the store next to the bakery.

In the final Smiths prototype before they sold to Fred Meyer the liquor was in a VERY visible location, with significantly more floor space than entire alcove design, on normal aisles basically right in front of you as you walked in from the entrance.

I’m guessing Dayton would be a good example of that prototype? That store opened in 1998 if I recall correctly.

bryceleinan wrote: ↑March 28th, 2024, 5:45 am

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 27th, 2024, 12:27 am

BillyGr wrote: ↑March 26th, 2024, 3:37 pm

Sort of surprising that they wouldn't put something like liquor in a fairly visible spot (thinking like make an "island" across from the customer service area, or similar).
Then again, they don't here in NY either, but that is just beer (not that people wouldn't take it, but it tends to be larger container(s) and less costly than some of the actual liquor).

The liquor alcove in the back corner of Smiths was their late 80's large store prototype. Keep in mind at that point Smiths was a Utah based company.

By the time the mid 90's came and they re-did their prototype, the liquor alcove got moved to a more visible location in the front corner of the store next to the bakery.

In the final Smiths prototype before they sold to Fred Meyer the liquor was in a VERY visible location, with significantly more floor space than entire alcove design, on normal aisles basically right in front of you as you walked in from the entrance.

I’m guessing Dayton would be a good example of that prototype? That store opened in 1998 if I recall correctly.

Yes, Dayton is one of those final Smiths prototypes. It opened under Smiths, but not for long before Fred Meyer took over.