Retail Watchers

While Wards did SOME remodels, to say the entire chain was remodeled is not accurate. I know for a fact that the Longview, WA location still had its 1960s era interior, original light fixtures, and some of the original signage at the very end. Most of the locations in Portland, OR were largely unrem...

Add another one to the list.... I was in the Oregon City Kmart today. This is a somewhat newer store, from the early-mid 90s. While there was no "STORE CLOSING" banner up, there were small notes on the doors stating that the store was closing and no longer accepting layaways. It also gave ...

It is interesting that both the Kmart and Sears closures are occurring so close together, and in the same town. Sears and Kmart coverage is getting very spotty in both Oregon and Washington. I have recently read stories about supplier issues, making me wonder if we will see a major closure announcem...

There is a Target in Scottsdale, Arizona that has the Customer Service desk moved to the 1st check stand but the reason for its move had nothing to do with customer count. Rather, Target put a Starbucks where the customer service desk used to be. Interestingly enough, I visited the Target in Olympi...

Not surprised, especially after my observations with the Sears stores that are using ipads to ring up purchases (which I mentioned in another thread). I am very leery of any chain using wireless POS devices at this point. When there seems to be a data breach affecting a large retailer every week it ...

My local Safeway store just switched over to a new cash register point of sale system. They posted cheaply made paper signs saying something about please bear with us as our registers are slow due to a totally new software system... Don't tell me they just switched over to the Supervalu system in a...

Many stores have readers that are not bolted down. In my area, Scolaris are not bolted down. Nor are all of the Rite Aids. Nor are Macys, Dillards, Sears... And some retailers are moving toward portable ipad based POS terminals. Kinda hard to bolt those down when there is a credit card reader in th...

It amazes me how low-volume some Albertsons stores are in their own home state. In the past, they paid more attention to the stores closer to Boise. These days, not so much. Supervalu certainly didn't do these stores many favors..

I find this interesting. In the early 90s, pharmacies were nearly nonexistent in Target stores. They definitely have made inroads into the pharmacy business. Target could succeed with this concept if they can carry over their lower prices from their regular stores. I know some people are getting tir...

At my local Walmart in Longview, WA, I have noticed that they have, over the past month, rearranged the cosmetics department so that there are no open aisles, basically it's now boxed in, one way in or out. I have also noticed the addition of a cash register (but never a person at the register) , an...