Defunct restaurant chains and retailers

[slorydn1]

Albertson's bought out Safeway 3 years ago.

My only gripe with the "new" Safeways is that now, for the 2ND TIME, they took out the self-serve checkouts.  Problem is, when it's real slow, they only have 2-3 checkouts open, and you're lucky if one of them is an express lane!

My biggest problem with self checkouts is the people who don't know how to scan things that insist on using them. There are times I have scanned 15 items and paid in less time than it took somebody else to buy 3 items. That being said, I started shopping at Target a lot more once they put in self checkouts as the ones in these parts have slow cashiers. I can scan faster than a lot of cashiers, but Target seems to hire people that prefer to socialize instead of scanning.

^This^ I was a cashier in a grocery store some 30 years ago as a teen, and I can STILL scan items faster at the self checkout faster than most current cashiers can today.

[roadman65]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

[doorknob60]

Anyone remember Albertsons?

Ha, they're far from defunct. As mentioned, they recently bought out Safeway, another very large chain. According to Wikipedia, they (as in, all of Albertsons' labels) are the second largest supermarket chain in North America after Kroger. I don't think they're going anywhere Last time I tried to count, there were 13 in Boise (wouldn't surprise me if I missed some). Of course, they were founded here haha.

[RoadWarrior56]

I just read this morning that Albertsons may purchase Whole Foods.

[Takumi]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

[roadman65]

I just read this morning that Albertsons may purchase Whole Foods.

Maybe they will lower their prices if they do. Whole Foods around here is known as "Whole Paycheck" because the organic food market has a high demand for natural food thanks to our obsession with junk food.

[thenetwork]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

There is the old Piggly Wiggly Building across the street from Coors Field in Denver, but the actual markets have been long gone from Colorado for decades.

[LM117]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

There's a Piggly Wiggly here in Danville on US-58 just east of US-29. There used to be another one here as well at the corner of Piney Forest Road (US-29 Business) and Nor-Dan Drive. That one closed in 2013 and was torn down in 2015. A Walmart Neighborhood Market was built in it's place and opened last August.

BTW, the current existing Piggly Wiggly on US-58 is one of the nastiest and worst smelling grocery stores I've ever set foot in. The inside reeked of a cat litterbox that hasn't ever been changed. The store manager being a total bitch was just the tip of the iceberg. I haven't been to that Piggly Wiggly since 2015 and I don't miss it a damn bit.

I don't know of any other Piggly Wiggly stores in Virginia.

[Big John]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

Still in Wisconsin.

[roadman65]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

There's a Piggly Wiggly here in Danville on US-58 just east of US-29. There used to be another one here as well at the corner of Piney Forest Road (US-29 Business) and Nor-Dan Drive. That one closed in 2013 and was torn down in 2015. A Walmart Neighborhood Market was built in it's place and opened last August.

BTW, the current existing Piggly Wiggly on US-58 is one of the nastiest and worst smelling grocery stores I've ever set foot in. The inside reeked of a cat litterbox that hasn't ever been changed. The store manager being a total bitch was just the tip of the iceberg. I haven't been to that Piggly Wiggly since 2015 and I don't miss it a damn bit.

I don't know of any other Piggly Wiggly stores in Virginia.

Don't hold back say what you mean.

[Tonytone]

Alright next in line...... BLOCK BUSTER.   

[Rothman]

Piggly Wiggly is hardly defunct.  Always see them on my trips through the South.

[TravelingBethelite]

Piggly Wiggly is hardly defunct.  Always see them on my trips through the South.

I agree...I saw a bunch in southern Tennessee when I went through about a year and a half ago. How much I see 'em down there almost reminds me of Dollar General.

[cjk374]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

Still around in the Carolinas.

Still in Wisconsin.

Plenty in Louisiana as well.

[roadman65]

Foodtown in NJ.

[bing101]

http://www.9news.com/mb/money/business/gander-mountain-liquidating-all-stores-closing-some/437618461

Update new chain being liquidated.

[briantroutman]

http://www.9news.com/mb/money/business/gander-mountain-liquidating-all-stores-closing-some/437618461

Update new chain being liquidated.

I guess it's hard to compete when your rivals (Bass Pro, Cabela's) make the mythic "welfare queen"  look like a rank amateur.

[Brandon]

http://www.9news.com/mb/money/business/gander-mountain-liquidating-all-stores-closing-some/437618461

Update new chain being liquidated.

I guess it's hard to compete when your rivals (Bass Pro, Cabela's) make the mythic "welfare queen"  look like a rank amateur.

It's also a strange case where one entity bought the chain and intends to maintain about 70 stores, and another bought the merchandise to liquidate PDQ.

[SP Cook]

- WV certainly fell hard for the "Cabella's is economic development" scam.   Two huge subsidized stores.  The amount of sporting goods sold is the same.    Especially weird is they built a store in Wheeling just a mile from Pennsylvania.  The Keystone State does not tax clothes, while WV is soon to be a whopping 8%.   Total failure.

