Retail Trends That May Affect Central Florida

[nite owℓ]

On 3/1/2020 at 8:53 PM, spenser1058 said:

After introducing premium products like Good & Gather in grocery and Open Story luggage to their growing list of private labels, The Motley Fool notes an interesting phenomenon: “It’s not embarrassing to shop at Target”.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/17/what-target-launching-a-luggage-line-says-about-it.aspx

I'm not ashamed or embarrassed about shopping at Walmart Neighborhood Market in Sodo. It's actually quite pleasant when the store is practically empty during off-peak hours. They also offer all-natural, organic food items and products at low prices (with a selection and price point that rivals Target) and they finally implemented curbside pickup.

As far as shopping at Target or Walmart for home goods (other than electronics), clothing, suitcases... no. Not because of brand recognition, but because the quality is lacking IMO. Sure we all like to save money, but quality is still a factor for me so in order to strike a balance I'd rather go to Ross for luggage and Nordstrom Rack for clothes, West Elm for furnishings, etc.

Edited March 3, 2020 by nite owℓ

[spenser1058]

Good news this week if you use Pick Up or Drive Up for your Target Run - On this week’s 4Q conference call they announced fresh is coming this year. PLUS adult beverages (which will needed by all the Sanitizer Moms* since you know who eviscerated the CDC and NIH since 2017...)

For me, this will make it even easier to shop more at Target and less at Publix. Now, about that college format store at UCF/VD, please. Speaking of which, it was noted on the call they’re now experimenting with stores as small as 6000sf, which might make a location downtown even more likely. Here’s hoping!

* The recently designated version of the Soccer Moms 

[spenser1058]

Years ago, before Macy’s ended up merging all its local divisions into one national, wheezing behemoth, there used to be a Macy’s store in Miami and a Burdines nearby. Right up to when the Burdines name was pulled down and the Macy’s name went up, the Burdines store had higher sales/sf.

But, Terry Lundgren insisted a national name was better. Customers like those of Chicago’s Marshall Field who loathed the idea of their beloved chain (never mind that it had been part of other retail chains since about 1980) putting the name of a Manhattan(!) store on a State Street institution were not amused.

But Lundgren insisted, “we have a movie!” (Miracle On 34th Street) and “we have a parade!” (the Thanksgiving one). A dozen brands across the country, many icons of their local communities, were folded into Macy’s. The bean counters who had been killing retail since the ‘70’s figured they could save lots of money by consolidating ad budgets and laying off buyers (by selling the same products across the country).

Today, Macy’s is dying. The great American department store always had larger than life showmen like John Wanamaker (his Philly flagship, today a Macy’s, still has a huge pipe organ that once featured concerts). Other stores like Davison’s (itself bought by Macy’s decades ago) in Atlanta had book signings with authors like Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone With the Wind.

In fact, the departments the bean counters dropped, like books, because they made negligible profits on their own, brought in folks who were likely to pick up a pair of khakis while they were there seeing a favorite author.

The top floor restaurants that didn’t make much money helped to keep folks (especially women, who even today buy or influence the majority of retail sales) in the store buying a lot longer.

But the numbers don’t lie, right? They do if you don’t understand how the synergy works. Hiring teenage boomers at minimum wage who had no product knowledge while laying off experienced salespeople who established decades of loyal clients made sense to the accountants but not to anyone else.

Well, as Macy’s tries to keep the red ink at bay, they’ve decided to try, ummmm, a local focus again. The Motley Fool says it well may be too little, too late.

https://www.fool.com/amp/investing/2020/03/14/macys-finally-embraces-new-retail-idea-market.aspx

Meanwhile, a family run chain from the mid-Atlantic states, Boscovs, is growing apace by doing it the old-fashioned way:

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191119/mark-patinkin-in-age-of-amazon-jim-boscov-believes-in-department-stores?template=ampart

From the Providence Journal

It’s Back To the Future.

