New Format QFC To Open In Gig Harbor

[Brian Lutz]

QFC seems to be pretty good with their perimeter departments (certainly better than Fred Meyer) so I think they should be OK.

[klkla]

The problem is, Kroger's perimeter departments across many divisions generally don't inspire confidence (to put it nicely). We'll see how this turns out after a year.

If any of the big chains can pull it off, it's probably Kroger.

Here in SoCal Ralphs' perimeter departments are pretty mediocre except for the Fresh Fare stores. But some of those are pretty good. Not quite at the same level as Whole Foods, Bristol Farms or Gelson's but pretty close. They're definitely miles ahead of anything Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons or Stater Bros. can put out.

Nationally you can find examples of Fresh Fare quality stores in almost every Kroger division.

[arizonaguy]

The problem is, Kroger's perimeter departments across many divisions generally don't inspire confidence (to put it nicely). We'll see how this turns out after a year.

If any of the big chains can pull it off, it's probably Kroger.

Here in SoCal Ralphs' perimeter departments are pretty mediocre except for the Fresh Fare stores. But some of those are pretty good. Not quite at the same level as Whole Foods, Bristol Farms or Gelson's but pretty close. They're definitely miles ahead of anything Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons or Stater Bros. can put out.

Nationally you can find examples of Fresh Fare quality stores in almost every Kroger division.

Here in Arizona it really depends on the store. There are some Fry's stores that are miles ahead of anything except for While Foods or AJ's (Bashas' premium supermarket). These are both Signature and the 75,000+ sq. foot regular stores. Then there are others whose perimeter offering is on par with Walmart.

[VibeGuy]

I was *really* surprised to see the Mountain Dairy milk. Seemed awfully low-rent.

I've been three times now - the preview, the day after opening and Sunday just before the game (those $1.99 boneless/skinless chicken breasts are local and well-fabricated). Turnover in produce and fresh deli has been impressive (judging by dates). The frozen saute-and-serve seafood bar has definitely sold some product - I noticed levels in the boxes were steadily declining or almost out after a day or two.

They have some quality work to do (the roast chickens are not rotisserie and look pale and wan), and there are still tons of SKUs that don't look up in produce and deli. I also saw several whole pizzas go out as comps due to delays.

Curious things I noticed: other than pizza and premade sandwiches heated to order, the only other hot options are soups and the aforementioned ghost chickens. Big pull back from the hot deli program at QFC. The wine and beer by the glass program are VERY attractively priced - $2.99 or $3.49 pours of wine I would actually drink (in fact, I had a second glass). Didn't happen to ask if they'd open a bottle of something from the wine section like Whole Foods will. They also had the Good Common Sense (tm) to do bank-style next-available-checker queueing during the rush - a move I wish Fred Meyer would adopt on crush load days.

[pseudo3d]

The problem is, Kroger's perimeter departments across many divisions generally don't inspire confidence (to put it nicely). We'll see how this turns out after a year.

If any of the big chains can pull it off, it's probably Kroger.

Here in SoCal Ralphs' perimeter departments are pretty mediocre except for the Fresh Fare stores. But some of those are pretty good. Not quite at the same level as Whole Foods, Bristol Farms or Gelson's but pretty close. They're definitely miles ahead of anything Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons or Stater Bros. can put out.

Nationally you can find examples of Fresh Fare quality stores in almost every Kroger division.

I can only speak for Southwest (Texas), which really doesn't even have Fresh Fare as the rest of you know it (I demonstrated this in another thread a while back).

[SamSpade]

Today I was in the Stadium Fred Meyer in Portland, Ore. Kroger is implementing some of the "Main & Vine" successes in other places now. One of the large meat coffin cases is now a freezer case with a lid and basically a bulk heat and eat meat and grain specialties selection. It JUST arrived because some of the labeled products weren't even in. The extremely friendly meat clerk / sample wizard said that the additional varieties would be coming in on Friday.

This is a nice addition, sort of an extension to the pre-marinated chicken, beef items in the fresh meat case and sort of an extension to the prepared foods in the deli as well. There is a large amount of seafoods, which is not an option in either of these other departments. They are boxed up in cardboard bowls (making microwaving a feasible option) with a clear plastic lid.

The shrimp in pesto was quite tasty, as good or better than pre-packaged frozen foods. If they price competitively (forgot to notice that detail), this would be a great addition at urban stores where you have smaller / more frequent shops by 1-2 person households. Since it is self serve, I would imagine it would also be available any time the store is open, not just during meat-seafood counter service hours.

