Local Retail Consolidations

[Brad]

Local News:

I'm seeing a fair amount of locally owned chains getting bought by regional chains.

Item: An 8 store, family owned for 90 years, chain of ACE Hardware's sold to a larger chain of ACE's out of Michigan.

Item: Small chain of family owned grocery stores (4 stores) sold to larger regional chain out of Illinois.

Item: 16 store local grocery chain, sold to Hy-Vee foods, out of Iowa.

I'm sure there are more but that's what I remember locally.

In addition, I see in my feeds, news of many much larger but still regional consolidations happening in different parts of the country. 

Maybe this is just normal churn or maybe this is a pattern, I'm not sure.  Is anyone else seeing similar small chain local consolidations in their area?

[rcjordan]

I suspect urban/rural has a lot to do with it. Low population density, distances, and often lower incomes aren't usually all that attractive to even small chains. The very rural areas I know have none that I can recall. My town is bigger & a regional rural commerce hub. Our few small chains died when the big dogs moved to town.

But I have noticed a consolidation or buy-out or "make him an offer he can't refuse" deals in the medical fields.  The assorted hospital chains are making private-practice docs become hospital-branded docs.

The other one is pharmacies, though their buyouts|demises may be due to a mix of factors.  CVS bought out our one 17-branch local pharm chain. And what few independent pharms we have left are struggling.

[Rupert]

Same with docs in the UK.  I would add Vets to it though.  And prices have nearly doubled.

[ergophobe]

>> urban/rural

Just back in from our 4100-mile peregrination, much of it around the rural SW. The first 2500 miles almost entirely off interstate highways. All told, probably 3000 miles on non-interstate.

It's staggering to go through town after town where every business is abandoned, including what were obviously gas stations once upon a time, to be replaced with a single gas station plus convenience store or, very often, nothing at all.

I looked out once at all the tiny houses (12x16 aka 4x5 in meters) and said to Theresa, "I guess what we call a 'tiny house' today used to just be called a house." And the businesses are the same. You can see that  it was a gas station and mechanic and didn't make the shift in time to gas station plus chips and soda.

Anyway, to your point...

>> aren't usually all that attractive to even small chains

And yet, where a business survived in these tiny places, it is likely to be a non-chain, with the exception of Dollar General, which is everywhere poor people are.

It's also interesting culturally. I think of rural areas as being really white, but a lot of rural gas stations seem to be owned by people of South Asian descent with still noticeable accents (so first-gen immigrants). Way way out, first gas station in many miles, we pull in and they sell gas, chips and soda, and excellent Punjabi food.

[rcjordan]

> Punjabi

Many US independent motels, convenience stores, & some apartment buildings were purchased by the Patel Syndicate dating back to the 1980s around here.  They then installed family? members to run them.

I happened to run across the same syndicate operating in Memphis in the late 80s.