by "Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
Published 05/22/2017 at 15:47
by "Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
Published 05/22/2017 at 15:47
No Tags
STARS: 2
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I ’ m torn between nostalgia and “ good riddance. ” But either way, stop blaming Amazon for your own failures. Macy ’ s will be next, along with Sears.
Good luck at the liquidation sales, Oppos!
· Auburn Mall, Auburn AL
· Tannehill Promenade, Bessemer, AL
· Gadsden Mall, Gadsden, AL
· Jasper Mall, Jasper, AL
· Military Plaza, Benton, AR
· Chickasaw Plaza, Blytheville, AR
· Riverview Mall, Bullhead City, AZ
· Downtown Bishop, Bishop, CA
· Sunwest Plaza, Lodi, CA
· The Village at Orange, Orange, CA
· Hilltop Mall, Richmond, CA
· Fort Morgan Main St., Fort Morgan, CO
· Glenwood Springs Mall, Glenwood Springs, CO
· St. Vrain Centre, Longmont, CO
· Broadway Plaza, Sterling, CO
· Connecticut Post Mall, Milford, CT
· Jacksonville Regional Shopping Center, Jacksonville, FL
· Palatka Mall, Palatka, FL
· Dublin Mall, Dublin, GA
· Macon Mall, Macon, GA
· Milledgeville Mall, Milledgeville, GA
· Gateway Plaza, Thomasville, GA
· Tifton Mall, Tifton, GA
· Downtown Decorah, Decorah, IA
· Crossroads Mall, Fort Dodge, IA
· Penn Central Mall, Oskaloosa, IA
· Quincy Place, Ottumwa, IA
· Snake River Plaza, Burley, ID
· Eastland Mall, Bloomington, IL
· Fulton Square Canton, IL
· Village Square Mall, Effingham, IL
· Freestanding, Macomb, IL
· Peru Mall, Peru, IL
· Northland Mall, Sterling, IL
· Centerpointe of Woodridge, Woodridge, IL
· FairOaks Mall, Columbus, IN
· Connersville Plaza, Connersville, IN
· Huntington Plaza, Huntington, IN
· Jasper Manor Center, Jasper, IN
· Logansport Mall, Logansport, IN
· Chanute Square, Chanute, KS
· Downtown Great Bend, Great Bend, KS
· Hutchinson Mall, Hutchinson, KS
· Freestanding, Lawrence, KS
· Winfield Plaza, Winfield, KS
· Cortana Mall, Baton Rouge, LA
· Park Terrace, DeRidder, LA
· North Shore Square, Slidell, LA
· Berkshire Mall, Lanesborough, MA
· Easton Marketplace, Easton, MD
· Rockland Plaza, Rockland, ME
· Lakeview Square Mall, Battle Creek, MI
· Delta Plaza, Escanaba, MI
· Westshore Mall, Holland, MI
· Copper Country Mall, Houghton, MI
· Birchwood Mall, Kingsford, MI
· Midland Mall, Midland, MI
· Cascade Crossings, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
· Central Lakes Crossing, Baxter, MN
· Five Lakes Centre, Fairmont, MN
· Faribo West Mall, Faribault, MN
· Irongate Plaza, Hibbing, MN
· Hutchinson Mall, Hutchinson, MN
· Red Wing Mall, Red Wing, MN
· Downtown Thief River Falls, Thief River Falls, MN
· Freestanding, Winona, MN
· Maryville Center, Maryville, MO
· Leigh Mall, Columbus, MS
· Southgate Plaza, Corinth, MS
· Greenville Mall, Greenville, MS
· Bonita Lakes Mall, Meridian, MS
· Oxford Mall, Oxford, MS
· Capital Hill Mall, Helena, MT
· Sidney Main Street, Sidney, MT
· Albemarle Crossing, Albemarle, NC
· Boone Mall, Boone, NC
· Eastridge Mall, Gastonia, NC
· Blue Ridge Mall, Hendersonville, NC
· Monroe Crossing, Monroe, NC
· Becker Village Mall, Roanoke Rapids, NC
· Prairie Hills Mall, Dickinson, ND
· Buffalo Mall, Jamestown, ND
· Downtown Wahpeton, Wahpeton, ND
· Fremont Mall, Fremont, NE
· Downtown McCook, McCook, NE
· Platte River Mall, North Platte, NE
· Rio Grande Plaza, Rio Grande, NJ
· The Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV
· Dunkirk
-
Fredonia Plaza, Dunkirk, NY
· Westfield Sunrise, Massapequa, NY
· Palisades Center, West Nyack, NY
· Findlay Village Mall, Findlay, OH
· New Towne Mall, New Philadelphia, OH
· Richmond Town Square, Richmond Heights, OH
· St. Mary
’
s Square, St. Mary
’
s, OH
· Altus Plaza, Altus, OK
· Ne
-
Mar Shopping Center, Claremore, OK
· Ponca Plaza, Ponca City, OK
· Pioneer Square Shopping Center, Stillwater, OK
· Astoria Downtown, Astoria, OR
· Grants Pass Shopping Center, Grants Pass, OR
· La Grande Downtown, La Grande, OR
· Downtown Pendleton, Pendleton, OR
