Recent posts

#21

Miscellaneous Retail Stuff / QuickChek looks to expand into...

Last post by Retail Regents - March 15, 2026, 07:23:40 PM

QuickChek has several locations planned for the Capital District. One involves demolishing the Walgreens at 1850 Central Ave in Colonie, and another on Wolf Rd is currently being built on the site of the former Bed Bath & Beyond; see picture provided.

You cannot view this attachment.

https://www.news10.com/news/albany-county/quickchek-looks-to-expand-into-capital-region/

#22

Department Stores / Re: Target

Last post by TheFugitive - March 11, 2026, 09:01:45 AM

Target has announced that they are cutting prices on over 3000 items in an effort to combat slumping sales.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/target-slashes-prices-thousands-items-bid-revive-slipping-sales

The perception that they were not price competitive with Walmart appears to have hurt them in the current economy.

#23

Grocery Stores/Supermarkets / Re: Giant Eagle

Last post by TheFugitive - March 09, 2026, 02:06:54 PM

Former Giant Eagle Location In Carrick PA right next to the former Little Caesers.


http://www2.county.allegheny.pa.us/RealEstate/Search.aspx

I drove by there yesterday.  The former Giant Eagle has finally been demolished,
and construction was well underway on the new Senior Apartment Complex.  Looks
like the Burger King next door was just remodeled too.

I also drove by the Shop n' Save on Brownsville Road, only I had to detour because
the road had been closed by the police because there had just been a SHOOTING across the street.

Carrick is not the same neighborhood it used to be.

This Shop n Save store on Brownsville Road in Carrick, where I narrowly missed this shooting in 2017, is closing it's doors.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/carrick-shop-n-save-closing/

Officially the owner is retiring, but it seems as if all of these grocery stores in tough, urban areas with higher than usual crime rates are closing-up shop, creating what are called "food deserts" (large areas of a city with no grocery stores within a convenient distance for residents).

And now, just a couple of weeks after it closed it's doors, a dead body has been found behind this store.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/mans-body-found-underneath-trailer-behind-former-shop-n-save-in-carrick/ar-AA1XpnHM?ocid=BingNewsSerp

As I said Carrick isn't the same neighborhood it used to be.

#24

Department Stores / Walmart reportedly makes major...

Last post by TheFugitive - March 09, 2026, 01:55:03 PM

The Pittsburgh Business Times is reporting that Walmart has made an offer to acquire the sprawling Trader Jack's Flea Market site in Collier Township west of Pittsburgh.

https://traderjacksfleamarkets.com/

(That is the flea market's website.  The article is hidden behind a paywall)

The massive flea market in an industrial area located between Carnegie and Bridgeville, PA would presumably be the site of a future Super Walmart with related retail development.  Reports state that the development would hinge on PennDOT's willingness to make improvements to the site's access from nearby I-79.

Walmart currently has a store less than two miles north of this location at the Raceway Plaza, a former auto racing track that was converted to a shopping center in the early 1970's.  The Walmart there is not a Super Walmart due to a grandfathered agreement with an existing Shop n' Save store in the plaza.  This acquisition appears to be aimed at allowing Walmart to fully enter the grocery competition in the southwest Pittsburgh suburbs.

Last year Walmart acquired a plaza along PA Route 88 in Bethel Park, where they likewise have a standard Walmart store sharing the space with Giant Eagle.  Now that Walmart is the landlord I'm sure it's just a matter of time until Giant Eagle's lease runs out and they get evicted in favor of another Super Walmart.

Walmart has been very aggressive in the Pittsburgh real estate market as they also acquired the Monroeville Mall in the eastern suburbs last year.

#25

Ames / Re: Ames History I've Found On...

Last post by Qamaz - March 04, 2026, 02:25:13 PM

An excellent find—especially if it really is a high-quality scan of the original without cropping. Such details are very valuable for the history of the Ames Department Stores chain.

