Defunct restaurant chains and retailers

[cl94]

I don't understand why Mattress Firm bought out Sleepy's. Sleepy's already had stores on every corner in the northeast. With Mattress Firm, there are even MORE locations in this area. It's ridiculous. There are a couple places in the Albany area where, yes, there was a Mattress Firm a block away from a Sleepy's and both are now Mattress Firm.

Of course, the northeast has 2 other similar chains with high density (PC Richard and Son and Bob's Discount Furniture), so virtually every shopping plaza of any size has something of the sort.

[roadman65]

HH Gregg!  I noticed the other day the store in Kissimmee, FL closed.  Now I read on line that it went under and closed all of its stores in May of 2017.

HH Gregg was an appliance store FYI as it was not in the full US markets.

[Brandon]

HH Gregg!  I noticed the other day the store in Kissimmee, FL closed.  Now I read on line that it went under and closed all of its stores in May of 2017.

HH Gregg was an appliance store FYI as it was not in the full US markets.

There's a trope for that: Death by Rapid Expansion.

[roadman65]

I hope Wawa is not going to die as they have grown so much in FL. They are now in many cities and they just opened in Broward.  I heard to that Jacksonville could be next.

Anyway, from four stores in 2012 to so many I cannot count em.

[spooky]

I don't understand why Mattress Firm bought out Sleepy's. Sleepy's already had stores on every corner in the northeast. With Mattress Firm, there are even MORE locations in this area. It's ridiculous. There are a couple places in the Albany area where, yes, there was a Mattress Firm a block away from a Sleepy's and both are now Mattress Firm.

Of course, the northeast has 2 other similar chains with high density (PC Richard and Son and Bob's Discount Furniture), so virtually every shopping plaza of any size has something of the sort.

Sleepy's is also a much better name for a mattress store. What if I prefer a plush mattress? Or perhaps "firm" is a synonym for "company" - "we're your mattress firm!"

[corco]

I don't understand why Mattress Firm bought out Sleepy's. Sleepy's already had stores on every corner in the northeast. With Mattress Firm, there are even MORE locations in this area. It's ridiculous. There are a couple places in the Albany area where, yes, there was a Mattress Firm a block away from a Sleepy's and both are now Mattress Firm.

Of course, the northeast has 2 other similar chains with high density (PC Richard and Son and Bob's Discount Furniture), so virtually every shopping plaza of any size has something of the sort.

Mattress Firm is a money laundering operation. How many people do you know that have actually bought a mattress recently? And how many locations are there??

In Boise, we have one here:

https://goo.gl/maps/F11FsEtbAd42

And then they built one here, right across the street!
https://goo.gl/maps/Qr12iVyVdYu

Both are still in operation and have been for a couple years. There's no other explanation.

[roadman65]

One could still stay the same about K Mart.  Crippled as they are, they bought Sears and now their subsidiary is got more stores staying open then themselves.

I often wondered how a belly up enterprise got the cash to buy up one of America's largest retailers especially after Government intervening with the court ruling of liquidating.

[jp the roadgeek]

I don't understand why Mattress Firm bought out Sleepy's. Sleepy's already had stores on every corner in the northeast. With Mattress Firm, there are even MORE locations in this area. It's ridiculous. There are a couple places in the Albany area where, yes, there was a Mattress Firm a block away from a Sleepy's and both are now Mattress Firm.

Of course, the northeast has 2 other similar chains with high density (PC Richard and Son and Bob's Discount Furniture), so virtually every shopping plaza of any size has something of the sort.

We never had Mattress Firm in CT or in New England before the buyout, so it was just a matter of converting the Sleepy's stores.  We did have one situation in my town where a local outfit ran by two brothers sold the chain to Sleepy's when one of the brothers passed away.  The original name was kept for a while, but then rebranded as a Sleepy's.  There is another Mattress Firm location about 3/4 of a mile away that was Sleepy's at the time, so for a short while we had two Sleepy's.  Then, the surviving brother of the old store started a new mattress store, and opened a location in the store formerly occupied by his old business.

There aren't that many PC Richards in CT.  Most opened up in locations formerly occupied by Circuit City.  Bob's Discount Furniture is based in Manchester, and I can remember when they only had 2 or 3 locations in state only.  Now, I see they've spread as far west as Chicagoland and Milwaukee (I saw advertising in the penalty box at United Center during a Blackhawks game).  I have a Bob-o-Pedic memory foam mattress from Bob's, and I sleep well every night.

Side note about Bob's: I'll never forget one time when the neon sign for a store had a couple of letters go out, leaving the sign to say "Bob's Disco n  Furniture".  Made you think it was a combination dance club and furniture store. 

[US71]

One could still stay the same about K Mart.  Crippled as they are, they bought Sears and now their subsidiary is got more stores staying open then themselves.

I often wondered how a belly up enterprise got the cash to buy up one of America's largest retailers especially after Government intervening with the court ruling of liquidating.