· The Dalles Main Street, The Dalles, OR
· Columbia Mall, Bloomsburg, PA
· Clearfield Mall, Clearfield, PA
· King of Prussia Mall, King of Prussia, PA
· Philadelphia Mills, Philadelphia, PA
· Bradford Towne Centre, Towanda, PA
· Lycoming Mall, Pennsdale, PA
· Willow Grove Park, Willow Grove, PA
· Citadel Mall, Charleston, SC
· Town
‘
N Country, Easley, SC
· Palace Mall, Mitchell, SD
· Northridge Plaza, Pierre, SD
· Watertown Mall, Watertown, SD
· Yankton Mall, Yankton, SD
· Greeneville Commons, Greeneville, TN
· Knoxville Center, Knoxville, TN
· County Market Place, Union City, TN
· Athens Village Shopping Center, Athens, TX
· Borger Shopping Plaza, Borger, TX
· Heartland Mall, Early, TX
· El Paso Downtown, El Paso, TX
· Marshall Mall, Marshall, TX
· McAllen Downtown, McAllen, TX
· University Mall, Nacogdoches, TX
· King Plaza Shopping Center, Seguin, TX
· Bosque River Center, Stephenville, TX
· New River Valley Mall, Christiansburg, VA
· Tanglewood Mall, Roanoke, VA
· Pilchuck Landing, Snohomish, WA
· Pine Tree Mall, Marinette, WI
· Marshfield Mall, Marshfield, WI
· Richland Square Shopping Center, Richland Center, WI
· Rapids Mall, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
· Foxcroft Towne Center, Martinsburg, WV
· Downtown Sheridan, Sheridan, WY
"That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms" (thatbastardkurtis5)
05/22/2017 at 15:57, STARS: 0
Looks like my local store is safe. No surprise, it’s the only one in the state of Rhode Island.
"user314" (user314)
05/22/2017 at 16:00, STARS: 2
What are you talking about, things are going great at Sears...
"Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
05/22/2017 at 16:09, STARS: 2
Lots of people without jobs now, from that list. Lots of blight coming, too, with brick and mortar closures. Retail is tough, and with everyone searching for the absolute cheapest price online, it’s hard to compete.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
05/22/2017 at 16:11, STARS: 0
Where am I going to buy Dockers now?
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/22/2017 at 16:14, STARS: 0
I buy all my pants at Farm and Fleet.
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/22/2017 at 16:14, STARS: 2
I think Sears will cease to exist completely within the next decade.
"diplodicus" (diplodicus)
05/22/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 2
How in the fuck is my local JCP not on there.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
05/22/2017 at 16:19, STARS: 2
I’m actually a bit of a dead mall...enthusiast? Fan? Lover?
Anyway, it looks like dozens of malls are about to lose their anchors. Undoubtedly, give most of malls less than a decade before they’re shuttered. Losing an anchor is a killer.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 16:19, STARS: 3
, asked every American everywhere.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 16:20, STARS: 0
TJ Maxx, the same place everyone has been buying them for 20 years :D
"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
05/22/2017 at 16:20, STARS: 1
What do they sell?
"Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire" (arch-duke-maxyenko)
05/22/2017 at 16:28, STARS: 1
Well, Cincinnati is not on the list. Damnit, I just got a 20% off coupon too.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/22/2017 at 16:31, STARS: 2
Too many traditional retailers have ridiculously over-complicated processes that just irritate the crap out of customers. Since writing this post , I got married, and had registries at Bed Bath & Beyond and Macy’s.
We got a set of cookware from Bed Bath & Beyond, and a couple of the pans had defects in them, which we discovered after we had unpacked the whole 10-piece set and didn’t have the packaging any more (oops). When we contacted the store, they told us the only way to replace some of the items but not all of them was through the manufacturer since the store was only able to replace the whole set. So that was its own whole thing.
