Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

I don't understand Ralphs. They spent millions of dollars doing very major remodels in NorCal, moving bakeries and delis to the other side of the store, etc. back in 2000-2003. The stores looked top of the line. Some of this was a little odd on a few stores that were in questionable neighborhoods in Sacramento. Quality was excellent. Then they priced them too high and they failed. What was funny was how many of their "remodeled" stores closed before the NorCal division closed. When they finally shut the thing down a few stores (which I assume turned a profit since they stayed open until the end) still had the old Albertsons interiors and never had been remodeled. Just a huge waste of money on stores that they shut down a few years later.

During that time in the 00's I was looking at Smiths here in Reno with 4 real old stores that looked terrible and needed serious capital investment. Smiths did build 2 new stores in Reno during that time period (and closed 1 of the old ones). Well they eventually got that capital that they needed, 10-15 years later. And they are open and running high volumes.

Fast forward to today. Ralphs seems to have some core stores that they spare no expense on, remodeling fairly often. Then they have stores that appear to perform well but for some reason do not get remodeled. Case in point is the Los Osos Store. This was built as Lucky then divested to Ralphs mid-construction so it opened as Ralphs. They are the only store in Los Osos (the old Vons/Haggen dive got refilled by a Grocery Outlet). The store does a decent volume and is in a generally good area. The store opened in 2000 and they've never remodeled it. It still even has the "Ralphs Marketplace" signage. Floors are coming up, ceiling is a mess, no self checkout... Ralphs could have become a very serious player on the central coast had they taken over stores in Paso Robles, SLO, Pismo Beach, etc. from that Haggen situation but they just sat it out and did nothing.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: January 14th, 2019, 10:29 pmRalphs seems to have some core stores that they spare no expense on, remodeling fairly often. Then they have stores that appear to perform well but for some reason do not get remodeled. Case in point is the Los Osos Store. This was built as Lucky then divested to Ralphs mid-construction so it opened as Ralphs. They are the only store in Los Osos (the old Vons/Haggen dive got refilled by a Grocery Outlet). The store does a decent volume and is in a generally good area. The store opened in 2000 and they've never remodeled it. It still even has the "Ralphs Marketplace" signage. Floors are coming up, ceiling is a mess, no self checkout...
My guess would be competition. In Los Osos where are people going to go besides that Ralphs? They probably wouldn't see much, if any, sales increase if they remodeled it so the return on investment would not be very good.

The stores here in L.A. that they remodel frequently have a lot of competition.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by reymann »

it's kind of a shame that kroger lets their fringe ralphs stores go by the wayside. i don't really see them doing much upgrades to their foodsco stores in norcal either and they sell decent volume.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

FoodsCo seems to be a pawn in Kroger. Few new stores. No Visa Credit Cards accepted now. Few fuel stations. Peculiar understaffed stores with lines stretching down the aisles due to too few cashiers (you just don't see that at ANY other Kroger banner).

FoodsCo is serving underserved areas (I'm not just thinking of the underserved parts of Oakland or Richmond with a crime history but also the places like Soledad where they are the only store) and seems to do a pretty good job as far as getting the products on the shelf and pricing the products goes. I am not sure what other operator would serve some of the areas FoodsCo operates in, if FoodsCo wasn't there.

Do any FoodsCos even have self checkout? They've been putting them into some of the F4Ls.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by Bagels »

It’s official. I noticed this afternoon that all the Van de Kamp’s-branded doughnuts are now Kroger-branded, in the familiar blue boxes the rest of the chain uses. I’m not certain when the change was made, but they were definitely using the Van de Kamp’s brand as recently as earlier in the month.

It’s the same varieties of doughnuts, just repackaged, so I assume it’s the same supplier as before. Kroger’s elsewhere sell seasonal varieties (summer = strawberry, blueberry; fall/winter = Carmel apple, pumpkin) but doesn’t look like they’ll make the cut here. Not that they’re good, but you can generally scoop up a box or two on clearance for 50c, and bring them into work.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

I think those flavored Kroger donuts came from the Columbus Bakery that they closed a few months ago... I wonder if they transferred that to another plant or just went to a third party vendor.

