Retail Watchers

The thing that distinguishes Hy-Vee is that they successfully operate stores at both extremes--the 90k sqft suburban grocery palace and the 10k rural supermarket. I was shocked last year that a store in Lamoni, IA right off I-35 just over the IA/MO state line literally hadn't changed in 25 years...I...

Was curious about thoughts on operators' expansion plans within the Midwest, and wonder how road networks affect them. The separate Schnucks thread got me to thinking about expansion--I was raised in St. Louis, and am currently in Detroit. Taking Schnucks: they have expanded reasonably successfully ...

I also wonder if supply chain was a bit of an issue here---there is not a great direct N/S route from St. Louis up to the Quad Cities (or Des Moines). E/W access on I-80 is a lot better, hence the Hy-Vee/Jewel presence.

CVS needed to get bigger in St. Louis to be relevant---as mentioned upthread, CVS only entered the market about 10 years ago. Even with the Target acquisition, they didn't have good coverage within the St. Louis metro. You literally would drive past multiple Walgreens stores to find a single CVS---m...

Yeah, between Schnucks and Dierberg's, St. Louis has a very high expectation of it's run-of-the-mill grocery stores. With Save-A-Lot actually based in St. Louis, and Aldi having a 40 year history (one of their first stores in 1980 actually went into an old Schnucks on Manchester), the low-end is tak...