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 pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
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?
H-E-B bought it but has no plans to do anything with it.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:
klkla wrote:
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?
H-E-B bought it but has no plans to do anything with it.
Officially, HEB is "evaluating all six of the purchased Minyard Sun Fresh sites for future Central Market locations." However, since this announcement, there has been information pointing to a sale of the Lake Highlands store at Northwest Highway/Ferndale to Albertsons, which would leave five locations as being owned by HEB. There are also rumors of an HEB banner expansion in DFW as the company has made numerous land purchases around the area over the last several years, along with hints which have circulated around the DFW business community. However, HEB is currently sidestepping this rumor with the statement that "we are always looking to expand to new locations, and will be sure to let our fans know when these expansions will happen." As a result, there are a ton of rumors floating around as to what these stores will eventually become.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

It occurred to me that H-E-B would rather complete "conquering" south Texas before moving onto Dallas. Randalls still floats around Austin, and the Houston market is still highly fragmented. I would bet that if H-E-B waved enough money in front of Albertsons' face, they would buy up every Randalls site in Houston, convert the ones that aren't already overlap to H-E-B, then just sit on the other sites as a "screw you" to Kroger and any other independent that might come knocking.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:It occurred to me that H-E-B would rather complete "conquering" south Texas before moving onto Dallas. Randalls still floats around Austin, and the Houston market is still highly fragmented. I would bet that if H-E-B waved enough money in front of Albertsons' face, they would buy up every Randalls site in Houston, convert the ones that aren't already overlap to H-E-B, then just sit on the other sites as a "screw you" to Kroger and any other independent that might come knocking.
Personally, I don't think that other markets are really a factor in preventing HEB from moving into Dallas. Houston is clearly their most competitive market in which they operate, and they are definitely on the upswing there (although they still have plenty of old Pantry and other undersized stores to replace to be truly dominant). I think that the biggest holdup to a DFW move in is simply the differing cultural and competitive landscape up here. Outside of Austin, Dallas and its suburbs are known as the most transplant-heavy cities in the state. Many of these out-of-state and international residents have widely differing expectations of what an ideal grocery store is; which could force HEB to refocus their marketing towards a more upscale, cosmopolitan image if they were to make a market entry. Simply advertising themselves as the "grocery store for Texans" won't cut it here. In addition, there is significant competition up here which HEB has not had to beat as a combined force. Between a dominant Kroger, a growth-minded Tom Thumb (and by extension, all Albertsons banners in their largest Texas market), WinCo, Aldi, Trader Joes and the largest concentration of Walmart stores in the country, HEB will be faced with a substantial number of fish to fry all at once. Their timing and approach is key, and HEB knows this. I anticipate that HEB may be waiting to see how the DFW competitive landscape plays out before making a move, especially in regards to integration and operations at Tom Thumb/Albertsons and store growth and market success at WinCo.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

So far, HEB isn't particularly making friends in the DFW area, at least with the City of Dallas. Both the Uptown and Mockingbird/Abrams stores have notices of code compliance violations from the City of Dallas taped to their doors, with noticeable debris, weeds and unmowed grass taking up residence across these store sites. If you are going to squat on a vacant store for an extended period, at least hire some landscape crews to clean up the place.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:So far, HEB isn't particularly making friends in the DFW area, at least with the City of Dallas. Both the Uptown and Mockingbird/Abrams stores have notices of code compliance violations from the City of Dallas taped to their doors, with noticeable debris, weeds and unmowed grass taking up residence across these store sites. If you are going to squat on a vacant store for an extended period, at least hire some landscape crews to clean up the place.
I thought something like this might happen. It's time to fish or cut bait for H-E-B. It's almost as if they bought them to keep them as dark stores just to prevent Kroger or Albertsons from getting to them before realizing that dark stores only work if you're in the market already, then have to get out of it. I doubt any of them will reopen as H-E-B-owned stores at all.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

Update on the MSF stores purchased by HEB:

This morning, HEB announced that the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway stores will be converted into Central Market's, and the remaining sites will be sold or leased. I honestly am not surprised by this, as the two chosen stores are likely the only sites that work for the CM brand. Mockingbird/Abrams is too close to the Lovers Lane CM to become a Central Market, and is far too small physically to become an HEB. The Grapevine and McKinney stores are both located at less than ideal intersections, in areas where land is plentiful and better sites are to be found. The one oddball is the Lake Highlands store, as this could be a great site for an HEB if the company was to retain the property. Lake Highlands is a fast-growing, upscale area, land is scarce, and the only competition is the Kroger down the street.


http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... res-dallas
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by wnetmacman »

architect wrote:Update on the MSF stores purchased by HEB:

