Retail Watchers

I think they could expand into St. Louis with this format and do quite well. St. Louis is dominated by Schnucks and Dierbergs and Wal-Mart has never really figured out the market well. Shop 'N Save left and was largely absorbed by Schnucks, but SNS was a completely different format. No matter how ha...

I'm a little baffled by Hy-Vee's expansion plans to the Mid-South (KY & TN). It really doesn't make much sense to me to enter a crowded (but growing) market that has little overlap with their current footprint. Additionally, I doubt there's a whole lot of name recognition. I think Publix, Kroger...

I think them not accepting credit cards is a good show to their customers that they are trying to keep prices down. As a longtime Aldi shopper, I wish they did not accept credit cards, because I know that they're passing that expense along to me in the form of slightly higher prices. Since they acce...

A couple of thoughts to reply to various comments on this thread: -I don't think Kroger is disinterested in the general merchandise "Marketplace" store. I believe they have a few new ones in the works, but they're in their saturated markets like Ohio. I do feel like my regular Gerbes has m...

I live in deep Walmart territory here in central Missouri, but the Sam's in Jefferson City, MO was just remodeled and I think it's only about 7-8 years old. I've heard it has exceeded expectations and honestly is set up and run better than other Sam's locations I've been to. It seems like the local ...

It really does look like the Fresh Thyme Foundry Market is basically just like the other one-off markets that Meijer has done in Grand Rapids and elsewhere in Michigan. My guess is they thought St. Louis wasn't familiar with the Meijer name so they labeled it with Fresh Thyme branding? It's odd that...

I guess I should add that Fresh Thyme, which is somehow related to Meijer, already has six locations in the St. Louis area. In addition, there is a "Fresh Thyme Market" in an emerging area called The Foundry that is close to St. Louis University and the Washington University Medical School...

A new shopping center in Glen Carbon, IL, is in the works and will contain a new Meijer. Glen Carbon is next to Edwardsville, IL, home of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. They're both to the northeast of St. Louis, but very much part of the metropolitan area. Sounds like Menards has backed...

A lot of the Market Grille areas are quite popular for breakfast and there's always a lot of older folks enjoying coffee and visiting there. I know the location at Osage Beach, MO (Lake of the Ozarks) switched to the full-service format and I think it turned off a lot of people. It wasn't as relaxed...

There used to be a Galyan's in both KC and St. Louis. I really, really liked those stores. For awhile, Dick's kept the climbing walls, and a larger selection of the outdoor gear that Galyan's did. Slowly over time it downgraded to more of what Dick's sells, and just typical Nike, Adidas and Under Ar...