Somehow we ended up with 14 place settings of the dinnerware we registered for at Macy’s, even though we only registered for 8. The registry allowed people to keep buying it even though it was marked as all purchased. First we returned the extras, and there were assorted sets that had broken pieces in them, and I spent maybe an hour at the wedding registry counter going through returning the extras and crediting them as either broken and/or extra. Then a week or two later my wife decided she didn’t really like this stuff anyway and wanted to exchange it for something else. But when we went to exchange the remaining 8 sets, since we had only registered for 8 and somehow had been given 14, there was this whole other nonsense of doing the exchange because 6 of the 8 sets we had registered for were already marked as returned when we had gotten rid of the extras, so now they could only mark 2 more sets as returned to the registry, and we’re like, “well we didn’t buy these extra sets, what are we supposed to do?” That took over an hour to sort out.
Separate from the wedding registry stuff, I had ordered a pair of headphones online thru Target.com for store pickup because the website showed only 1 more pair of them available at the store, and they were the best price even online. I paid for it through Paypal rather than have to enter all my info into Target’s website. When I got to the store, even though I had the email saying the order was ready, they couldn’t find it in their system. After much back & forth and no progress, I went back to the headphone aisle and found 3 pairs of these headphones on the shelf, not the only 1 as indicated on the website, which was the only reason I did the online order since I was on my way to the store anyway. I went back up to the front to buy these, and they said since they couldn’t even find my online order, they couldn’t cancel it, but if I waited 3 days and didn’t pick it up, the store would call me (if they found it) and ask if I still wanted it, and if not, they would cancel it. So I waited the 3 days, and the person who called me figured out that the reason they couldn’t originally find it was because of some stupid quirk like my last name had populated over from Paypal with my middle initial then my last name. All of this could’ve been avoided if Target.com in-store pickup orders used any kind of order number but they don’t. It’s literally only your name. You get no order number at all.
People don’t like putting up with this shit.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 0
Sounds like my only trip to JCP in the past 10 years, which was just a couple days ago. My mom had ordered 10 window treatments for their new house. Being a good son, and since my dad was out of town, I took her to go run some errands for Mother ’ s Day. She was returning TWO out of the 10 (wisely, she knew some would be defective, so she ordered extras). Bear in mind this was like a $1,200 purchase, so we ’ re not talking about splitting hairs.
It was like something out of 1998 when stores had just learned to use the internet to sell stuff. I kept waiting for them to tell us that we
’
d have to return it via the website, but finally after 3 employees and a half hour of doing the same thing repeatedly, they were able to return her items. First world problems, I know, but that
’
s a serious inconvenience if you
’
re an average Joe on a lunch break, expecting this to be a simple return like Target or Best Buy. Since then, I
’
ve stopped complaining about the Walmart customer service line.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/22/2017 at 16:43, STARS: 1
You probably replied before you saw my edit to my reply that added a stupid experience at Target. Also one of my bad experiences in the post I linked was at Best Buy. ;)
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/22/2017 at 16:44, STARS: 1
I absolutely love JCPenny. Its one of my go-to stores. And, I can absolutely believe online sales are hurting them. They were traditionally a catalog business, and they moved a lot of it to their website, but Amazon attracts a lot of business with its one stop shopping presence. It’s like a virtual supermall.
JCP has a bunch good store brands, though, like Stafford and St. John’s Bay, and Arizona that can differentiate it. I may be able to get Dockers anywhere, but I can only get my Stafford dress shirts from JCP.
"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
05/22/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 1
I’m always surprised at how many department store chains still exist in the States. In Canada, it’s basically only two, Hudson’s Bay and Sears. When (not if) Sears goes under it’ll only be HBC. There’s also Nordstrom, but Nordstrom isn’t what I’d call a “mainstream department store” like Sears.
I think department stores in general are not long for this world, and it’s all due to stubbornness and a refusal to change with the times. Department stores could’ve lowered their prices in the face of competition from Walmart and other discount store chains, but they didn’t. They could’ve offered better online shopping in the face of competition from Amazon and other online retailers, but they didn’t. And now look where it’s gotten them. I haven’t ever been in a Sears or any other department store to actually buy anything in like 5 years, and every time I go in one there’s a permanent tinge of 2004 to every single location.
Good riddance.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 0
Target is a joke. I go there because it’s my nearest big box and more convenient than Walmart, but IMO they don’t even compete with Walmart. They’re like “Walmart Lite” if you don’t have anything you need to do to the house or the car, and don’t feel like saving 30% by going somewhere else. But I love their returns — extremely quick and easy, and our store is NEVER crowded. I have never liked Best Buy, but a lot of people do.