There's probably a reason why Eddie Lampert is called "Fast Eddie"

[Rothman]

I was wondering if Mattress Firm could be money laundering, but it isn't like they would be taking in a lot of cash like car washes or laundromats.

Frankly, if it does work, I want to know how.  I want a piece of that action!

[jwolfer]

I hope Wawa is not going to die as they have grown so much in FL. They are now in many cities and they just opened in Broward.  I heard to that Jacksonville could be next.

Anyway, from four stores in 2012 to so many I cannot count em.

They opened their first Jacksonville stores 12/13/17.  They are really busy just like in Orlando.. I think the expansion into Florida was well planned.. they seem to be sticking to busy commuter corridors.

They are better than completion at food service

Z981

[thenetwork]

A FB friend of mine just said Tim Horton's donuts just closed all of their stores in the St. Louis area last week.  IIRC, that was about the furthest west they went.

They are planning to enter the Northern Ohio market (Cleveland/Akron) within the next several months.  So I think they are preferring to grow in their core area, around the lower Great Lakes.

[Rothman]

Wonder why Tim Horton's couldn't survive down there.

[jeffandnicole]

Seems a bit far removed from their core customer base. I would imagine it's expensive to have to ship product and travel to those stores from a company perspective.

[Flint1979]

Seems a bit far removed from their core customer base. I would imagine it's expensive to have to ship product and travel to those stores from a company perspective.

I think Culver's got to be that way too. Originally from Wisconsin and has most of it's locations in Wisconsin then expanded to other Great Lakes states and then to the western U.S. Seems like their locations out west are quite aways from their core locations.

[Flint1979]

There are seven Rite Aid's in my town, four Walgreens and no CVS. They just built two CVS stores within 25 miles of here. One in Midland and one in Bay City. Saginaw use to have CVS twice, the second time was when they bought out Arbor Drugs but were shuttered later. CVS even built two new stores before shuttering them.

Btw, each Walgreens location is within a half mile of a Rite Aid location. Three of the Walgreens are right directly across the street from a Rite Aid.

[jp the roadgeek]

We had a few Tim Horton's in Southern New England.  Many of them took over old Bess Eaton locations, one was even new construction that was paired with a Coldstone Creamery.  All have since closed (the two near me are now a Little Caesar's and a bank), and ironically, Bess Eaton has made a comeback in the South County, RI area.  They basically suffered the same fate as Krispy Kreme:  couldn't beat Dunkin on its home turf.

[ftballfan]

A FB friend of mine just said Tim Horton's donuts just closed all of their stores in the St. Louis area last week.  IIRC, that was about the furthest west they went.

They are planning to enter the Northern Ohio market (Cleveland/Akron) within the next several months.  So I think they are preferring to grow in their core area, around the lower Great Lakes.

Tim Hortons does very well in the lower Michigan area. I think there are areas where there are as many Tim Hortons as there are McDonalds. Dunkin and Krispy Kreme don't have much of a presence in the state.

[Flint1979]

A FB friend of mine just said Tim Horton's donuts just closed all of their stores in the St. Louis area last week.  IIRC, that was about the furthest west they went.

They are planning to enter the Northern Ohio market (Cleveland/Akron) within the next several months.  So I think they are preferring to grow in their core area, around the lower Great Lakes.

Tim Hortons does very well in the lower Michigan area. I think there are areas where there are as many Tim Hortons as there are McDonalds. Dunkin and Krispy Kreme don't have much of a presence in the state.

Tim Horton's seems to do very well in Saginaw too. There are four locations in Saginaw.

[briantroutman]

A FB friend of mine just said Tim Horton's donuts just closed all of their stores in the St. Louis area last week.  IIRC, that was about the furthest west they went.

Seems a bit far removed from their core customer base. I would imagine it's expensive to have to ship product and travel to those stores from a company perspective.

I'm not familiar with Tim Horton's distribution chain, but I know that some other bakery chains operate on a sort of hub and spoke system where a flagship store or production center (the hub) will supply either unbaked dough or finished product to several smaller stores (the spokes) within a metro area or region. Because of the economics of operating such a setup, the company may be forced to make an all-in/all-out decision on an area. Assumably, this is what just happened in St. Louis, and perhaps this is what occurred in southern New England as well.

They are planning to enter the Northern Ohio market (Cleveland/Akron) within the next several months.  So I think they are preferring to grow in their core area, around the lower Great Lakes.

On the other hand, that arrangement often means it makes more sense to thoroughly saturate a region that the company already occupies, and that seems to be what's happening here. In addition, increasing presence in a region can make marketing more straightforward so that advertising can be effectively targeted, geographically speaking.

Also, I believe that Tim Hortons sponsors hockey broadcasts and has other hockey related marketing tie-ins, so perhaps they're trying to focus on regions where that's more relevant. Along those lines, southern New England might be more fertile ground if not for the dominance of Dunkin' Donuts there.

