Unpopular Opinions - Retail Edition

[Max]

Note that this thread can include not only opinions about retail, but opinions about hotels and restaurants as well (because they basically follow a retail business model). Here are some of my unpopular opinions:

*I hate Macy's for re-branding some two-dozen regional nameplates over the past twenty-five years. Just about all of these stores were not on the verge of going out of business; the conversions were done just to save operating costs (and, in the process, took away a lot of regional identity, and--in many cases--led to vacant anchor spaces in a good number of shopping malls). That being said, I don't begrude anybody who shops there and find it very sad that there are still some people (such as the people at fieldsfanschicago.org) who are delusional enough to believe any of the defunct name plates (in their case, Marshall Field's) can come back. (I once posted on that site and advised them about not getting burned with false hope, but needless to say, my comments didn't go over very well.)

*Sears, Kmart, and A&P get such a bad wrap for everything. I have rarely had problems with my shopping experience in any of those stores.

*Bricks-and-mortar shopping is far superior to internet shopping.

*I miss Woolworth and other five-and-ten stores.

*What is so wonderful about Nordstrom? Yes, they excel at customer service, but it doesn't justify the rip-off prices they charge. Among upscale department stores, Lord & Taylor (which is less expensive) and even the Macy's-owned Bloomingdale's (which sells a much wider array of merchandise) are far superior.

*I also don't believe that Starbucks and The Apple Store are "all that."

*Malls today have way too many clothing, jewelry, and shoe stores. Twenty years ago, there was a lot more diversity (e.g., music stores, arcades, toy stores, pharmacies).

*I never cared for big-box electronics discounters like Best Buy or the defunct Circuit City. Because the atmosphere is so much nicer, I'd much prefer to shop for electronics at a department store. To the best of my knowledge, however, the only American department stores that still sell electronics are Boscov's (headquartered in Reading, PA) and Sears.

*There has never been a more beautiful retail prototype than the A&P Centennial, pictured below:

[Ryan Chamberlain]

I hate MAC for having a whole range of makeup that cannot be purchased by the general public over the internet. (MAC PRO)

I really want there damn chromalines.

On the topic of Starbucks not being all that. I mentioned that my mother makes way better iced coffees than they do. Their iced coffees are way too watery.

[frequentsoapfan]

Lol I used to live in Reading and have been the Boscovs headquarters hundreds of times. That store would have some great deals.

[Max]

*I have no idea on how Starbucks gets away with its highway robbery.

*Boscov's is my favorite department store (though unfortunately, the closest store to me is some 90 minutes away). I love how it has departments that sell electronics, large appliances, sporting goods, toys, furniture, and candy. It and Sears are the only traditional, full-line department stores left in the United States. (By the way, you can see the interior of the Camp Hill, PA Boscov's store in the movie "Mannequin." Boscov's was the "evil" store, Illustra. One of the few things I do not like about Boscov's is that their stores feature tons of tacky neon, and many of their locations still look like they are stuck in the 1980s; however, aside from the neon, I kind of like the dated look of their stores.)

*I miss a lot of those regional discount stores like Ames, Bradlees, and Caldor. However, unlike the department store nameplates that were merely converted to Macy's (or Dillard's or Belk), those regional discount stores I mentioned really did go out of business due to mismanagement and/or inability to compete with Wal-Mart (so I am not nearly as upset over their demise).

*I am not a fan of designer boutiques or designer merchandise. It always boggles my mind that those super-expensive stores are recession-proof.

*Roy Rogers (which is still in business, though no locations are close to me) is a far superior fast food chain than McDonald's, Burger King, or Wendy's.

[frequentsoapfan]

I remember Ames. Big Lots is where Ames used to be now. I remember the department store Strawbridges. I know Macy's replaced most of them though in Reading Bon Ton replaced it. That was back when Reading had money.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I know what you mean about Macy's. I still remember Lazarus from when I lived in Indiana as a kid .

[alphanguy74]

Max, we don't have Roy Rogers around here... never heard of them, acutally. Dairy Queen is my favorite! Sonic sucks, there's something wrong with their cooking oil, either they don't change it enough, or run it too hot... but anything fried there (which is 90 percent of the menu) has that slightly bitter scorched oil taste. And since I hate the SMELL of coffee even, i've never darkened the door of Starbuck's. I am shocked that someone will pay 5 bucks for a cup of coffee. I also don't undertsand the wine conniseur stores. Why do so many people drink wine all the time? I tried it a couple times and had to spit it out... it tasted like.. well... rotten grape juice. Doesn't anyone drink iced tea in a restaurant anymore? I also don't understand the appeal of Ben and Jerry's. I'm an ice cream FREAK... but with Hagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry's, the butterfat content is simply far too high... it makes for ice cream that is HEAVY and sickeningly rich, it loses all of the cool refreshing quality when you basically take a stick of butter and put sugar, vanilla, and flavorings in it. And if youv'e ever had homemade ice cream, it's much colder, and that is something that commercial ice creams have never been able to duplicate. Breyer's USED to be wonderful, until they scaled the boxes down and put gums into it, now it's worthless like every other ice cream out there. Blue Bell is the only one that is edible in today's market, and only certain flavors... and it's only available in like 6 states.

