Retail Watchers

Haven't been inside yet, but noticed that my local Target has installed the CVS signage outside. Seems weird seeing that on a Target building, but I guess not much different than Sav-On signage on Albertsons.

I was in the Hastings store in Kingman, Arizona, about six weeks ago. It is in a strip mall with a Safeway, JC Penney, and a space that used to be Family Dollar. It was really depressing on the inside. The carpet was old and had been sloppily patched, and it looked like no one had vacuumed for days...

I feel like WinCo's Stores of 2 years old or older felt more like a cross between a warehouse store and a conventional store. They did not, to me, necessarily scream low cost. They screamed high volume and functional. I had no problem shopping in their stores; while walking through it, I felt like ...

TV campaign about the newly opened store (and a general branding message) is airing in the Portland area. About the only time you will see WinCo running TV ads is during a grand opening. WinCo historically is not a heavy advertiser. I have not subscribed to my local newspaper in several years, but ...

With the posts that I assume carry wiring etc. for the registers going all the way up to the ceiling, it gives the front end a cheap looking appearance. I realize it is probably more cost effective to run cables & wiring in the ceiling than it is to break apart concrete floors, but it does clutt...

WinCo may be noticing markets such as Portland where the Walmart Neighborhood Markets have been popping up. WinCo is in a good position to take them on if they can adapt a smaller store model. Although I have to question the lack of service departments at the 82nd & Powell store when there is a ...

I saw a TV commercial for JCPenney announcing the fact that they were starting to sell major appliances, but the ad made it clear that they would be available online only (i.e., at jcpenney.com) and not in stores. I think that's going to be interesting -- how many people buy major appliances withou...

The mall near me also had a Copeland's Sports that used to be an ice skating rink. Sport Authority took it over and converted it into a huge store. That store had escalators and a huge sales floor. That lasted only a short period of time before being closed. There is a standalone Sports Authority l...

Back in March, I drove by the Beaverton Kmart and noticed that all the exterior signage had been removed from the building, with visible labelscars from when it used to be a darker brown color, and a plastic "Big Kmart" banner draped across the front. Here it is two months later and nothin...

However, I disagree that the root problem behind Safeway was price. Although price was never a strong point for Safeway, what I've noticed is that Safeway never really caught onto grocery trends in the early 1990s. Most supermarkets were trying new concepts including coffee bars, a greater selectio...