Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by Andrew T. »

rwsandiego wrote:Kroger operated in Chicago until the early 1970's when they sold out to Dominick's. In fact, the Park Ridge Mariano's was a Dominick's that replaced a Dominick's store that started as a Kroger.
This brings to mind an intriguing, though highly unlikely possibility: Since the Roundy's acquisition reunited Kroger with its pre-1971 trade area, did the acquisition also reunite Kroger with any of its pre-1971 store buildings?
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by pseudo3d »

Andrew T. wrote:
rwsandiego wrote:Kroger operated in Chicago until the early 1970's when they sold out to Dominick's. In fact, the Park Ridge Mariano's was a Dominick's that replaced a Dominick's store that started as a Kroger.
This brings to mind an intriguing, though highly unlikely possibility: Since the Roundy's acquisition reunited Kroger with its pre-1971 trade area, did the acquisition also reunite Kroger with any of its pre-1971 store buildings?
I would say no, considering that it was 1971 and any store buildings still operating are likely to be operating as third-rate grocers. Safeway's pull out of Houston and Austin and subsequent return via Randalls have resulted in a small handful of stores in Austin (thanks to Randalls buying almost the entirety of the Safeway spin-off AppleTree in Austin) and a few in Houston (three, though all but one have closed). Most of these today are considered small, dumpy stores that haven't seen a lot of investment except Lifestyle window-dressing.

Kroger never lasted long in Wisconsin, it bought Krambo Foods in the mid-1960s and did what they did to other regional stores in that era, is introduce a "Kroger-ized" version of the logo. Some of these stores closed soon after (Kroger didn't last too long in Waco, Texas, either) but some became huge successes (Henke & Pillot in Houston evolved into a huge Kroger market).
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by rwsandiego »

Andrew T. wrote:
rwsandiego wrote:Kroger operated in Chicago until the early 1970's when they sold out to Dominick's. In fact, the Park Ridge Mariano's was a Dominick's that replaced a Dominick's store that started as a Kroger.
This brings to mind an intriguing, though highly unlikely possibility: Since the Roundy's acquisition reunited Kroger with its pre-1971 trade area, did the acquisition also reunite Kroger with any of its pre-1971 store buildings?
Interesting question, but the answer is "no, they did not." While I certainly do not remember all of the former Kroger locations, the ones I do remember were all very small except for the Park Ridge store. It started as a large-ish Kroger with a Walgreens next door, connected by a door. Dominick's operated a similar arrangement until that Walgreens and a small Walgreens at Talcott and Cumberland consolidated into the building formerly occupied by Jewel next to the Talcott/Cumberland Walgreens. At that point, Dominick's expanded into the entire building. In the 1990's, they razed the Higgins/Cumberland building and built a huge Dominick's Fresh Store complete with underground parking. Dominick's Fresh Store was Bob Mariano's brainchild and was the precursor to the present-day Mariano's.

The other Krogers I remember (Higgins and Foster, downtown Evanston, Marine Drive and Wilson [or Lawrence], Harlem-Irving Plaza, Broadway, and the original Damen and Ridge) were small. All of these stores were relocated to larger buildings in the late '70's and early '80's. Higgins and Foster moved to Nagle and Milwaukee, downtown Evanston to Chicago Ave and Main St (complete with a Heinemann's cookie machine!!), the HIP across the street to Norridge Commons, Damen and Ridge to a bigger building at the same location, and I think Marine Drive/Wison (or Lawrence) closed and became a Walgreens, much like the small Broadway store that was a few blocks away from the larger Dominick's that occupied the old Eagle.

Interestingly, the Lakeview Mariano's (3030 N Broadway) was built on the site of a Dominick's that burned down in 2005. That location might have started out as a Kroger.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

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For the record, Kroger first expanded into Wisconsin by acquiring the Universal Grocery Company of Madison in 1928, and operated there for 43 years. That definitely counts as "lasting long;" though it was long ago.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

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Moving back to the present day, I'd like to talk about two things that Roundy's is bad at: Loyalty cards, and self checkouts.

