Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by pseudo3d »

Despite Tyler having more chains than today, I wouldn't count that against Tyler but rather consolidations in the grocery industry. The situation in Bryan-College Station included at one time in 1991-1992 Albertsons, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, H-E-B Pantry, Randalls, AppleTree (former Safeway) and Jewel-Osco (former Skaggs Alpha Beta). Ultimately, of course, Albertsons bought the lone Jewel-Osco and then closed it to buy the Randalls, with the chain reaching three local stores at peak before disappearing under LLC, Winn-Dixie bowed out for good in 2002, AppleTree slowly lost its stores until the last ones sold out (and now even those are gone), and Kroger and H-E-B continued to expand.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Despite Tyler having more chains than today, I wouldn't count that against Tyler but rather consolidations in the grocery industry. The situation in Bryan-College Station included at one time in 1991-1992 Albertsons, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, H-E-B Pantry, Randalls, AppleTree (former Safeway) and Jewel-Osco (former Skaggs Alpha Beta). Ultimately, of course, Albertsons bought the lone Jewel-Osco and then closed it to buy the Randalls, with the chain reaching three local stores at peak before disappearing under LLC, Winn-Dixie bowed out for good in 2002, AppleTree slowly lost its stores until the last ones sold out (and now even those are gone), and Kroger and H-E-B continued to expand.
I would blame it on Tyler. Here's why:

Kroger: Left before 1980. Still operates in Longview, Marshall, Henderson and Shreveport, which are beyond Tyler, in distribution terms.
Albertsons: first store on NNW Loop sold in 2003, second closed in 2008 or 2009. Still operates in Longview and Shreveport, in a similar distribution scenario as Kroger.
Winn Dixie: Never operated in Tyler, except maybe as Buddies, which predated WD's ownership. Longview, Kilgore, Gladewater, Henderson, and Marshall were further from distribution, and all had a store until 2003.
Jewel-Osco/Skaggs: While the Longview store was sold to Albertsons (and still survives), the Tyler store was not, because ABS said it was too close to the other Albertsons. It instead was the only store in the division not sold to Albertsons. It became a Brookshire Supercenter (a one-off large store concept that didn't work) and closed by 1995-1996.
Safeway: When the division was sold off in 1987, both Longview stores, Marshal and Henderson were sold within 2 months of closing. One Tyler store on Vine St. was sold, but didn't last. The other, on S. Broadway, was never a grocery again. It has been split into two stores since 2 years after Safeway closed.

No other large chain wants to operate in the hometown of a regional grocer's distribution hub or headquarters. There are similar statistics for Monroe, LA; only a handful of independent stores operate there other than Brookshire, because they have their secondary DC there. (Kroger and Albertsons were both there at one time) Lufkin, TX, is similar; there's one HEB to 4 Brookshire Bros. stores. Brookshire Bros. is headquartered in Lufkin. (The HEB is in the former Albertsons.)
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Despite Tyler having more chains than today, I wouldn't count that against Tyler but rather consolidations in the grocery industry. The situation in Bryan-College Station included at one time in 1991-1992 Albertsons, Winn-Dixie, Kroger, H-E-B Pantry, Randalls, AppleTree (former Safeway) and Jewel-Osco (former Skaggs Alpha Beta). Ultimately, of course, Albertsons bought the lone Jewel-Osco and then closed it to buy the Randalls, with the chain reaching three local stores at peak before disappearing under LLC, Winn-Dixie bowed out for good in 2002, AppleTree slowly lost its stores until the last ones sold out (and now even those are gone), and Kroger and H-E-B continued to expand.
I would blame it on Tyler. Here's why:

Kroger: Left before 1980. Still operates in Longview, Marshall, Henderson and Shreveport, which are beyond Tyler, in distribution terms.
Albertsons: first store on NNW Loop sold in 2003, second closed in 2008 or 2009. Still operates in Longview and Shreveport, in a similar distribution scenario as Kroger.
Winn Dixie: Never operated in Tyler, except maybe as Buddies, which predated WD's ownership. Longview, Kilgore, Gladewater, Henderson, and Marshall were further from distribution, and all had a store until 2003.
Jewel-Osco/Skaggs: While the Longview store was sold to Albertsons (and still survives), the Tyler store was not, because ABS said it was too close to the other Albertsons. It instead was the only store in the division not sold to Albertsons. It became a Brookshire Supercenter (a one-off large store concept that didn't work) and closed by 1995-1996.
Safeway: When the division was sold off in 1987, both Longview stores, Marshal and Henderson were sold within 2 months of closing. One Tyler store on Vine St. was sold, but didn't last. The other, on S. Broadway, was never a grocery again. It has been split into two stores since 2 years after Safeway closed.

