Suburban Malls and Associated Retail News

[Tcmetro]

Becker / former Herbergers at Northtown is becoming an Asian food hall.

https://m.startribune.com/blaine-asia-v ... 600363238/

[J. Mc]

Wal-Mart also closed the University Ave store not terribly long ago. I wonder how the Robbinsdale Hyvee is doing? Maybe that will be the next store to close. Their prices are higher than the nearby Cub.

I have it on good authority that Robbinsdale Hy-Vee is ailing, in part due to theft. There has been talk of them closing it. They've adjusted the hours to a 9 PM close, when every other location closes at 10 PM. Additionally, there has been a pull-back of advertising with Hy-Vee in the Twin Cities market, with their expansion plans being cancelled. It all starts to add up.

Terrible idea to tear down a sturdy architectural landmark for this albatross.

Not to say "I told ya so" to former Mayor Regan Murphy, but.... #ThanksReganMurphy

I think I've commented about this store before. They have a lot of costs and they're more expensive than the nearby Cubs. We use the pharmacy and buy cheap Chinese food here, but don't buy any groceries. We rather go to the Cub on 36th or W. Broadway or the Crystal Aldi.

They have good security and added gates to the entrances to the Robbinsdale Aldi.

I think between Cub, Walmart, and Target and the foothold Aldi has it's hard to get the volume needed for a grocer with a large footprint.

I've noticed that Aldi has adjusted. In Crystal they got rid of most of their cashiers and lowered their prices.

Cub, has goodwill in the Twin Cities. It's interesting that the Cub on W. Broadway is open until 10pm. Longer than this Aldis in the suburbs. The Cub in Crystal, which is very close to his Aldi is open until Midnight.

I've noticed ALDI so far seems to be strategic about their new self-checkout installations. Maplewood and IGH-Robert have them, but still all cashier at W. 7th and IGH-Cahill (first ALDI location opened in MN).

Two of the Cubs in Eagan are still 24hr. I was talking to a cashier at the Eagan North one while shopping after work at 1am and she said it all comes down to theft and customer flow. 46th/Hiawatha Cub was 24 hours until about ~6 months ago. Always a few folks shopping there whenever I would stop in at night. It is still open until midnight currently. I think the HarMar Cub is still 24hrs as well.

[COLSLAW5]

Just got back from europe and the most interesting thing I saw was almost every store with self check out, even Ikea, had one way gates to come into the store and then gates that required you to scan your receipt to get out. Also one of the store actually activated a random "spot check" where an employee came over and rescanned all of my items.

Both things seem like a decent low impact way to create a barrier to theft. Will be interesting to see how long until its implemented here.

Also almost every chain-ish style restaurant used self checkout kiosks like you see at Mcdonalds

[DanPatchToget]

Just got back from europe and the most interesting thing I saw was almost every store with self check out, even Ikea, had one way gates to come into the store and then gates that required you to scan your receipt to get out. Also one of the store actually activated a random "spot check" where an employee came over and rescanned all of my items.

Both things seem like a decent low impact way to create a barrier to theft. Will be interesting to see how long until its implemented here.

Also almost every chain-ish style restaurant used self checkout kiosks like you see at Mcdonalds

My only issue with those is if the store didn't have what I was looking for I didn't know if I could just walk out without buying anything or if I was stuck having to buy something. Probably could've just asked an employee, but this occurred in Germany and my knowledge of German is pretty limited.

[nBode]

In Milan some of the supermarkets with self-checkout gates have one of the manned registers designated as a "didn't buy anything" exit. I guess that way they can sort of keep an eye on people leaving without buying. Secondly it's pretty common for the stores to have a sort of security-guard type person at the entrance.