Edited March 16, 2020 by spenser1058

[orlandoguy]

On Target‘s corporate news blog, they posted a few updates from their CEO. One item sort-of buried is that they will be scaling back the roll-out of the smaller footprint stores for the rest of 2020 and rescheduling some to 2021. So for those of you waiting for a City Target at UCF Downtown, you’ll be waiting a little longer. [emoji17]

https://corporate.target.com/article/2020/03/target-coronavirus-prioritizing-work

[orlandoguy]

For fans of the large department store chains such as Macy's, JCP and Kohl's, things are going to get hairy in a few months if non-essential business don't begin to reopen ... and consumer spending doesn't bounce back.

America’s department stores can make it as much as 8 months with closed stores before liquidity troubles mount, analyst says

[spenser1058]

Now that I can buy Levi’s at Target, the list of things I’d buy at a department store is ever dwindling.

My button down shirts come from LLBean (my arms are too long and their stock of tall sizes rock), as do polos, khakis, shorts and shoes.

Dress clothes, to the extent I need them anymore, come from Brooks Brothers.

There was a time when I bought just about everything except things like kitchen stuff and irons (remember those?) at Ivey’s. The fact I no longer need a department store probably sums up why they’re in trouble.

[elefants]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

Now that I can buy Levi’s at Target, the list of things I’d buy at a department store is ever dwindling.

That's got me wondering... At what point would you consider Target a department store? 

Edited March 29, 2020 by elefants

[spenser1058]

28 minutes ago, elefants said:

That's got me wondering... At what point would you consider Target a department store? 

Target’s a bit of an odd duck. Unlike most discount stores like Walmart and Kmart that started as dime stores, Target was founded by Dayton’s, an upscale Minneapolis department store.

For a long time, most of the middle- to - upper name brands refused to sell in discount stores.

Amazon did a lot to change that. Today, you can buy Levi’s Red Tab at Target for the first time, along with brands like Harry’s.  I stil can’t get New Balance or Nikes there yet.

If you’ve been into a remodeled Target, you’ll also see they are doing store design more like department stores with mannequins and directed lighting.

Their private label brands like Cat and Jack for kids rival the well-established brands and that’s happening with more and more of the assortment.

Target discovered after the 2008 recession that you can’t beat Walmart (and now the dollar stores) on price. Their newish CEO, Brian Cornell is getting back to their roots and going upscale. He is, imho, one of the sharpest guys in retail today.

My guess is mid-range department stores as we know them will be replaced within 5-10 years by hybrid models like Target or migrate to the treasure hunt model (as Macy’s is doing with Backstage - I hate them but. I digress). When name brands Macy’s and Dillard’s sell migrate over to Target, the change will be complete.

Edited March 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[jgardnerucf]

You should probably go to Kohl's.

[spenser1058]

7 minutes ago, jgardnerucf said:

You should probably go to Kohl's.

It may be just me but Kohl’s has just always struck me as a tad too generic, for lack of a better term. Not to mention they only seem to put their stores in BFE.

[jgardnerucf]

Piles of Levi's dungarees for ya.     How is it generic with name brands vs your cheap-o private label at target?      They like their own bricks and their own land.

Edited March 30, 2020 by jgardnerucf
Meh

[spenser1058]

1 hour ago, jgardnerucf said:

Piles of Levi's dungarees for ya.     How is it generic with name brands vs your cheap-o private label at target?      They like their own bricks and their own land.

Ironically, they were once owned by the same group (BATUS Retail US) as Ivey’s. When BATUS Retail was broken up, Ivey’s went to Dillard’s (and good God was THAT horrible), Kohl’s was spun off on its own (or to some other investment group) and Marshall Field was sold to Dayton-Hudson, the parent of....Target!

Now, If they have a store in the Paradise that is OVIEDO, I may have to go! *runs*

Edited March 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[jgardnerucf]

It's a smaller sized store out yonder, but it is in unincorporated seminole. Enjoy!