I think Culver's got to be that way too. Originally from Wisconsin and has most of it's locations in Wisconsin then expanded to other Great Lakes states and then to the western U.S. Seems like their locations out west are quite aways from their core locations.

I haven't been to Culver's in about a year, but do you have evidence to suggest that the company is somehow in trouble or that the performance of its remote units is somehow suffering? During my brief time in Tampa, I appreciated Culver's relatively recent growth there, and I always found the stores to be just as well run and the products just as good as those I had enjoyed in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska–closer to the company's home.

When I discovered that Culver's had invaded Florida, my initial uneducated guess was that the Florida stores were started by someone from the upper Midwest who either had moved to or regularly wintered in Florida and said "Gee...wouldn't it be great if we had a Culver's here?"  And then in one of the Tampa Culver's stores, I noticed a framed news article announcing the opening of the first Tampa-area Culver's and my guess was right. It was a Wisconsinite who moved to Florida and decided to open his own franchise there.

Admittedly, though I enjoyed having Culver's in Florida, I also have to add it to the list of regional chains that have become a bit less special since they've grown to an almost national footprint.

[Flint1979]

A FB friend of mine just said Tim Horton's donuts just closed all of their stores in the St. Louis area last week.  IIRC, that was about the furthest west they went.

Seems a bit far removed from their core customer base. I would imagine it's expensive to have to ship product and travel to those stores from a company perspective.

I'm not familiar with Tim Horton's distribution chain, but I know that some other bakery chains operate on a sort of hub and spoke system where a flagship store or production center (the hub) will supply either unbaked dough or finished product to several smaller stores (the spokes) within a metro area or region. Because of the economics of operating such a setup, the company may be forced to make an all-in/all-out decision on an area. Assumably, this is what just happened in St. Louis, and perhaps this is what occurred in southern New England as well.

They are planning to enter the Northern Ohio market (Cleveland/Akron) within the next several months.  So I think they are preferring to grow in their core area, around the lower Great Lakes.

On the other hand, that arrangement often means it makes more sense to thoroughly saturate a region that the company already occupies, and that seems to be what's happening here. In addition, increasing presence in a region can make marketing more straightforward so that advertising can be effectively targeted, geographically speaking.

Also, I believe that Tim Hortons sponsors hockey broadcasts and has other hockey related marketing tie-ins, so perhaps they're trying to focus on regions where that's more relevant. Along those lines, southern New England might be more fertile ground if not for the dominance of Dunkin' Donuts there.

I think Culver's got to be that way too. Originally from Wisconsin and has most of it's locations in Wisconsin then expanded to other Great Lakes states and then to the western U.S. Seems like their locations out west are quite aways from their core locations.

I haven't been to Culver's in about a year, but do you have evidence to suggest that the company is somehow in trouble or that the performance of its remote units is somehow suffering? During my brief time in Tampa, I appreciated Culver's relatively recent growth there, and I always found the stores to be just as well run and the products just as good as those I had enjoyed in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska–closer to the company's home.

When I discovered that Culver's had invaded Florida, my initial uneducated guess was that the Florida stores were started by someone from the upper Midwest who either had moved to or regularly wintered in Florida and said "Gee...wouldn't it be great if we had a Culver's here?"  And then in one of the Tampa Culver's stores, I noticed a framed news article announcing the opening of the first Tampa-area Culver's and my guess was right. It was a Wisconsinite who moved to Florida and decided to open his own franchise there.

Admittedly, though I enjoyed having Culver's in Florida, I also have to add it to the list of regional chains that have become a bit less special since they've grown to an almost national footprint.

I would say that Culver's is doing okay I'm not sure totally though. I just think that expanding West when your headquarters is in Wisconsin and that was where most of your locations were before this expansion maybe a problem but I don't know.

SAMSUNG-SM-J727A

[ftballfan]

Florida is a special case due to all the transplanted people from other parts of the country

[SP Cook]

Tim Horton's, which just closed the outlet nearest me (but still has some others nearby) really mis-managed its US expansion, IMHO.  When it entered the US, the chain was owned by Columbus HQed Wendy's and seemed to just start expanding outward from there, which put in a lot of declining markets (like mine).

It would have seemed best to first expand to places just across the border, where people were familiar with the brand; along the highways frequented by Canadian heading south, and places (Florida, Myrtle Beach, Phoenix) with high Canadian retiree and vacationer counts.

[inkyatari]

Btw, each Walgreens location is within a half mile of a Rite Aid location. Three of the Walgreens are right directly across the street from a Rite Aid.

A few months ago Walgreens bought out like 1000+ Rite Aid locations.  As part of the deal, Walgreen's is going to close a bunch of stores.  I wish it meant more work for me, but the way things are going - which I am unable to disclose because of NDA's and all that - I'll be lucky to have a job by the end of August.

[Rothman]

Huh.  We still have Rite Aids amd Walgreen's kitty-corner to each other up here in upstate NY.