(That means, "Thus does the glory of the world pass away", not as one of my university roommates asserted, "Gloria threw up on the subway Monday.")Tonight Tom and I had dinner in Reedsburg, partly in order to visit the new Shopko Hometown store that has opened there.
Shopko is an Aushwaubenon (think Green Bay)-based discount store, normally found in strip malls or occasionally in free-standing locations. Their market seems to be smaller cities, but you do see them elsewhere. Shopko Hometown specifically targets cities with populations of 3,000 to 8,000 and carries allegedly about 70% of the items carried in the larger Shopko locales.
Our Reedsburg Shopko Hometown replaced a Pamida, another discount retailer targeting these smaller communities. Pamida was recently bought out by Shopko, and hence the transition. Pamida had originated in Iowa. We often went in there, but to be honest, you could get better quality merchandise for less at Kohl's. We hardly ever bought anything.
And before Reedsburg had Pamida, the building housed Prange Way.
Prange Way was another of ditto, this one originating in Sheboygan. It disappeared in the 1990s when the chain was bought out by Younkers.
At any rate, Tom always called Pamida "Prange Way" because that is what it used to be. I assume he will continue to talk about Prange Way, only now he will mean Shopko Hometown.
I don't know that the change from Prange Way to Pamida meant, but as far as I could tell tonight -- and they just had their grand opening -- Shopko Hometown is no improvement over Pamida. The store is poorly stocked, something that will probably get better as they finish moving in. But why have a Grand Opening if your shelves are still largely empty.
When we go out for dinner, Tom usually wants to go on a field trip afterwards. That means going shopping somewhere most of the time, and there are not a lot of options here in our area. I don't think Shopko Hometown has added anything new.
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