The economy & Vine St. big-box retail

Three of the remaining big-box retailers located on Vine St. have had financial results in the news lately, and the news has not been good.

Home Depot, K-Mart, and Target all announced missed sales goals in the last week. Home Depot and Target's results appear to be directly related to the economic downturn and a slowdown in consumer spending. K-Mart has had issues ever since their merger with Sears in 2005, and it appears that the honeymoon period for that merger has passed.

What will be telling over the next six months or so is how the economic downturn impacts these retailers' locations on Vine St.

Home Depot has long been rumored to be looking for a site along Osceola Parkway, which would put them closer to the developing area of retail, as well as their chief competitor, Lowe's. Will a downturn accelerate that move, as they try to move closer to the "action," or will it slow the move, as they try to extract all possible sales from an existing location, rather than investing in a new one?

K-Mart this week announced that they would be reducing underperforming stores and selling real estate. Will the Kissimmee K-Mart make the cut? Might K-Mart get a "second chance" as consumers look for lower-priced goods?

We don't hear about Target stores closing very often, but the Kissimmee Target store has two nearby SuperTarget siblings. Will they remain as an anchor on Vine St. if the retail environment there continues to deteriorate?

Meanwhile, we heard on the radio this week that Burlington Coat Factory has opened at Osceola Square Mall. Welcome to Kissimmee! One hint, though...we can always tell when out-of-state actors are used in radio spots, because their mispronunciation of Kissimmee is glaring. (An aside to the local economic development folks, maybe we could issue a pronunciation guide.) Anyway, mispronunciation aside, we hope you'll be successful here, and to steal the tagline of another local business, you're OK with us.