biggs reduces store hours--ominous sign?

[Ohio Man]

The number four player (according to the most recent figures I've seen) in Cincinnati, Supervalu-owned biggs, recently reduced hours at all of their stores from 24/7 to 6AM to 11PM. I know that's still a lot of time to shop. But I don't see this as a positive sign for the chain. While I don't have the knowledge of the grocery business that some others on this board and grocerteria.com have, from my past observations, this usually means a store or chain of stores is having significant economic problems. Case in point: Cincinnati-based regional chain Thriftway (not affiliated with other chains across the country which have the same name), which started up in the early 50's. Winn-Dixie bought the chain circa '95, and things began to go south, particulary with out of date merchandise on the shelves. WInn-Dixie eventually righted things, but it was too little too late, and all Thiftways were closed by early '05. One the first signs of impending doom was a reduction in store hours.

I think the supermarket scene is best for the consumer when there's as much competition as possible. I would hate to see biggs go, as it would leave Kroger, Super Wally and Meijer as the major players around here. I have a lot of respect for Kroger, and it's admirable how the company has kept Wally well under its national market share average in Cincinnati, but I hate to see one grocer get too dominant. I seldom go to Meijer, since it's like shopping in a chaotic factory, and I'm not all that close to any of their locations. Maybe biggs reducing its hours isn't a sign that the end is coming soon. But I'm not too hopeful at this point.

[storewanderer]

Supervalu is just in trouble. They need to cut costs wherever they can. There are a lot of mixed feelings on whether or not a 24hour grocery operation is a good thing or a bad thing, especially in stores that do little business during the overnight hours. One thought is that since you usually have employees in the store to stock, why not be open to capture a few extra sales and provide a customer convenience? Risks of this include lost stocker productivity when a stocker has to stop stocking and go up front to check out what is often a small transaction, robbery potential, potential theft due to low customer count and low employee count in the store, cost of fully lighting the store during overnight hours (Smiths shuts a lot of lights off from about 11 PM to 8 AM or so but remains open 24 hours), etc. Obviously there are some stores (few) where customer traffic justifies staying open all night.

I find it hard to believe all biggs locations had customer count during the overnight period to justify being open 24 hours. I also find it hard to believe that they all need the same hours. I am sure some of those stores had business well into the evening, say, 2 or 3 AM. Maybe other stores died down at 10 PM.

Meijer is univerally a 24 hour operation, right?

Kroger's Fred Meyer Stores typically operate with 7 AM to 11 PM hours; some close at 10 PM in smaller towns and some stay open until Midnight in downtown type areas. I have seen some smaller Wal Mart Supercenters that operate only 6 AM to Midnight but in at least one case that was a condition of the store being built due to resident concerns. I think Super Targets now operate using Target's standard 8 AM to 10 PM Store Hours (9 PM closing time on Sunday).

[Alpha8472]

A reduction in hours is a possible sign that business is going down. When Albertsons took over Lucky, the stores did experience a drop in customers. Many people refused to shop at Albertsons over the loss of the Lucky name. Lucky used to be open 24/7 for all of their stores. Albertsons reduced most stores to either 6 AM -12AM or 5AM-12AM. A few stores kept the 24/7 hours, but those stores were probably the most busiest of the stores. Of course you know that Albertsons eventually broke up and the stores were sold off to other chains. The name survived in some areas, but many stores have closed.

[krogerclerk]

Kroger has eliminated several 24-hour stores in the Toledo market since it acquired FoodTown as it re-evaluates store hours on a store by store basis. Also, the Atlanta region has seen the elimination of several Krogers' having 24 hour operations. Typically the stores that have seen hour reductions close at 1 AM and re-open at 6 AM, an almost what's the point of closing for 5 hours. Often these are stores in sketchy areas that have high risk of shoplifting, theft, robbery etc. and neighborhood stores in suburban residential areas away from the heavy traffic strips.

Winn-Dixie, Food Lion and BiLo have gone back and forth with 24-hr stores since the 80's, but Kroger has been relatively consistent with 24 hours operations since the late 70's, unless there are local regualations or covenants in place that prevent 24 hour business operations. Since Biggs is #4 in the region, it likely doesn't have the night volume to justify staying open. With the majority of Kroger stores, Walmart Supercenters and Meijers being open 24 hours and having greater market share in Cincy, it would be reasonable to assume that few Biggs are busy overnight. If SuperValu extends elimination of 24 hour stores to its other banners, then it likely is a belt tightening move. Biggs operates fewer than a dozen stores in Cincy-Northern KY, so it's doubtful to add much to corporate bottom lines at SVU.

[tesg]

I frankly can't imagine why ANY chain...even Walmart...would bother with 24-hour operations anymore.

Aside from being distracting for employees and the increased theft potential, the stores are generally in no shape for customers when I've shopped late at night. There's usually pallets full of merchandise in the middle of the aisles for re-stocking and big loud smelly floor cleaners running around the store.

If we had a large active late-night society, fine. But we don't, aside from drunks and thugs. Even White Caste has started closing their dining rooms at night in some areas.

Let convenience stores have that end of the business.

[maynesg]

Hi, I believe that Super valu is just standardizing things across it!s operating units. In the east with Acme most of our stores close at 10PM some at 11pm.It wasn!t so long ago that most of them were twenty four hour units. Guess what ! times change. Fourty years ago, when 24 hour stores first started we had a large manufacturing base, with auto plants running 24 hours a day. Yes, it made sense to be open 24 hours it filled a need.
Today, unless you are in a resort area or near a hospital or some such building it dosen!t make sense to do so. In fact Acme and Super G are experimenting with doing away with the traditional nigth crew and replacing it with a three AM to 10 :30AM crew instead. Why? Needs have changed. When nigth crews were established tne idea was to have your store in great shape by 8am, in time to great mrs House Wife. A great deal of the days business was done before noon. This just isn!t the case any more. Stores are empty in the morning,often not seeing much business till noon and the majority from 3pm to 7pm.
Companies are trying to shift their crews to work latter in the day to when they are most busy. Nigth crews once well paid profesionals that did a good job are a thing of the past. so the thougth now is expouse them to the Grocery Manager fror a good part of their work day to increas e
production and control inventory.

[Super S]

Here in the northwest, Safeway used to have a lot of 24 hour stores, but has cut back, one near me is open 6AM-1AM. Fred Meyer even experimented with 24-hour food departments at one point in the late 80s before they adapted the universal checkout setup.

24 hour drug stores I can see a need for if somebody is ill during the night. Walgreens has a few, Rite Aid did at one point also but I don't know of any that are still 24 hours, at least in the Portland area.