Wow, I sound like a curmudgeon, but I prefer to think of as being an Anti-Retail Hipster. I hated Best Buy WAY before it was cool to hate them :D
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 16:53, STARS: 1
I
’
m an old
-
school Stafford guy myself. I just think that every trend is working against them
—
even things like business casual dress codes in many workplaces. Honestly I think this is just a long
-
overdue rightsizing. You
’
ve got all these people now who think Amazon (etc) are just so amazing, but they
’
ve never actually had a good brick & mortar experience. There will be
“
online fatigue
”
and people will venture back into stores, but stores just can
’
t change direction very quickly because their physical presence, inventory, logistics make it hard to do that. I think we
’
re on the cusp of a
“
return to tradition
”
in retail and media. Millenials are going to realize that there
’
s actual value (and even an enjoyable experience) in brick and mortar, but the stores need to up their game a little more first. I grew up in malls, but once I got older and busier, I
’
m guilty of buying a lot online. But not clothes
—
I
’
m just too traditional.
"Gregicon" (gregicon)
05/22/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 3
If by decade you mean the next 18 months, then sure....
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/22/2017 at 16:57, STARS: 0
Clothes just have to be bought in person if you want to look good. The one exception is stuff you already know the fit for. I know my sise in certain shirts and slacks, and I can buy more of them online without having to try on. But thats not everything. I think you’re right. There will always be a need for physical stores.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/22/2017 at 17:00, STARS: 0
I mostly stopped going to Target over Walmart, because it’s the same shit but cheaper at Walmart. I had been a sorta-frequent Target shopper when there was one between my house and gym, so it was convenient to stop in on my way home from a workout. But when I switched gyms I basically stopped having any reason to go to that part of town. Walmart is closer to my house and on my way home from my current job.
There’s definitely a certain Target vs. Walmart snobbery around here. It basically comes down to Wisconsin white people once they make halfway decent money don’t want to go to Walmart where they have to share the store with poor people and minorities. I kid you not, at my last job, I casually mentioned I had been to Walmart and they were all shocked, like, “why would you set foot in Walmart when you could go to Target?” I said because Walmart’s cheaper and has better selection of car stuff. They fully acknowledged that Walmart was cheaper but they preferred to go to Target so they wouldn’t have to experience shopping at Walmart.
At this point the only reason I go to Best Buy is if I want to play with something before buying it, or if I want it right now, and no longer have to pay extra for that privilege since they price match online. But even with the Best Buy price match, there are plenty of online electronics stores that unlike Amazon still don’t charge sales tax. I generally don’t spend more than a couple hundred bucks at Best Buy, since for example $500 + 5.5% sales tax is $527.50.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 17:01, STARS: 1
My favorite metric is that women account for (or influence) 85% of retail. Women buy a lot more clothes than men, and are far less likely to be able to (or want to) wear something straight off a rack — there’s just too much variety in body types. Online will still dominate athletic wear, t-shirts, etc, but it can’t let you sample the fabric or truly assess the fit. It’s only a matter of time before people realize this. (Reminds me of an old coworker who always bragged about his $8 Amazon dress shirts. We’d all just say “Yeah, nice deal, looks good!” but it looked like burlap, had gaping buttons, and all these other things that you’d notice if you were in a store).
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
05/22/2017 at 17:02, STARS: 0
Ha! Yeah, I only have two reasons to even set foot in a Target anymore:
1. Closer to me and smaller than Wal-Mart, so more convenience.
2. Because they continue to give the middle finger to the concept of gender.
Other than that, they do appear to be slightly more expensive than Wal-Mart and only slightly cheaper than Jewel. If I had a Meijer in my town I’d laugh in the face of both Wal-Mart and Target and never return.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
05/22/2017 at 17:04, STARS: 0
Surprisingly Murdoch’s is getting a pretty good clothing selection too.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/22/2017 at 17:07, STARS: 0
The Walmart/Target thing is funny. I have family up in Minnesota where Target is considered sort of the “big regional success story” (no argument here) and they always saw Walmart as the weak imitation. But I can say that for most of the US — especially in the South (both urban, rural, and wealthy suburban) Walmart has never had any kind of stigma. It’s just there. People from all walks of life shop there, but some locations are MUCH nicer than others.
Target just entered our market about 12-13 years ago and there were already 6 Walmart Supercenters at the time, so it was an uphill battle. They couldn’t really differentiate themselves because the “nice Walmarts” were nicer than Target to begin with (poured, stained concrete floors, lots of skylights, newer floorplans, etc). It’s been tough for them in markets like this one. My nearest Walmart is inconvenient, but if I need a jug of 0w-20, a 50# kettlebell, and some wood stain, I can get it all there. Target carries exactly NONE of those three things.