First, the cards. Even though Roundy's bought Copps in 2001, the parent company stubbornly insisted on retaining parallel loyalty-card programs for its banners for years afterward. Copps had its Key Savings Club, Pick 'n Save had its Advantage Plus Card, and who knows what Rainbow was doing.

In 2009, they brought out a standardized Roundy's card for all their banners. Yay, no more confusion! But everyone had to get rid of their old cards, which was a pain. They also introduced fuel discount promotions...although Roundy's didn't run gas stations, so where you could redeem them was anyone's guess.

Four years later, they discontinued the fuel promotion...and naturally, made everyone get new cards once again. The new cards were deemed "Fresh Perks" cards, and their introduction coincided with the advent of a ridiculous ticket promotion that wasted time and paper at the checkout.

Trivia: The Roundy's Fresh Perks cards still have the Rainbow Foods logo on them to this day; even though Roundy's sold off whatever part of Rainbow it didn't shut down two years ago.

Another problem with Roundy's cards: They print the barcode on the card over the protective laminate. So after a year or two, the barcode on your keychain card will have worn off and the card will no longer work.

All this means is that I've gone through six Roundy's cards in eight years...which is ridiculous. I don't like cards to begin with, and I hope Kroger doesn't make me get a seventh.
_______________

As for self-checkouts? Every time I try to use them at a Copps or Pick 'n Save store, I regret it. The machines they use are extremely finicky: Almost every transaction involves the scanner being reluctant to read a barcode, or the scale balking at the weight of an item and requiring staff assistance. The self-checkouts at Woodman's never give me anywhere near this much trouble. No chip-card readers have even been installed. And if you need staff to help you work the machine, there's no point in having self-checkouts in the first place.

What happens if you put two and two together? Roundy's is not yet accepting Kroger loyalty cards...and if you try to scan one at one of their self-checkouts, it immobilizes the machine and requires employee intervention to go any farther. Great, just great.

When will this change? I asked an employee, and the answer was "I don't know." They had just "reset" the store, and were busily adding Kroger products and a floral section as the first rounds of change. Any POS upgrades, presumably, were further down on the makeover list.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by storewanderer »

I thought Bob Mariano retired but he is all over the article about this grand opening: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html

Notes that remodels are being put off due to Kroger's cutting of capital expenditures recently, but still planning 4 store openings next year.

Looks like Kroger shelf tags in the new store being opened... that is sure a quick system conversion. Meanwhile Harris Teeter continues along with its own systems.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote:I thought Bob Mariano retired but he is all over the article about this grand opening: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... story.html

Notes that remodels are being put off due to Kroger's cutting of capital expenditures recently, but still planning 4 store openings next year.

Looks like Kroger shelf tags in the new store being opened... that is sure a quick system conversion. Meanwhile Harris Teeter continues along with its own systems.
He is still an advisor to Kroger. Given the significance of opening an upscale grocery store in a predominantly African American neighborhood that is underserved by supermarkets, it does not surprise me that Bob Mariano was all over the article.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by storewanderer »

Kroger has re-issued Smiths cards twice and reissued Ralphs cards once. The first reissues were due to the numbering sequence used on both cards pre-Kroger (card numbers started with 24.... Kroger card numbers all start with 4... and had a different number of digits). Ralphs card reissue paralleled the Ralphs Rewards program and in some cases people didn't even know the cards were being reissued. The way the reissue worked was they scanned your old card during a transaction, then scanned a "card link" bar code and scanned a new card and it linked the two together. Smiths reissued cards a second time when they went to the "Rewards" program which was only being done in certain markets so they had to reissue cards. Ultimately all markets got the reissued cards but in that case the old cards from reissue 1 do still work but may not accumulate fuel points (they didn't accumulate the old Rewards points).

