October 28, 2011, 2:02 pm
The “Coming Soon” sign has been replaced by a “Now Open” banner on the Marshalls at 2340 E Foothill Boulevard in La Verne, at the southeast corner of White Avenue. Marshalls was formerly located across the street behind the new Panera Bread. Marshalls has been a part of La Verne since 1998.
The Marshalls and eventually new Staples (on the right in the picture) are in the location formerly occupied by Vons, which moved down the street to the redeveloped site of the former K-Mart just east of Wheeler and Foothill. When Vons left, the vacancy in the shop space in the center seemed to increase, even though a recently redeveloped Target is located in the same parking lot to the east.
No word yet on the opening date of the Staples.
September 28, 2011, 11:02 am
The OfficeMax store at 826 West Arrow Highway in San Dimas closed this past Saturday, September 24th, 2011. I asked a couple of different employees why the store was closing, and I got two different answers. One said the lease was up, and the other said the rent was getting too high. Both answers could be true.
The big box office supply market is currently dominated by three chains: OfficeMax, Staples, and Office Depot. It is easy for customers to see them all as commodities, similar to the way they view grocery stores. A customer probably isn’t going to drive past one of these competitors and go out of their way to go to another one. So, location helps to drive market share. This appears to be a cost cutting move on the part of OfficeMax, whose shares have steadily declined this past year from a high of $18.74 on December 6, 2010 to a closing price of $5.33 yesterday. It doesn’t help that Staples is opening a new location just a couple miles east in La Verne at Foothill and Emerald/White. Staples dominates the market with a market cap of nearly $9.9 billion, while OfficeMax is about $452 million and Office Depot is about $609 million.
It could also be that the owner (Kimco) already has a new tenant to put into the spot at a higher rate. We’ll see.
June 24, 2011, 1:33 pm
Construction is well underway on the new Staples and Marshalls in the La Verne Towne Center at the southeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and White Avenue/Fruit Street. Vons vacated the site in December 2010 after having closed their other La Verne location at Foothill and Wheeler and moving into a new location across the street at the site of the old K-Mart. Marshalls is also relocating from the northeast corner of Foothill and White Avenue/Fruit Street. Staples is a new addition to La Verne, with the next closest stores in north Pomona at Foothill and Towne, and Glendora at Gladstone and Valley Center.
