urbanSTL

leeharveyawesome wrote:It pains me to report this but Fields is in big trouble. Culinaria is obviously a blessing for downtown but financially it is considered as mostly a showy "loss leader" for Schnucks. I wish Lucky's good luck and hope it succeeds.

I sincerely hope Field's can hold on because it is pretty great. Right now, if the city were to enact the 15/hr wage today Field's would probably close tomorrow. No chance.

downtown2007 wrote:I actually heard the opposite. Heard that Culinaria is their most profitable store.


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jsbru wrote:

downtown2007 wrote:I actually heard the opposite. Heard that Culinaria is their most profitable store.


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This would make sense to me. Most grocery items have insanely low profit margins on items like canned and packaged goods on the shelf. Profit margin is under 5% on a lot of them.

Where grocery stores really make their money is on their prepared foods, like deli, meat, etc.

Schnucks Cullinaria is a madhouse during lunch, and it's mostly DT workers getting salads and sandwiches from the deli. It wouldn't surprise me if it's their best store margin-wise.

matguy70 wrote:Downtown West and Washington Avenue foot traffic will swell in the next few months again. Right now (mid to end May) is one of the slowest retail and spending times in the fiscal year - schools coming out / kids graduating / many things going on personally.

I personally shop at Fields - love that store. Love the employees attitudes and find it busy or at least steady every time I am shopping there. Not sure if that info is correct or who/what the source is.

I have heard that Schnucks Culinaria is also a profitable store. In addition, they own the entire building and feed off of the parking lot profits. Schnucks has done an awesome job with their downtown store IMO. I love it.

Lucky's - bring it on. Encourages more downtown population growth. Great to see a national brand store (and trendy) looking at Downtown STL. Entices other national brands to have interest in downtown. Also will pump up traffic along the western portion of Washington Avenue and be a great "attraction store for many city residents outside of the downtown living districts. In addition City Museum visitors will benefit from the stores great location.

leeharveyawesome wrote: Actually it's quite the opposite. The prepared foods are highly labor intensive and not very profitable. And those 2-3 hours 5 days a week aren't enough to overcome the much lower sales volume of the non-labor intensive items.

There has been a handful of profitable months in the 7+ years or however long it's been there.

Just what I heard.

jstriebel wrote:I was getting my haircut at Studio 16, across the street from the English Living building where Lucky's is expected to go, and someone had just read that a 20-story parking garage is planned for the lot west of the building.

Anybody know anything about this? Can't find anything in my brief search, and I didn't ask for their source. It makes sense that Lucky's would want a garage, though 20 stories seems high. Maybe there's more than just parking—hopefully.