This morning, HEB announced that the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway stores will be converted into Central Market's, and the remaining sites will be sold or leased. I honestly am not surprised by this, as the two chosen stores are likely the only sites that work for the CM brand. Mockingbird/Abrams is too close to the Lovers Lane CM to become a Central Market, and is far too small physically to become an HEB. The Grapevine and McKinney stores are both located at less than ideal intersections, in areas where land is plentiful and better sites are to be found. The one oddball is the Lake Highlands store, as this could be a great site for an HEB if the company was to retain the property. Lake Highlands is a fast-growing, upscale area, land is scarce, and the only competition is the Kroger down the street.


http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... res-dallas
In the article, they quote Stephen Butt as saying that the Central Market brand will be the expansion vehicle into Dallas. Shame, because I think HEB can do well there. This isn't a surprise.

I don't think any store is too small; they run the gamut of sizes throughout their marketing area.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

Both the locations kept by H-E-B seem like good locations. I like the way the store at Midway/NW Highway is set up, it makes it seem more "upscale" in a way. I'm really not surprised by the other four being sold off (Lake Highlands is going back to Albertsons IIRC), and while I may be wrong on some predictions that I made earlier in the thread, I do have better confidence in H-E-B's business sense, knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

wnetmacman wrote:
architect wrote:Update on the MSF stores purchased by HEB:

This morning, HEB announced that the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway stores will be converted into Central Market's, and the remaining sites will be sold or leased. I honestly am not surprised by this, as the two chosen stores are likely the only sites that work for the CM brand. Mockingbird/Abrams is too close to the Lovers Lane CM to become a Central Market, and is far too small physically to become an HEB. The Grapevine and McKinney stores are both located at less than ideal intersections, in areas where land is plentiful and better sites are to be found. The one oddball is the Lake Highlands store, as this could be a great site for an HEB if the company was to retain the property. Lake Highlands is a fast-growing, upscale area, land is scarce, and the only competition is the Kroger down the street.


http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... res-dallas
In the article, they quote Stephen Butt as saying that the Central Market brand will be the expansion vehicle into Dallas. Shame, because I think HEB can do well there. This isn't a surprise.

I don't think any store is too small; they run the gamut of sizes throughout their marketing area.
Although HEB is officially claiming that Central Market will be their primary format for DFW, many movements both within the company (extensive hiring for architectural and support roles which would only be needed for large-scale expansion, large-scale land purchases, etc.) and within the DFW market (defensive moves by competition, information from within the DFW business community tied to future HEB projects, HEB becoming increasingly involved in civic/political affairs) point to an eventual HEB banner expansion. By stalling in this manner however, HEB can buy time to ensure that they have their strategy clear before beginning expansion (to avoid a repet of what initially happened in Houston in the 90's). Although HEB has a wide variety of stores sizes and formats available, they likely realize that their most successful new-build stores are at least 100-120k square feet. As a result, any attempt to use the acquired MSF stores would likely not end well due to a substantial reduction in product selection which would not sit well with customers. They cannot have a repeat of what happened in the Houston market in the 1990's.
pseudo3d wrote:Both the locations kept by H-E-B seem like good locations. I like the way the store at Midway/NW Highway is set up, it makes it seem more "upscale" in a way. I'm really not surprised by the other four being sold off (Lake Highlands is going back to Albertsons IIRC), and while I may be wrong on some predictions that I made earlier in the thread, I do have better confidence in H-E-B's business sense, knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.
I completely agree with you that both of the chosen locations are gems. Uptown in obviously in a dense, successful and growing area, while Northwest Highway/Midway is located in an extremely wealthy area and is situated in a successful shopping center. Outside of that, all of the acquired stores had sort of some significant setback, outside of Lake Highlands. Due to the unique size and configuration of the majority of HEB's new-build stores, it makes more sense for HEB to build ground-up 100-120k which closely follow their latest protoypes vs. taking on and attempting to shoehorn their store into another retailer's 45-60k reject location. Due to the shear amount of vacant land near both the Grapevine and McKinney locations, it likely would not make sense for HEB to open at these existing stores. Likewise, the Mockingbird/Abrams store is simply too small for the HEB format, and is too closely located to Lovers/Greenville to become a Central Market. The only store which would make sense for HEB to use would be the Lake Highlands store, which clearly they have decided to seel instead. I am sure that Albertsons offered a hefty sum for it.

Side note: does anyone have any predictions for what might happen with the Grapevine and McKinney sites? Personally, I think that Grapevine would make a great Kroger location, though I doubt that HEB would sell directly to major competition.
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