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 »

Lake Highlands wrote:
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.
I am honestly quite surprised that HEB sold the Northwest Highway/Ferndale store so quickly. This particular store is large and in an excellent location surrounded by neighborhoods moving more upscale. My guess is that HEB has put their namesake store expansion in DFW on hold indefinitely (likely due to the current low food prices) and this store was simply too large for a neighborhood-oriented Central Market. If they ever decide to bring the HEB brand to DFW though, I am sure that they will be kicking themselves for letting this store go. I wonder what type of incentives Albertsons gave to HEB to get this store back? It would be interesting if there is some type of store trade involved.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by storewanderer »

I am more than a little shocked that HEB gave up one of these stores to Albertsons.

I wonder what the arrangement is. I wonder if Albertsons is subleasing it from HEB or this is an outright HEB is out of the picture sort of deal.

HEB is probably scared of WinCo. They probably should be. That is a battle I am really looking forward to. Come on HEB, man up.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

I'm sure H-E-B made a little profit off of the store, and they still have five store sites in D-FW plus a number of undeveloped land options. I'm not sure on store trades, I wouldn't be surprised if they flipped the Murphy store to them for this one.

Realistically, though, it's not like H-E-B particularly benefitted from these stores. I'm sure it's not the store size. There was a recent 30k Central Market that was a former Marina Safeway, but that was unusual. The Southlake CM is 75k square feet. Because they're buildings in the main city and not land in the suburbs, they'll still have to pay taxes on them, and unlike San Antonio, Austin, or College Station, they cannot hold a store hostage to drive shoppers to their store, all they're doing is feeding Kroger and Albertsons. They can't quickly reopen because that will create the impression that "it's just another grocery store" to some and disappoint others who believe H-E-B is "the Texas version of Wegmans" or something. Most results would either create a disappointing entrance that will never gain traction in the market. Like I said earlier in the thread, I think H-E-B is aware of this.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by storewanderer »

I'm wondering if after they picked up this real estate they took a deeper look at the market and decided it was not best to move forward with some or all of these sites.

So then the question is what next. We know they have picked up other real estate in DFW area besides these stores. Will they hold that real estate for future development or start to let that real estate go to other uses as well?

I think they are scared of WinCo. The competitive dynamic in DFW is pretty high given WinCo entering and expanding, Kroger's recent successes, and what seems to be a growth minded Tom Thumb.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:I'm sure H-E-B made a little profit off of the store, and they still have five store sites in D-FW plus a number of undeveloped land options. I'm not sure on store trades, I wouldn't be surprised if they flipped the Murphy store to them for this one.
I doubt that HEB is interested in the Murphy store, as they own land nearby at the southwest corner of 544/McCreary (unless if they decided to sell this land as a result). It would not surprise me if HEB traded for other store sites though. Surely HEB didn't just give the Lake Highlands store to Albertsons without something in the deal for themselves.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

Another thought: could Albertsons have offered some of their overlapping stores to HEB in exchange for the Lake Highlands store? Particularly in Richardson, Plano, Allen, Coppell, Lewisville and Flower Mound, Albertsons has many stores in close enough proximity to one-another that they could likely be cannibalizing sales (particularly between the Allen, Plano, Coppell and Flower Mound Market Street stores and nearby Tom Thumb locations). By giving some of these stores to HEB in exchange for Lake Highlands, it would give Albertsons an opportunity to bolster their presence in Lake Highlands and normalize their store count in these other areas, while also giving HEB an inroads into these established suburban areas.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:Another thought: could Albertsons have offered some of their overlapping stores to HEB in exchange for the Lake Highlands store? Particularly in Richardson, Plano, Allen, Coppell, Lewisville and Flower Mound, Albertsons has many stores in close enough proximity to one-another that they could likely be cannibalizing sales (particularly between the Allen, Plano, Coppell and Flower Mound Market Street stores and nearby Tom Thumb locations). By giving some of these stores to HEB in exchange for Lake Highlands, it would give Albertsons an opportunity to bolster their presence in Lake Highlands and normalize their store count in these other areas, while also giving HEB an inroads into these established suburban areas.
I don't think that they would give up three stores for one. I think it was a simple cash transaction, where H-E-B sold it for a profit and probably worth as much for one as much as they were bidding on the six. Either way, it would make sense to see H-E-B negotiating with Albertsons instead of Kroger negotiating with Albertsons.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

Here are some photos I got of the Uptown Minyard Sun Fresh on its final day of operation. Their selection consisted mostly of random half-opened personal care items, balloons/party supplies for past holidays (they were literally selling New Years 2016 napkins, among numerous other holidays), and a few expired canned goods. Store fixtures were blocking off almost the entirety of the store; the only area open was a series of freestanding shelving units centered around the floral department, which funneled directly to a register. There had to be at least 6-7 employees just standing at the front with nothing to do, yet forced to show up for work. It was just a really sad scene overall.

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

Post by SamSpade »

architect wrote:There had to be at least 6-7 employees just standing at the front with nothing to do, yet forced to show up for work.
Reminds me of what happened in Port Angeles, Wash. on the last day at Haggen:
http://archive.peninsuladailynews.com/a ... ss-in-port

I think the Oregonian / OregonLive.com reported that the Haggen employees were on "paid leave" but had to work during their store closings. Maybe it's been something similar for Minyard Sun Fresh.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by klkla »

architect wrote:Here are some photos I got of the Uptown Minyard Sun Fresh on its final day of operation.
I'm too lazy to look back through the past threads. Who is taking this location?
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