Roadside chains with at least one foot in the grave

[thenetwork]

Kmart as we all know, has been in trouble for decades and scaled back big after Sears bought them out.

I don't know how many times this must be said, KMART BOUGHT SEARS AND BECAME SEARS HOLDINGS!  Sears did not buy Kmart.

Yeah right!  Sears is bigger than Kmart and the old Kresky's was in Chapter 11 and could not buy anything with its financial state. 

I used to think the same but someone very knowledgeable I know in business got mad like you did and set me straight about that one.  Unless some miracle took place for a company in bankrupcy was able to get a hold of billions of dollars and then make a drastic buy, that could only fly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Holdings

Sears Holdings Corporation is an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It is the owner of retail store brands Sears and Kmart, and was founded after the latter purchased the former in 2005.

That means Kmart bought Sears.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56358-2004Nov17.html

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/

Kmart is buying Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11 billion in a deal that will marry two of the nation's oldest retailers that had trouble keeping up with the changes in American culture around them.

Why do you doubt the facts?

Judging by some of the recent news articles I have read, I will be curious as to which of the 2 brands will close their last remaining store first?  I hear more dire news of Sears than Kmart, but then again Sears has been along longer and is key to survival of many high-vacancy indoor malls, yet as one poster mentioned earlier, many of those smaller "storefront" Sears stores in the smaller towns that don't carry clothing or soft-end items are pretty much keeping the whole chain afloat...for now.

Considering that Kmart bought Sears, I would also think that the former will try to put the latter out first just to make Kmart look like the good guys by claiming that it was Sears who brought them to where they are today (which is far from the truth).

[Pete from Boston]

There is almost nothing that could leave Kmart with a good reputation.  Sears has a very small amount more goodwill left.

[DandyDan]

B&N wanted a slot in a local mall, as a bargaining chip with mall management, they insisted the lease for an existing book store in that mall not be renewed.

And it wasn't.

I'd like to think that was the start of that mall winding up with it's 35% occupancy rate today.

This sounds like Crossroads Mall in Omaha.  I remember that bookstore, but not the name of it.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

A large number of Pizza Huts closed in Minnesota when one of their largest franchisees in the state ran into issues and vacated the brand, but a number of the restaurants have now returned.

[roadman65]

Kmart as we all know, has been in trouble for decades and scaled back big after Sears bought them out.

I don't know how many times this must be said, KMART BOUGHT SEARS AND BECAME SEARS HOLDINGS!  Sears did not buy Kmart.

Yeah right!  Sears is bigger than Kmart and the old Kresky's was in Chapter 11 and could not buy anything with its financial state. 

I used to think the same but someone very knowledgeable I know in business got mad like you did and set me straight about that one.  Unless some miracle took place for a company in bankrupcy was able to get a hold of billions of dollars and then make a drastic buy, that could only fly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Holdings

Sears Holdings Corporation is an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It is the owner of retail store brands Sears and Kmart, and was founded after the latter purchased the former in 2005.

That means Kmart bought Sears.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56358-2004Nov17.html

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/

Kmart is buying Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11 billion in a deal that will marry two of the nation's oldest retailers that had trouble keeping up with the changes in American culture around them.

Why do you doubt the facts?

I doubt it is because Kmart is a small department store usually with one floor of selling space.  Most Sears are two story stores (in some malls they have three floors) and it does seem odd that a small department store (that filed for bankruptcy previously) can buy another chain bigger than they are.

Look, what difference does it make who owns who.  Like is my life (or yours) going to get any better by knowing who owns who.  Really, we have more problems to worry about like what we do after the next moron wins the 2016 presidential election, as IMHO opinion none of the candidates whether Rubio, Trump, Cruz, Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton are presidential material.   Our country is based on propaganda and no real candidate really does anything to address the real concerns of this nation.  Anyway, I do not want to bring that crap into this, but really who cares about whether Sears owns Kmart or if Kmart owns Sears.   I do not even shop at either retailer anyway, except for my car battery as DieHard brand prorate your batteries if they go before the time period on them, which is what I like not having to shell out over 100 bucks to replace a battery.

[Brandon]

Kmart as we all know, has been in trouble for decades and scaled back big after Sears bought them out.

I don't know how many times this must be said, KMART BOUGHT SEARS AND BECAME SEARS HOLDINGS!  Sears did not buy Kmart.

