It's not just newspapers that are the new buggy whips

This is not surprising.
Office Depot has a program for Chamber of Commerces that offer discounts to members on everything it sells and free shipping on any purchases over $50.
That's sure as heck beats a trip to the store, if you know what you need.
They sell all kinds of stuff, including K-cups.

 

Home Depot seems to have killed Rona up here.

 

Does Target believe it is in a "Grow Or Die" existential conundrum? They seem to be expanding at a far greater pace than demand would allow.

We have a store two miles west. This weekend a store opens two miles east. The way we are situated, I can't see the new store doing anything but cannibalizing the old store's base.

 

One exception, at least in my area, to big-box decline is Meijer, which is privately owned.

 

My wife worked in HR at Target during start up mode in Canada. Target grossly overpromised and underdelivered. Distribution was a gong show from day 1 as they could not keep the shelves in the stores filled.

Additionally so many Canadians were expecting the US version of Target and instead we got a watered down version both price and quality wise.

Target also underestimated a lot of the cultural and people side around retail. The US leadership they sent up assumed people would flock to work for Target and balked when potential employees, especially in leadership positions, expected comparable Canadian benefits (more than 2 weeks of holidays, paternal and maternal leave, etc). Target lost a lot of Store Managers, Team Leaders and good employees who found that the Target people talked the talk but did not walk the walk.

Throw in that Target also took over crappy Zellers stores and there was not enough a physical change to differentiate the experience led to disappointment.

 

Target took over the crappy Zellers store in the mall up the street from me, I walked through there the other day to go to the beer store, other than the escalators being in a different spot it seemed like the same store to me. My wife knows some hardcore fans of Target's US stores who drive to Buffalo to shop there rather than patronize the ones in the Toronto area.

 

Fascinating on how the big boxes are struggling.

Strictly anecdotal but we do not shop at Target anymore, post-breach. Initially we went down to "cash only" after having to cancel all of our debit cards. I figure we probably spent about $4,000 a year there. Now it's nothing. I don't even walk in. The tipping point, post-breach, was when the cashiers would remind us that we could save 5% if we wanted to sign up for a Target debit card.

I do think we're still in this "propped up" economy where the stock market looks good but, behind the façade, people aren't really spending that much money. A good barometer where I live is to see how many commercials are filled vs. how many are promos. Still lots of promos for this early in the year. (Usually, in December, local TV is almost all promos or national car ads because local companies have spent all their ad budgets).

People are buying lots of cars/trucks and home improvement items where I am. Yet the constant cry to "shop local" is facing so many challenges now. Why pay $74 for the department store tie that is really sharp when I can get it delivered to my door for $28? Especially now with gas edging back towards $4 and most groceries up a bit from last year.

Add in my time (yes, my time is likely more important than yours!) and I just don't want to deal with higher prices and wasting my time.

Wife has Amazon Prime, which means free shipping for a finite amount of time. One day UPS dropped off this gigantic package.

Toilet paper. A crate of TP.

I call her. What is this?

"Shipping is free and it's about 40% less than we pay in the store. Not like we won't use it."

 

In my 30K burg (biggest city/town in a county of 100K, which includes Army post Fort Knox), Office Depot shut down last year. Anchors shopping center of about 20 or so units.

Next to that shopping center is another one, co-anchored by K-Mart and Staples.

Two big-box openings right next to each other could hurt -- although Target, Lowes, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Best Buy, HH Gregg, Sams, Home Depot and an indoor mall in the same general vicinity -- but rumor is Meijer and IKEA have both been interested in the Office Depot property.

 

Big boxes come and go, but their buildings are still prime real estate. An arts and crafts chain took over the Circuit City building and an outdoors chain moved into the old K-mart.

 

Just bought a 50" TV from Amazon. No tax (saved 6%), free shipping. We bought it when Amazon had it listed for $688. Two days later the price was $755, now its $749.(We did have a $155 in credit from Amazon which made the shopping choice obvious).




Went to Best Buy to actually see the picture and their price was competitive. They will meet any price you can prove. But the benefit of having it shipped to the door free was great. No tax is great but that will end soon as Amazon will soon have a distribution center in Maryland and they will be forced to collect taxes/

I checked my order history with Amazon under my current account and I've been buying from them since 1998. Probably earlier under another email address I can't remember. Numerous cameras and lenses, videos, books, shoes, jeans, K-cups, jackets. I think I even bought a lap top off their site.Amazon and Zappos are the best.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/17/140217fa_fact_packer?currentPage=all

Great article, about 3/4 of the way through you start to hate Amazon but then realize that book publishers were dicks too.

 

All I know about Amazon is pretty much in that article. But since the company barely breaks even most quarters, is its model sustainable? As struggling as the big boxes are, the company doesn't seem like it'll ever turn the corner and be able to impose monopoly prices on a bunch of products?

 

I don't like to see the big boxes struggle,
but it's great to see the big boxes struggle.

Or something like that. You know the feeling.