February 21, 20169 yr ^It's a little odd that the new Walgreen's has four walls and roof but absolutely nothing is going on with Kroger. No foundation work or anything.
February 21, 20169 yr ^It's a little odd that the new Walgreen's has four walls and roof but absolutely nothing is going on with Kroger. No foundation work or anything. Yeah I have been surprised about this, too. With as mild of a winter as we've had they could have had foundations in by now. There must be something holding up construction. The closure was supposed to be 12-14 months, and started September 12, 2015. I seriously doubt they'll be able to be open by November 12 unless they start soon and have already bid out long lead items like structural steel.
February 22, 20169 yr Yeah I have been surprised about this, too. With as mild of a winter as we've had they could have had foundations in by now. There must be something holding up construction. The closure was supposed to be 12-14 months, and started September 12, 2015. I seriously doubt they'll be able to be open by November 12 unless they start soon and have already bid out long lead items like structural steel. maybe they've seen the light and are going back to the drawing / design board.
February 22, 20169 yr Maybe they decided it's an urban area and the need to rethink the design. For example they just released this for their new ATL store:
February 22, 20169 yr Imagine the views from the top if that was built in the Corryville location. From West Chester all the way south to Ft Thomas and beyond.
February 22, 20169 yr Maybe they decided it's an urban area and the need to rethink the design. For example they just released this for their new ATL store: I'm not sure people realize Kroger has nothing to do with that development, other than they signed a contract to operate a store. It looks like a standard big box Kroger with a building on top of it, so nothing special on Kroger's behalf. If the developer of the Corryville location wanted to build an office/condo tower there, they could choose to do so. As long as Kroger has the footprint and square footage they want, then they'd be on board with anything since it would only increase foot traffic to the store.
February 23, 20169 yr The developer in Corryville is Anchor Properties, who does nothing but create sh*tty big box Krogers.
February 23, 20169 yr I have heard that Anchor owns the land under every Walgreen's in town, but I'm not sure if that's true. I was in their office once about 8-9 years ago and they did a very nice restoration of the suspension bridge's toll house. It is not as if developers don't know what they are doing with big box development -- I'd say hate the game, not the player. I'm not any kind of expert on commercial lending, but it's pretty obvious that lending for straightforward projects like shopping centers is much, much simpler and faster than financing for mixed use projects or redevelopment of old buildings. A lot of banks simply do not touch certain kinds of loans, be it a $100 million mixed-use project or a $100k FHA rehab loan. A few months ago Cheviot Savings Bank put their banner on a rehab project in Over-the-Rhine, and so signaled to everyone in the area that they have experienced staff and will work to do rehab loans in OTR. Good luck getting an out-of-town mega-bank like Bank of America or Wells-Fargo to do that, let alone 5/3.
February 23, 20169 yr But the retail component of mixed-use is precisely why it's hard to get financing for them. When a tenant such as Kroger is already signed on it's easy, but when mixed use is proposed they usually don't already have it filled. Banks have been burnt too often by guys building 4-unit strip malls where the tenants have to come up with all their foot traffic on their own. Often only the cell phone store makes it.
February 23, 20169 yr ^^Well said, jmecklenborg. Does anyone remember the last gigantic and ambitious mixed use project in this region, Kenwood Towne Place?
February 23, 20169 yr Interesting you should mention that...I have thought about trying to get one of those really cheap storefront strips. Something like this...at this price you only need to rent out one storefront to break even: https://www.sibcycline.com/Listing/CIN/1460522/5316-Carthage-Ave-Norwood-OH-45212 Neighborhoods aren't interesting places to live and visit if they don't have cheap commercial spaces for local independent businesses. Part of the reason Clifton was interesting was because the Short Vine storefronts rented so cheap because there was hardly any traditional traffic. So there were all kinds of counter-cultural stores up there through the early 2000s. There was also a bit more up on McMillan and Calhoun. But the kids want The Mall so UC gave them The Mall. There's no way some place like Duttenhoffer's books would move into U Square or UPA. And unfortunately about a dozen of the oddball commercial spaces have been commandeered by Hookah bars and smoke shops.
