Boy, I just recently, in the last 1-2 year started buying things at Amazon or the Internet and there's no comparison. I use to buy New Balance at Sports Authority for about $130-150 and now buy current NB models on line for about $50-70 and now buy 2 at a time. Same with anything you buy at a drug store. I really want to help the local stores but when you get 30-50% discount on line it's hard.
RIP Sports Authority
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Dicks will be next. Mega sized box stores wo a specialty will not last due to pricing pressure from the internet
Everytime I walk into a Home Depot or for that matter any department store or supermarket I look at the inventory and say WTF?Most of it will never sell but it was manufactured somewhere, China, and paid for . How the hell do they pay for salaries overhead and inventory at margins that are not always strong?We have too many people buying too many products that quite frankly we don't necessarily need but buy out-of impulse.
Kind of. Bamberger's stores were renamed Macy's. They were already under the same corporate umbrella.
Dave think I/we mentioned on here before but for running shoes on the Internet try RNJsports.com and Holabirdsports.com both out of Baltimore area. Lower prices andc oft free shipping on $75+. Have narrow or wide sizes the box stores don't. (i.e. I take a EE width for my Asics Gel Kayanos).
Sometimes the free market is a good thing and sometimes it's bad. During the late 70's we figured out that manufacturing cost in third world countries was dramatically less than the US. So we moved the entire garment industry to Indochina. Now, the Internet is rendering stores like Sports Authority unnecessary. What's next??
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Yes, there was a Great Eastern where the Costco in North Plainfield currently sits...there was also a Great Eastern where the Route 1 flea market in NB was (where the Loews theatre complex is now).
This is a very good question and something I ask often. From what I hear the appliances and craftsman products keep them going .
Giant Carpet -
Declared bankruptcy 1 day after my Mom bought and paid for 3 rooms of carpeting with the installation to follow a week later. She never got a dime from the bankruptcy court.
Bradlees -
Never understood why but no matter what location you went to, winter or summer, it was always 90 degrees in the store.
Declared bankruptcy 1 day after my Mom bought and paid for 3 rooms of carpeting with the installation to follow a week later. She never got a dime from the bankruptcy court.
Bradlees -
Never understood why but no matter what location you went to, winter or summer, it was always 90 degrees in the store.
Ah, Rickels...my first job, worked in the stock room. One of our tasks was to help load stuff into or onto cars. My favorites were the little old ladies who would give you $5 to put a table lamp in their back seat.
Another favorite was the cheapskate who didn't want to tip us, we helped wheel out a cart full of paneling but he wouldn't accept any help loading it or tying it down. We tried to tell him he should tie a rope over the paneling from front to back but he didn't listen, only wrapped from side to side. We all watched and had a good laugh as he drove off and one by one, the sheets lifted up and split in half.
Who remembers "Best", in the corner of mid-state mall. It actually had the same concept as Service Merchandise. Back in college in the early 80s, I was one of the part-time guys who took the order, ran through the warehouse, climbed up and down the ladders, and retrieved the merchandise. That job paid for my wife's engagement ring....lol
The Internet is and will eliminate more and more jobs. I just don't see us replacing all the jobs lost and this is greater than jobs moving overseas.
The poles of my retail upbringing were the Steinbach's store in Asbury Park and the Two Guys in Neptune City. There was not much you could not get in one of those two.
My mother had worked in Steinbach's and continued to go to their hair salon after I came along and she stopped working. We could wander around the store because Mom knew most of the people at the counters and they would let her know if we went off track. Not that there was much shenanigans, we knew if we behaved Mom would take us to the candy counter for a treat when she was done.
My mother had worked in Steinbach's and continued to go to their hair salon after I came along and she stopped working. We could wander around the store because Mom knew most of the people at the counters and they would let her know if we went off track. Not that there was much shenanigans, we knew if we behaved Mom would take us to the candy counter for a treat when she was done.
And that Steinbach's eventually became an Old Man Rafferty's, which did not last too long. It is now some sort of hipster bar, as if Asbury Park does not have enough of those already.