[spenser1058]

14 minutes ago, jgardnerucf said:

It's a smaller sized store out yonder, but it is in unincorporated seminole. Enjoy!

Oh boy! @jgardnerucf is taking me to Oviedo! Breakfast at the Town House and hanging out with the cheekens downtown.

[TRENCH]

Macy’s will start furloughing most employees

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s says it will temporarily stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chain closed its stores in response to collapsing sales during the pandemic.

The majority of its 125,000 employees, including stock people and sales clerks, will still collect health benefits, but the company said that it is transitioning to an “absolute minimum workforce” needed to maintain basic operations. Macy’s has lost the bulk of its sales due to the temporarily closing of all 500 of its stores starting March 18.

 

https://apnews.com/ae97f5556ea48ae167636fb50eeb4489 

[spenser1058]

You know, there have been a lot of problems with Macy’s/Allied/Federated going back to the ‘80’s and Eddie Campeau (letting a developer who cared more about his projects than about what was actually in the stores control things was never a great idea).

But the seed of the latest Macy’s debacle goes back to Terry Lundgren’s idea of manifest destiny and the takeover of May Co.

Terry just had to lead a national chain (because Sears and JCPenney were doing so well, right?) Many of the stores Terry reflagged, like Burdines, outperformed the Macy stores they competed against.

Further, the local nameplates were beloved as part of the local culture (see Marshall Field in Chicago, even though it had been owned by other firms outside the city since 1980). 

May Co. had been fading for years - that’s why it got sold a couple of times and Macy’s picked it up so cheaply.

Doing all this just as e-commerce (aka Amazon) was raising its head was mostly attributable to Terry’s delusions of grandeur (“We have a movie!” We have a parade!”)

Of course, Wall St types and bean counters loved it because you could eviscerate head count and always just sell the real eastate.

Only problem was, generic product in the age of Amazon was a no-go. If you offered nothing special, just order online for the lowest possible price and save the hassle of going to the mall.

Some of the downtown real estate was quite valuable but, in a true irony, much of the mall inventory was becoming worth less with each passing year.

What to do now? First, down all the worthless generic mall stores. Since Macy’s has already realized it needs local buyers to differentiate itself from Amazon, why not go all the way and bring back the old nameplates? Can you imagine the PR value of the Marshall Field name going back up on State Street in The Loop? A holiday would be declared!

Burdines (The Florida Store) would once again feel like it had something uniquely its own (especially since Publix has diluted  its identity as it expanded to other states - it can never again be to Florida what H-E-B is to Texas.

Finally, with fewer stores, make the few downtown stores and Tier 1 mall locations into destinations again. Department stores in the US became dominant not only because their entrepreneurs were merchants, they were also showmen. Make going to the remaining flagship stores an event again not to be missed. Most of the SKU’s can be ordered online. Bring back restaurants, salons, special book events that can be loss leaders for the online product.

Finally, service. Bring back trained salespeople who know their product and how to sell it, not some kid who knows nothing and can’t sell but works at minimum wage. That kid belongs in the Amazon warehouse, not a Macy’s showroom.

It took 50 years for the bean counters to destroy American retail. Let’s go back to what made it great in the first place.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by spenser1058

[jgardnerucf]

Hey @spenser1058! The mini Target at Daryl Carter is ready for you!

[spenser1058]

19 minutes ago, jgardnerucf said:

Hey @spenser1058! The mini Target at Daryl Carter is ready for you!

Oh boy! Maybe they’ll have some Clorox crystals!

[spenser1058]

Woohoo! FINALLY- the Maguire Target has bleach packs for pick up. No drab undies for me!

[spenser1058]

This may go under the heading of “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” but J C Penney has fiddled with its logo again, not once but twice.

The first, which is not dissimilar from what came before (although in the past 10 years the company has fiddled so much they might as well change the name to Nero’s as the chain burns).

The “official” new logo is just a variation on the familiar with a cleaner font and more space between the letters. Look to see it on the website and in ads.