February 23, 20169 yr ^^Well said, jmecklenborg. Does anyone remember the last gigantic and ambitious mixed use project in this region, Kenwood Towne Place? One of the "simply money" guys who does the nightly personal finance show on 550am got burned for $2 million co-signing on one of the phases of that financing. What a fool!
April 19, 20169 yr The new Walgreen's is nearing completion and work has finally begun on the Kroger. You can act like you took a wrong turn and buzz past the Walgreen's pharmacy trailer...it's a comical scene. Both times I've been past there the pharmacists (or "techs" or whatever they're called ) are hanging out on the front stoop smoking with a security guard all the time. Looks like the trailer isn't getting much business! And I guess the guard is necessary to keep someone from backing in a flatbed truck and making off with that trailer full of drugs.
February 23, 20178 yr Some info on the new Kroger, opening March 9: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2017/02/23/new-corryville-store-isnt-your-mothers-kroger/97750272/ Kroger is taking shopping to the next level in its newly-expanded Corryville location. The $25 million store is the first multi-floor format in the region as the grocer continues to tinker with new urban-centric designs. Opening March 9, the new store offers shopping staples on the ground floor, while an upper level will feature a beer growler station and a bar serving both wine and beer.
February 23, 20178 yr The store is so urban its suburban! “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
February 23, 20178 yr Kroger has done better. Why couldn't Kroger emulate their Lexington, Ky. store with the parking garage on the roof?
February 23, 20178 yr As the largest grocer in the world, I kind of feel like Kroger has the responsibility to make sure that people have access to healthy affordable food, and I think that they're are failing at that tremendously. We're well beyond an era where most people are able to produce their own food. And we're also well beyond the era where the average person has bargaining ability, or that there are many that could challenge Kroger, especially here. Unfortunately most of us are at the mercy of our local grocers, and Kroger's lack of urban stores is really pathetic.
February 23, 20178 yr The real profit is in making people throw out food because they bought too much. Suburbanites and rural dwellers do this very often. Rural dwellers freeze everything and have garage fridges. Even so, they still end up wasting food as it gets freezer burnt.
February 23, 20178 yr It's also more efficient for Kroger if people come in once a week and load up their grocery cart to the brim and check out once. It's less efficient for Kroger if the same person ends up coming into the store three times each week and only buys 1 bag of groceries each time, which is what happens more often in urban stores. On the other hand, now that they are adding a bar area, they will make money off of selling beer and wine at bar prices, and also cause people to pick up a few grocery items on their way out the door. My girlfriend and I will sometimes stop and get something to eat at the Whole Foods in Rookwood; not only are they making a good profit on the food, but we'll often pick up a thing or two to buy as we're leaving.
February 23, 20178 yr Oh, I feel like they want you in there as much as possible to increase impulse buys. With the popularity of U-Scan, transaction costs aren't as nasty as they used to be.
February 23, 20178 yr The real profit is in making people throw out food because they bought too much. Suburbanites and rural dwellers do this very often. Rural dwellers freeze everything and have garage fridges. Even so, they still end up wasting food as it gets freezer burnt. I posted on this subject on some other thread in recent months. If you don't know exactly what food is in your house, stuff is going to go bad. People like to exclaim that they're "out" of food. No they aren't. No doubt the closets are stocked with cans and packets and tubes and all sorts of stuff is lurking in their refrigerator pull-out shelves.
February 23, 20178 yr ^ Unless you've got a house full of people, some stuff is almost impossible to get through without spoiling. I can't remember the last time I finished a container of sour cream, for example. It's something I might use once a week or so but halfway through it, a month and a half later, it's spoiled. Other stuff, like tuna, you can buy a dozen cans of at once and get through it before it spoils. Makes you wonder how that affected the condom industry. If I remember correctly, the old Corryville Kroger had them in the big, locked, plastic security boxes. So not only could you not go to U-scan, you had to endure the cashier fumbling about trying to open the box.
