Blog Number Cinco

PG's Store & Deli is my retailer of choice. They are a convenience store and gas station, complete with a deli. The deli serves plate lunches along with hot dogs and hamburgers. The store is located on Highway 87 in Ridgeway, Virginia. The local address is 2540 Morehead Avenue. This store has an absolutely amazing location! This is probably why it has been in business longer than any convenience store in the area.
There are some serious advantages as far as location is concerned. First off, if driving on 87 from Eden, North Carolina towards Virginia PG's is the first gas station that you approach from the border. This is a huge competitive advantage from any convenience store in North Carolina, due to the fact that Virginia has much cheaper gas than NC. With Eden being approximately 7 miles from the store, many of the Edenites will travel to the store with cheap gas in mind. Not only for the cheap gas, but the Virginia Lottery tickets. The Mega Million lottery game in Virginia draws thousands of North Carolinians across the border for a chance to win big! The store is also located at a huge intersection within the Ridgeway community. Hundreds of cars pass through the intersection daily, making PG's one of the main stores to stop and pick up a drink and get some gas! The store is also located right beside an "under the table" gambling place. How convenient that people may be able to stop and gamble, and maybe take a little gamble at the Virginia Lottery as well?
There are some disadvantages to the location, however. If you do not travel Highway 87, you would not know of the location of this store. That seems to be a huge drawback to the location. Also, there is a large parking lot, but because the gas pumps are so close to the door, there always seems to be congestion around the entrance way. Also, the road has a speed limit of 55 mph, which could make stopping once seeing the store difficult as well as making it difficult for customers to merge into traffic. Due to the high speeds of 87, there is also little pedestrian traffic on the road itself.
All in all, I feel that the store has an amazing location. Being the first convenience store in Virginia has huge business advantages. In the next ten years, Virginia has also picked up an interstate project which will bring the interstate right by 87. The first exit off the interstate will be onto 87 and then right to the convenience store as well. It is projected to triple the property value. Location is definitely key for this little country store, and has huge profitability potential.

Recession, recession, recession. The word looms over the United States like a dark, rainy cloud. How is it that with the horrible economy that so many business are staying open? In the past year, thousands of businesses have closed their doors permanently, while others are revamping their sales strategies to improve profitability. The Sharper Image is one retailer that has been stomped out during this recession period.
In February of 2008, The Sharper Image, a high-tech gadget store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and publicly stated that they were to close half of the 186 retail stores. However, due to steadily decreasing sales and eventually the sale of the company to the Hilco/Gordon partnership, the remaining 86 stores will now be closing their doors as well. With over $50 million in inventory to liquidate, the losses will be huge. The new owners have opted to revamp the image of the brand and still sell via the internet, direct to retail and catalog.
Many of the company's problems originated in 2003 when Consumer Reports reported that the expensive Ionic Breeze Air Cleaners didn't clean air. They also reported that some of the models were releasing potentially unhealthy levels of ozone. There was a huge consumer backlash against the brand and sales began to steadily decline shortly thereafter. From 2004 to 2008 the company had only reported net losses. Fortunately, the company was bought last May for $49 million. They will continue their multichannel retailing efforts, just without the physical retail store.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9956802-7.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/sharper_image.html