Retail Watchers

I see Springfield regularly at Vallarta, Superior and other stores that were formerly supplied by Unified before the sale to Supervalu. I'm not sure if they are slowly phasing it out and replacing it with Essential Everyday. That would be a shame, as "Springfield" sounds better in my opini...

I have never seen more than 1 or 2 people in those Sephora shops. I also wonder where Kohl's came up with these supposedly good sales numbers. Last year, LVMH (Sephora's parent) did €86.2 billion in revenue and €22.8 billion in profit. That's a profit margin of 26%. So it's seems like the beauty pr...

Odd question. Any chance some of this problem is related to wildly bad forecasting and logistics planning? I ask this because I've seen the aftermath of even one store in an underserved area closing, then the next closest store becomes overwhelmed with customers and the in stock rate plummets. Base...

I can't imagine either Target or Walmart going into Guam. I would say Wesfarmers is the best candidate. They could continue to use the brand name and they are also geographically closer. But this is all speculation. Most likely, if and when Transformco decides to pull the plug, it will sit vacant fo...

The restaurant owners who are fighting this are very out of touch and do not understand their customers. I also think these surcharges have an adverse effect on tipping. For instance someone who may have left a 20% tip sees these surcharges 5%+3% and decides to only leave a 12% tip. Oh, they unders...

Meanwhile, the DOJ has allowed the Colorado antitrust suit to continue in the courts, meaning now there's at least three more hearings and trials for the merger. What do you mean by allowed? That is a state lawsuit, the DOJ can't stop or control it in any way. Colorado probably wanted to file their...

This may sound wild, but hear me out. If Kroger wants to expand in California, they should introduce the Ruler Foods format. Their attempts at conventional supermarkets clearly aren't working, but small, limited assortment stores might. Aldi had a great concept that seemed to be doing incredibly wel...

The ongoing thing with Durbin gave the merchant groups the ammo to fight for the right to surcharge in their lawsuit. The merchant lawsuit was filed in 2005... yes, it took over a decade to settle! That's how slow the legal system is. The lawsuit was well underway before the Durbin amendment was pa...

Previously the credit card networks prohibited surcharges and minimum purchase amounts. Credit card fees became legal due to the Durbin legislation. This politician also fought some years ago to get it so merchants could have a "minimum charge amount" if $10. Durbin is a Democrat politici...

Previously the credit card networks prohibited surcharges and minimum purchase amounts. Credit card fees became legal due to the Durbin legislation. This politician also fought some years ago to get it so merchants could have a "minimum charge amount" if $10. Durbin is a Democrat politici...