Brandon Kelley

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Savings Extend Past Retail Rebel Store Walls into Area Classrooms

Savings Extend Past REtail Rebel Store Walls into area Classrooms

Saving money is the biggest advantage that Retail Rebel offers customers, but the benefits don’t just stop with customers. The savings extend into classrooms

where kids are excited to craft and design projects using fun finds from our Bargain Bins stores. One local school has a caring staff member that brings in those treasures each week for students and staff to enjoy.

Lori Stengel has a positive, radiating energy that she has used to serve the communities she has lived in. After moving to Kansas City, she started an exciting career in traffic broadcasting for multiple radio stations across the city. While delivering traffic reports using multiple aliases and voices, she also provided before and after school care at a local school.

The kids at Martin Luther Academy in the northland adore Lori’s fun personality, but they also look forward to one thing each week, Lori’s visits to Retail Rebel. As a part of her program, she buys lots of supplies for student activities. Fun notebooks, paint, markers, pencils, folders, post-it notes, and crafting supplies are just a few of the items she buys each week. She also buys pop-its as a tool for kids to use when they are anxious or stressed. The best part? She typically buys all these items on Fridays, for only 50 cents each. This allows Lori to fund fun ideas for way less than retail.

We asked Lori if she finds everything she needs each week. She said she brings a list with her of items she needs at home and at school and searches until she finds those items or something better. Most often, she finds treasures she wasn’t even expecting that are perfect for a different project and it sparks ideas of engagement activities for the future.

Each year her school hosts an auction with various experiences and typical auction items like paintings and gift cards. Last school year, she auctioned off “A Day of Fun at Retail Rebel.” She took the winner to lunch, then off to Retail Rebel to hunt for those unexpected gems. Each winner visited the store with $20 in hand to explore all the 50 cent items in bins! The young winners were thrilled to experience the fun.

Customers like Lori Stengel show us that savings extend past our store walls. This year Lori is embarking on a new journey, as she has accepted an offer to be the 6th grade teacher at Martin Luther Academy. We can’t wait to see what fun activities she does with her sixth graders using 50 cent “tools” she finds at Retail Rebel. We hope she has a wonderful school year, and hope to catch up with her soon to learn more.

EXPLORE A LOCATION NEAR YOU!

Lori shopping bargains on 50 cent day at Retail Rebel

Treasure Hunting Stages Discount Retail Comeback

Any doubts about whether shoppers would return to discount retail stores to rummage through racks in the hunt for bargains were crushed this week when TJX Companies and Ross Stores reported their first-quarter earnings.

Both companies’ sales surged past analyst estimates, as consumers started packing back into their stores to look for new outfits, shoes, luggage and home goods as pandemic-induced lockdowns eased.

TJX and Ross cited a pent-up demand from shoppers, many of whom have been armed with extra stimulus dollars in recent months, but also a desire among many people to still look for good deals. So-called treasure hunting in stores could be something that many consumers end up craving more than they did before the Covid health crisis.

“We believe the appeal of our entertaining, treasure-hunt shopping experience gives consumers a compelling reason to shop us,” TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said in an earnings conference call. “In-store shopping is not going away.”

“We see our stores as a desirable destination for consumers seeking some stress relief,” Herrman said, “and also a great place to shop when they are seeking inspiration and looking to discover new things, which is difficult to replicate online.”

“Our business model now resonates more than it even did pre-Covid,” he said.

One year earlier, TJX’s net sales were more than cut in half and it swung to a first-quarter net loss, as the pandemic forced the company to temporarily close more than 4,500 stores in the U.S. and abroad. It was a devastating blow to the company, which relies on in-store shopping. TJX has a shoppable online platform for some of its brands, including TJ Maxx, but not all of them.

Ross similarly swung to a loss in the year-ago period when all of its stores shut beginning March 20, 2020, through the end of the quarter.

But this week, TJX staged a first-quarter comeback when it reported net sales that rose nearly 130% to $10.09 billion from $4.41 billion a year earlier, topping Wall Street estimates for $8.62 billion, according to data from Refinitiv. TJX is the parent company of Marshalls and TJ Maxx.

Though its shares fell following its blowout quarterly report, that was largely due to the ongoing struggles the company faces outside of the United States. Due to Covid, TJX still has about 300 stores closed in Canada and Europe. And in the second quarter, TJX forecast its Canadian and European locations would remain shut for 17% and 7% of the period, respectively.

TJX shares are down about 1% year to date.

Continue Reading At:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/21/discount-retail-stages-a-comeback-as-shoppers-crave-treasure-hunting.html

Kmart – Walmart | Discount Store Class Of 1962

1962 was the year of the discount department store. Although there are examples of discount houses that predated that year, especially in the Northeast, most of the biggest names opened their doors in 1962. Four retailers from this “Class of 1962” have made it to 2021. Three are thriving but one, regarded as an industry icon, is barely open and has been fading away for decades.

The S. S. Kresge Co., the country’s third-largest variety store chain in 1962, decided to establish a discount store prototype. After studying the competition and learning what did and didn’t work, Kresge developed a new division called “Kmart.” It offered low prices, large parking lots, late hours, and, most-importantly, name-brand merchandise.

Early promotional material guaranteed Kmart shoppers “Satisfaction Always” with a store that would be clean, well-maintained and well-stocked. Kresge’s “thrifty credit plan,” used for large purchases, was also heavily advertised. When the first Kmart discount store opened on March 1, 1962, in Garden City, Michigan, 4000 curious customers waited in line for the doors to finally unlock.

Kresge intended for Kmart to have a national presence. By the end of 1962, 18 Kmarts were in operation. Within a decade, that number swelled to 800.

As discount store competition intensified in the 1980s, Kmart expanded beyond its means. It took over storefronts vacated by other failed discounters and neglected its aging fleet of long-established locations.

Continue Reading At:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellisicky/2021/04/25/from-kmart-to-walmartthe-discount-store-class-of-1962/?sh=143ec747346c