Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale prices

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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

arizonaguy wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:This seems to be a continuation of the recent "loose cannon"-ization of Kroger. Not to the extent of Albertsons, which has been buying and closing stores since the late 1990s. But Kroger has been doing some unusual things lately. Buying Harris Teeter and not doing much with it, a partnership with Lucky's Market, buying Mariano's and doing something with it, and now this. I wonder if Kroger would actually do anything like leasing excess space or tearing down and rebuilding stores with reduced footprints.
Kroger has leased some excess space in the Phoenix area. They've torn down and rebuilt several stores with expanded footprints. They don't seem to want to do the reverse though.
Fred Meyer has, in a few instances, consolidated separate home improvement centers back into their main stores (and rebranded them Fred Meyer Marketplace) , although the main stores have eliminated apparel in those cases. One location at 82nd & Foster in Portland became a Harbor Freight tools, while one on highway 99 in Vancouver was a Salvation Army thrift store for a while, and recently was torn down and replaced by a Fred Meyer gas station.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote:What has Kroger changed at Mariano's? All they've done is swap out some existing private label items with Simple Truth, Big K, and Private Selection.

Harris Teeter is not being changed much for some unknown reason. But there are changes. Some of the private label items are being made at Kroger plants despite keeping the old format labels. The stores look completely different and systems integration seems to be happening at a snail's pace.

Kroger in the early 2000's did tear down an old old Fred Meyer in Montana and replace it with a smaller footprint conventional Smiths. Typically they go bigger, not smaller...

Spokane has various card free competitors: Yokes, WinCo, Wal Mart, Albertsons, Rosauers. Interesting market to do this "test" in. Recall Spokane also had the only Fred Meyer store closure in about the past 15 years. Maybe it isn't a great market for them so they figured they did not have much to lose.

Well, Albertsons isn't really card free in a lot of markets. At this point they are requiring Just for You to get various front page specials in TX, CO, ID, UT, etc. some weeks so they may not have a physical card but they are basically requiring the card. Actually what Albertsons is doing is worse than issuing a physical card because the casual shopper can't enter the store and sign up for a card to get the discounts. They must get on a smartphone, download an app, sign up...
Fred Meyer did close the Rockwood store in Portland in 2002, with no direct replacement, which was eventually torn down. It remains an empty lot to this day.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:What has Kroger changed at Mariano's? All they've done is swap out some existing private label items with Simple Truth, Big K, and Private Selection.
Wonder if, if anything, how Kroger will handle the "Kroger Marketplace" concept at Roundy's, since they seem keen on forcing it on every division as we can see here.
Spokane has various card free competitors: Yokes, WinCo, Wal Mart, Albertsons, Rosauers. Interesting market to do this "test" in. Recall Spokane also had the only Fred Meyer store closure in about the past 15 years. Maybe it isn't a great market for them so they figured they did not have much to lose.
They ARE renovating the stores, at least adding things like the beer and wine bars. Clearly Spokane is doing alright enough where they want to renovate all four stores. If the remerchandising flops, they can just rearrange the store to the way it was before with complete departments. I highly doubt that they would close the stores. Most of the stores Kroger closes are usually out of date stores in declining areas.
Well, Albertsons isn't really card free in a lot of markets. At this point they are requiring Just for You to get various front page specials in TX, CO, ID, UT, etc. some weeks so they may not have a physical card but they are basically requiring the card. Actually what Albertsons is doing is worse than issuing a physical card because the casual shopper can't enter the store and sign up for a card to get the discounts. They must get on a smartphone, download an app, sign up...
From my tests of looking at the Tom Thumb and Albertsons ads (in Dallas, where the two markets co-exist and the closest co-existing market to me), the card is only required for sales at Tom Thumb stores (not Albertsons). The J4U is, if I recall rewards and a few exclusive items (generally not advertised in papers). The Kroger ad also requires the card for all sales, and also has a similar mobile platform with its own digital coupons with its own app. (link). The only major advantage that Kroger has in this department is its Plus card and "extra digital coupons" interface are linked from the start, and there's no telling if Kroger will decide to stop issuing physical cards in the near future.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by storewanderer »

Kroger has no "Marketplace" stores in the Ralphs division, QFC division (well there is that one in downtown Seattle in a former Fred Meyer that isn't marketed as such), F4L Division, or Jay C Division. The Marketplace Stores Ralphs once had named as such were not the same format as these current stores.

