Retail Watchers

Some of us remember when drug stores were bigger, had lunch counters, had garden departments, sold sporting goods (even guns!), and even sold TVs and stereos.

Costco is where the original JC Penney Christown store was (JCP is now at the West end of the mall)

Except Safeway has a partnership with Chevron through its Rewards Card. The Phoenix Safeway fuel centers have upgraded signage on the pumps with the “Express” lettering

Denny’s seems to be opening smaller sites and moving into strip centers, like the new one in Surprise, AZ which shares a strip center with a Verizon store and a few other retailers

The only parts of CA that are doing well are the Bay Area/Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.... the Central Valley has been in an economic downturn for a long time. Also see how much it costs to rent a U-Haul from CA to AZ or TX versus the other way.

Carl’s Jr isn’t HQ in Anaheim anymore...they moved HQ to Tennessee (along with Hardee’s). And they have previously stated that they would be doing less development in California because of the anti- business climate there

Texaco is more of a “distributor” brand offered by wholesalers to dealers. Chevron was/is a company- owned station brand (although there are dealers with multiple sites). Both take each others cards and have the same Techron fuel additive.

I imagine Pep Boys or Discount Tire buying the chain

Here is something befitting of the decline of Sears...The closed Arrowhead Towne Center store in Glendale AZ is now home to an interactive dinosaur show.

In Tucson the former Giant locations have been rebranded to Speedway (and there is a Speedway on Speedway Blvd BTW)complete with TV ads and billboards. There are also a handful of Arco AM-PMs and the first Marathon-branded gas station in Arizona. So Tucson is the only market where all 3 of Marathon’...