Grocery grand openings, other retailers reopening and struggling retailers that are closing stores

Supermarkets are opening new stores

Supermarket chains are busy opening new stores to accommodate surging demand. Southeastern Grocers will add eight Winn-Dixies across Florida before the end of the year, all in former Earth Fare and Lucky’s Market stores. Both chains went out of business recently, offering opportunities for others to grab Florida market share.

Many supermarket openings delayed by COVID-19 also are opening. Publix has opened a 48,100-square-foot store at The Market Place at The Bray in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, after a two-month delay. And Texas supermarket chain H-E-B has set June 10 as the opening date for a 130,000-square-foot store in Austin. It will include a True Texas BBQ restaurant with indoor seating, outdoor seating and a drive-thru window.

Meanwhile, German discount chain Lidl has opened its 100th U.S. store, in Suwanee, Georgia, two years after its first store in the country. Schnucks, which operates 112 stores in the Midwest, is entering the natural foods sector with its first EatWell, in Columbia, Missouri. The store will open this summer in a 42,000-square-foot former Lucky's Market building Schnucks purchased at a bankruptcy auction this year.

Struggling chains are shutting units

L Brands will shutter 250 of its 1,091 Victoria's Secrets and 50 of its 1,737 Bath & Body Works in the U.S. and Canada this year. Almost all the company’s stores have been temporarily closed since March 17 due to COVID-19. A deal to spin Victoria’s Secret off fell apart in February, but L Brands says it “remains committed” to splitting into one company focused on Victoria’s Secret and another on Bath & Body Works.

Meanwhile, off-price retailer Tuesday Morning plans to close one-third of its 700 stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas. It has secured $100 million in debtor-in-possession financing and says it will renegotiate a “significant” number of its existing leases during restructuring. The company, which blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for its financial woes, expects to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the fall with 450 stores.

Retail giants are reopening with caution

Bed Bath & Beyond expects that by June 13, it will reopen 500 Bed Bath & Beyonds, 50 Christmas Tree Shops and 50 Cost Plus World Markets that have been closed since mid-March due to COVID-19. That means half its 1,500 stores would be open. E-commerce sales have doubled in recent weeks, and traffic to the Bed Bath & Beyond website and mobile app rose by 30 percent, said president and CEO Mark Tritton. “Customers are also responding well to the launch of buy-online-pickup-in-store and contactless curbside pickup,” he said, adding that contactless curbside pickup will be available at approximately 90 percent of the company’s stores by mid-June.

Apple is reopening 100 U.S. stores this week, bringing the number of its 271 stores that are open to 130. Most will offer only curbside or storefront services. Some 40 stores across Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia will allow walk-in customers. The tech company opened a few stores in Idaho, South Carolina, Alabama and Alaska this month. Apple will require temperature checks and face coverings for employees and customers and will limit how many customers are allowed inside at a time.

Meanwhile, Macy’s Inc. is leveraging its real estate to ride out the pandemic. The department store chain plans to pay off a $1.5 billion line of revolving credit by raising $1.1 billion in bonds backed by a mortgage on 48 of the company’s prime real estate assets: a stand-alone store in each Brooklyn, San Francisco and Chicago; 35 mall stores; and 10 distribution centers.