Retail Watchers

Currently visiting my parents in Northern Idaho and visited the Cracker Barrel in Coeur d'Alene. It wasn't particularly busy, but this was around 11am on a Monday which I don't think would be a busy period anyway. Prices seemed to be in line with a Cracker Barrel I visited in North Carolina a couple...

Walmarts in touristy areas tend to be pretty good about stocking large quantities of souvenirs, probably because it's something they can sell a lot of. The Walmarts I have been to in Orlando (especially the ones closest to the Disney parks) have rather large departments of Disney merchandise and sma...

The "20 years" in the news article suggests that it's a non-renewal of a lease, but It doesn't surprise me that the Highway 99 store in Everett would be underperforming. There's another Walmart only a couple miles away on Everett Mall Way (in pretty much an ideal location to get traffic of...

I don't think even 7-Eleven charges $1.99 for a donut here. The ones I usually get at Winco are $0.79 apiece (used to be $0.59 before inflation hit) and perfectly servicable if unspectacular.

Can't recall ever seeing these in the store. I do see boxes of Krispy Kremes at the local Walmarts though, presumably supplied from the Krispy Kreme in Sandy.

One thing I could seem them doing is moving away from selling things like running shoes, hiking boots and similar items. The problem with those items is that places like REI and various specialty running shops (typically single locations or small local chains) sell all of those types of shoes (brand...

Refocusing a company to chase after collector markets seems to be a rather risky proposition, especially because sneaker collecting looks suspiciously like a bubble waiting to pop (especially when people start to figure out that all of their $200-a-pair Air Jordans are made of materials that start t...

I saw $2.69 for a dozen eggs at WinCo yesterday. In the past I've seen as low as $0.88, but prices are definitely coming down.

We are now under contract on a house a bit north of Greensboro. The location is a bit on the rural side, but it looks like the the closest store to the house will be a Lowes, with a Food Lion, Walmart Supercenter and a Harris Teeter a bit further away. I suspect we will miss having a WinCo nearby, b...

If they were going to open one in the Pacific Northwest I'm thinking Tacoma or Olympia would be a good place to do it because unlike Fry's (which was generally regarded as sketchy at best even before they started going downhill) I think Micro Center has enough of a reputation that people would go ou...