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St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has announced new plans to make convenience store owners more responsible for the crimes committed on or outside their property. Mayor Jones, St Louis' the first black female mayor, told leaders at the the Black Mayors' Coalition on Crime in Memphis that St Louis needs to combat violent crime and theft around convenience stores. 'We have a lot of violence around convenience stores and gas stations,' Mayor Jones said on Thursday.

Discount chain Dollar Tree has announced it will raise its price cap to $7 for some store items. During a recent fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO of Dollar Tree Rick Dreiling shared, “This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7.” Due to the ongoing inflation under the Biden administration, Dollar Tree was previously forced to raise their prices from $1 to $1.25 in 2021. The $7 price cap will be implemented in the fourth quarter, and at the beginning of June, a $5 price cap...

(WKBN) — Best Buy is looking to close some stores this year and work to offer a smaller experience for customers in some markets. The company is looking to close 10 to 15 stores, following the closing of 24 stores last year, CFO Matthew Bilunas said during a fourth-quarter earnings call with investors last month. He explained that Best Buy will “close existing traditional stores during our rigorous review of stores as their leases come up for renewal.” The company cited consumer spending habits, lowering of product innovation during the pandemic, and “supply challenge years,” among other things.

Dollar Tree can't keep up with Bidenflation, changing consumer habits, and competition from other discount retailers — and will close nearly 1,000 of its Family Dollar locations around the country. The company announced the move this week following disappointing quarterly results ... "struggling to deal with a shift in consumer spending to lower-margin essentials from higher-margin discretionary products ... Even discount items .. are now out of reach for many Americans who have shifted their buying habits to even "lower-margin essentials" like food and gas. The mainstream media keeps telling me the economy is booming, but Family Dollar can't cut...

Dollar Tree to close around 1,000 Family Dollar stores. initially announced late last year, the company will close 600 of its Family Dollar stores in the first half of 2024. An additional 370 Family Dollar stores and 30 Dollar Tree stores will close over the next several years once their leases expire, the company said in its fourth-quarter earnings report. https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/dollar-tree-to-close-nearly-1k-stores

Unemployment may be low, jobs plentiful, and consumer spending holding up. However, consumers are still struggling with the rising cost of credit card debt, housing, and automobiles—expenses that defy easy solutions. However, managing the cost of groceries and other essentials, the leading expense for half the respondents in a recent TD Bank survey, is just a click or short drive away. As consumers pull back on discretionary spending, major retailers in the grocery business are doubling down on the power of private-label brands to build traffic and loyalty. The boom is on. Amazon, which owns Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh,...

(1/31/24 story) On the heels of Safeway's decision to keep its Fillmore grocery store open until January 2025, one San Francisco supervisor wants to regulate grocery store closures in the city to ensure local communities are not blindsided. Why it matters: The proposal is an effort to ensure food security throughout the city and is a direct response to Safeway's announcement and subsequent reversal of its decision to close its Fillmore supermarket, the only full-service grocery store in the neighborhood, in March. What's happening: Supervisor Dean Preston plans to officially introduce an ordinance, dubbed the Neighborhood Grocery Protection Act, that...

Consumers should anticipate two major alterations to their shopping experience in the coming year, an expert has warned. A consumer specialist is forecasting a grim conclusion for two contentious supermarket policies that could reshape shoppers’ habits. Supermarket Guru, Phil Lempert has projected retail tendencies for a quarter of a century, and his recent predictions might come as good news to some shoppers. In a conversation with The U.S. Sun, the expert explained that security concerns and consumer preferences may be the main drivers of these changes. “From a security standpoint, what’s happened is the retailers with self-checkout have had to...

Over the course of a single week, 17 convenience stores were robbed at gunpoint in the Democrat-run city of San Diego, which sits in the Democrat-run state of California. “San Diego Police said that over the past six weeks, several armed ‘take-over style’ robberies have occurred around the county,” reports San Diego 7. “Police believe that at least 10 of those robberies are committed by the same group and say the same group may be responsible for other robberies.” hat group is a gang of five thugs who flood the store in ski masks brandishing guns. “Police describe the suspects...

A newly-opened boutique store in Seattle has suffered two 'crash-and-grab' burglaries within four days as the worrying trend spreads across the state. Rush Hour, which specializes in buying, selling, and trading sneakers, streetwear, and vintage items, was smashed into just before 5am on November 17 using a stolen Chevrolet Silverado. The thieves then ran inside to steal their merchandise but the owners of the store were optimistic this would not deter them and hoped to recoup some their losses on Black Friday. But they were again targeted by thieves on November 20 who used a stolen Kia Sedona to crash...

