Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

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storewanderer
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Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by storewanderer »

Greenwood Safeway and Aurora Albertsons...

"Underperforming?"

http://q13fox.com/2018/05/14/seattle-an ... y-june-16/

Wow... Or are they selling real estate to raise cash? I think that Greenwood is some pretty valuable real estate. Not sure how valuable Aurora is but maybe they wanted to unload it based on the neighborhood.

Greenwood used to be a very busy Safeway. Before the Fred Meyer rebuilt nearby, I guess.

And Aurora Albertsons was also historically a very good performing Albertsons. The area seems to have gotten worse over the years though. Then, the other issue is the large Asian grocer moved into the closed Kmart next to it, I guess...

Maybe they really were "underperforming." Due to this company's inability to price competitively, offer things like self checkout to get customers out of the store quickly, and properly react to new competition...

I would have expected the Safeway behind University Village to be the goner... that store sure doesn't look like it performs well. Also quite the cheap lifestyle remodel in that one, only lifestyle remodel I've seen that kept turntable checkstands.
Last edited by storewanderer on May 14th, 2018, 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by pseudo3d »

Worth noting that the "employee tax" they were discussing earlier was reduced by half. Still, the timing seems to be not a coincidence...maybe they were just looking for an excuse to dump the stores.
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by storewanderer »

Well the article I posted does seem to allude to "other things" done the past few years in the City of Seattle that have caused operating costs to increase.

But it doesn't matter. Seattle and its city leaders will do what they have been doing the past few years; they are voted in by the city residents and evidently the majority of residents seem to support these initiatives or they would not keep voting people in who propose this stuff. So rather than complain and close stores, best to just modify operations to be successful in this sort of environment. Isn't that the sort of thing a decentralized approach is supposed to support?

But that hasn't stopped other people from opening new stores in Seattle that sell groceries... like that new large Asian store in the former Kmart next to one of these two stores that is closing...
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by jamcool »

Which likely has a handful of employees. Expect any mass retailer in the city limits to have bare-bone crews, self-scanning/kiosks or close entirely. What does that do to the unemployment numbers in Seattle?
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by storewanderer »

jamcool wrote: May 15th, 2018, 2:31 pm Which likely has a handful of employees. Expect any mass retailer in the city limits to have bare-bone crews, self-scanning/kiosks or close entirely. What does that do to the unemployment numbers in Seattle?
Albertsons/Safeway needs to change its mentality. Their anti-self checkout stance (and many negative reviews of that closing Seattle Safeway are complaining about lack of self checkout) is hurting them big time.

I think retailers will adapt (code word for raise prices) who need to be close to customers (like grocers) but it would not surprise me to see some other large stores go out of Seattle due to this initiative (ones that draw from a wider radius).
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: May 15th, 2018, 10:00 pm

Albertsons/Safeway needs to change its mentality. Their anti-self checkout stance (and many negative reviews of that closing Seattle Safeway are complaining about lack of self checkout) is hurting them big time.
They have reversed their stance, at least under the Acme division. They tried ripping out self checkouts and replacing them with more express lanes that were never staffed.....so many complaints, especially at the stores they acquired from A&P. They are finally adding self checkouts back in, but I think the damage has already been done, with customers seeing out more convenient options, at stores with lower prices .
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by eric1972sea »

Greenwood Safeway lacks self checkout which always struck me as odd considering it’s not a small store like lower Queen Anne location. But Greenwood property values are rising fast. Walgreens closed their Greenwood store last year across the street from Safeway.

Aurora Probably has lots of shoplifting issues there’s been an uptick in crime Some blame a New nearby Low barrier tiny house shelter for.
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by SamSpade »

storewanderer wrote: May 15th, 2018, 10:00 pm Albertsons/Safeway needs to change its mentality. Their anti-self checkout stance (and many negative reviews of that closing Seattle Safeway are complaining about lack of self checkout) is hurting them big time.
This seems to be changing in some places (as the other poster indicated).
In downtown Portland, the Safeway has 10 self check out positions now (one on each end of the largely walk-in trafficked store). This may also partially have been to slow the constant backup into the frozen food aisle as people queued for the 6 or so that were originally available. There is still one regularly open express register, too.

The "downtown" (Stadium) Fred Meyer also has self checks on both sides of their regular checkout lanes, which one side was added in recent history. I'm not in this store as often at peak shopping times these days, so I have yet to see the new side open, but they definitely move all the small basket (hand basket) shoppers through.

Edit: I remembered that there is a third self-checkout area at Fred Meyer, near the doors that exit directly onto Burnside. (there is also a loss prevention officer now stationed at that door)
Last edited by SamSpade on May 16th, 2018, 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by babs »

A few months ago I was in Manhattan and visited several of the new Target stores. It was nearly all self-checkout. I wish I would have counted but I think the Herald Square location had 25-30 self-checkout stands all in a row and the Tribeca store had 12-15. I realize the location likely makes the basket size smaller but it still seemed like a preview of the future of store checkout.
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Re: Albertsons closing 2 Seattle Stores

Post by rwsandiego »

The Downtown San Jose Safeway had several self-checkouts as did the one I visited in suburban San Jose.
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