Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:They really should've done that maybe a year and a half ago. To put it mildly. :roll:

In any case, with the other stores now defunct thanks to H-E-B, I honestly have to wonder sometimes what people see in H-E-B. 7:30 on a Sunday evening, store is packed, every checking line staffed, customer service desk is closed "because they close early on Sundays". A lot of Tom Thumb/Albertsons/Safeway stores get a lot of flack for poor service here, but for H-E-B to pull some arbitrary garbage like this makes me glad there is a Kroger.

Dear Dallasites: You're not missing much.
Actually, Kroger pulls the same service desk mess up here too. Recently, I was shopping at the Kroger Marketplace in Wylie around 8 PM (on a weeknight) and tried to drop off some defective bags of cookies at the service counter (I discovered them on the shelf, they had not been sealed properly at the factory). However, since the service desk was closed, I had to track down a cashier, who didn't seem particularly concerned that defective product had been sitting out on the shelf for possibly days. I think that it mainly comes down to store management and the staffing hours allocated to each location (both Kroger and HEB have their goods stores and their not so great stores).

I mainly just appreciate that in your experience described, every checkout line was open. In DFW, Kroger is generally very good about staffing, but both Tom Thumb and Albertsons are terrible in this regard. Oddly enough, Market Street hasn;t been hit with the same staffing issues that the other Albertsons banners have.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by Lake Highlands »

I know a lot about the Albertsons that were sold to SunFresh. The Uptown, northwest Highway/Midway and Northwest Highway /Ferndale were among the best Albertsons in sales in DFW. As for SunFresh, the Lake Highlands store was the second best in sales and the SunFresh that had the best sales recovery close to pre Albertsons level. All SunFresh stores had huge sale decreases from Albertsons levels when Minyards took over.

Minyards paid Albertsons a mint for these stores. Of all the Albertson stores in DFW some of these were the best. I bet Albertsons was betting Minyards would fail and they would buy these stores back on the cheap.

Albertsons did make Minyards an offer for these stores but Minyards rejected it as HEB offered more money. Albertsons did take their employees back and gave them back their pay, vacation, and their start dates with Albertsons/Tom Thumb.

I also found out Albertsons got back the store at Northwest Highway and Ferndale and plans to reopen it as a Tom Thumb. I really hope they open it as an Albertsons. I know in most of North Texas, Tom Thumb is seen as the more upscale brand, but not so in Lake Highlands. This Albertsons store was by far the nicest store in this part of town.

Safeway just didn't care for the past 10 years about the Tom Thumbs in this area. Before the remodel of the store on Skillman and Royal, there was no difference between this Tom Thumb and the Festia down the street.
Also Safeway close all the Tom Thumbs in this part of town except the one on Skillman and Royal.
Closed Tom Thumbs in Lake Highlands area
Abrams/Forest
Skillman/ Abrams (was a very beautiful store former Simon David)
Garland/Jupiter
Only one left is Skillman and Royal and no one shops there even after the remodel. The customers in that store..

The Lake Highlands community also fought Tom Thumb when they wanted to open a new store at the Lake Highlands Town Center. I think TT was shocked as probably no community would fight a Tom Thumb. Safeway has ruined TT name in this part of town by neglecting the stores for so long in LH. We are getting a Sprouts now at the LHTC.

The Albertsons on Ferndale and Northwest Highway had the best clientele in this part of Dallas for a traditional grocery store. There was never rift raft in that store. The Kroger down the street was not as nice thou Kroger is doing a major remodel of the store now as thier sales went through the roof with the Ferndale SunFresh closing. They kept running low and out of fresh items on the weekends after SunFresh closed.

They also said they will keep Casa Linda Albertsons after it was just remodeled this past April. (Has all Abs signage and logos. It has thr pizza bar, sushi, etc...same as other Albertsons they are converting to TT). I hope they reopen Ferndale store as Albertsons and not Tom Thumb. Last i heard they plan on makeing it a Tom Thumb. Overall Im happy Albertsons got the store back.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

Lake Highlands wrote:I know a lot about the Albertsons that were sold to SunFresh. The Uptown, northwest Highway/Midway and Northwest Highway /Ferndale were among the best Albertsons in sales in DFW. As for SunFresh, the Lake Highlands store was the second best in sales and the SunFresh that had the best sales recovery close to pre Albertsons level. All SunFresh stores had huge sale decreases from Albertsons levels when Minyards took over.

Minyards paid Albertsons a mint for these stores. Of all the Albertson stores in DFW some of these were the best. I bet Albertsons was betting Minyards would fail and they would buy these stores back on the cheap.

Albertsons did make Minyards an offer for these stores but Minyards rejected it as HEB offered more money. Albertsons did take their employees back and gave them back their pay, vacation, and their start dates with Albertsons/Tom Thumb.

I also found out Albertsons got back the store at Northwest Highway and Ferndale and plans to reopen it as a Tom Thumb. I really hope they open it as an Albertsons. I know in most of North Texas, Tom Thumb is seen as the more upscale brand, but not so in Lake Highlands. This Albertsons store was by far the nicest store in this part of town.

Safeway just didn't care for the past 10 years about the Tom Thumbs in this area. Before the remodel of the store on Skillman and Royal, there was no difference between this Tom Thumb and the Festia down the street.
Also Safeway close all the Tom Thumbs in this part of town except the one on Skillman and Royal.
Closed Tom Thumbs in Lake Highlands area
Abrams/Forest
Skillman/ Abrams (was a very beautiful store former Simon David)
Garland/Jupiter
Only one left is Skillman and Royal and no one shops there even after the remodel. The customers in that store..

The Lake Highlands community also fought Tom Thumb when they wanted to open a new store at the Lake Highlands Town Center. I think TT was shocked as probably no community would fight a Tom Thumb. Safeway has ruined TT name in this part of town by neglecting the stores for so long in LH. We are getting a Sprouts now at the LHTC.

The Albertsons on Ferndale and Northwest Highway had the best clientele in this part of Dallas for a traditional grocery store. There was never rift raft in that store. The Kroger down the street was not as nice thou Kroger is doing a major remodel of the store now as thier sales went through the roof with the Ferndale SunFresh closing. They kept running low and out of fresh items on the weekends after SunFresh closed.

They also said they will keep Casa Linda Albertsons after it was just remodeled this past April. (Has all Abs signage and logos. It has thr pizza bar, sushi, etc...same as other Albertsons they are converting to TT). I hope they reopen Ferndale store as Albertsons and not Tom Thumb. Last i heard they plan on makeing it a Tom Thumb. Overall Im happy Albertsons got the store back.
Very informative! I had no idea that the Casa Linda Albertsons had a pizza bar as well. I had also thought that Uptown, not LH had the best sales. Uptown was apparently one of the better Albertsons in the area despite its size, and I seem to remember reading an article that Uptown was doing well for MSFM.

I'm also a bit surprised that H-E-B sold back that store so fast. Earlier in this thread I had doubts that H-E-B would actually open up in Dallas, either keeping it closed for an extended period of time and not making any friends before coming, or opening a disappointing store and damaging their chances in DFW in the long run. Of course, it makes sense, because unlike their cock-blocking in other markets, there's no nearby H-E-B to force traffic to. Of course, H-E-B still has the five other stores, so it's not like they're giving up all their ticket to the DFW area.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by Lake Highlands »

pseudo3d wrote:
Lake Highlands wrote:I know a lot about the Albertsons that were sold to SunFresh. The Uptown, northwest Highway/Midway and Northwest Highway /Ferndale were among the best Albertsons in sales in DFW. As for SunFresh, the Lake Highlands store was the second best in sales and the SunFresh that had the best sales recovery close to pre Albertsons level. All SunFresh stores had huge sale decreases from Albertsons levels when Minyards took over.

Minyards paid Albertsons a mint for these stores. Of all the Albertson stores in DFW some of these were the best. I bet Albertsons was betting Minyards would fail and they would buy these stores back on the cheap.

Albertsons did make Minyards an offer for these stores but Minyards rejected it as HEB offered more money. Albertsons did take their employees back and gave them back their pay, vacation, and their start dates with Albertsons/Tom Thumb.

I also found out Albertsons got back the store at Northwest Highway and Ferndale and plans to reopen it as a Tom Thumb. I really hope they open it as an Albertsons. I know in most of North Texas, Tom Thumb is seen as the more upscale brand, but not so in Lake Highlands. This Albertsons store was by far the nicest store in this part of town.

Safeway just didn't care for the past 10 years about the Tom Thumbs in this area. Before the remodel of the store on Skillman and Royal, there was no difference between this Tom Thumb and the Festia down the street.
Also Safeway close all the Tom Thumbs in this part of town except the one on Skillman and Royal.
Closed Tom Thumbs in Lake Highlands area
Abrams/Forest
Skillman/ Abrams (was a very beautiful store former Simon David)
Garland/Jupiter
Only one left is Skillman and Royal and no one shops there even after the remodel. The customers in that store..

The Lake Highlands community also fought Tom Thumb when they wanted to open a new store at the Lake Highlands Town Center. I think TT was shocked as probably no community would fight a Tom Thumb. Safeway has ruined TT name in this part of town by neglecting the stores for so long in LH. We are getting a Sprouts now at the LHTC.

The Albertsons on Ferndale and Northwest Highway had the best clientele in this part of Dallas for a traditional grocery store. There was never rift raft in that store. The Kroger down the street was not as nice thou Kroger is doing a major remodel of the store now as thier sales went through the roof with the Ferndale SunFresh closing. They kept running low and out of fresh items on the weekends after SunFresh closed.

They also said they will keep Casa Linda Albertsons after it was just remodeled this past April. (Has all Abs signage and logos. It has thr pizza bar, sushi, etc...same as other Albertsons they are converting to TT). I hope they reopen Ferndale store as Albertsons and not Tom Thumb. Last i heard they plan on makeing it a Tom Thumb. Overall Im happy Albertsons got the store back.
Very informative! I had no idea that the Casa Linda Albertsons had a pizza bar as well. I had also thought that Uptown, not LH had the best sales. Uptown was apparently one of the better Albertsons in the area despite its size, and I seem to remember reading an article that Uptown was doing well for MSFM.

I'm also a bit surprised that H-E-B sold back that store so fast. Earlier in this thread I had doubts that H-E-B would actually open up in Dallas, either keeping it closed for an extended period of time and not making any friends before coming, or opening a disappointing store and damaging their chances in DFW in the long run. Of course, it makes sense, because unlike their cock-blocking in other markets, there's no nearby H-E-B to force traffic to. Of course, H-E-B still has the five other stores, so it's not like they're giving up all their ticket to the DFW area.
You are correct about the Uptown store having the best sales. It was the best Albertsons by far in DFW. That store did over $800,000 a week in sales. It was also the number one MSFM in sales. Once Minyards took over these stores, they made a lot of mistakes and store sales took a dive. All the MSFM sales went down compared to when they were Albertsons or Tom Thumb. I was saying the LH store had the best sales recovery. It was the closest store to its pre Albertsons sales levels and the sales were getting better with time. It did not do anywhere as close to Uptown store in overall sales. The Uptown, LH and Midway/Northwest Hwy stores were doing well for MSFM. Not at Albertsons sales levels but made money.

I also think one of the reasons the LH store was closest in sales to it pre Albertsons sales level is MSFM didn’t do anything to the store. They left it alone. The Albertsons bench is still in the lobby. The only way anyone would know it was MSFM was by the sign on the outside. Everything on the inside stayed the way it was when it was Albertsons and the management of that store after a few weeks figured out it did better when it ran like Albertsons and that how they tried to operate that store.

To be honest when I heard Albertsons sold these 3 locations to Minyards I was shocked. These 3 stores and Casa Linda were Albertsons cash cows. I guess to make the deal go through with Minyards they had to sell these. There were plenty other stores they could of sold.

With the Central Market at Lover/Greenville, Mockingbird/Abrams, and Ferndale/Northwest Highway, I guess that would have been a little bit too much in the area. The LH one was the one to go. Lakewood store has more money around it and it smaller foodprint so it would generate a higher SPF. The Kroger at Northwest/Plano cannot handle the increase in traffic from the vacant MSFM. The store is a total disaster. They need a regular grocery store where LH MSFM was and Albertsons was ready to get it back. It will be interesting to see what HEB does with these stores. I can see Uptown, Lakewood, and West Dallas MSFM becoming Central Markets like the one on Preston and Royal. They can make the Uptown one a big store and it will do well. I guess the LH store was too big a footprint for a Central Market in that area. That store is 62,399SF. It also has the gas station, but I don’t know if Albertsons is also getting that back. When the store was put up for lease it was marketed as box (62,399SF) and fuel (1,978SF) so it would make sense for them to take both as they are getting back into fuel.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

Albertsons sold their gas stations back in 2008. Most of them became Valero, but a few became independent or closed for good. I guess this was one of those that closed.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Albertsons sold their gas stations back in 2008. Most of them became Valero, but a few became independent or closed for good. I guess this was one of those that closed.
From the 2008 versions of Google Maps, this one closed instead of being sold. It did open as a Valero, but not as a Corner Store. All Corner Stores are Valero. All Valero stations are not Corner Stores. It may still operate as a very independent store.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Albertsons sold their gas stations back in 2008. Most of them became Valero, but a few became independent or closed for good. I guess this was one of those that closed.
From the 2008 versions of Google Maps, this one closed instead of being sold. It did open as a Valero, but not as a Corner Store. All Corner Stores are Valero. All Valero stations are not Corner Stores. It may still operate as a very independent store.
It looks like it was sold. The "closed" version in 2008 still has the pumps with the Albertsons logo, I bet it was converting to a Valero then. And no, while it wasn't a Corner Store, not all Corner Stores are Valero...since they spun it off in 2013, I've seen them with other brands (Shell, Philips 66), though mostly Valero stations. [O/T: when Circle K takes over Corner Store in 2017, then new Valero stores likely will not always have Corner Store, though the former Corner Store locations probably will still be Valero stations]

I'm guessing that the gas station was tied with the store's lease, because when MSFM went, so did the gas station. (That's not always the case)
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:It looks like it was sold. The "closed" version in 2008 still has the pumps with the Albertsons logo, I bet it was converting to a Valero then. And no, while it wasn't a Corner Store, not all Corner Stores are Valero...since they spun it off in 2013, I've seen them with other brands (Shell, Philips 66), though mostly Valero stations. [O/T: when Circle K takes over Corner Store in 2017, then new Valero stores likely will not always have Corner Store, though the former Corner Store locations probably will still be Valero stations]
Slide through all the different views. Around the time of the sale to Valero/Corner Store, the store was closed. Painted over all the logos, and no Valero in sight. Since CST wasn't spun off until 2013, wouldn't explain why there was never Corner Store branding on this one. All the other Albertsons Express stores became Corner Store sites except the ones that were closed.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:It looks like it was sold. The "closed" version in 2008 still has the pumps with the Albertsons logo, I bet it was converting to a Valero then. And no, while it wasn't a Corner Store, not all Corner Stores are Valero...since they spun it off in 2013, I've seen them with other brands (Shell, Philips 66), though mostly Valero stations. [O/T: when Circle K takes over Corner Store in 2017, then new Valero stores likely will not always have Corner Store, though the former Corner Store locations probably will still be Valero stations]
Slide through all the different views. Around the time of the sale to Valero/Corner Store, the store was closed. Painted over all the logos, and no Valero in sight. Since CST wasn't spun off until 2013, wouldn't explain why there was never Corner Store branding on this one. All the other Albertsons Express stores became Corner Store sites except the ones that were closed.
In October 2008, there is a painted over sign and empty convenience center, however, the pumps are not roped off or otherwise defaced. The deal was officially completed but not the conversions. I would say that it was a conversion to Valero in process but it didn't get Corner Store for whatever reason. When Diamond Shamrock was converted over to Valero around 2005 through 2008, some stores did not get Corner Store branding while at least one DS I know of did. Diamond Shamrock had owned both Stop-N-Go (after it bought National Convenience Stores in 1995) and had Corner Store prior to that (thought it was really under Valero where they made it big), yet when some Diamond Shamrock stores became Valero, there were a handful of Stop-N-Go stores that did not become Corner Store for whatever reason.

I'm not sure if they sold ALL of them to Valero (or closed them), in Baton Rouge, one store was taken over by "Rende's Quick Stop" (Albertsons at 9650 Airline Highway), which does include the convenience store. I can't tell for sure if they closed or not, but they did keep the "Snacks" and "Beverages" signs up which suggests that they were sold and didn't close, nor that Valero flipped the store (it still maintains the Albertsons blue trim on the canopy).
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by storewanderer »

Some stores were rejected by Valero and leased to independent operators, not all of which used the Valero brand.
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