So I would not be surprised to see them reissue cards. I was able to use a Kroger loyalty card at the one Harris Teeter I went to that had Kroger cash registers; the other 10+ locations I went to, no luck, but a house card was readily available in all cases so again I never bothered to sign up for a card there. It was also my understanding Mariano's had a loyalty card (for some reason I never signed up for it when I was there; I guess I either bought nothing on sale or they took care of me with a house card) which would not work up in WI, and also the WI cards would not work at Mariano's.

Kroger's self checkouts are pretty sensitive too. I believe it is deliberate to require heavy employee involvement and monitoring. In some of the stores with "better" self checkouts (I say better from a customer point of view since they aren't sensitive and take transactions without much cashier intervention) it is not uncommon for the self checkouts to be unstaffed or the employee to go missing and not watch what is going on at self checkout. That is a shrink nightmare.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

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storewanderer wrote:Kroger has re-issued Smiths cards twice and reissued Ralphs cards once. The first reissues were due to the numbering sequence used on both cards pre-Kroger (card numbers started with 24.... Kroger card numbers all start with 4... and had a different number of digits). Ralphs card reissue paralleled the Ralphs Rewards program and in some cases people didn't even know the cards were being reissued. The way the reissue worked was they scanned your old card during a transaction, then scanned a "card link" bar code and scanned a new card and it linked the two together. Smiths reissued cards a second time when they went to the "Rewards" program which was only being done in certain markets so they had to reissue cards. Ultimately all markets got the reissued cards but in that case the old cards from reissue 1 do still work but may not accumulate fuel points (they didn't accumulate the old Rewards points).

So I would not be surprised to see them reissue cards. I was able to use a Kroger loyalty card at the one Harris Teeter I went to that had Kroger cash registers; the other 10+ locations I went to, no luck, but a house card was readily available in all cases so again I never bothered to sign up for a card there. It was also my understanding Mariano's had a loyalty card (for some reason I never signed up for it when I was there; I guess I either bought nothing on sale or they took care of me with a house card) which would not work up in WI, and also the WI cards would not work at Mariano's.

Kroger's self checkouts are pretty sensitive too. I believe it is deliberate to require heavy employee involvement and monitoring. In some of the stores with "better" self checkouts (I say better from a customer point of view since they aren't sensitive and take transactions without much cashier intervention) it is not uncommon for the self checkouts to be unstaffed or the employee to go missing and not watch what is going on at self checkout. That is a shrink nightmare.
I'm pretty sure that Safeway was able to integrate their shoppers cards...I know that the Randalls card was integrated successfully, though pre-1999 cards weren't compatible with the rest of the system (the Randalls card has been around since at least 1991, though it was not for sales offers).

I have a feeling that sooner or later Mariano's will be opening in neighborhoods that can't really support it (this latest one may be that eventually, who knows) and that they'll have to close stores or downgrade the brand (creating at least some distinct "B-stores"). I honestly think that they should try to introduce the Kroger name into the Roundy's division, if only to give an alternate brand for non-Mariano's stores, and to "bridge" Kroger with stores east of Chicago. Unlike Kroger's holdings in the West, there just aren't a lot of non-Kroger names closer to their home turf. Am I saying they should rebrand Pick 'n Save to Kroger? No, at least not yet.
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Re: Kroger to buy Roundy's for $800 million

Post by rwsandiego »

pseudo3d wrote:I have a feeling that sooner or later Mariano's will be opening in neighborhoods that can't really support it (this latest one may be that eventually, who knows) and that they'll have to close stores or downgrade the brand (creating at least some distinct "B-stores")...
Given their current coverage, they could easily add 10 - 15 new stores without venturing into areas that can't support them. I could see them opening in the following locations:
  • Evanston
    Wilmette or Winnetka
    Lake Forest or Highland Park
    Schaumburg
    Mount Prospect
    Possibly a second Arlington Heights location
    Algonquin
    Possibly parts of Elgin
    Geneva and/or St Charles
    Oak Park/River Forest/Forest
    Bolingbrook
    Romeoville
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