Grocery chains in your area

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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by SamSpade »

Portland, Ore. area (including Clark County, WA) update:
Conventional

Albertsons-Safeway: 13 Albertsons, 50 Safeway* The Safeway list was from an old directory and I tried to remember the sold to Haggen stores, but may be slightly off total
Kroger: 6 Quality Food Centers, 32 Fred Meyer or Fred Meyer Marketplace stores
Haggen: 5*These are the "going concerns"
Walmart: 23 supercenters or neighborhood markets
Discount

WinCo Foods: 13 stores with at least 1 on the way (SE 82nd and Powell)
Grocery Outlet: 18 stores
Upscale

New Seasons Markets: 17 stores
Zupans: 4 stores
Whole Foods Market: 8 stores
Market of Choice: 3 stores
Chuck's Produce (yes, a full-sized market): 2 stores
Unique

Trader Joe's: 8 stores
Food Front Co-Op: 2 stores
Alberta St. Co-Op
People's Co-Op
Sheridan Fruit Co. (yes, a full-sized market)
Independents, ethnic, etc:

Bales and Lamb's Markets (Bales bought Lamb's in 2015): 6 stores, all with their own names
Thriftway?
Uwajimaya (Asian / Japanese)
Asian Food Center ( Asian / Chinese - Taiwanese)
Hong Phat (Asian - Vietnamese): 2 stores
Fubonn Market (Asian)
H-Mart (Asian / Korean): 2 stores
World Foods (fresh produce, Middle-eastern focused groceries): 2 stores
La Tapatia
Supermercados Mexico: 2 locations, one housed in a former Save a Lot
Target with "pFresh": 15 stores

Note, it was announced today that Oregon has grown to over 4 million residents in population. Sorry for this huge list, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by pseudo3d »

The Houston market is really big, so I'm just going to cover stores in the immediate area (bordered by Beltway 8 to the west, Katy Freeway to the south, Northwest Freeway to the north, and Loop 610 to the east), along with a bit of history and thoughts (by the way, Village Foods back home closed permanently--it will be replaced by an ALDI). Overall, the area is pretty blue collar and diverse, as you'll see in the list below.

H-E-B, Katy Freeway and Bunker Hill Road - Massive store, opened 2008. Has a large area dedicated to perishables but I've found it surprisingly light on actual SKUs, with not much more than the 70k square feet store back home, even though this one is nearly twice the size.

Kroger, Echo Lane and Katy Freeway - Built as a Safeway and later expanded into an AppleTree with the only renovated décor the chain ever had. Nice neighborhood and my favorite for items on the way home from work when I don't feel like schlepping through H-E-B or need items I can only get at H-E-B (like their pasta sauces).

Kroger, Gessner Road and Hammerly - Built as one of the last Safeway stores in the Houston area or one of the first AppleTrees...closely resembles the former Village Foods exterior-wise and like VF, has perishables in the center of the store. Unlike VF, the center store mix is broken up into two different sections tucked away in the back of the store, making it a bit of a pain to navigate. This store isn't as nice as the Echo Lane Kroger and I believe I've only ever bought butter and detergent here.

H-E-B, Gessner Road and Kempwood - Built as an Albertsons and became an H-E-B in 2002, this H-E-B is kind of a "ghetto" H-E-B, from the limited merchandise mix to the fact that they converted the old bank to an eyebrow threading studio. Oddly, this store has a sushi kiosk. This store is just less than a mile from the distribution center.

Sellers Bros., Hammerly and Blalock - Built as...well, I don't know what it was built as, but it's been a Sellers Bros. (locally owned) for some years now. Cheap produce (leaning heavily toward traditional Mexican cooking) but more expensive center store mix.

Fiesta Mart, Wirt and Kempwood - Built as a FedMart, this store is actually about 100k square feet but uses most of it relatively poorly (like a huge bakery backroom). The Fiesta chain is angled toward Hispanic and other international foods (but mostly the former). The bakery is pretty good here. Fun fact: there was actually a direct rail connection from this store to the main line, though it's been gone for decades.

Joe V's Smart Shop, 43rd Street and Northwest Freeway - Built as a Service Merchandise, this store opened in 2011 after a long stretch of vacancy. It's a low-end warehouse store owned by H-E-B. I have yet to visit this store.

El Ahorro, Gessner and Long Point - I have yet to visit this store. I have no idea of its history. Other EAs exist at Kempwood and Blalock, and at Hempstead and 43rd Street. These I have also yet to visit.

Super H Mart, Westview and Blalock - Built in 1987 as a Randalls (replacing an even smaller store at Long Point and Blalock), this store closed in 2005 and reopened a few years later as a large H Mart store.

99 Ranch Market, Blalock and Katy Freeway - Built as a Fiesta in 1990, this store was originally part of a group of stores that were more upscale, larger Fiesta stores (one of them even made industry headlines with a 230,000 square feet store with a hydroponic garden). It closed during a widening of Katy Freeway in 2007 and became a 99 Ranch a few years later. Surprisingly, recent construction (within the last year or so) has made it even harder to access.

Kroger, Wirt and Westview - This store opened in the late 1990s or early 2000s. I know very little about it and have yet to visit it.

There's also a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Costco. Both the Walmart Neighborhood Markets in the area closed. One of them was the "Supermercado de Walmart" concept.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:Kroger, Wirt and Westview - This store opened in the late 1990s or early 2000s. I know very little about it and have yet to visit it.
The Wirst/Westview Kroger is almost identical to the Kroger on Rock Prairie in College Station, the main difference being a slightly different design for the ceiling around the checklanes. There are many locations across the DFW and Houston regions which share this same design, and many more that are similar but do not feature the second floor offices.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by wnetmacman »

architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Kroger, Wirt and Westview - This store opened in the late 1990s or early 2000s. I know very little about it and have yet to visit it.
The Wirst/Westview Kroger is almost identical to the Kroger on Rock Prairie in College Station, the main difference being a slightly different design for the ceiling around the checklanes. There are many locations across the DFW and Houston regions which share this same design, and many more that are similar but do not feature the second floor offices.
There is a similar store in Shreveport on Youree Drive that was built as a prototype for the Signature, but it is not considered a signature store. Unlike the newer Signature stores (including the Wirt store), it is Tilt Wall construction, and has no brick on the facade. I suspect once the Marketplace store opens in a couple of months, that may change.It's Shreveport's busiest store, for now; it opened in 1997.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by lake »

Let's do Sacramento -

Boundaries of "Sacramento" are Davis, Woodland, Lincoln, