Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

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klkla
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by klkla »

pseudo3d wrote:I wouldn't go to say "no long term strategy" (that could best define Sears/Kmart as they try to become profitable by destroying the last of the company).
Unfortunately Mr. Lambert from Sears/KMart clearly had a strategy... which was to bleed the company dry and profit by selling off it's real estate and other assets.

As for Albertson's, I agree with veteran+ that pre-Safeway there was a very clear strategy (the so-called 'playbook') but maybe they have bit off more than they can chew and seem to be struggling with any clear strategy since the merger.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:I wouldn't go to say "no long term strategy" (that could best define Sears/Kmart as they try to become profitable by destroying the last of the company).
Unfortunately Mr. Lambert from Sears/KMart clearly had a strategy... which was to bleed the company dry and profit by selling off it's real estate and other assets.

As for Albertson's, I agree with veteran+ that pre-Safeway there was a very clear strategy (the so-called 'playbook') but maybe they have bit off more than they can chew and seem to be struggling with any clear strategy since the merger.
Well, I think that a lot of Albertsons' execution is lacking. No question about that.

- They have the lighting issue, which is something they seemed to have an idea for (brighter stores) but outsourced it to the wrong people, leading to some really messed-up former-Safeway owned stores.
- They have the Florida stores, which were the result of a slow whittling down of the original Albertsons Florida division, closed one store (because it was small and dated), and was going to remodel the other three anyway. Capital expense I think would be better served elsewhere, but I think that the Florida Safeway stores are still in a position where it could go either way, and it's best to withhold judgement. Maybe wait a year.
- They have the 3's a Crowd initiative, which again, is a good idea, but it's executed terribly. To note, this has not been rolled out chainwide.
- They have the Signature brand, which is at least a national brand instead of a mix of Essential Everyday and Safeway brand. Again, good idea, a little lacking in execution.

Compare and contrast to Winn-Dixie/BI-LO, which has had its second (at least) "transformational" store in less than 5 years, promised a bunch of higher-end remodels this year, only to turn that into a bunch of bad repaints and low-end remerchandising efforts (Fresco y Mas, Harveys) and a "Prices are lower and staying low" campaign to "Prices are lower and staying low...at least for the next three months or so".
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote:
klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Whoops, it looks like it will re-open as an Albertsons after all.

http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/453 ... albertsons
This really just confirms what I've long suspected about the new Albertson's. They don't have a long time strategy and are just making random decisions. Example: The horrible lighting retrofits, the three random Safeways in Florida, the lack of any clear direction on banners in a lot of markets, the horrible rollout of 'Three's a Crowd' ETC...

From the article:

"In May the firm announced that it was going to open the store as an Albertsons. ... Just over a month later, Jill McGinnis, communications manager and public affairs for the company’s Portland division, wrote in an email to the Herald that the company had decided to operate two Safeway stores in Baker City. ... [yesterday] Albertsons Communications Manager Jill McGinnis confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the former Haggen store will be opened as an Albertsons."
I concur!

The Cerberus Albertsons (pre merger with Safeway) seemed to have more focus and direction.

Perhaps there are too many chiefs still present from previously absorbed companies? Safeway is the likely suspect but that is only a guess.

Though I know it is not possible, I wish for the kind of management team that was around under Joe Albertson pre ACME, Shaws, Jewel, etc.

That, was the Albertsons I was so impressed with when they rolled out all those awesome combo stores! They were filled with friendly and service oriented employees as well (in my experiences).
Is what they are doing in Baker City a joke? Maybe they should open up a new store called FOOD AND DRUG and not have a name since they can't seem to get it straight what they are doing. As far as what interior it gets who cares, just get the former Haggen re-opened to better serve the customers in this community. This amount of back and forth, wishy washy statements, and lack of commitment especially in a place that is a couple hours from Boise where the Headquarters is comes off to me as a huge embarrassment. It really shows the Portland Division is operated extremely poorly. At this point Boise should handle whatever is being done in Baker City and let the Portland Division worry about its stuff closer to I-5.

I get the feeling they have really cleaned house of Safeway people. Most people I talk to seem to feel like Albertsons people are running everything and it is definitely a challenge culturally to mesh the cultures together. It seems like Albertsons people are somehow trying to jam their mindset and mentality into Safeway's very deep-rooted ways, systems, and processes and the result is coming out very jagged at the store level. Like, add in fresh cut fruit, but not enough labor to support it. Tell the deli no more pre-sliced lunchmeats (the Albertsons way- slice to order) but then don't add enough more labor to support it. 3's a Crowd, same story. Remove self checkout, put into place a new line standard, and barely add enough labor to have one more cashier on duty? I could go on and on. Sad, really.