The VDK Bakery made its own donuts... I wonder if they were a common formula to the other Kroger ones or different. Those donuts were better than some of the current name brand ones are... which is not saying much.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: May 26th, 2019, 11:58 pm I think those flavored Kroger donuts came from the Columbus Bakery that they closed a few months ago... I wonder if they transferred that to another plant or just went to a third party vendor.

The VDK Bakery made its own donuts... I wonder if they were a common formula to the other Kroger ones or different. Those donuts were better than some of the current name brand ones are... which is not saying much.
At least in Southern California, in the early 2010s Kroger synergized to the Midwestern bakery product. The VDK products seemed to follow - the recipes definitely seemed to change. Even the VDK artisan breads seem to adapt the Kroger recipes (although La Brea products seem to have replaced all the house artisan breads)

A major disappointment IMO because I always thought the (Midwestern) Kroger products were inferior. I just assumed Kroger closed the SoCal bakery and trucked them in from elsewhere (which seems to be the trend). Have other Kroger chains also adopted the Midwest product? E.g. I haven’t been in a Smith’s since the early 2010s, but they had a product that differed from Kroger and Ralph’s.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by rwsandiego »

Bagels wrote: May 27th, 2019, 1:52 am
storewanderer wrote: May 26th, 2019, 11:58 pm I think those flavored Kroger donuts came from the Columbus Bakery that they closed a few months ago... I wonder if they transferred that to another plant or just went to a third party vendor.

The VDK Bakery made its own donuts... I wonder if they were a common formula to the other Kroger ones or different. Those donuts were better than some of the current name brand ones are... which is not saying much.
At least in Southern California, in the early 2010s Kroger synergized to the Midwestern bakery product. The VDK products seemed to follow - the recipes definitely seemed to change. Even the VDK artisan breads seem to adapt the Kroger recipes (although La Brea products seem to have replaced all the house artisan breads)

A major disappointment IMO because I always thought the (Midwestern) Kroger products were inferior. I just assumed Kroger closed the SoCal bakery and trucked them in from elsewhere (which seems to be the trend). Have other Kroger chains also adopted the Midwest product? E.g. I haven’t been in a Smith’s since the early 2010s, but they had a product that differed from Kroger and Ralph’s.
What about the "new" VDK was inferior? Or was it just different? I ask because I did not like VDK, mainly because it was not the Heinemann's I grew up with in Chicago. (Heinemann's was sold at their own bakery counters within some supermarkets and at the Bake Shop at Jewel). Having moved to SoCal shortly after the Ralphs acquisition, I don't know whether the Van DeKamp's I tried (and did not like) back in 2000 was the legacy VDK or Kroger.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by Bagels »

The legacy Ralph’s/VDK bakery products survived until the early 2010s, so relatively recently. Various Kroger divisions maintained their own baked goods, with minimal convergence... IDK if this is still true, but Ralph’s definitely has the legacy Midwestern product - maybe Kroger closed local manufacturing facilities and trucks them in, I really don’t know.

The VDK doughnut change was minimal. These are generic, highly processed mass doughnuts indifferent from Tasty Kakes, Hostess, Entenmann's, etc. The VDK change stood out to me, however, because Kroger’s chocolate doughnuts always had an aftertaste that VDK didn’t have - until the 2010s. It’s that wicked aftertaste that makes me personally avoid them. Not that any of these are my product of choice, but you can typically grab a few boxes for cheap (50c or so) on the clearance racks, and they’re crowd pleasers at work.

At least with Ralph’s, the other changes to the Midwestern product are much more noticeable: lighter cupcakes with whipped frosting, introduction of legacy Kroger cakes like the “sognature” Carmel, Kroger’s longtime carrot cake recipes (horrible IMO), harder cookies, legacy Kroger doughnuts and muffins, etc. And All of the legacy premium Ralph’s cakes have been discontinued, replaced with frozen ones made by Kroger (and premium vendors like Cheesecake Factory).
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by klkla »

rwsandiego wrote: May 27th, 2019, 9:01 am What about the "new" VDK was inferior? Or was it just different?
The original Van de Kamps was noticeably fresher, although their quality had deteriorated towards the end under various owners. They used to service the stores daily with their own employees and bring in fresh product daily and sale the day old products at their own outlet stores.
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