Which national chain store will fade first?

[saltpoint]

RE the following national chains, which do you feel will be first to disappear from the commercial landscape?

And please say whether you will miss it or not.

Nine slots and a tenth for 'Other' should open the field.

Thanks in advance too DU Loungers and other passersby.

[Glenda]

1. Are these red or blue stores?

I've never heard of Tire Kingdom

[saltpoint]

13. Hi, Glenda. Most are in both red and blue states --

-- but not all are in all states.

Tire Kingdom just sells tires and a few related items for automobiles. The one where I grew up was pretty good, but other people say the service isn't that good.

[aQuArius]

2. Where's Wal-Mart?

I hope it falls, I hope it burns, I hope it has an Enron ending, or worse! :evilgrin:

[LiberalVoice]

8. But who do you think will be gone soon?

Walmart's not going anywhere. unfortunatly.

[aQuArius]

12. Alright, Sears it is then...

but its still the lesser evil *grumble, grumble*

[saltpoint]

14. I think you're right -- Wal-Mart might be around awhile --

-- which is sad.

I think Colonel Sanders might be first to go because they seem to keep shorter hours than other drive-around food places.

I don't see how they can compete with a 24/7 economy in the long run.

[tjwmason]

25. They recently moved into the British market

They bought one of our major supermarket chains (Asda), and are starting to import more and more of their ideas into it. I never liked Asda before, and am certainly not going to start shopping there now.

[AmandaRuth]

3. Curves

good riddance

[osaMABUSh]

5. what's Curves?

[AmandaRuth]

22. Its a female only fitness chain run by evangelical women,

which is why they are not open Sundays, They are on just about every corner here, (like Starbucks), except they seemed to spring up overnight. Truthfully, the fact they run a business so openly religious is fine with me, although I would never give money to a company that wants the government to regulate a womens reproductive choices, what will drive them out of business is the stupid fitness model they use. It is based on a workout that is 30 mins long, you go from station to station, according to preprogrammed music and buzzers. Give me the YMCA pool anytime.

[osaMABUSh]

4. Haven't even been to a Sears in years

[LiberallyInclined]

6. No Kroger's or Tire Kingdoms anywhere around here.

so i guess they'd get my vote.

[LiberalVoice]

7. Blockbuster

They're losin it.

[redsoxliberal]

20. yes... you're right... with all the new internet rentals, blockbuster will

be going soon.

[saltpoint]

24. Yes -- even before the fastfood places.

And I'll tell ya what -- I'll help them PACK.

[Longgrain]

9. Kroger?

Never heard of 'em.:shrug: They must be doing something wrong.

What is it? Sounds like an obscure 80s arcade game to me.

[saltpoint]

15. It's a grocery store chain.

And food distributor.

[Longgrain]

18. I guess they must not have made it up to my area yet.

For a minute there I was having flash backs of fifth grade, sneaking away to the arcade after school and spending my lunch money on a couple of quick games of Kroger. :freak:

(Incidentally, first time I've ever used that smiley):)

[Ediacara]

17. It's the #1 or #2 grocery chain in the US

They own a bunch of stores in the west under different names: QFC, Fred Meyer, Smith's, Ralph's, and Frye's, as well as Mini-Mart convenience stores, and probably quite a few others I can't think of.

They are trying to compete with WalMart head on and converting stores into "super" stores, but as far as I can tell with their management style they are run by a bunch of labotomized monkeys and will go bust in less than 5 years.

[Longgrain]

21. I didn't know?

Around here its either Stop and Shop or Hanafords.

[BOSSHOG]

10. I read an interesting article

about the merger of Sears and K-Mart. The reason for the merger (according to the article) was to consolidate real estate holdings that they will dump in about five years for an obscene profit and after that Sears and K-Mart will be no more.

[saltpoint]

16. Interesting. I probably should have suspected something,

but I was asleep at the switch.

I appreciate the nudge, Bosshog.

[progmom]

27. Damn it, that sucks

My father-in-law, a long time Sears employee, built a Sears franchise about 7 years ago. They're called dealer stores, kind of like the old Sears catalog stores. Anyway, he owns the building and runs the store, and Sears owns the inventory. (He makes a percentage of each sale).

He's going to get seriously screwed by this. He had hoped to sell the store this year and retire, but who the hell is going to want to own a Sears store?!?!


Fuck.

[johnnie]

11. Didn't K-mart buy Sears already?

[tjdee]

19. God, and they both suck.

Both stores are so awful.

I hate K-Mart.

[saltpoint]

23. : )

[spinbaby]

26. Sears has awful stores

Well, not totally awful--my husband likes them for tools--but pretty damn bad stores. Full of cheap crap like they're trying to compete with the discount stores. And even the stuff that isn't cheap crap looks cheap because they have that godawful lighting that makes all colors look garish.