Retail Watchers

I've noticed that most of the grocery chains in SoCal have dingy stores... saggy shelves in a Vons, an old fish odor in an Albertsons... and let's not talk about the rest rooms.. That fish odor seems to be a chain-wide Albertsons fixture. Almost every Albertsons store in the Phoenix area has that o...

I've noticed that most of the grocery chains in SoCal have dingy stores... saggy shelves in a Vons, an old fish odor in an Albertsons... and let's not talk about the rest rooms.. That fish odor seems to be a chain-wide Albertsons fixture. Almost every Albertsons store in the Phoenix area has that o...

I have always felt Target was a bit of a joke. For all the bad reputations that Wal Mart has regarding many things (labor, putting small businesses out of business, etc.), Target operates in the same manner. What is even more interesting is typically Wal Mart's hourly employee wages are actually hi...

Although I prefer Target to Wal-Mart, Target is no longer a fun place to shop nor can I find everything there that I need, thanks to the addition of a grocery section. The only grocery items I buy are soup (although in Phoenix it seems like Safeway frequently has Progresso on sale for 99 cents when...

Although I prefer Target to Wal-Mart, Target is no longer a fun place to shop nor can I find everything there that I need, thanks to the addition of a grocery section. The only grocery items I buy are soup (although in Phoenix it seems like Safeway frequently has Progresso on sale for 99 cents when...

I really don't know what the deal is in Arizona. It appears that they are operating stores across the street from one another (or in fairly close proximity to one another) to prevent other operators from encroaching on their market share of a given area's shoppers.

reymann wrote:i see kmart liquidating the remainder of the stores by the end of the year. eddie lampert has no interest in salvaging kmart.

I do too.

The chain is far beyond saving.

It seems to me that Kroger in general doesn't stick to a store design package for long The 2012 "Fresh" decor begs to disagree, considering I've seen it in nearly every Kroger I've been to in the last several years. I have too. Although the latest remodels of standard Fry's stores in the ...

The reopening date on the Bellevue Fred Meyer keeps getting pushed back further and further. The site above is showing March 31st now. As of the last time I drove by there a few days ago it was clear that there was still incomplete structural work on the exterior of the building. At the same time, ...

Here in Phoenix the CVS stores I've stopped in are almost spooky - no customers and weirdly laid out. I've wondered how they stay in business. Walgreens isn't exactly teeming with customers, but at least they don't feel like a mausoleum. I've been in some very dead CVS stores in Phoenix as well. Th...