Celebrating Three Years of The Mid-South Retail Blog!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, and - if you don't mind me patting myself on the back for a moment - a happy anniversary to the blog as well! Today marks the third full year that this site has been in operation, and every day of it has been a blast. I sincerely thank each and every one of you for checking back for new posts and sharing your own content and comments. As the blog has aged, I feel like my posts have evolved into several different "types," you might call them, including regular store tour (or "stour"!) posts, more in-depth feature entries, and, most recently, tables documenting "Lost Histories of Mid-South Retail." Of course, each of these "types" of posts serves a purpose - again, with the focus lately shifting to a means of uncovering and chronicling the past. But above all of that, my greatest satisfaction in running this blog comes from the interaction with you guys, the readers and commenters. So please, keep the hits and conversations coming!

To expand on that point, and in keeping with my tradition from the previous two years, here are a few statistics on the blog's viewership in its third year:

As of the time of writing, the blog is sitting at 60,862 views, way up from last year's 39,592. Unfortunately, I'm not sure when exactly the blog surpassed 50,000 pageviews, but thanks regardless to the mystery visitor :P  Breaking things down into months, our highest remains December 2016 with 7,549 pageviews; since that time, the blog's viewership has dropped severely, but in all honesty I'm not completely positive what caused the spike in the first place, and I'm assuming the current levels are more normal rates, so it's all good XD  Similarly, as far as individual posts are concerned, you will likely again recognize the top five contenders:

1. Mid-South Kroger Marketplace Expansion; February 2016; 1,534
2. Kmart Memphis (Bonus: Sears Poplar Avenue); March 2016; 1,380
3. BREAKING: East Memphis Kroger Closure, Target Remodels (UPDATE: and Sears Replacement); March 2016; 1,365
4. Closings and Openings in Memphis and the Mid-South; January 2016; 1,257
5. The East Memphis Kroger Trio; February 2016; 1,240

(For those who don't remember, all of those except #5 were in the top five last year, with numbers 1 and 4 remaining in the exact same positions, no less.)

Elsewhere, the blog continues to be open for contributions via our inbox at midsouthretailblog [at] gmail [dot] com. We haven't had a whole lot of true contributor posts in the last year, but we have had the privilege of being a part of several collaborations, namely on multiple spreadsheets from the certified "retail table master" Albertsons Florida Blog! In case you've missed any of those, they are listed and linked to your right in a sidebar on the desktop version of the site for quick, easy access. And as far as future posts are concerned, be on the lookout for several more tables, too! I don't want to inundate y'all with those, so they'll continue to be spread out with different "types" of posts going up in-between. Additionally, I'll soon be introducing another new series to the blog - "Beyond the Mid-South" - highlighting photos I've taken of retail in locations that fall outside of our "jurisdiction," so to speak.

In short, there's a lot happening at the Mid-South Retail Blog. I've got plenty of content lined up for y'all in the future, and am doing my best to stick to my monthly uploading schedule for every month besides February and October. As a matter of fact, I'll be working on another post this coming weekend, which will go up sometime in April, so be sure to stick around for that. And of course, once again, I thank all of you guys for your continued support! I really appreciate it :)

Until next time, and as always... have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell