Decline of Macy's, Kroger's (Columbus, Cincinnati: buyers, outlet mall, design)

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

Kroger has fuel sales. Fuel prices have been low for at least one year. Kroger's comparable fuel sales have decreased.

I am not overly worried about Kroger. It continues to perform well. Kroger may be at a point where it needs to plot its long-term direction for five years.

Even there, you need to make an apples-to-apples comparison. You look at customer counts, gallonage and competition.

You also need to split up the stations based on whether it is in the C-store group or whether it's only the supermarkets.

There are some locations where using a Kroger supermarket gas station flows well with traffic. The station is located on the perimeter and along a main road, like a regular station. At the Kroger store nearest me, the station is wedged into the back of the lot and I virtually never use that station.

For some reason, they also never bothered to update the canopy to the latest style at the station nearest me.

A "real" gas station selects real estate specifically suited to this purpose.

[jmecklenborg]

I'm kind of aghast by people's concerns. What is all of this stuff people are buying? Why do you care so much about these giant, faceless corporations, and fancy some sort of personal connection with them? A gas station in one part of the parking lot versus another? It's not as if you're walking 1/4 mile to it!

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I'm kind of aghast by people's concerns. What is all of this stuff people are buying? Why do you care so much about these giant, faceless corporations, and fancy some sort of personal connection with them? A gas station in one part of the parking lot versus another? It's not as if you're walking 1/4 mile to it!

My personal connection is that Kroger isn't controlled by any robber barons, they treat their employees well and they provide a good product to their customer.

Compare your nearby Kroger to a robber-baron owned Jewel store in Chicagoland or a Kmart.

Look at what the robber barons are trying to do to Marathon. They are trying to make them spin off Speedway. Then what they typically do is cut, cut, cut, cut, cut and the employees get squeezed.

That's my main interest in making sure Kroger remains successful.

Plus, retail and site selection is just something I enjoy as kind of a hobby.

Re: My point above about where the station is located. Who the hell is going to cross 50 traffic humps and dodge people with shopping carts to use a Kroger station located at the back of their store? That's also important here.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Costco, with its extremely generous return policies, likely has a much better handle on quality. I buy most electronic goods there, and don't even look at Wal-Mart for such purchases.

Costco pretty much like Home Depot and Lowes - stick all returns on the backs of the vendor.

I worked in the return center of a tool manufacturer. 99%+ of the returns were perfectly good products that were returned at the completion of the home project. We would test them, clean them, repackage them as "refurbished" and sell them back to Home Depot so that the "tool rental" could continue.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Costco pretty much like Home Depot and Lowes - stick all returns on the backs of the vendor.

I worked in the return center of a tool manufacturer. 99%+ of the returns were perfectly good products that were returned at the completion of the home project. We would test them, clean them, repackage them as "refurbished" and sell them back to Home Depot so that the "tool rental" could continue.

Walmart does that too. A buddy of mine is the US attorney for a company that supplies TV's to Walmart. They are forced to take back all returns. They run them through refurbishing and most of them have nothing wrong.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

Walmart does that too. A buddy of mine is the US attorney for a company that supplies TV's to Walmart. They are forced to take back all returns. They run them through refurbishing and most of them have nothing wrong.

That sounds about right. By a large flat screen right after Christmas and return it the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Sure, it is easy for the retailer to pat themselves on the back for being "consumer friendly" BUT ... the costs of these liberal return policies have to be built into the price of the goods.

[Sarah Perry]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I'm kind of aghast by people's concerns. What is all of this stuff people are buying? Why do you care so much about these giant, faceless corporations, and fancy some sort of personal connection with them? A gas station in one part of the parking lot versus another? It's not as if you're walking 1/4 mile to it!

Here's a thought. If you don't find the thread interesting, rather than being "aghast" and telling all of us about it, just save yourself time and trouble by not reading it.

[tylerSC]

Originally Posted by WRnative

This represents a massive cost-cutting and restructuring potential, if done intelligently to retain local identity and merchandising.

I don't believe Kroger has changed the name of acquired chains in all cases such as Macy's has done. Their Harris Teeter division retains its original banner and continues to perform well in its core markets.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by tylerSC

I don't believe Kroger has changed the name of acquired chains in all cases such as Macy's has done. Their Harris Teeter division retains its original banner and continues to perform well in its core markets.

They've done some strategic renaming, but for the most part they've left the purchased chains alone. In my experience, however, a Baker's looks and feels just like a Kroger though. But that local name still makes all the difference.

[Renownedtheworldaround]

Kroger generally doesn't change the name of its acquisitions, but will rebanner/consolidate stores on a market to market basis (see: Smith's/Fred Meyer/Fry's - Fry's/Fry's Marketplace in AZ, or the rebannering of Copp's stores to Pick N Save in Wisconsin)


Harris Teeter and Mariano's are a bit different since they don't use any of the Kroger decor packages.

Here in North Carolina, Macy's never really had a huge footprint due in part to the proliferation of Belk stores. I'd describe both as being in the same tier, but Belk's clothing is a little more "southern" and "preppy".Hecht's built a few new stores in NC back in the early-mid '00s, but Macy's has not built a single new store in NC ever since they took over Hecht's (understandable to an extent, since no new malls were built from 2006-2014). Belk OTOH, started putting up stores in larger open air centers during this time period.

I'd put Dillard's in the same boat as Macy's in NC, even though Dillard's came in via the acquisition of Ivey's. (Macy's came in via Hecht's, which was based around DC)