Retail Watchers

Most of the Fresh Fare stores were originally plain-Jane Ralphs but this the first conversion I've heard of in a while. Looks like El Segundo is progressing nicely. It wasn't that long ago the area had an almost slum-like reputation. El Segundo also contains one of the few non-ghetto 99 Cents Only ...

New receipt format, again, at Vons and Pavilions. Shopped at one Pavilions, one Vons today. They each have a barcode at the end of the receipt which is much shorter.

Radio ads this week in Southern California are still Vons and Pavilions combo unlike the printed ads.

The Vons ad in Las Vegas is now basically the same as the Albertsons ad in Las Vegas. Nothing like the Vons Southern California ad anymore. They also have the (Big) Book of Savings in store which is valid at Albertsons, Safeway and Vons (all 3 logos at the top of the cover page*). "*Prices good...

The ad agency for Pavilions use to buy the top 10 25-54 radio station regardless of formats for the Pavilions ads. It even ended up on a radio station I worked at and the format was urban contemporary. That's not true, at least not on a regular basis. The top music stations in LA at that time were ...

I shopped at the Culver City Pavilions today. I like large stores. I also shop occasionally at the always nearly deserted (but very large) Vons in Torrance. Both have self-checkout which I prefer. Marina del Rey Pavilions, although the newest of the three, doesn't have self-checkout. The one thing t...

My bad... I knew that but my spell check didn't :( How many stores does Publix have in Florida? I'm guessing around 500-600. Safeway has three. It's not realistic that they're going to build enough stores to ever be a factor. They could possibly acquire Winn-Dixie, but are they willing to spend the...

Vons ad was similar to the current ad. Pavilions ad was glossy and tabloid style. Pavilions radio ads were with a woman with a British accent and somewhat raspy voice. They never used music in them. "Pavilions, a world of difference" was their slogan. Felt like they were more in competiti...

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that in the pre-Safeway era, Vons and Pavilions always had separate identities and separate unique advertising. And that was when Vons also had other formats like Expo and Tianguis. It's curious why they seem to reverting to that situation (especially with m...

The devil is in the details. The Pavilions ad is now clearly for Pavilions only and the Vons ad is clearly for Vons only. But the fine print says "Valid only at MOST Southern California area Pavilions stores" without specifying which stores. That is kind of shady IMO. The Vons ad is worde...