Retail Watchers

Meanwhile one could make the argument that Kroger's continued growth of large marketplace stores is really a invasion of Target and Walmart's segments. That does add complexity because the feds don't view things that way. So the feds just see conventional supermarket industry players and share, the...

Five Below was growing exponentially until inflation hit and clobbered the dollar store industry. I have not seen a new store open in a while. I think the inflation issue along with the failure of all self checkout clobbered them, and the prospects of having to increase payroll spending by returning...

Somehow I missed that change. What year was that? The Safeway there was a good size (I shopped there quite often). Well run store for sure and extremely busy. It is curious that they changed it to Pavilions Place, since it is was not a small store. :? If I recall correctly, Pavilions started out at...

Thought I should update here. I have been to the Morena store a few more times since this started (store is the oldest in the company, also division office in the back for all of the Southwest). The first few times they were asking the customer to scan their card and pointing at the scanner but if s...

They opened a small format in Burlingame earlier this year in an old Amazon 5 Star space. I think it’s about 4,000 sq ft and they did quite a bit of work converting it. Shame they didn’t wait, the Banana Republic and Pottery Barn next door closed shortly after (although both have giant “LEASED” sig...

At least it has self checkout? I have yet to encounter a SoCal unit with self checkout... only seen that in the midwest so far. And where I saw it there was obviously older/mature locations. I find it interesting they are adding self checkout to established locations in the midwest, but not quickly...

They apparently are still building in Fountain Valley. I don't think that ever stopped, as the announcement and groundbreaking all started after they had officially mothballed the new stores and canceled some sites. Every time I go into one I leave questioning myself (why did I think this would be a...

That answers my question, but I would not be surprised if the inventory management is making the problems even worse. The automatic replenishment systems used by these chains are so dependent on sales history that even if they are back in stock at the warehouse on all items they would likely fail t...

This is a tough one, because I think historically Apple had way too much staffing at their stores. Some of these stores were so packed with employees and customers that they were uncomfortable. Some of these little stores had at least 50 employees on the sales floor. It is obvious that Apple has red...

I don't see Red Lobster surviving too much longer, seafood restaurant chains have just really have been on the decline for good while now. The all you can eat is what did Red Lobster in and the best they can do is try to sell off the real estate. They lost $11 million on the promotion. If a chain t...