Retail Watchers

I don't agree that the pre-covid financial condition was "very poor." It looks like their corporate rating was B+ going into covid. That's not great, but certainly isn't poor. But yes, I agree, they were struggling to turn a profit and there's no question that covid was the gift that keeps...

We are forgetting how much of a basket case Albertsons was pre-Safeway. I think we like to nostalgically remember the Albertsons of the 1980s and 1990s that was growing rapidly and was generally a decent place to shop. After the SuperValu/Cerberus/CVS transaction, and more specifically during the Su...

Why would Albertsons need to go through Chapter 11? Per Yahoo! Finance, TTM EBITDA is $4.3bn. Per Yahoo! Finance, there is $13.4bn in debt. EVEN if you assume a 10% interest rate (and they are paying nowhere close to that rate), annual debt service is $1.34 bn -- easily covered by $4.3bn in EBITDA w...

Safeway was INVESTMENT GRADE at the time of the Albertsons acquisition. Safeway had, without question, a much stronger balance sheet. The reason that Albertsons was the acquirer was that their investor group was willing to commit the funds needed to buy Safeway. Honestly, I think the Safeway merger ...

Almost every company has debt. That's just how it works. Pull up basically any company you can think of on Yahoo Finance. 90%+ will have debt. Expected return on equity is MUCH higher than the cost of debt. If there was no debt, the companies would have to generate even higher income to meet the exp...

EBITDA is the money they have to pay principal, pay interest, pay taxes, for capex, and to deal with working capital changes. Round numbers, they have $4bn in EBITDA. Assuming $14bn of debt at a 5% interest rate, interest expense would be $700MM per year, leaving them ~$3.3bn to do everything else. ...

I absolutely do not understand all of the hate that is being tossed around here with regards to Albertsons' finances. As a reminder, Albertsons Companies and Kroger are both publicly traded. Go to SEC Edgar or their IR pages and download their 10-K, and you'll know everything you want to know about ...

It will be interesting to see how they handle divestitures, assuming this goes forward. Will they divest by region, or will they divest by individual market. For example, in Oregon, would Saf-er choose to divest the entire Fred Meyer operation vs. the entire Safeway/Albertsons operation, or would th...

I was back in Seattle this week, so I stopped in at the Southcenter Sears again. Continue to just be amazed that Sears thinks that the highest and best use of an entire floor of this store is to sit vacant. This has got to be expensive real estate in a busy mall surrounded by retail, but the best bu...

This is a win-win for everyone. It will take them less time to make the standard sandwiches, so the lines will move a bit more quickly. If it takes even 15 seconds less per sandwich, that will add up in a big way if there are 7 people in front of you at lunch time. If you are ordering online and are...