Retail Watchers

Hearing another block of stores is closing May 19. Also supposedly Dollar Tree is buying 50+ of the leases. These are too big for them, not sure what they are doing or why. Thought they were busy closing 1,000 Family Dollars and converting Dollar Tree into a higher priced format that appears to be l...

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did. Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition...

Many of these old department stores need to completely re-do the exteriors. There are probably ways to keep many of the original building elements in place and make the overall building look more modern but it is going to take more than paint. At least they are doing something. Meanwhile Sears remai...

Coffee Bean has a small base of Las Vegas locations that seem to be hanging in there. Also some in the airport that have been there forever. These have always been franchises. Airport units are run by I don't know who- but it isn't one of the other airport food service operators and they are leased ...

So I said this and then walked into my usual perfect Aldi store today in the afternoon. First time I've been there in a month. I am pretty sure the manager was moved and replaced. Might as well be a different store and it reveals some of @storewanderer concerns. First off, whoever the new manager i...

My nearest Cirkle K in Concord in the San Francisco Bay Area rebranded from Circle K recently. It is now a Diamond Gas station and convenience store with some of the cheapest gas in the area at $4.89 a gallon. It was a tiny Circle K that was just a bit larger than a cashier booth. The gas used to b...

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...

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...

Can't figure out what stores supposedly close May 12. Hearing there is another group of stores supposedly closing May 19. Docket 472 in the bankruptcy case notes they have a stalking horse agreement with Ollie's to take over 8 leased and 3 owned stores for $14.6 million. I assume those are all in TX...

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did. Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition,...