The Central Scrutinizer wrote:jlblues wrote:Because Schnuck's does not understand the urban market in general very well, so it stands to reason that they won't grasp the complexities of the downtown market. Schnuck's seems to view it's city stores as more of a necessity for PR reasons, rather than potentially profitable enterprises.
They don't? Do you? Unless you are in the grocery business, I suspect they know a bit more than you on how to run a grocery store.
Why? Do they know how to run a grocery store? Sure. But does that translate to knowing how to run an urban grocery store? They are apples and oranges.
Here is another analogy for you: There are three very wealthy, highly-successful suburban strip mall developers in this town. At least two of those developers will admit privately that they know
nothing about developing urban retail, or anything else inside the city limits for that matter, and have absolutely no desire to tackle such a project unless someone is willing to mitigate most of the perceived risk, i.e. give them the moon.
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:jlblues wrote:Because I've been in their stores on South Grand and Lindell.
I have too. Did you ever consider that neighborhoods get the grocery store they deserve? Especially South Grand.
So, by your logic, if a lot of homeless start hanging out in and around the downtown Schnuck's and in the attached garage, and the store is poorly managed and maintained, then the downtown neighborhood will have gotten the store it deserves?
Did
you ever consider that
management that does not respond to failures at their store gets exactly what
it deserves?
There are a lot of middle class people in Compton Heights, Fox Park, TGE and TGS for which South Grand is the closest store. I'm sure many of them would shop there if it were cleaned up, instead of going elsewhere, like say, I dunno, Brentwood/Richmond Heights?
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:jlblues wrote:Because the vast majority of city residents that I know are still making regular trips out to Dierberg's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Sure they still shop at the city Schnuck's for many of their staples and when they need to pick up just a few things, but they generally go to those other places for the higher-margin prepared foods, gourmet items, wine, fresh meat and produce, etc., and I'm sure they end up spending quite a bit on staples there as well.
As long as we're making sweeping generalizations, the vast majority of city residents that I know shop at the Schnuck's on The Hill or the one at Loughborough Commons.
Apparently you missed the section of my post in bold above, because what I posted cannot be classified as a "sweeping generalization" unless you had had identical conversations with the exact same hundreds of middle to upper middle class city residents, over a few years, that I did. You would have to be some sort of weird amalgam of several of my girlfriends and friends for that to be true, and I'm fairly certain that you are not.
I suppose that the several market studies done for retail in mid-east St. Louis County communities, all of which support my anecdotal evidence, mean nothing to you either?
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:To suggest that Schnuck's doesn't know what they are doing, is to be out of touch with reality. The Schnuck's boys are very, very wealthy. I would love to be that incompetent.
That figures. You seem to think all wealthy people are geniuses. If you do, apparently you've never read an HBS case? And if all wealthy people were geniuses, there would be no need for consultants, or bankruptcy court for that matter.
So what does the fact that "the Schnuck's boys are very, very wealthy" have to do with
anything? They inherited their "empire", so I guess they were geniuses in picking their parents?
In any case, we'll see whether or not the "Schnuck's boys" know what they are doing when Wal-Mart, Kroger, and SuperValu come to eat their lunch.
(note twisted evil icon)
