Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Branham Lane OSH closing

Here's a tidbit I heard about OSH that I found interesting.  The Branham Lane store has lost their lease and will be closing sometime this summer.  Sad for customers and employees alike.  Great Nursery, crusty everything else (I had an experience at the Appliance Center there I need to share someday).

Are they getting replaced by a new upscale market like Whole Foods?  How about a new Kohls?  Nope....  got beat out on a new lease by Dollar Tree. 
Looks like my new Saturday will be Branham Lounge for a few drinks while Moon's looks for my lost dry cleaning followed by a trip to the Dollar Tree.

Word is after begging Sears for money they have relented and OSH will open a new store at the Mervyn's in Princeton Plaza.  I guess that wasn't easy to pull off so glad for everyone that it happened.  Looking forward to seeing a new OSH nearby but Branham is such a flagship store it will be a knock to the company to lose it.

Sears, stranger then fiction

I was buying some garden stuff Sunday and was paying with my debit card.  It is a force of habit left over from when I worked there a few years ago and was getting an employee discount.  Within a year or two of Sears buying OSH some bean counting genius hatched a plan to add to the bottom line by only allowing an employee credit card purchase on a Sears MC/Visa.

You could pay by cash, debit or with your Sears Visa and get the discount, no Sears Visa, no discount.  For any big purchase (I bought my Dad a Weber for Christmas) I had to buy it at Depot.  The Depot price was probably a little more then OSH price with discount but some things you have to draw the line at, a Sears Visa (as if I'd shop at that dump) crosses the line.

 Depot should send a thank you note to those geniuses at Hoffman for the big ticket sales.