Supervalu closes divested Albertsons in Lake Stevens and Woodinville, WA

[storewanderer]

Appears this is slightly dated news but both of these former Albertsons rebranded as County Market stores closed in the past month or so. From the best I can tell, these stores continued to be corporate operated by Supervalu.

What is interesting in looking at the stores is they did repaint the walls from the old Albertsons decor into some really dated or maybe a better phrase is country looking decor.

I never expected Supervalu to keep operating two corporate owned stores in WA. It never made any sense.

[pseudo3d]

I'm sure it doesn't need to be said, but woe be to the divested Food Lion stores they purchased.

[storewanderer]

Do we know what banner the Food Lion divests are getting? I have not followed what is going on there at all.

[pseudo3d]

Do we know what banner the Food Lion divests are getting? I have not followed what is going on there at all.

They did reopen them as Shop 'n Save, which is apparently a SuperValu-owned chain in the PA/MD/OH/WV area (and not related to the same-named chain in the St. Louis area). The question is still why. SuperValu has long been struggling with its retail operations and expressing an interest to de-emphasize them (at best) before the whole merger began. Everyone else, from Big Y to ACME, are grocery stores which have desired an interest to grow and to some extent are doing pretty well.

http://www.nvdaily.com/local-business/2 ... op-n-save/

[storewanderer]

The Shop N Saves in St. Louis are corporate Supervalu operations. Not bad stores but appeared to be running below average volumes. No reason not to shop there. No real reason to shop there either. Maybe a bit lower prices than Schnucks but perimeter while it looked just fine was not as good as Schnucks (who has some outstanding perimeters) and stores felt boring and sterile compared to Schnucks (who has some above average looking stores).

The Shop N Saves in PA/MD/VA/OH are mostly (if not all) franchise operations. I think they may have once been a chain and corporate owned by Supervalu but not anymore.

This would allude to Supervalu operating these former Food Lions for now but ultimately maybe going for independent operators to take those over.

This may explain why these two corporate WA Stores were closed. They need to focus resources on these Food Lion divests.

[Brian Lutz]

I'm not sure why these two stores were retained by Supervalu, as if you look at the map they were literally the only County Market branded stores outside of the Midwest. Both were close enough to existing Haggen stores (both of which are still operating as Haggens) that Haggen wouldn't have been interested in either one during the divestitures. Interestingly, there was also a QFC in Woodinville across the street from the former Albertsons that appears to have closed down and turned into a Value Village thrift shop. There's also an Albertsons a few miles up Highway 9 from this one that turned into a Haggen, then turned back into an Albertsons.

The one in Lake Stevens (originally an Albertsons) is only a short distance from an existing Safeway as well, so I'm guessing unless Kroger wants to take a crack at it (the closest QFC is in Everett on Broadway and the closest Fred Meyer is in Snohomish) it will likely end up with a non-grocery tenant next. One thing I know happens with some of these stores is that their leases block other grocery tenants from occupying their spaces even if they leave, so there is a possibility that could be in place too.

[pseudo3d]

This may explain why these two corporate WA Stores were closed. They need to focus resources on these Food Lion divests.

Despite being pretty far removed from the (mostly franchised) County Market stores in the Midwest, that shouldn't be a reason of why the Washington stores had to go. Aren't there at least a few independents in the area that they could've sold to? And even if not, are things really going that badly that they can't operate the stores simultaneously as their other operations?

[storewanderer]

Others may know but I do not know of many independents around Seattle who use Supervalu. I seem to recall Saars used Supervalu but just at one former Albertsons, not at the rest of its locations. It appears as of late they stopped using Supervalu there too as they are promoting Western Family heavily at the former Albertsons now (https://www.yelp.com/biz/super-saver-foods-seattle-2) There is the ghost of Brown & Cole up north of Seattle (The Markets LLC or something) with a handful of stores but I am not sure they have much room to grow, they have had a really tough run over the years.

[SamSpade]

Others may know but I do not know of many independents around Seattle who use Supervalu. I seem to recall Saars used Supervalu but just at one former Albertsons, not at the rest of its locations. It appears as of late they stopped using Supervalu there too as they are promoting Western Family heavily at the former Albertsons now (https://www.yelp.com/biz/super-saver-foods-seattle-2) There is the ghost of Brown & Cole up north of Seattle (The Markets LLC or something) with a handful of stores but I am not sure they have much room to grow, they have had a really tough run over the years.

I think SVU is supplying the area stores that join IGA, of which there are only about 10 in the immediate Puget Sound area. I think most independents still get their food from United. Although, at least one more Red Apple is falling victim to real estate development.

[Brian Lutz]

I am currently in the process of moving to Lake Stevens, and was able to get a look at the closed County Market store there over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, it seems to have been a rather hasty retreat, and when I went by there all of the lights were on and all of the fixtures were still in store. Basically, everything but the merchandise was still in place. My guess is that they're looking for another operator to take over the location.