No other large chain wants to operate in the hometown of a regional grocer's distribution hub or headquarters. There are similar statistics for Monroe, LA; only a handful of independent stores operate there other than Brookshire, because they have their secondary DC there. (Kroger and Albertsons were both there at one time) Lufkin, TX, is similar; there's one HEB to 4 Brookshire Bros. stores. Brookshire Bros. is headquartered in Lufkin. (The HEB is in the former Albertsons.)
I suppose you're right...
Lufkin's Randalls left in 2005, and still no takers.
San Antonio evicted Kroger in the early 1990s, and Albertsons finally left in 2002, though I bet by that time they were doing terribly.
Lakeland FL (home of Publix) had Albertsons leave in the early 1990s and although still has five Winn-Dixie stores hanging on in the area, it's definitely clear that Publix rules the roost with nearly twice the stores.
Boise, ID is the home of Albertsons, but in a unique situation, shares the city with WinCo, which also has its HQ there.
Cincinnati OH had bigg's (a large-format "hypermarket" owned by SuperValu) but it was sold off during SuperValu's ownership of NAI.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by klkla »

pseudo3d wrote:San Antonio evicted Kroger in the early 1990s.
What's the story of that? I've never heard of a city evicting a supermarket chain before. What happened?
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:San Antonio evicted Kroger in the early 1990s.
What's the story of that? I've never heard of a city evicting a supermarket chain before. What happened?
Figure of speech, Kroger closed the stores on their own free will. The city didn't actually kick Kroger out. That would be rather interesting. ;)
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by Super S »

Let's go back to what this thread was originally about: Ohio.

I am curious if Kroger has any plans in the works to expand any existing traditional stores into the Marketplace format. Walmart has a large presence, while Meijer does not have stores in some of the smaller towns where Walmart operates. Also, there are a few former Kmart Supercenters which are still open that could be potential candidates, such as the Fremont location. Sears/Kmart seems to be very interested in selling properties.

The Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) format has held its own in the Pacific Northwest as Walmart has added more stores. Kmart and Target have not opened any supercenter type stores in the region, although Target has expanded their grocery selection. While I don't know if there are any Super Target stores in Ohio, it is clear that the Kmart Supercenters are not doing well when they are eliminating groceries. Kroger is in the position of having a strong grocery presence already.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by architect »

Super S wrote:Let's go back to what this thread was originally about: Ohio.

I am curious if Kroger has any plans in the works to expand any existing traditional stores into the Marketplace format. Walmart has a large presence, while Meijer does not have stores in some of the smaller towns where Walmart operates. Also, there are a few former Kmart Supercenters which are still open that could be potential candidates, such as the Fremont location. Sears/Kmart seems to be very interested in selling properties.

The Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger) format has held its own in the Pacific Northwest as Walmart has added more stores. Kmart and Target have not opened any supercenter type stores in the region, although Target has expanded their grocery selection. While I don't know if there are any Super Target stores in Ohio, it is clear that the Kmart Supercenters are not doing well when they are eliminating groceries. Kroger is in the position of having a strong grocery presence already.
Sorry to take the thread off subject; I think that I was the original culprit! Also, Kroger enlarging traditional stores into Marketplaces is not unprecedented. They have recently expanded a store in Mansfield, Texas to the Marketplace format, and have announced similar plans for stores in the Atlanta region along with the Anderson Towne Center store outside of Cinci. The decision to expand vs. replace a store is dependent on many factors, particularly the cost of real estate in a particular area along with the ability to expand an existing store based on its floor plan.