Yeah right!  Sears is bigger than Kmart and the old Kresky's was in Chapter 11 and could not buy anything with its financial state. 

I used to think the same but someone very knowledgeable I know in business got mad like you did and set me straight about that one.  Unless some miracle took place for a company in bankrupcy was able to get a hold of billions of dollars and then make a drastic buy, that could only fly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Holdings

Sears Holdings Corporation is an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It is the owner of retail store brands Sears and Kmart, and was founded after the latter purchased the former in 2005.

That means Kmart bought Sears.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56358-2004Nov17.html

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/

Kmart is buying Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11 billion in a deal that will marry two of the nation's oldest retailers that had trouble keeping up with the changes in American culture around them.

Why do you doubt the facts?

I doubt it is because Kmart is a small department store usually with one floor of selling space.  Most Sears are two story stores (in some malls they have three floors) and it does seem odd that a small department store (that filed for bankruptcy previously) can buy another chain bigger than they are.

Smaller companies buy bigger ones all the time.  Anyway, the CEO of Sears was Alan Lacy.  The CEO of Kmart was Eddie Lampert.  The CEo of Sears Holdings is Eddie Lampert.  Alan Lacy is no longer with the company.  Usually the CEO of the purchasing company becomes the CEO of the new, combined company.

[Jardine]

B&N wanted a slot in a local mall, as a bargaining chip with mall management, they insisted the lease for an existing book store in that mall not be renewed.

And it wasn't.

I'd like to think that was the start of that mall winding up with it's 35% occupancy rate today.

This sounds like Crossroads Mall in Omaha.  I remember that bookstore, but not the name of it.

Yeah, I can't remember the name of that book store either, but it had been in that mall for a very long time.  And it was the Crossroads.  When I was a kid that mall was the place to go.  It was always busy.  We usually had lunch on the upper floor of Brandeis in their buffet/cafeteria.

I remember the kiddie rides in the center of the mall, seems like they rotated several kiosks thru the years too, I went to the handwriting analysis one.

Nobody really noticed how the teenagers were 'taking over' that mall until they started shooting at each other . . .

[roadman65]

Waldens was all over the malls, but according to wiki they were part of the Borders Family, so the reason is obvious.

[noelbotevera]

Pizza Hut just closed one of their more visible outlets here in the Appleton, WI area (College Ave/WI 125 just east of I-41).

Mike

Strange. the Pizza Hut here upgraded a couple years ago.

[Pete from Boston]

Waldens was all over the malls, but according to wiki they were part of the Borders Family, so the reason is obvious.

In the 1990s, Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were the mall outlets of Borders and Barnes & Noble, respectively.  At that time those chains were exploding into ever-larger big-box formats, and rarely fit into existing malls.  As these companies decimated retail bookselling, and Amazon did the same to them in turn, I'm sure these small outlets became unprofitable.

It's hard to imagine now that bookstores were rarely any bigger than Walden/B.Dalton before the 1990s.  Those were large bookstores in their heyday.

[Big John]

Pizza Hut just closed one of their more visible outlets here in the Appleton, WI area (College Ave/WI 125 just east of I-41).

Mike

Strange. the Pizza Hut here upgraded a couple years ago.

Here too last year.

[rawmustard]

Pizza Hut just closed one of their more visible outlets here in the Appleton, WI area (College Ave/WI 125 just east of I-41).

Mike

Strange. the Pizza Hut here upgraded a couple years ago.

You're talking about two locations of a chain in highly disparate markets. The economic conditions which allowed your Pizza Hut to have an upgrade may not have existed in the Appleton area Mike mentions.

[Brandon]

Pizza Hut just closed one of their more visible outlets here in the Appleton, WI area (College Ave/WI 125 just east of I-41).

Mike

Strange. the Pizza Hut here upgraded a couple years ago.

You're talking about two locations of a chain in highly disparate markets. The economic conditions which allowed your Pizza Hut to have an upgrade may not have existed in the Appleton area Mike mentions.

And given that they're franchised locations, it's the franchisee that may have given up in Appleton, while a completely different franchisee revamped theirs in Chambersburg.

[ixnay]

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.

Domino's officially changed their name from Domino's Pizza to just Domino's recently.  The reasoning for such was due to their expanded product line (i.e. not just pizzas).  Such a name change was not unlike when Boston Chicken (remember that name?) changed to Boston Market during the 90s... expansion/promotion of its non-chicken products.