February 23, 20178 yr The real profit is in making people throw out food because they bought too much. Suburbanites and rural dwellers do this very often. Rural dwellers freeze everything and have garage fridges. Even so, they still end up wasting food as it gets freezer burnt. I posted on this subject on some other thread in recent months. If you don't know exactly what food is in your house, stuff is going to go bad. People like to exclaim that they're "out" of food. No they aren't. No doubt the closets are stocked with cans and packets and tubes and all sorts of stuff is lurking in their refrigerator pull-out shelves. Plenty of stuff is impossible to get through before it spoils if you're a single person. I can't remember the last time I got through a package of spinach before it spoiled. And trust me, I try. There just aren't containers small enough at my local grocery store to meet my needs. I like to buy grapes but they also go bad before I can get through the smallest package of them available at my store. I can't eat a ton of them at a time and the packages are huge. I sometimes struggle with certain cheeses as well. I'm not a believer in smothering everything with cheese so my intake is limited but even resealable packages of cheese don't last forever and when they sell them in a quantity that outlives its "use by" date there's not much you can do. Yogurt, eggs, cream cheese, sour cream, certain fruits and vegetables, etc. are often not sold in small enough quantities for a single person to reasonably get through. This is by design. Some people overbuy for sure but there are plenty of people buying the smallest portion of something available to them and still throwing a part of it out when it goes bad. The only way around that is to eat literally the same thing everyday so a certain item gets fully used quickly but that's no way to live.
February 23, 20178 yr I just don't buy it if its that temperamental. Sure, I'm missing out on certain foods, but that's why we hav restaurants. I refuse to buy bread, for example, unless I'm going to share it with others.
February 23, 20178 yr If I remember correctly, the old Corryville Kroger had them in the big, locked, plastic security boxes. So not only could you not go to U-scan, you had to endure the cashier fumbling about trying to open the box. The nearby Planned Parenthood on Auburn Ave. has a giant bowl full of free condoms at the front desk.
February 23, 20178 yr The real profit is in making people throw out food because they bought too much. Suburbanites and rural dwellers do this very often. Rural dwellers freeze everything and have garage fridges. Even so, they still end up wasting food as it gets freezer burnt. I posted on this subject on some other thread in recent months. If you don't know exactly what food is in your house, stuff is going to go bad. People like to exclaim that they're "out" of food. No they aren't. No doubt the closets are stocked with cans and packets and tubes and all sorts of stuff is lurking in their refrigerator pull-out shelves. Plenty of stuff is impossible to get through before it spoils if you're a single person. I can't remember the last time I got through a package of spinach before it spoiled. And trust me, I try. There just aren't containers small enough at my local grocery store to meet my needs. Get a blender and start doing smoothies. You can drink 5x more fruit and vegetables than you can eat. Huge handfuls of spinach, kale, etc. are reduced to almost nothing in a blender. People who do hardcore juicing go through like 2 bags of spinach per day. I've seen people estimate that they spend $30/day to subsist entirely on juice from organic fruits and vegetables.
February 24, 20178 yr Yeah but juicing is insufferable. And usually really bad for you. Juicing 5x as many fruits as you need means you're getting 5x the sugar and very little of the part of fruit that is actually good for you. Plus who the hell wants to drink their meals? I'd rather be a wasteful American.
February 24, 20178 yr I mean, the abandoned abortion clinic down the street from me has boxes and boxes of condoms if we are that desperate to avoid the shame of buying it at a Kroger checkout lane. I can swing by and pick up a box or two for the next UrbanOhio meet. And they have a ton of medication too. Seeing as how people are icky about food being expired, I'm going to assume that people are going to be icky about abortion-inducing drugs (and whatever else is there) being slightly out of date.
