Traders Cooperative

[skono4]

No, I believe you're correct that much of what was sold includes leases on shopping centers and not the land value. It's still an indication of real estate values but that estimate would have to adjust for terms of those leases. I asked Joe Stocks what the standard terms were on retail leases and he said there are too many variations to make broad generalizations. I was interested in valuations of NDN as the stock dropped from the $30s to under $10 as most of their stores are in SoCal which would have been the buy of the century had they owned all the land under the stores. NDN did fully own most of the stores from the beginning of the business but then went to a standard lease when expansion was ramped up. What I was concerned about was how a $1 store could protect margins if their leases came up for renegotiations in this crazy real estate market. Same deal would apply to supermarket margins but at least they could raise prices over $.99