I also think these Safeway operations are too high volume for the Albertsons people's ideas based on the lack of labor they provide. The Albertsons ideas that worked in their low volume/high price stores are one thing but Safeway particularly in California ran some really high volume stores and there were some reasons they did things how they did... to be efficient and to minimize labor. A fresh cut deli meat program is fine but you need to have 5-6 people working deli then... you can't do it with only 2-3 people in deli which the old Safeway program limped by with. Removing self checkout is fine but you just took away 4 service positions, adding one more cashier to make up for it is going to mean you have lines going into the aisles.

I agree it felt like they were making much better progress when it was just Albertsons LLC and Supervalu. Ever since Safeway has come around, it has not been feeling like progress (positive progress anyway) is being made. But let's not forget they keep posting those same store sales increases... as negative as I may be those sales numbers are rising.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by pseudo3d »

Like I said, the Albertsons programs at Safeway are less wishy-washy decisions and more execution problems. Now, the name at the Baker City, OR store I think is a sticky situation. The only thing where they really shouldn't care about is the décor package, since Color Lifestyle has been seen on both brands, and frankly, a Safeway with Albertsons LLC décor won't cause anyone a heart attack.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Like I said, the Albertsons programs at Safeway are less wishy-washy decisions and more execution problems.
Unfortunately, the company isn't in a place where it can have more execution problems, lest it be executed itself.

Albertsons has the unfortunate position now that they control 2500 stores where brand recognition, program execution, and pricing are all issues. Making little mistakes like store naming could be a deal-breaker for some folks. For example, they couldn't use the Safeway name in Texas at all. That still has way too much bad blood for most Texans to swallow.

Likewise, because they own the Haggen name, they may not be able to use it for long either, because there is much bad Haggen blood throughout the Pacific Northwest now.

It's all about doing the right thing. Right now, they aren't, and it's beginning to cost them customers.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Like I said, the Albertsons programs at Safeway are less wishy-washy decisions and more execution problems.
Unfortunately, the company isn't in a place where it can have more execution problems, lest it be executed itself.

Albertsons has the unfortunate position now that they control 2500 stores where brand recognition, program execution, and pricing are all issues. Making little mistakes like store naming could be a deal-breaker for some folks. For example, they couldn't use the Safeway name in Texas at all. That still has way too much bad blood for most Texans to swallow.

Likewise, because they own the Haggen name, they may not be able to use it for long either, because there is much bad Haggen blood throughout the Pacific Northwest now.

It's all about doing the right thing. Right now, they aren't, and it's beginning to cost them customers.
The store names Albertsons owns do have "no-go" areas, which is why Safeway can't show its face in Texas anymore, and it IS a risky process. Unfortunately, Albertsons track record isn't terribly great...after all, in the early 2000s (post-2002), they still had a number of bizarre ideas and poor execution, the light reduction and the Krispy Kreme program, which sounds great until they were just buying them up from nearby Krispy Kreme doughnut shops (which were inconsistent enough) and selling them at a slightly jacked-up price at Albertsons.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by marshd1000 »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Like I said, the Albertsons programs at Safeway are less wishy-washy decisions and more execution problems.
Unfortunately, the company isn't in a place where it can have more execution problems, lest it be executed itself.

Albertsons has the unfortunate position now that they control 2500 stores where brand recognition, program execution, and pricing are all issues. Making little mistakes like store naming could be a deal-breaker for some folks. For example, they couldn't use the Safeway name in Texas at all. That still has way too much bad blood for most Texans to swallow.

Likewise, because they own the Haggen name, they may not be able to use it for long either, because there is much bad Haggen blood throughout the Pacific Northwest now.

It's all about doing the right thing. Right now, they aren't, and it's beginning to cost them customers.
I don't believe that the Haggen name is totally tarnished. I believe that the "legacy" stores are all doing well. I think they may be wise to keep the name on those. Where it may get sticky is if they bought a store like West Seattle Thriftway, which is very similar to Haggen and slapped the Haggen banner on it. Albertsons would be wise to not buy any upscale independents in Central Puget Sound and put the Haggen name on it. They may get away with it in Northwest Washington.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by storewanderer »

I've thought about it and I've decided the quality of employee is a little risky at this point (and with what the grocers are paying, part time, dart board style scheduling, uniforms that cost quite a bit, etc. it appears there are other jobs that are just as easy to get that pay the same or a little more with a bit better conditions) to properly execute labor intensive perimeter programs well. It may have been less obvious in the low volume Albertsons Stores especially as they were closing tons of stores and had a surplus of experienced employees to "transfer in from closing stores" to the stores staying open who were career people, higher paid, and had good knowledge of their fresh department. But trying this in the busier higher volume Safeways with more new employees and seeing the very mixed execution results shows there is a labor problem: not enough labor, and not high quality enough labor. Safeway developed very formula based programs to account for this issue. Some stores executed the formula better than others but now with these new Albertsons programs what I am seeing is stores that previously executed the old Safeway ways well are now struggling... the stores that were poorly executed for years continue to be poorly executed. No change there.