Check out an Albertsons ad for Intermountain (Grand Junction, CO, MT, ID, etc.). Milk and cookies on the front page "exclusive digital offer" then two coupons below "click or clip." Exclusive Digital Offer means no J4Y, no sale price. No paper coupon option.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:Kroger has no "Marketplace" stores in the Ralphs division, QFC division (well there is that one in downtown Seattle in a former Fred Meyer that isn't marketed as such), F4L Division, or Jay C Division. The Marketplace Stores Ralphs once had named as such were not the same format as these current stores.
Ralphs Marketplace is probably unfeasible based on the oddities of California stores (especially seeing as how Ralphs store base continues to shrink). QFC I've always thought that due to market overlap, it didn't need to have Marketplace based on Fred Meyer, though if things go the way they are, they might not need it (though the "Fred Meyer Marketplace" stores are extant, though they're not the same format).
Check out an Albertsons ad for Intermountain (Grand Junction, CO, MT, ID, etc.). Milk and cookies on the front page "exclusive digital offer" then two coupons below "click or clip." Exclusive Digital Offer means no J4Y, no sale price. No paper coupon option.
True enough, but it's not universal (thankfully). Looks like it's one of those eccentricities between advertising pages. The ACME and Jewel ads now look almost totally different from the Albertsons ads.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by storewanderer »

Let's see how this test goes. What concerns me is the ability to manipulate data and make the test look successful. For instance, if you cut out non food space, you expect to see food sales increase. So you set an expectation food sales rise 15% by that means. Forget that you have diminished the stores (or have you?) by doing this. Or maybe it is an unfortunate realization that the Fred Meyer non food program is no longer as successful as it once was so it is time to shift more of that space to lower margin but higher volume food.

Another example is the "Rewards Card." So the old program did not require the card for sale prices. Let's assume that customer usage of the card took place in about 70% of transactions before since not everyone cared about Rewards/Fuel points. Now under this new program you require people to use the card for sale prices. Obviously almost everyone wants sale prices. So now you see card usage is about 90% of transactions so you can say well we made these changes and more customers are using the card so they must like it. No, they are using it because they are forced to do so.

Honestly, perfect opportunity for Safeway/Albertsons in Spokane to eliminate use of the Safeway Club Card for sale prices in their own "test" and see how that is received...
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Brian Lutz »

pseudo3d wrote:This seems to be a continuation of the recent "loose cannon"-ization of Kroger. Not to the extent of Albertsons, which has been buying and closing stores since the late 1990s. But Kroger has been doing some unusual things lately. Buying Harris Teeter and not doing much with it, a partnership with Lucky's Market, buying Mariano's and doing something with it, and now this. I wonder if Kroger would actually do anything like leasing excess space or tearing down and rebuilding stores with reduced footprints.
Given the fact that Fred Meyer has been reclaiming previously leased space in their stores in the most recent round of remodels, that seems unlikely. If anything they are trying to grow their stores (the Bellevue store is currently under a remodel that is adding a fair amount of space to what was originally a White Front store.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by bm10k »

It's Been A few weeks since they remodeled the stores and they replaced the rewards card with this

https://kroger.softcoin.com/programs/kr ... Fred_Meyer

I sure hope Kroger doesn't push this chainwide
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by SamSpade »

bm10k wrote:It's Been A few weeks since they remodeled the stores and they replaced the rewards card with this

https://kroger.softcoin.com/programs/kr ... Fred_Meyer

I sure hope Kroger doesn't push this chainwide
Eesh. I agree.

So as part of these "special club" rewards, do you also no longer have to bother with apparel / home / electronics coupons? I thought that was part of the Fred Meyer experience. . . at least, it has been for at least the past 5-7 years. It doesn't help that they were on essentially 3 of 4 weeks a month. I think some associate told me once what the exact schedule was, but I've forgotten. I always figured that was a way for Kroger to squeeze more margin out of lazy / unaware consumers.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by storewanderer »

The current ad still has coupons for non food. The coupons now say "valid with coupon and My Freddy's Card."

Personalized pricing that requires a card and smartphone app or website login? Store coupons that require the loyalty card to use?

Where did they get these ideas? Safeway?

This is a real loser.

If they want ideas they ought to go look at Real Canadian Superstore for some ideas. They could learn a lot more there.
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