Oddly, though, in a redo of a store in Texas (JCP is headquartered in Plano, a Dallas ‘burb) showcasing all the exciting changes in store, it features a new logo in script that sweeps upward to the right and is unlike any signage used by the company in its nearly 120-year history. It also is not seen online or in ads. 

Here in Orlando, where we haven’t lost any stores but also haven’t gotten refurbs much less any new stores, we’ve mostly got the JCPenney logos from a couple of decades back. If the new script logo appears in town anywhere, please let us know. One guesses that store may be a keeper as store closures are forecast for later this year.

https://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/120728-jcpenney-has-new-logo-and-other-new-logo/

From Sports Logos

[spenser1058]

In yet another refutation of the Reagan-era slogan that “government is always bad”, the good folks of the tiny town of Baldwin (Duval County) were about to lose their only grocery store. 

It seems no chain or co-op was interested in taking over after IGA pulled out* and, rather than lose the important local amenity or see it replaced by a Nutrition Desert like most Dollar Generals, the town has taken it over and is running it. 

Three cheers for the folks of Baldwin!

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/neighborhoods-of-jacksonville-baldwin-page-2/

From The Jaxson 

* Did you know the original Gooding’s in Maitland started out as an IGA?

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by spenser1058

[spenser1058]

Duplicate.

Edited April 17, 2020 by spenser1058

[orlandoguy]

JCP strategically missed a giant interest payment this week, meaning a major shakeup or bankruptcy may not be far behind.

Sorry, Spense - you may not see your updated script logo in Orlando anytime soon.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/jc-penney-skips-12m-interest-payment-setting-stage-for-possible-bankrup/576164/

[spenser1058]

1 hour ago, orlandoguy said:

JCP strategically missed a giant interest payment this week, meaning a major shakeup or bankruptcy may not be far behind.

Sorry, Spense - you may not see your updated script logo in Orlando anytime soon.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/jc-penney-skips-12m-interest-payment-setting-stage-for-possible-bankrup/576164/

Yep, I agree that the weak players in retail are going to have a bear of a time getting through the next year. Target, for example, has seen a huge flip in spending from more-profitable hard goods to low-margin perishables. That keeps the doors open but not much more and Penney doesn’t even have that.

I also wonder about Jill Soltau’s decision to make middle age moms the chain’s primary focus. Oddly, JCP supposedly has done well in the Orlando market but our demographic skews younger than Jill’s goal - something doesn’t add up there.

Oh well, Penney’s lost me when they unceremoniously tossed American Living not long after it was introduced so I’m no doubt biased. I still have this fantasy of an “everything store” that will probably never exist but a boy can dream. After all, even at Sears’ height of power when they sold everything from houses to gas, apparel was still a weak spot for them.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by spenser1058

[aent]

4 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

In yet another refutation of the Reagan-era slogan that “government is always bad”, the good folks of the tiny town of Baldwin (Duval County) were about to lose their only grocery store. 

It seems no chain or co-op was interested in taking over after IGA pulled out* and, rather than lose the important local amenity or see it replaced by a Nutrition Desert like most Dollar Generals, the town has taken it over and is running it. 

Three cheers for the folks of Baldwin!

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/neighborhoods-of-jacksonville-baldwin-page-2/

From The Jaxson 

* Did you know the original Gooding’s in Maitland started out as an IGA?

 

I just wouldn't want to eat their Smoked Meat:

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x88e593963669afe9%3A0x719946ae1d2049b4!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPT731W09YNfEJmoSfermU_QV26tvmGukU7cysH%3Dw319-h240-k-no!5sbaldwin Market - Google Search!15sCAESAggF&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipP3NEP5XAz8BwSatYqMk5wdQrnZYMmUr5Csx5YY&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXq4jziPDoAhUDna0KHXacCasQoiowCnoECBoQBg

The steel, wood, and oil is very nutritious!