Smart & Final Moving Into Former Albertsons, LLC Stores

[Alpha8472]

Smart & Final is entering Colorado by starting a new banner called SmartCo Foods in abandoned Albertsons, LLC stores. The five units will be a hybrid of Smart & Final Extra and Henry's stores. They will also be supermarket sized at about 40,000 square feet to 61,000 square feet compared to smaller 17,500-35,000 sq. ft. Smart & Final stores.

I don't know what Smart & Final is trying to do. The prices at Smart & Final are terrible. Albertsons, LLC also had terrible pricing and they had to close down their stores in that area. They are going to lose money on these locations.

http://supermarketnews.com/news/smart_final_0308/

[romleys]

So Smart and Final will now have stores under 4 different names...

[submariner]

Henry's Is a sub of S&F? Huh. I just learned something. I like going to Henry's, the produce is awesome...

Though wouldn't this be 6 banners?

• Smart & Final
• Smart & Final extra!
• Henry's
• Sun Harvest
• Smart Foodservice Cash & Carry
• SmartCo

[storewanderer]

I really wanted to like the new Smart and Final Extra that opened in Reno due to the location and lack of decent grocery options nearby (the only other nearby conventional is a terrible Save Mart). But, between the odd product mix, erratic pricing, questionable quality of some First Street items I bought, excessive produce that I had to throw away due to poor quality, and nonstop overcharges (all due to cashier errors on multiple visits across multiple cashiers), I had to give up and just go back to Save Mart (or drive more distance to a better store, which is often the best option). A few months after they opened the store they added in more small size items but the mix was still very spotty at best.

As it stands these stores are self distributing some items and using Unified for other items (they have a small number of Springfield groceries and Western Family on their six feet of drug items with the depth of a 7-11).

They did open a Smart Foodservice in the former Smart and Final and that is a pretty good store. I do like Smart Foodservice.

Maybe there is hope for "SmartCo." I'm not holding my breath.