This is the way these drugstores do business too. They placed stores to "get after" each other. Especially CVS and Walgreens. Rite Aid got crippled after the Martin Grass situation and couldn't play that game anymore but I think it was still costing them for many years after.ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 29th, 2024, 10:30 amODP (literally the name of the former Office Depot parent) has finally decided they have no interest in merging with Staples. Staples was taken over by private equity which is why they now operate in the classic PE manner: low investment, no payroll, weird "get rich quick" schemes like renting counter space to Idemia and now becoming an Amazon return desk. They don't pay any attention to the actual operations and let them stagnate, and any cost increase results in a closure.babs wrote: ↑March 29th, 2024, 9:24 am At this point they should just let Staples and Office Depot merge. During the original merger proposal, weren't they going to use the name, Staples, the office depot? Go for it! The only thing they seem to be competing against each other is who can close more stores. In my area, there are only two Staples left. Amazon and their own eCommerce sites have pretty much taken over the office market. The only thing we occasionally use Office Depot for are some printing jobs but the quality has diminished forcing us to look elsewhere.
Once again I'm sure everyone can point out examples here and there of their Staples or their Office Depot, but I've personally seen the memos to real estate brokers that got passed along. For the last decade the majority of both chains stores have been available to take over the leases on. Once again that doesn't mean it would be worth taking over if say there's only 3 years term left and then you need to fully renegotiate with the landlord, that's how it winds up closing and sits with temporary tenants like a Halloween store. But in general both companies spared no expense to try to clobber each other in the 90's and 2000's, signing leases focused more on how to be across the street from their rival versus being financially viable to be in that location for decades. Obviously the best options for other retailers at this point have probably been picked off as many of these sites have gone to Sprouts, Total Wine, TJX and even Target. Whatever is left is probably more difficult to work with in lease term remaining, landlord cooperation etc.
Now you have those situations like overvalued leases they're leaving, undervalued leases they can sub out and make more money than the actual store did, and landlord situations where better stores they do want to keep are getting booted anyway. So they wind up with pretty much the worst locations nobody wants that happen to break even or make a puny operating profit. I used to work with many Office Depot people and they shared that the spread between locations in rent was shocking, sometimes one store paid 5X the rent of another store a few miles away simply because it was placed to "get after" a Staples.
What both chains need to figure out is what they could sell that would bring in traffic again, but I think they are more focused on real estate than retail now.
What is funny is these drugstores still do this operationally. I have an intersection with a CVS and Walgreens. These two keep pharmacy open later than other nearby locations- 8 PM or 9 PM (when some other CVS not far away close pharmacy at 5 PM) and keep front ends open until 10 PM despite having no evening traffic especially after pharmacy closes.