Retail Watchers

Rite Aid has closed another Bartell, despite the area returning back to more normal activity overall. This store was in a high-rise office tower (occupancy rate unknown) and adjacent to the downtown Seattle Public Library (due to its architectural significance and free entry, perceived as a tourist...

To some degree, what you describe in the middle paragraph is similar to those Tractor Supply stores that were mentioned. They do carry some regular brands, but also many of the more premium brands of pet foods, plus they do that with the vet coming in (seems to be Sundays around here) for many basi...

Back to the Macy's topic, I am getting the feeling Macy's is not doing very well lately. I walked through the two Macy's units this weekend and while the stores looked pretty neat I couldn't help but notice how few customers and employees they had. Even the Backstage area was dead. The Toys R Us ar...

I have to ask how many stores you visited. I was surprised at how much was locked up at Moynihan, but it was nowhere near even half. I've been to NYC three times this year and had to make stops at various Walgreens and CVS stores in different parts of Manhattan. As for San Francisco, I don't think w...

The Daily Mail isknown in the UK as "The Daily Fail" and it's US website isn't any more credible than its British parent. As for locked refrigerated cabinets in NYC---I was just there and didn't see them "all over the place", although they did lock up detergent and some other ite...

The locations on the list are redundant with the locations that already have been mentioned here and elsewhere. They also opened a store in DC last month. That store had been announced last fall. It looks like they still have plans to go into the old Safeway in downtown Bethesda and they closed on p...

From what I've heard, Canadian chains have higher quality products than US chains (even Walmart up there is probably higher quality than the typical Kroger or Albertsons down here, dare I say it). Loblaw has the best stores up there in a variety of formats from price impact warehouse to premium, bu...

PBMs aside, prescription pharmacies involve lots of SKUs and dealing with regulation which varies by state. That creates costs and administrative headaches that you don't get from other service departments or from adding some new, sizable non-food line. If they can't make money despite these costs a...

Amazon seemed to have a scattershot and probably opportunistic approach to locating these stores. The one in Chevy Chase, MD was almost within sight of an existing Whole Foods. That Amazon store was a failed Giant---a relatively new store that had replaced a previous one, but didn't do well. Amazon ...

MicroCenter stores vary a lot. The one I go to near Cleveland is a former Zayre that started out as a local department store—-probably 60k sf, bright and well laid out. The one I near where I work in Rockville, MD is smaller, dark, cramped and poorly laid out. It’s in an odd multi-level part of a st...