Why no Pavilions in NorCal?

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bcookeya2
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Why no Pavilions in NorCal?

Post by bcookeya2 »

I was a loyal Pavilions shopper in Southern California. I've recently moved to Marin County up in NorCal- completely devoid of any Pavilions grocery stores. All we have is Safeway- exactly the same as Vons. Marin/SF is a very upscale, affluent area. Any idea why there are no Pavilions stores up here? Or- if Albertson's plans on moving the brand up here?
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Re: Why no Pavilions in NorCal?

Post by submariner »

bcookeya2 wrote: June 4th, 2018, 5:23 pm I was a loyal Pavilions shopper in Southern California. I've recently moved to Marin County up in NorCal- completely devoid of any Pavilions grocery stores. All we have is Safeway- exactly the same as Vons. Marin/SF is a very upscale, affluent area. Any idea why there are no Pavilions stores up here? Or- if Albertson's plans on moving the brand up here?
Pavilions was an premium shopping concept started by Vons, before they were purchased by Safeway. Under Safewway's leadership, they saw no interest in Pavilions as a distinct chain and they eventually languished into little more than a Vons with a larger selection. Since the Albertsons purchase, there seems to be a very slight interest in re-marketing Pavilions as a premium shopping experience, though it still has a long way to go.

In short, Pavilions has always been considered a sister store to Vons, so there never was a demand to expand it very much beyond the LA/OC metro area.
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Re: Why no Pavilions in NorCal?

Post by storewanderer »

Your Marin County Safeways are already "premium" style Safeway Stores. I was recently in Strawberry, Novato, and San Anselmo. These stores are far better than most NorCal Safeways, better presented, Boar's Head in deli, more fresh products available, much more liquor, and overall much better execution than I am used to from Safeway. These stores looked far better than the last few Pavilions I've been in down in SoCal (which seemed like B- or C Grade Vons at best).

Safeway also has a sub-format called Community Markets in San Anselmo (former Andronicos).

There are various other upscale chains operating in Marin County. Marin County has in my opinion the best group of independent grocers in NorCal. These are really good little operators. Including, Nugget, and various upscale independents like Woodlands, Marinwood Market, Harvest, Petaluma Market, Good Earth Natural Foods... there are others I'm missing. Many of these stores were made possible from when Ralphs exited NorCal as many of these are former Ralphs sites.
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