"LongbowMkII" (longbowmkii)
05/22/2017 at 17:09, STARS: 1
There already is, but it’s local focused.
"TorqueToYield" (torquetoyield)
05/22/2017 at 17:15, STARS: 0
And almost entirely from mismanagement. Their CEO is a real private equity tool bag.
"TorqueToYield" (torquetoyield)
05/22/2017 at 17:20, STARS: 0
Part of the issue with retail-maggeden going on right now is these retailers ridiculously over expanded from late 90s to about now. Not every little town in America needs or can sustain the number of stores these guys built. Retailers are just figuring this out, it takes population density to make a certain number of stores viable.
Eventually we’ll go back to the model of every little tiny town having a mom and pop general store, maybe a mom and pop clothing shop, and that’s it. If you want major retail you’ll have to drive into the city. That’s what’s sustainable.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/22/2017 at 17:24, STARS: 0
A bunch of women’s stores do a brisk catalog business, and I don’t understand how because of just what you cite. Even if they offer free returns (which only a few high end outfits do), it’s still a pain to have to return something. My mom used to send my wife stuff from Coldwater Creek, but although it looked great on the model, it never fit her body type. Eventually she stopped. That’s one way in which stores like JCP and Sears shine. You can order something online knowing that if it doesn’t fit, at least it’s a free return, even though you still have to drive to the store to do it.
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/22/2017 at 17:38, STARS: 0
I wouldn’t be shocked, but I think they’ll cling to life longer than that.
"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
05/22/2017 at 17:41, STARS: 0
He may be, but Sears’ problems run WAAAAAY deeper than that. Their stores are comically out of date, even the recently remodeled ones. They’re systems are pathetically slow. I go to a Sears or a K-Mart about once every other year. It takes so freaking long to check out that I remember why I hadn’t been back for so long. Their website is a pathetic joke too. The company has flatly failed to keep up with times.
"arl" (arl1968)
05/22/2017 at 17:54, STARS: 0
Yep, Sears, Macy’s, and JC Penny. I’m surprised any of them are in business. I went to a Macy’s recently and the store was dirty, the clothes were all outdated, and the sales people looked they’d rather be in hell than working there. I’ve worked in retail before and I know it’s no great gig - but they really looked downtrodden. So it goes in retail in 21st century America.
"TorqueToYield" (torquetoyield)
05/22/2017 at 18:12, STARS: 0
I blame basically all of that on the CEO. The whole corporation is rotten top to bottom, he could fix it if he wanted, but he doesn’t. Seriously I can’t over exaggerate how bad he is just Google sears CEO.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
05/22/2017 at 19:17, STARS: 0
You would think, but now you can have a box delvered to your door every month put together by a “stylist”. If you don’t like something, just send it back with the prepaid return label. Or you can buy items yourself on Amazon and other websites, and return anything that doesn’t fit.
I think discount stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx stand a good chance of surviving, but everyone else better wake up and start selling on large online platforms. Selling on your own website isn’t going to cut it.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/22/2017 at 19:32, STARS: 0
Of course, my stylist, why didn’t I think of her?! ;)
You can always return stuff, but it usually costs and even if it doesn’t, it’s kind of a pain, and offsets the point of online purchases. I think there’s a place for both, especially catalog stores like JCP which have both. You can buy online but return locally if you like. You are right about being on large platforms though. There are companies that sell on their own site but also have an Amazon store, and that’s the way to go.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
05/22/2017 at 19:48, STARS: 0
Getting married has been my favorite part of having Italian ancestry. People just bring you cash and let you decide what to buy with it.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/22/2017 at 19:49, STARS: 0
We got a few grand worth of checks in addition to gifts. But some people want to buy something for you. We already had most of the stuff we wanted in terms of housewares but we figured we’d at least register for some stuff so we weren’t getting random crap we didn’t want.
"BKosher84" (bkosher84)
05/25/2017 at 10:43, STARS: 0
The JCP by me is currently in talks with the local government about keeping them open (they are on the above list to be closed).. The mall they are anchored to has lost Macy’s and Sears in the last two years.. The only anchor left is JCP so if they go that mall is going to be a ghost town if they leave. Sad.
"BKosher84" (bkosher84)
05/25/2017 at 10:46, STARS: 0
Target is way better than Walmart and you’re opinion is bad and you should feel bad. lol.