[wingwalker]

I know what your talking about in regards to regional department stores being bought out by larger ones. As a remember as a kid, The Lion Store which is now a Dillard's, Marshall Fields which is now Macy's, Montgomery Ward's which simply closed & now an empty building, and Hills which became Ames, then closed. My mom used to shop at Montgomery Ward's and Hills all the time. It was sad to see all those names go away, especially the latter two for my family. I do love Macy's although I miss the name Marshall Fields.

One unpopular opinion I have. Most of my friends love Target. Me, I never find anything in that store worth buying. My favorite store is Meijer, a Michigan based chain of supercenter stores (like a Wal-Mart SuperCenter, but ironically Meijer was first, just never expanded nation-wide caused it's a still a family owned private company). Meijer has much better produce and wider selection of groceries than any other supercenter or nation-wide chain IMO.

[~bl~]

If you drive the I95 corridor in the east coast, Roy Rogers is in some of the rest stops.

alphanguy74 so basically you are saying the old good ice cream is home made other than one brand that I've never heard of? Is there decent ice cream outside the us available?

[frequentsoapfan]

Target used to be good for children's clothes. I can't find anything good there past that but I remember alot of girls buying those plain white cotton/crochet dresses from Target and raving about them oh and pjs!

[Cheap21]

I love Target. Its one of my favorite retailers and I prefer it over Walmart

[frequentsoapfan]

I miss malls with all sorts of stores for music, books,etc

[xtr]

I am an ice cream freak too. I love ice cream with good flavor, texture and with more natural ingredients and less artifical ingredients. I don't care for Ben and Jerry's, it tastes "chalky" to me. Haagen daaz is alright,I do like that a lot of their ice cream has all natural ingredients in it. I think that Breyer's tastes too plain, and I don't care for Blue Bell. Though when I lived in Texas for a couple of years, it was very popular there. It originated in Texas and the people there love it. When I lived there, I remember a lot of the stores selling many different flavors of Blue Bell. Blue Bell made a whole lot of unique flavors.

Godiva used to make ice cream that was pretty good, but I think they have stopped making that ice cream. And there is an ice cream brand named Dreamery that I thought was pretty good, I think they still make ice cream, but I haven't had that brand in a while.

I like Coldstone and Baskin Robbins and there is a hamburger shop in the state of NC called "Andy's" and they make some pretty good homemade frozen custard. It's thicker than ice cream and has less overrun and it's pretty good. Plus it's really cheap. A lot of the time they sell select flavors half off and you can get a pint of custard for like $1.60.

I love ice cream, though a lot of it has a lot of fat in it, so people definitely have to be careful with how much they consume. That's why I also really like frozen yogurt and eat that in place of ice cream sometimes, because it has less fat in it. Some frozen yogurt products I like are Blue Bunny's all natural frozen yogurts, (like their chocolate and vanilla bean yogurt) which tastes similar to ice cream. I also really like Jamba Juice's all natural yogurt and sorbet bars which aren't many calories and don't have much fat in them. TCBY is now selling their frozen yogurt in stores, and it tastes good, pretty similar to ice cream, IMO. Though TCBY products do have some artifical ingredients in them.

Also, I don't care a whole lot for Starbucks either. I think that there are local/small business coffee shops, that make better coffee drinks than Starbucks do. And I no longer care for Duncan donuts, they haven't had good donuts in years, IMO. Their donuts are now too dry and they seem smaller than they used to be. I'm not a big fan of Krispy Kreme either.

I think that Wendy's is probably the best of the cheaper hamburger fast food chain restaurants. I don't eat a whole lot of fast food, but Wendy's food looks decent to me. Most of the fast food places food doesn't look that good, IMO.

Also I don't care for "Five Guys" food. IMO, It's too expensive for what it is and it doesn't taste that good. The burgers taste pretty bland, heck the fries taste kind of bland too, even the cajun style. They need to season the burgers better or something, lol. I know that Five Guys is pretty popular here on the east coast and some people probably consider it like the east coast version of "In&Out" burger (which I've never had). But I don't care for their food. If someone wants to pay $10.00 or more for a hamburger than I say go to Cracker Barrel or Fuddruckers who I both think have much better and bigger burgers than Five Guys.

I don't care for Ross Department Store, though I like Marshalls. Marshalls has cheaper shoes than Shoe Carnival does and Marshalls has good quality shoes IMO. I don't care for Belk's either, though I think that JC Penny's is okay.

I think that a lot of these department stores (even the nicer ones) have women clothes that are way too frumpy for women of any age or size. And clothes that are way too big for men. I like Marshalls but looking at the men's department at the one in my town, the only men's clothes they seem to have are the ones that fit really really and tall guys. The men's clothes are super big, an average size man, would have a hard time finding clothes that fit him.

[frequentsoapfan]

Just had Fuddruckers for the first time last year. Loved it. My area just got a five guys last year but I've never eaten there. I like Checkers though.

[dragonflies]

I also love Target, I get just about all my TV DVD's there, cause they have them for great prices, also bought two tv's from them, never had a problem with anything electronics(and dvd's whatnot) that I've bought.

I miss Baskin Robins, we used to have one here, but not for about a decade now