#26

Other Current Retail / Re: Dollar Tree

Last post by TheFugitive - March 02, 2026, 02:18:25 PM

Okay, here's a weird one for you.

A 32-year old female doctor was found naked and dead inside a freezer at a Miami Dollar Tree.

https://www.fox26houston.com/news/doctor-found-dead-dollar-tree-freezer

Results of an autopsy have been revealed.  Apparently this woman was drunk, with a blood alcohol content of 0.11.  After being out for the evening with family she entered this Dollar Tree with her sister.  Her sister lost track of her, and thought she had left the store.  But apparently this woman had somehow wandered into the back room freezer where she became a victim of hypothermia.

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/woman-dead-freezer-miami-dollar-tree-cause-of-death/

Does that mean that states will have to add a SWI law to the books (that would be against Shopping while Intoxicated)?

I used to work with a girl in my present job who would make an annual pilgrimage out to the outlet mall in Grove City, PA with her sister and her boyfriend's sister.  They would take coolers full of beer and wine coolers.  I told her "A day of drunken shopping?  That sounds like the ultimate female fantasy adventure!  You should package it as a bus tour!"

#27

Retail and Restaurant Bashing / Re: Big Lots bashing

Last post by TheFugitive - February 27, 2026, 04:40:10 PM

Big Lots narrowly avoided extinction when a few hundred locations were rescued from oblivion by Variety Wholesalers.  There is still a website up for them at www.biglots.com, but when you go there you're confronted by a CAPCHA page asking you to verify that you are not a bot.

This is VERY suspicious.  Why would any public-facing retailer want potential customers to have to jump through hoops in order to view their website?  It seems like they may have been hacked, and I would definitely NOT interact with this CAPCHA page, which may or may not be real.

Not seeing anything on there now, but I have had that happen in other store sites now & then to verify that you are a person.  Usually one that seems to go away without doing anything, sometimes it will bring up a box that you have to check to continue but nothing more than that.

It's not doing it to me now, it took me directly to their ad and a store directory. It made no sense to ask people to CAPCHA verify to look at their ad.

#28

Stores Shutting Down This Year....2024 / Papa John's to close 300 under...

Last post by TheFugitive - February 27, 2026, 01:18:44 PM

Papa John's Pizza becomes the latest restaurant chain to announce the closure of hundreds of underperforming locations.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/food/papa-johns-closures

The plan is to close 200 by the end of this year, and an additional 100 by the end of next year.  No specific locations have been announced yet.  They had roughly 3500 locations at the start of this year. Papa John's saw a 5.4% decline in same-store sales in the 4th. quarter of 2025, which would be enough to send any chain's management into panic.

There is only one Papa John's location in my area, and it's not particularly convenient for me to get to it.  Here in Pittsburgh the pizza competition from "mom and pops" is pretty intense.

#29

Other Current Retail / Re: Dollar Tree

Last post by BillyGr - February 26, 2026, 05:10:14 PM

Okay, here's a weird one for you.

A 32-year old female doctor was found naked and dead inside a freezer at a Miami Dollar Tree.

https://www.fox26houston.com/news/doctor-found-dead-dollar-tree-freezer

Results of an autopsy have been revealed.  Apparently this woman was drunk, with a blood alcohol content of 0.11.  After being out for the evening with family she entered this Dollar Tree with her sister.  Her sister lost track of her, and thought she had left the store.  But apparently this woman had somehow wandered into the back room freezer where she became a victim of hypothermia.

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/woman-dead-freezer-miami-dollar-tree-cause-of-death/

Does that mean that states will have to add a SWI law to the books (that would be against Shopping while Intoxicated)?

#30

Stores Shutting Down This Year....2024 / Re: Grand Union closures

Last post by BillyGr - February 26, 2026, 05:06:47 PM

Looks like Watertown and Warrenburg are already closed as they are missing from their website.  The other three are still listed but without the Instacart logo like the five that will remain (Cortland, Peru, Rutland, Saranac Lake and Sherill).