Man that's crazy. I shop at all those stores and I have seen a decline in their customers when I go in their. Kmart is a sears company and they are closing left and right in Ohio.
I believe this to be nothing more than doomspeaking. A "disastrous month" for walmart could be going from 27b to 26.5b.
-- Edited by BagBoy on Tuesday 19th of February 2013 02:11:37 PM
I'm old enough to have seen many retail shakeouts ahead of economic downturns so I wouldn't say it's just "doomspeaking."
Also absolute numbers like 27b vs 26.5b don't matter. The margins along with whether it represented postive growth year-over-year is what matter.
It does look like the large retail store model is dying. Yet what does Kroger want to be? Walmart. Let's compete in a space that isn't our core while companies in that space, with stronger brands and deeper experience are dying. Brilliant!
Mmy local store tried selling furniture and other crap once. They ended up basically giving it away. I'm sure Kroger will repeat the same mistake when they open the new store they're building.
Why not just be a great grocery company? Know your core business and keep focused. Nevermind this other stuff. You can pick up partnerships like a bank branch or a starbucks or panda express to suppliment your own meals-to-go operations because it's related. Some of the stuff is just crazy.
If retail stores don't make it we're close to a total economic collapse...
Absolutely. We're a retail economy now, and not an industrial one like we used to be. If our retail stores dry up and blow away, where will our displaced workers go? Those who did not go to college relied on either retail or industrial work, there just aren't enough needs to meet the demand.
Our local Radioshack closed a couple months ago. My husband used to be a store manager at the one in a neighboring city and he made really good money. I'm glad he got out while he did and out of retail. The Kmart in the same town as the Kroger I work in is usally dead. We have taken so much business from their pharmacy. I went in there one time to look for something and they had one pharmacist working, with no tech. On a weekday afternoon at the beginning of the year! One of their pharmacists called our pharmacy manager to ask what he could do to get business their way. They're desperate. Our sales were up $44k over budget last week in the whole store. I'm not worried about my job, we keep setting new records. But Kmart? Yeah, they have some issues.
The Kmart in my town is like always empty. It has to be easy to work there compared to Kroger. But sadly, it's one of those ones that could be closed any time now.
Kmart should have died when they went bankrupt years ago. Take note kroger before you put product in your ads that you dont have enough of. Lots of scratches. Customers would love a reason to goto HEB or walmart. Seeing alot of that lately in our store.