Example at Main & Vine: Yelp - Frozen Skillet Meals

[storewanderer]

I was in this Main and Vine Store and business was not very good. The store had maybe 10-15 other customers and the Safeway across the street had 40-50+ customers (typical Safeway with sloppy bakery/deli, checkout lines 5+ customers long including a giant line waiting at the space that once housed self checkout but now houses 4 mini express lanes 1 of which was open... with ongoing speaker announcements screaming for help etc., but it was a beautiful looking Colorful Lifestyle store if you could get past the poor execution and service).

The first thing was I drove right past Main and Vine looking for it. It is pretty much hidden from view of the road, yet there is no issue seeing the neighboring Rite Aid or hardware store from the road.

Main and Vine was very interesting. Layout: basically a direct copy of Sprouts, to start, but then they start to angle things a little differently in produce and bulk foods. Also a much more extensive selection of liquor and prepared foods than Sprouts. Pricing in bakery and prepared foods looked very high for the most part (higher than the Whole Foods I was in yesterday in Downtown Seattle for comparable items for instance slice pizza at Whole Foods was 3.50 or 2/$6 and at Main and Vine $4/slice). Dry goods aisle layout/placement was a carbon copy of Sprouts but with longer aisles, even with a vitamin area in the front corner (albeit very poorly stocked). The dry goods area was so interesting because they had mostly mainstream brands, but no Kroger brand items.

Also signs in Main and Vine noting $5 off $50 with local ID (something about they will pay a bridge toll if you spend $50, well the bridge is $6, I guess it's the thought that counts). Also saw another sign that said $3 off $30 but I did not understand the terms of that offer.

My impression of Main and Vine was the store was very high priced. There were few sale items. Prices on national brand items were high. Prices on Simple Truth items were high. Produce prices were pretty good, but not as good as the weekly sales at Fred Meyer and QFC. There was great depth in center store on conventional items, gourmet items, and natural/organic items. But no Kroger brand items. I am not sure if they are trying to hide that this is a Kroger operation or? If they really want to hide it, they need a solution for Simple Truth since all of those packages say Kroger on the back.

It just kept getting me about the merchandising. No Kroger brand items. Yet, other weird off brands. I saw some Mountain Dairy Milk. I saw some "Swan" brand items in OTC/Drug. Simple Truth was all over the store and there were also a few Private Selection items.

I actually think they would be best off scrapping Main and Vine completely and just transfer this store to their "Lucky's Market" partners to operate. Lucky's creates a much more exciting shopping experience than this place had and I think could double or triple the customer count.

I think Main and Vine may be a good format for them to use if they want to enter some new regions. For instance i think this type of format could do very well in Northern California but it needs some tinkering and needs more of a "wow" factor. I think there is a certain expectation I have as a customer when I go into a Kroger operation, and not seeing Kroger brand items in this place really threw things off for me pretty badly. The fully stocked shelves were also a little odd, as again, typically in a Kroger operation, there is so much volume going on, that there is a certain degree of clutter to the place.

I am guessing what I saw today explains why we have not seen this concept expanded, at least to this point, after all of the noise that they and the industry analysts made about it... it will be interesting to see what happens with this store in the future, and if they expand the concept.

[SamSpade]

Well put, StoreWanderer. I was in there on the last trip my significant other and I took through the Seattle region. We ended up eating lunch at Main & Vine (I can't remember if I dragged us through Haggen this trip, but in the other thread where you discuss them, the Olympia Haggen was much the same).

The first question from them was "Oh, I really like this noodle bowl sauce, they should add it back home" and before that "this looks just like Fred Meyer, what's different?" The store does kind of have some of the same elements of the newest Fred Meyer remodels (higher-level service departmehts, large prepared foods deli area)... I had a nice enough pre-tossed salad and there are several self checkouts. When we were there the store was moderately busy (April?). I thought the store felt/looked like someone copying New Seasons Market.

I was very disappointed after an experience. Wanting to buy an orange and randomly seeing a produce smith asking if I needed help, I asked about picking out the orange. She ended up helping me pick out the worst orange I've had in some time - very grainy / mealy and not juicy at all and honestly well below the typical find at higher-end Pacific Northwest grocers. I ended up discarding it after opening it the next day.

[pseudo3d]

I was in this Main and Vine Store and business was not very good. The store had maybe 10-15 other customers and the Safeway across the street had 40-50+ customers (typical Safeway with sloppy bakery/deli, checkout lines 5+ customers long including a giant line waiting at the space that once housed self checkout but now houses 4 mini express lanes 1 of which was open... with ongoing speaker announcements screaming for help etc., but it was a beautiful looking Colorful Lifestyle store if you could get past the poor execution and service).