I used to think of the Boston Red Sox as the "Boston Chickens" because of their then-ongoing futility in fighting the Bambino Curse.  But Boston Chicken's name change made that pun obsolete.

Boston Market still has five locations in the above the C&D Canal portion of Delaware.

ixnay

[Pete from Boston]

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.

Domino's officially changed their name from Domino's Pizza to just Domino's recently.  The reasoning for such was due to their expanded product line (i.e. not just pizzas).  Such a name change was not unlike when Boston Chicken (remember that name?) changed to Boston Market during the 90s... expansion/promotion of its non-chicken products.

I used to think of the Boston Red Sox as the "Boston Chickens" because of their then-ongoing futility in fighting the Bambino Curse.  But Boston Chicken's name change made that pun obsolete.

Boston Market still has five locations in the above the C&D Canal portion of Delaware.

ixnay

The timing was off by decades for the full potential of that joke, because in the old days across Comm Ave from your "Boston Chickens" were the Boston Braves!

Wasn't product diversification one of the reasons purported for the change of branding from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC?  I feel like this happens to a lot of companies even though I can't immediately think of other examples.

[cl94]

Personally, while not exactly "roadside" I see Domino's as dying.

Domino's officially changed their name from Domino's Pizza to just Domino's recently.  The reasoning for such was due to their expanded product line (i.e. not just pizzas).  Such a name change was not unlike when Boston Chicken (remember that name?) changed to Boston Market during the 90s... expansion/promotion of its non-chicken products.

I used to think of the Boston Red Sox as the "Boston Chickens" because of their then-ongoing futility in fighting the Bambino Curse.  But Boston Chicken's name change made that pun obsolete.

Boston Market still has five locations in the above the C&D Canal portion of Delaware.

ixnay

Nowadays, the most relevant Boston Market joke concerns Kellen Winslow Jr. and his 2013 arrest while looking for one (story, although reported widely by major news outlets, is kinda NSFW)

[paulthemapguy]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

[Pete from Boston]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

The only one I've been to was in southern Indiana.  Schlocky's, if you ask me.

[Rothman]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

The novelty wore off?  I used to like Schlotzky's...until I went to a real deli.

[GCrites]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

That's a good question. I was living in Appalachia in the mid-2000s. Then I moved to Columbus, OH for a little while, which did have Scholtzsky's. After that I was in Cincinnati from 2006 to 2009. No Scholtzsky's there. Then it was back to Columbus and there weren't any Scholtzsky's here anymore.

[Pete from Boston]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

The novelty wore off?  I used to like Schlotzky's...until I went to a real deli.

Exactly.

[mgk920]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

Their west Appleton, WI outlet is still operating.

Mike

[rawmustard]

Does anybody know what happened to all the Schlotzsky's restaurants in the Great Lakes region?  All the ones in Illinois closed down some 5-10 years ago.  Last time I found one was Omaha, NE and Greenville, TX.  I think they might still be operating in Wisconsin?

We still have Schlotzsky's in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, although it isn't a place that I tend to frequent.

[renegade]

And I believe there's still one in Maumee, Ohio.

[Scott5114]

Not exactly in financial trouble, but Braums is only in a circular market of 300 miles around OKC.  They told me they will not go outside that ring because they want all their products to be fresh in all their stores as their dairy is in a suburb of Oklahoma City.  So all of you who live in Oklahoma, Southern Kansas, Western Arkansas, and Northern Texas you are lucky as they have one of the best hamburgers and ice cream around.  In fact one couple I know in Wichita, buys their milk from them as their milk seems to hold out the best for taste and freshness.

I do the same. Can't stand grocery store milk knowing that Braum's is right there. I pop in to Braum's to buy milk often enough that they know me there (although that's mostly because I usually pay for my milk with a pair of $2 bills). Half the time I'll pick up dinner there too since I'm buying milk there already.

Their dairy is located in Tuttle, which isn't exactly an OKC suburb. It's an exurb if anything. Rural town, might function as a bedroom community to OKC for a lot of people, but it's more rural than suburban. We got to tour the dairy as a field trip once. It was pretty interesting.

Definitely not in financial trouble. The one closest to my house, which is also the closest one to OU, is always fairly busy, not least because they had a student-oriented apartment complex built up around them. Lucky kids get to go downstairs and have a mini grocery store right there.