Retail Watchers

Where I live in South Louisiana, Gas Station food is considered a delicacy; some are better than the average restaurant. Most convenience stores worth their salt have a deli somewhere that serves hot food of all kinds, ranging from chicken strips, corn dogs, meat pies and other small fried items, to...

There is a massive Hobby Lobby store in Baton Rouge on College Drive that was a former Kmart. Kmart, when open, took the entire building, including the Kmart Foods that had long since closed. Office Max opened in a 15,000 sq. ft. area (which is now Dollar Tree), but HL has the rest - over 100,000 sq...

Friendly Admin Reminder -

This discussion has jumped far off the rails of the original topic. Please, let's steer further discussion toward Dairy Queen in Pilot locations.

Baskin-Robbins is all over the country and seems popular. People seem to prefer Baskin Robbins over Dairy Queen. The variety of flavors is what keeps people going back to Baskin-Robbins. You have ice cream cakes and other items that are very popular for advanced ordering. Dairy Queen seems limited ...

Also, I can't ever recall seeing a Chester's outside of a Love's travel center; is that one of their house brands or do standalone locations exist somewhere? I think Chester's is available to any fuel operator or mini-mart that might want it, similar to Krispy Krunchy. I feel like I've seen it at a...

Pilot Flying J (and Loves, and TAPetro) all have special franchises with each chain they put in their travel centers. While PFJ and Love's primarily are the largest two Arby's franchisees, they also franchise many, many other restaurant brands. Of the three companies, closest to me are: Loves - 3 lo...

ALDI has just signed a lease for a whopping 42,000 square feet in Wayne, NJ, which is much larger than any of their other stores around here. Any ideas of what they’re using the space for? A weirdly large ALDI? A new prototype with a deli or a bakery or something? Storage? E-commerce? Offices? Winn...

The next best (notice I avoided use of the phrase "better") answer was Wal Mart Express and even with tight expense controls that was a complete bath for Wal Mart. Walmart Express would have been a great competitor for the likes of Dollar General and Family Dollar, but they were run by th...

I can't fully figure out their location strategy. I think they may look for post offices and decide if it is viable to build a store nearby. The location strategy is to look for population. I know of several spots not near anything of note, yet Dollar General is right there. A couple of stores near...

Chick-fil-a is coming out with a drive-thru/walk up restaurant with no dining room. Taco Bell is also coming out with a design with no dining room. Captain D's is doing a double drive-thru. The size of the restaurants are also shrinking. https://www.nrn.com/operations/9-prototypes-highlight-restaur...