- Piggly Wiggly recently returned to my area.  It is not really much of a "chain".  It is just a brand name you can pay to put on an independent store and little else, so every store is different.  The guy that owned the local Foodlands (same kind of deal) had a falling out with them and changed the name. 

[Brandon]

- WV certainly fell hard for the "Cabella's is economic development" scam.   Two huge subsidized stores.  The amount of sporting goods sold is the same.    Especially weird is they built a store in Wheeling just a mile from Pennsylvania.  The Keystone State does not tax clothes, while WV is soon to be a whopping 8%.   Total failure.

Not so much a failure as one might think.  Wheeling is the center of population there, and the store is in a larger development (with JCPenney and Target) that basically appears to have killed the further out Ohio Valley Mall.  There are still stores in Ohio, and other states, in spite of Pennsylvania's lack of a clothing sales tax.

[cl94]

- WV certainly fell hard for the "Cabella's is economic development" scam.   Two huge subsidized stores.  The amount of sporting goods sold is the same.    Especially weird is they built a store in Wheeling just a mile from Pennsylvania.  The Keystone State does not tax clothes, while WV is soon to be a whopping 8%.   Total failure.

Not so much a failure as one might think.  Wheeling is the center of population there, and the store is in a larger development (with JCPenney and Target) that basically appears to have killed the further out Ohio Valley Mall.  There are still stores in Ohio, and other states, in spite of Pennsylvania's lack of a clothing sales tax.

That and, with PA's rapidly rising gas tax, people from PA will use Cabela's as an excuse to get cheap gas, especially with the vehicles driven by the stereotypical Cabela's shopper. Saving 30 cents/gallon (using current GasBuddy prices) will more than offset sales tax.

[jeffandnicole]

http://www.9news.com/mb/money/business/gander-mountain-liquidating-all-stores-closing-some/437618461

Update new chain being liquidated.

I guess it’s hard to compete when your rivals (Bass Pro, Cabela’s) make the mythic “welfare queen” look like a rank amateur.

It's also a strange case where one entity bought the chain and intends to maintain about 70 stores, and another bought the merchandise to liquidate PDQ.

Gander Mountain's web store pissed me off when I bought an inflatable pool float from them.  I got it as a Christmas present, but had no reason to open it until pool season.  The float had 4 separate air compartments; 2 of them leaked.  Since I was beyond their 30 day return police (but within the 1 year warranty), I had to pay to return it.  I got another one.  By the time I finally got it and tried it, same thing - it wouldn't stay inflated.  Again, 30 day return period expired.  By then, I was paying more for the shipping than it cost just for the product itself.  I ate the loss.

I saw they were opening a lot more b&m stores throughout the country, but clearly they expended too fast without the benefit of a name people wanted to travel to.  Not terribly surprised they're shutting down.

[SP Cook]

Not so much a failure as one might think.  Wheeling is the center of population there, and the store is in a larger development (with JCPenney and Target) that basically appears to have killed the further out Ohio Valley Mall.

But that isn't what it was sold as.  It was sold as this "tourist attraction".  It is a store.  People that shop there are from there.  The shoppers are mostly people for whom that place is the closest such store, plus the occasional passer through off the interstate.  Which is what stores are.  They are stores.  Not tourist attractions. 

The state spent $60M for the so-called "TIF" to build the place, $35M of that directly to Cabela's, plus highway money to build an exit. 

Now is it a "successful local store" ?  Yeah.  If I could get the government to tax you to build me a brick-and-mortar store, probably I could muddle along as well.  But that is not the point.  The idea that people are visiting garden spots of the world like Wheeling or Charleston, WV to buy sporting goods just never happened.  That is what Cabela's is selling to governments all over the country.  The fill up the press with these fact free fluff pieces about some mope from Lower Dumptruck, Arkansas driving 5 hours to spend 3 days and several thousand bucks at sporting goods store.  It is just not real. 

It is not Disney World, or Casears Palace.  It is a store. 

[briantroutman]

With the closure of Gander Mountain, the news just keeps getting worse for my hometown's mall (Lycoming). Though not inside the mall, a Gander Mountain store occupies a prominent outparcel. Next door looms a huge empty showroom that a woodworking tool company (Grizzly) vacated in 2015.

Since 2015, the mall has lost or will lose Macy's, JCPenney, Gap, Aéropostale, PacSun, Christopher & Banks, Radio Shack, and probably a half dozen other stores I'm not remembering offhand. I've also heard–but can't confirm–that Lycoming's Sears store is slated for closure. (Regardless, Sears surely isn't long for this world.) By the end of this year, the percentage of vacant square footage will surely be in excess of 50%.

[ColossalBlocks]

Piggly Wiggly?  I know they have been gone in Central Florida since George HW. Bush was president.  How about elsewhere whey they marketed their food markets?

You know you're in redneck country when you see a Piggly Wiggly in town, that and a single entrance Walmart.