A popular grocery chain in New York State is closing several stores and laying off more than 500 employees. It's not a great sign, especially before the holidays, that so many retailers are shuttering locations in New York State. Rite Aid and CVS stores will be closing in New York by the end of this year or next year. Two TJ Maxx and Marshal's stores will be closing. Now this. Shop-Rite Supermarkets Inc., the parent company for Shop-Rite stores has filed with the New York State Department of Labor. The company said in its filing that 567 employees will be...

Target said Tuesday that it will close nine stores in major cities across the country, citing violence, theft and organized retail crime. The company will close one store in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, two locations in Seattle, three stores in the San Francisco-Oakland area and three more in Portland, Oregon. The discounter said it will shutter the stores for good on Oct. 21. “We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,” Target said in a news release. “We know that...

Pharmacy giant Rite Aid is negotiating terms of a bankruptcy plan that could see a significant number of its more than 2,100 drugstores permanently close, according to a report. People familiar with the company's talks with creditors told the Wall Street Journal that Rite Aid has proposed to close as many as 500 stores in bankruptcy, and either sell or let creditors take over its remaining operations. One group of bondholders wants to liquidate a larger number of stores, and there is an ongoing discussion on the number of stores to be closed, the Journal reported. Given the conversations remain...

A failure to address the basics in Chicago didn’t stop the mayor from proposing a new plan to put taxpayers on the hook for government grocery stores. Since Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) took the reins of the Windy City from his predecessor Lori Lightfoot in May, incidents of major crimes had increased across the board and locals were contending with the uptick in illegal aliens. With the addition of a massive budget shortfall, the mayor appeared to disregard sources of problems in Chicago to explore a new government program through a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago in neighborhoods that...

Dollar stores are one of the bright spots in America's ailing brick-and-mortar retail industry: These discount retailers will represent one-third of all new store openings in the U.S. this year. Their ubiquity, however, is prompting questions about their low-cost operations, impact on communities and worker safety. The stores, which sell items for $1 each or slightly higher, provide communities with much-needed discount products, ranging from household staples like groceries to Halloween decorations. But workers and labor advocates are increasingly warning that the cheap items come at a price for their communities. Some of these issues were raised after last month's...

Aldi plans to acquire approximately 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket locations across the southeastern U.S., the German-owned supermarket chain announced Wednesday. The decision comes as Aldi seeks to expand its presence in the south, and as part of a larger divestiture from Winn-Dixie parent company Southeastern Grocers, according to a news release. Southeastern Grocers also owns 28 stores and four pharmacies under the Hispanic grocery store brand Fresco y Más. The company said the stores will continue operating as usual under its new owner, Fresco Retail Group, LLC. Aldi has invested $2.5 billion in its southeastern expansion since the mid-90s,...

Buying a microwave dinner in San Francisco now requires a security clearance. Frozen food customers in the crime-plagued city have been forced to put their purchases on ice and find a clerk to unlock chained coolers, as retailers take drastic measures to keep shoplifters at bay. The doors in the frozen foods section at one local Walgreens are seen locked from the customers, who apparently need the staff’s assistance to access the products. “Workers said normally shoplifters clean out all the pizza and ice cream every night. They’re usually hit 20x a day. The whole store is virtually locked up,”...

A search is underway for the person who targeted multiple businesses in Northeast Washington, D.C., with explosive devices and a 'Molotov cocktail style object.' The attacks happened just minutes apart at Truist Bank, Nike store, and a Safeway grocery in 'The District' overnight, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Police are seeking the help of the public to help nab the suspect and the department is offering a reward of up to $20,000. .....

First, big box stores like Wal-Mart introduced self-service checkout stands. You know — the ones where we shoppers begrudgingly do the jobs of the stores for free while under intense electronic and in-person surveillance and all without so much as a discount or meaningful human interaction? Well, now — thanks to the Biden economy — the newest trend at restaurants and stores with self-service checkouts is to coerce and guilt consumers into adding unearned tips to their total.I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but I grew up in an era when tipping was in direct proportion to the quality...

Consumers already contending with a squeeze on their bank accounts due to inflation are now facing more pressure as businesses introduce new tipping features at self-checkout machines. Companies, including airports, bakeries, coffee shops and sports stadiums, have now introduced the self-serve tipping option, where customers can leave tips including the typical 20%, despite facing minimal to no interaction with any employee, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. Customers report feeling obligated to leave a tip as they question where and to whom the extra money is actually going, but businesses are increasingly embracing the option to...