Retail Watchers

I think in some cases a lease restriction will prevent a grocer from adding a pharmacy long after the drug store in the shopping center closes. This may be the case in Elko. Or for some reason it just isn't profitable to run a pharmacy out there and that is why Raleys closed its pharmacy, though it...

This BBQ and Mexican Food hot food counter has been removed from the Reno Smiths that had it, sometime in the past week or two. They took the small salad bar they had installed out earlier this year and reset in Murray's Cheese into that space. In light of COVID, the timing for removing the salad b...

This store will close 2/12, but a different grocer is taking it over and is expected to reopen it shortly. Not sure who that different grocer is, but they seem to not have any licenses or permits filed yet. There are a few candidates I can think of. FoodMaxx is one, however, I doubt it because it w...

The Macy's furniture store has added a backstage area there instead of in the main store. This seemed odd to me, and made me wonder if this was done to bring more traffic into the furniture store, although that type of customer is probably not looking for higher end furniture. The Medford, OR Macy'...

As far as pharmacy profitability goes, my area (Carson City / Reno) is a good indicator - Carson only has one independent pharmacy left (Dahl’s) - Raley’s closed about 30 of their pharmacies, and the pharmacy benefit managers are eating everyone’s lunch. My pharmacist friend told me that unless you...

I actually have not been inside Furness in many years, so I can't comment on things like checkout. The Hi-School stores I am familiar with are the former locations in Clark County which were larger and usually also had a True Value or Ace hardware department and decent variety. Some locations more ...

I saw an article from Bend today that their store opens February 1st. Chad Drive (Eugene) was not being worked on when I was there in October, at least from what I could see. Salem is one of the few WinCo didn’t pick up (probably because WinCo was already nearby) and it’s a Coastal now.

I don't know what Feed Meyer you were at that had a great deli. They've never done the service deli well. The bakery was great in the early days when things were made and baked on site. Now it's terrible. I visited several Fred Meyer stores as I traveled around the NW over the holidays. Most have b...

I wonder if they’re remodeling in preparation for the new South Reno store and to give folks a better perception of Safeway? I do like some of the remodels they’ve done in Oregon.

I’ve always wondered why Kroger didn’t build a couple of Marketplace stores out here... I’m out in Dayton, and this Smith’s is one of the busiest in the chain. I’ve heard it does the volume of a Fred Meyer, and one of my pharmacist friends said it’s the busiest pharmacy in Northern Nevada. WinCo wil...