The first thing was I drove right past Main and Vine looking for it. It is pretty much hidden from view of the road, yet there is no issue seeing the neighboring Rite Aid or hardware store from the road.

Main and Vine was very interesting. Layout: basically a direct copy of Sprouts, to start, but then they start to angle things a little differently in produce and bulk foods. Also a much more extensive selection of liquor and prepared foods than Sprouts. Pricing in bakery and prepared foods looked very high for the most part (higher than the Whole Foods I was in yesterday in Downtown Seattle for comparable items for instance slice pizza at Whole Foods was 3.50 or 2/$6 and at Main and Vine $4/slice). Dry goods aisle layout/placement was a carbon copy of Sprouts but with longer aisles, even with a vitamin area in the front corner (albeit very poorly stocked). The dry goods area was so interesting because they had mostly mainstream brands, but no Kroger brand items.

Also signs in Main and Vine noting $5 off $50 with local ID (something about they will pay a bridge toll if you spend $50, well the bridge is $6, I guess it's the thought that counts). Also saw another sign that said $3 off $30 but I did not understand the terms of that offer.

My impression of Main and Vine was the store was very high priced. There were few sale items. Prices on national brand items were high. Prices on Simple Truth items were high. Produce prices were pretty good, but not as good as the weekly sales at Fred Meyer and QFC. There was great depth in center store on conventional items, gourmet items, and natural/organic items. But no Kroger brand items. I am not sure if they are trying to hide that this is a Kroger operation or? If they really want to hide it, they need a solution for Simple Truth since all of those packages say Kroger on the back.

It just kept getting me about the merchandising. No Kroger brand items. Yet, other weird off brands. I saw some Mountain Dairy Milk. I saw some "Swan" brand items in OTC/Drug. Simple Truth was all over the store and there were also a few Private Selection items.

I actually think they would be best off scrapping Main and Vine completely and just transfer this store to their "Lucky's Market" partners to operate. Lucky's creates a much more exciting shopping experience than this place had and I think could double or triple the customer count.

I think Main and Vine may be a good format for them to use if they want to enter some new regions. For instance i think this type of format could do very well in Northern California but it needs some tinkering and needs more of a "wow" factor. I think there is a certain expectation I have as a customer when I go into a Kroger operation, and not seeing Kroger brand items in this place really threw things off for me pretty badly. The fully stocked shelves were also a little odd, as again, typically in a Kroger operation, there is so much volume going on, that there is a certain degree of clutter to the place.

I am guessing what I saw today explains why we have not seen this concept expanded, at least to this point, after all of the noise that they and the industry analysts made about it... it will be interesting to see what happens with this store in the future, and if they expand the concept.

Ouch! I think that if Main & Vine is doing really that bad, then it shouldn't be used as a name again in another region unless they fix this one. There is a Fred Meyer Marketplace nearby, so if they don't want to close it (a shame, those skylights were nice) they could convert it back to a traditional QFC or, like you said, lease it to Lucky's Market.

[storewanderer]

I think the fact that we have not seen additional openings of the concept elsewhere speaks volumes as to the performance of this store.

This is another problem at Main & Vine. Is the produce any different from what the standard QFC/Fred Meyer sells?

Washington Soft Fruit is recently out and everyone is pushing it hard.

The Main & Vine Nectarines and Peaches at $1.99/lb appeared to be the exact same ones that were at QFC (sale 1.28/lb) or Fred Meyer (sale .99/lb last week and 1.49/lb this week). These are good peaches and nectarines, but there was nothing to get excited about.

Compared to Haggen with "Pence Peaches" at 1.99/lb that looked and smelled great from a distance. Well signed showing who "Pence" is, etc.

Then there is Met Market with some kind of peaches, I don't know the farmer, but it was highlighted, and they had marketing involving "the best peach you'll ever taste" on a banner outside, on employee t-shirts, and in produce signage. Their price was higher than any others.

So I can see how selling the same produce as regular QFC and Fred Meyer may not be the right move at Main & Vine when you compare it to the competitors.

The problem I see is Main & Vine does not know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a premium store? Then it needs premium products and needs to tell the story on those products. Does it want to be a discount format like Sprouts? Then it needs lower prices; there should not be any SKU there that is priced higher than the already high priced QFC.

On a side note, Smith's produce has gotten really bad this year. Frequently out of stock on key items, things that show up to the store, especially berries, rotten or otherwise unsellable, odd oversized items like softball sized white peaches, etc. Something has really happened to Kroger this year.