February 24, 20178 yr Yeah that's an outstanding idea -- compete with the S.S. Nightmare, the Dent Schoolhouse, and that zombie nativity scene with a Haunted Abortion Clinic. In the first room you'd be swarmed by zombie-type Right to Life protestors. There would be rooms where you'd see skeleton abortion doctors ripping babies out of teenage moms because that's what's going on wall-to-wall 24/7 inside a real Planned Parenthood. The last room would be a pile of discarded fetuses, little hearts still beating. Then you'd exit through a gift shop.
February 24, 20178 yr I like to buy grapes but they also go bad before I can get through the smallest package of them available at my store. I can't eat a ton of them at a time and the packages are huge. I happen to really like frozen grapes, so I'll stick about half of them in the freezer. Be sure to wash them first.
February 24, 20178 yr I like how if you're single and someone gives you food it throws your entire home economy into disarray. People with kids can just place food in the general vicinity of the nearest middle schooler and make it disappear.
March 2, 20178 yr Take an early tour of Kroger’s new Corryville store When Kroger Co. opens its Corryville store next week, the city’s newest supermarket will offer some unique features to Cincinnati. Shoppers will immediately notice a second floor, something that Kroger (NYSE: KR) doesn’t offer any of its more than 75 other stores in Greater Cincinnati. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/03/01/take-an-early-tour-of-kroger-s-new-corryville.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 2, 20178 yr I like to buy grapes but they also go bad before I can get through the smallest package of them available at my store. I can't eat a ton of them at a time and the packages are huge. I happen to really like frozen grapes, so I'll stick about half of them in the freezer. Be sure to wash them first. I can't say I've ever had frozen grapes. Maybe I'll try that next time I buy them. This store is disappointing. This site had so much potential but we just locked it away for another 4 decades.
March 2, 20178 yr Kroger remodels stores pretty often these days, especially the ones they select to be their "nice" stores. I think they refreshed the Newport Kroger Marketplace when it was only 5 or 6 years old. As opposed to when you walk into some of the other stores like the Walnut Hills or OTR Kroger and can clearly tell it was their 2000s era design. But I think what jmicha[/member] is talking about is a complete demolition and reconstruction of the site. They may refresh the Corryville store fairly often to keep it looking modern, but the people on this forum aren't going to be happy until they demolish it and replace it with something that's actually centered around urbanity and walkability.
March 2, 20178 yr Folks you need to understand that the Cincinnati Dayton Division of Kroger Design Development team is probably the most conservative of the Kroger regions. Just go slightly south and working with the Louisville region in past they are more willing to experiment and try different layouts and square footage designs. Even out in cities like Denver the King Sooper, City Market division is more experimental and cutting edge with urban stores. Until the old school fellas retire in this region just expect similar design cookie cutter crap to continue. If Corryville is successful you better believe they will just recreate it elsewhere in the area where the site is tight.
March 2, 20178 yr One time I visited Richmond Virginia and couldn't believe how different the Krogers were design-wise. It was like a whole different chain but with the same food.
March 2, 20178 yr One time I visited Richmond Virginia and couldn't believe how different the Krogers were design-wise. It was like a whole different chain but with the same food. In some cases, that might be because Kroger bought an existing chain and put their name on it.
March 2, 20178 yr I mean, the Lexington, Ky. store on Euclid Ave. is light years ahead of this one. Parking on top of the building, a smaller footprint inside (still larger than the old store), fresh and prepared foods for the college crowd that frequents it, lots of organics. The design (architecturally) is completely different than any other Kroger I've seen. It stands out but yeah, it's a completely different division. It's as if no one talks to each other in corporate.
March 2, 20178 yr One time I visited Richmond Virginia and couldn't believe how different the Krogers were design-wise. It was like a whole different chain but with the same food. In some cases, that might be because Kroger bought an existing chain and put their name on it. Oh for sure, but Kroger has been in the Richmond market with its own stores for a very long time despite its distance from Cincinnati.
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