Retail Watchers

So, more on the new store in El Dorado Hills: The gas station is branded Safeway Express. Identical c-store building to the new "Albertsons Express" in Boise, if not a bit larger, but same layout and features. Really, really nice c-store and gas station. The c-store has different (signific...

Rite Aid logo change appears to be a go at least in some regions. New logo in receipt in Northern California as of early this week. But later this week I purchased in Gardnerville, NV Rite Aid and the receipt there still had the old logo. New logo will be in the print ads at least in some regions st...

Macy's in Concord, California is undergoing a remodel. The walls are stark white and the carpet is light blue or gray. It is very bland looking. That probably means that is a strong performing Macy's as they are supposedly investing significant money in about 200 top performing stores to bring them...

I hate the cement floors. I like open ceilings with skylights though. I don't like open ceilings without skylights much especially with exposed fiberglass. Once in a while I come across a new build store with cement floors that I think actually look good. But even on some new stores it looks lousy a...

Publix hasn't fully exploited its existing territory--places like Knoxville (where they only have a few stores). There are a limited number of places with the population base and relative prosperity to which they can expand. Memphis would make sense but a place like Covington isn't one of them. It'...

I know of only one newer Burger King which has an indoor playground. The outdoor ones have pretty much all been removed at this point. Come to think of it, many McDonald's have gotten rid of the outdoor ones in recent years as older restaurants have been rebuilt. They are not including indoor or ou...

The interior partners were usually Panda, Starbucks (or other coffee), Jamba Juice and sometimes a dry cleaners. I don't remember but there was an issue with Jamba Juice and corporate and some Jambas were closing. Maybe theses pizza places took the Jamba spaces? I always wondered if part of the iss...

I shopped at Smiths. On this visit I immediately started scanning items and did not scan the loyalty card until the end of the transaction. As I was using the self checkout a few sale items which were marked as "with card" on the shelf, as I scanned, were discounting down to the sale price...

In my limited experience with this setup it seems to be pretty efficient. This is a very efficient set up as I have personally witnessed. It is actually unbelievable how efficient it is. It takes people (labor) to make it happen. Most of these fast food operators seem to do whatever they can to cut...

Well, the Market Street concept was born under the Miller administration. I was thinking of a format that would introduce more general merchandise options, like hardware or apparel (the latter being experimented by Hy-Vee). It's doubtful that they'll go anywhere close to the "Kroger Marketplac...