Also, in my opinion, it is unlikely that Kroger would pursue former Kmart Supercenters for a Marketplace format, unless if these purchases were for land alone. From an architectural standpoint, a typical Kmart Supercenter is much deeper and larger than a typical Kroger Marketplace, which would force Kroger to either take on a ton of excess space, or develop an excessively deep floor plan so that the remaining portion of the store could be leased to another tenant. In addition, the grocery/general merchandise mix is completely different between the two tenants. Grocery occupants are particularly difficult to shoehorn into an existing building due to the amount of mechanical and plumbing systems involved, so much grocers prefer to construct their own facilities whenever possible, unless if reuse is the only route into a market.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by storewanderer »

Oddly I think there are a couple of cases where Kroger took a former Big Kmart and demolished it and built a Marketplace on the site. I can't think of where.

The footprint of a Kroger Marketplace is unfortunately closer to that of a Big Kmart than that of a Super Kmart. I keep hoping the "Marketplace" is a bridge to opening actually full assortment Fred Meyer locations in the midwest and south someday (I don't really care what name the stores have, more interested in seeing that full general merchandise mix rather than the watered down Marketplace mix) but I don't think it is.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote:Oddly I think there are a couple of cases where Kroger took a former Big Kmart and demolished it and built a Marketplace on the site. I can't think of where.

The footprint of a Kroger Marketplace is unfortunately closer to that of a Big Kmart than that of a Super Kmart. I keep hoping the "Marketplace" is a bridge to opening actually full assortment Fred Meyer locations in the midwest and south someday (I don't really care what name the stores have, more interested in seeing that full general merchandise mix rather than the watered down Marketplace mix) but I don't think it is.
Fred Meyer stores have a variety of different footprints, depending on the time the store was built. Most of the newer locations just have the two front entrances much like the Kroger Marketplace stores. But 123,000 square feet is larger than many so-called "Big" Kmarts, many of which were under 100,000 square feet.

I mention the Super Kmarts because of the fact that they were set up for groceries to begin with and are most likely to become available in the not too distant future. They could very easily accommodate a Fred Meyer type of store.

Fred Meyer has been known to try different things in their store layouts, such as a second story for apparel departments.

Kroger is smart to test the waters with the Marketplace stores, as it puts them in a better position against Walmart and Meijer as other traditional grocery stores continue to struggle.
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Re: Kroger Marketplace opens in Sandusky, Ohio

Post by architect »

Super S wrote:
storewanderer wrote:Oddly I think there are a couple of cases where Kroger took a former Big Kmart and demolished it and built a Marketplace on the site. I can't think of where.

The footprint of a Kroger Marketplace is unfortunately closer to that of a Big Kmart than that of a Super Kmart. I keep hoping the "Marketplace" is a bridge to opening actually full assortment Fred Meyer locations in the midwest and south someday (I don't really care what name the stores have, more interested in seeing that full general merchandise mix rather than the watered down Marketplace mix) but I don't think it is.
Fred Meyer stores have a variety of different footprints, depending on the time the store was built. Most of the newer locations just have the two front entrances much like the Kroger Marketplace stores. But 123,000 square feet is larger than many so-called "Big" Kmarts, many of which were under 100,000 square feet.

I mention the Super Kmarts because of the fact that they were set up for groceries to begin with and are most likely to become available in the not too distant future. They could very easily accommodate a Fred Meyer type of store.

Fred Meyer has been known to try different things in their store layouts, such as a second story for apparel departments.

Kroger is smart to test the waters with the Marketplace stores, as it puts them in a better position against Walmart and Meijer as other traditional grocery stores continue to struggle.
Honestly, I am surprised that Kroger has not attempted to build larger-format Marketplace stores, similar to Fred Meyer. Although it is difficult to make such a large store profitable, this format could also siphon away shoppers from Walmart, Meijer, and to a lesser extent Target who have grown dissatisfied with these competitors' product selection and continued cost cutting. If Kroger was to develop a format like this, then vacant Kmart Supercenters would be great locations for these stores, as they could easily fill the entire leasible space.
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