Retail Watchers

Finally- now we have evidence they are trying to quit sitting on empty sites and give them to parties who want to do something with them. Hopefully some idle sites out west can also get released. As much as I wanted to see how they'd do in Sacramento... it is pretty obvious... so best to just relea...

I don't know what the issue with Needles is. When I was there when Bashas was open, the Bashas seemed like a typical Bashas. A drab outdated store but it was a store and it was well staffed and seemed to have traffic. More traffic than I saw at any of the still open Bashas in Phoenix suburbs I went...

I also do not see a Trump FTC approving this merger either due to what it will do to the industry and its impact on smaller players. Remember Trump is rather "friendly" with the owner of Gristdes in NY that Catsimidas guy. The only way I see this approved is if the unions do an about face...

I'm also going to throw this out there- could Aldi be the solution for some of the problem Safeway assets such as the Denver Division? Recall Sobeys has done this very thing with numerous former Safeway units converting them to that format FreshCo. FreshCo is pretty similar to an Aldi. But I'd much...

EVERY divest activity by Albertsons has resulted in losses of jobs due to failure of the parties buying stores: Buttrey: stores in MT/WY divested to Smiths under Fred Meyer- many stores closed- some like Cheyenne got mixed up in the Kroger/Fred Meyer merger and divested again and then failed- but t...

There used to be a nicer Albertsons somewhere around there too (same side of the freeway as the very high end Ralphs in Menifee) which was a very nice large store, Jewel interior as I recall. Access into it was a little strange but I don't think that was a deal breaker. But for some reason it was c...

Washington State AG will sue to block the merger:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... tsons-deal

Two Walmart closures in San Diego County: 2121 Imperial Ave, San Diego 605 Fletcher Pkwy, El Cajon Imperial Ave store (Neighborhood Market) is in Logan Heights. Fletcher Pkwy store (Div 1) is in the Parkway Plaza mall. I suspect both closures are theft related. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/b...

I don't think that Arizona is as big of a deal as the PNW is though. They have legitimate competition in the market including urban areas; there really isn't anything conventional in the PNW on a large basis. Does the competition execute well? Not really (Bashas) but they could if they were better ...

Laurel Albertsons to open next month: https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/albertsons-to-open-in-laurel-in-early-february/article_3fdd99ea-acf3-11ee-96f3-c33356dbbc8b.html?mode=comments Albertsons is really the only traditional grocer in Billings. This is a market Hy-Vee should be entering, not ma...