I would venture to guess that The Habit is harder to run because they have pretty tight quality standards. Not being a fan of burger chains, I've eaten at a couple for Habit locations (San Diego Sorts Arena, Phoenix McDowell Rd, and one up in Orange County, CA) and all three were very good. The food...

I wonder if Habit read some of the reviews of the Popeyes that franchisee runs.... The article does not do a very good job of differentiating between the franchisee (Elite Business Enterprises) and The Habit itself. Looking at the Elite Business Enterprises website, it looks like they are not an ap...

Quite a few of the more viable A&Ps went to independents like Butera. I lived near one of their stores that easily could have replaced two small Jewels or a much smaller Dominick's (which was a former Kroger). The smaller Nationals, at least in Chicago proper, seemed to become Walgreen's Pete's has...

I often wonder how chains like this can present such a vast variety and quantity of fresh products as the larger chains struggle to even offer significantly less fresh variety. Chicago has a lot of small operators really trying, and between the demise of Dominicks and various other closures over th...

The Jewel-Osco at 61st and Cottage Grove in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood opened in March. Also, the Safeway in San Tan Valley, AZ opened back in December. Was there a few weeks ago and it was pretty much empty. The area is still developing, so it would not surprise me if the store took a year or ...

What is it with PA Stores and strange perimeter layouts? This set up where fried hot deli food is completely separate from lunchmeats is something I saw in both Giant-PA and Weis. This is very unusual to me and not something I have seen out west. In Weis I saw something even more odd: the seafood d...

In Chicago, "Jewel" is synonymous with "supermarket." However, the area also has a thriving independent grocery scene. The Chicago Tribune profiles one of them, woman-owned Pete's Fresh Markets. Here's a link to the article.

There is a Jewel-Osco at the Harlem/Foster shopping center in Chicago that dates back to 1970. It was originally a Jewel-TurnStyle (TurnStyle was a discount department store much like today's Target) that replaced one that burned in 1969. The structure has not changed much since the TurnStyle close...

This store is Kroger's last Family Center that is still open in the state. It's around 50 years old. Its time has come and gone; the neighborhood around it has declined. I wish that they'd rebuild, though, since this will leave only the new Kroger on the south side and the Suplhur store in this par...

Probably not much of a surprise looking at the condition of the store... 12th Street Store... You aren't kidding! Reminds me of a few Ralphs stores in LA that ultimately closed. It always cracks me up when Kroger posts pictures of a palatial store and actual customers' pictures are quite different....