Retail Watchers

That last interior, IMHO, looks nice without the drop ceiling.

The stores Albertsons LLC has retained in Arizona and Colorado are good condition, well run, and medium to high volume. They are sitting on some garbage still in New Mexico. As for what was just purchased from Supervalu, there is a lot of work to do... I have to give Kudos to Albertsons LLC for kee...

I think Frys has closed a couple of older stores in Mesa area. Fry's has closed 3 stores in the semi-recent past. Mesa: 825 W. University Goodyear: 390 N. Litchfield Road Phoenix: 1625 W Camelback Rd The stated reason for these closures is that there was another Fry's store nearby. For the Mesa loc...

jamcool wrote:There is a Safeway in Surprise (Grand Ave @ Reems) that still uses the pre-Lifestyle logos

Does that store have a "lifestyle" interior? The reason I ask is because the Safeway in Anthem is a "lifestyle" store yet ALL of the exterior logos are pre-Lifestyle.

jamcool wrote:I've also heard radio ads on Phx radio for Office Depot and Advance Auto Parts- none of which have stores here

I believe that the Advance Auto Parts ads are for their .com website. As far as Office Depot, they do exist in the state (but only in the Tucson market).

Phoenix is interesting, but here's the list: The big 5 "traditional": 1.) Walmart (Neighborhood Market + Supercenter). 2.) Fry's (Food & Drug, Marketplace, Signature) 3.) Safeway 4.) Bashas 5.) Albertsons The others: - Fresh and Easy - Trader Joe's - Whole Foods Market - Sprouts - WinC...

I was listening to 92.3 FM in Phoenix, AZ yesterday and I heard a radio ad for Rite Aid. I was pretty stunned because, as far as I can tell, there are no Rite Aids in the Phoenix, AZ market. Why would a retailer advertise for a store in a market that they don't serve? Is this a sign of things to come?

In an interesting twist of fate, the former Albertsons Express fuel station at 75th Ave / Cactus in Peoria, AZ has signs that it will soon become a Fry's Fuel Center. Albertsons closed the store there in 2007 and it appears that Cerberus sold the fuel center to a Shell franchisee when the store clos...

I like the Self Checkout machines at my local Sam's club. They're fast and kind of fun as they consist of a price "gun" scanner as opposed to simply setting the items on a scanner.

Is there a rhyme or reason to Safeway's "lifestyle" renovations? In my casual observations, the vast majority of Safeway's Arizona stores have been renovated to the "lifestyle" format. However, Safeway has at least 3 stores that I know of that have not: 67th Ave / Peoria, 51st Av...