Retail Watchers

Allegedly the number one performing region at Sam's for the last 4 years is California. It's carrying their whole organization. Remember that Sam's historically botched California and had opened themselves up to being run out of the state by the Costco Business Center rollout, but then Sam's turned...

It's hard for me to see how Albertsons and Kroger thought this new deal would entice the FTC any better. I know someone said maybe it was simply to get the states that were suing off their backs, but the FTC was very clear that C&S is simply a questionable buyer, and it's going to take actual l...

Costco has something like 10 new store projects going in NorCal. It is quite interesting. I think they're trying to play chess to prevent Sam's Club from doing any expansion in the market. After Sam's Club closed two stores in metro Sacramento it doesn't bode too well. I think Costco may be hitting...

Grocery Outlet has found a way to source Asian products from a distributor and this is one of their initiatives to try to fill the shelves up. They sell the stuff at a slight discount 10%-20% less than what the Asian chains like 99 Ranch or Seafood City sell for and also hope to capture business fr...

I think the 99 Only and Rite Aid closures will be a real estate jackpot for Aldi. Many of those SoCal Rite Aids are in that 22k square foot range (former Thrifty units) with the grocery co-anchor long gone so I expect Aldi can move in. I do not think Aldi is a good addition to the market but it is ...

Walmart has upgraded employee quality but also established pride in the workplace. My Walmart stores must be very different from yours, because Walmart is the last place I see employees with any pride in the workplace. They seem to be bitter, overworked and frustrated. I'm glad this isn't universal...

What is the reasoning? Obviously California lawmakers don't care about shrink or theft, so this is just another excuse to support unions. In California you already can't use self checkout for liquor sales. This will only cause prices to go up......and frankly the reason I'd rather use self checkout...

Yet another victim of a greedy leveraged buyout.

Many businesses buy stuff from supermarkets... this isn't at all unusual. Offices may need break room supplies like coffee and snacks, restaurants may need a few specialized ingredients that Sysco doesn't have, or a company may need sandwiches and fruit platters for an employee lunch. I don't know h...

Interesting that they are keeping Just Walk Out at the Amazon Go stores. Perhaps it works better in small format, or perhaps they are planning to use those stores to keep trying to improve the technology.