Sort of like, look at the people working at in N Out and look at the ones at some other fast food place who pays minimum wage. No use naming names. Notice the ones at In N Out are in clean uniforms, smiling, polite, and the food they put out looks pretty neatly prepared and appetizing. Now go over to the other fast food place who pays minimum wage. If done right it also would be on par with In N Out. But they are inconsistent. They are getting what they pay for (minimum wage) so you go in and the employee may or may not be in a clean uniform, the food may or may not be hot, some component of the sandwich may or may not be fresh or even there, they may or may not smile at you.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I've thought about it and I've decided the quality of employee is a little risky at this point (and with what the grocers are paying, part time, dart board style scheduling, uniforms that cost quite a bit, etc. it appears there are other jobs that are just as easy to get that pay the same or a little more with a bit better conditions) to properly execute labor intensive perimeter programs well. It may have been less obvious in the low volume Albertsons Stores especially as they were closing tons of stores and had a surplus of experienced employees to "transfer in from closing stores" to the stores staying open who were career people, higher paid, and had good knowledge of their fresh department. But trying this in the busier higher volume Safeways with more new employees and seeing the very mixed execution results shows there is a labor problem: not enough labor, and not high quality enough labor. Safeway developed very formula based programs to account for this issue. Some stores executed the formula better than others but now with these new Albertsons programs what I am seeing is stores that previously executed the old Safeway ways well are now struggling... the stores that were poorly executed for years continue to be poorly executed. No change there.

Sort of like, look at the people working at in N Out and look at the ones at some other fast food place who pays minimum wage. No use naming names. Notice the ones at In N Out are in clean uniforms, smiling, polite, and the food they put out looks pretty neatly prepared and appetizing. Now go over to the other fast food place who pays minimum wage. If done right it also would be on par with In N Out. But they are inconsistent. They are getting what they pay for (minimum wage) so you go in and the employee may or may not be in a clean uniform, the food may or may not be hot, some component of the sandwich may or may not be fresh or even there, they may or may not smile at you.
Grocers (even Kroger) tend to pay close to minimum wage for deli positions (at least entry level), and turnover is high. I don't think the "old Safeway way" worked particularly well in the acquired stores (that Safeway took over in the late 1990s, like Randalls), as they had too few employees even when volume was higher (Safeway had slashed some 80 hours out of each department). Store uniforms are a mixed bag...I believe the Kroger uniform was free or pretty inexpensive, whereas Safeway's was more expensive, but you got other things from the department free (like an apron/hat)...and frankly, ultimately I had to buy my own shirt for Safeway third party as they were discontinuing the Lifestyle clothing and couldn't get anything in my size.

The need for "high quality labor" is less so since these days (at least at Albertsons/Safeway and likely Kroger too), food preparation has been largely simplified to mixes, boil-in-bags, and things that need to be just thrown in the oven or deep fryer.
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Re: Baker City, OR to get a second Safeway

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote:I've thought about it and I've decided the quality of employee is a little risky at this point (and with what the grocers are paying, part time, dart board style scheduling, uniforms that cost quite a bit, etc. it appears there are other jobs that are just as easy to get that pay the same or a little more with a bit better conditions) to properly execute labor intensive perimeter programs well. It may have been less obvious in the low volume Albertsons Stores especially as they were closing tons of stores and had a surplus of experienced employees to "transfer in from closing stores" to the stores staying open who were career people, higher paid, and had good knowledge of their fresh department. But trying this in the busier higher volume Safeways with more new employees and seeing the very mixed execution results shows there is a labor problem: not enough labor, and not high quality enough labor. Safeway developed very formula based programs to account for this issue. Some stores executed the formula better than others but now with these new Albertsons programs what I am seeing is stores that previously executed the old Safeway ways well are now struggling... the stores that were poorly executed for years continue to be poorly executed. No change there.

Sort of like, look at the people working at in N Out and look at the ones at some other fast food place who pays minimum wage. No use naming names. Notice the ones at In N Out are in clean uniforms, smiling, polite, and the food they put out looks pretty neatly prepared and appetizing. Now go over to the other fast food place who pays minimum wage. If done right it also would be on par with In N Out. But they are inconsistent. They are getting what they pay for (minimum wage) so you go in and the employee may or may not be in a clean uniform, the food may or may not be hot, some component of the sandwich may or may not be fresh or even there, they may or may not smile at you.
Great analogy with the fast food companies.

But you forgot one element regarding In N Out.

Their training is probably unique in the fast food world and probably rare in the business world in toto. Their training program has significant military styles imbedded. Their training is not negotiable. The chains of command are not negotiable. Authority is not negotiable. Employee attitudes are carefully monitored as well as customer service encounters.

I have not heard any negatives comments about this style except for those that could not conform or measure up. They just quit without any hard feelings.

Side note: they pay very well and provide great benefits.
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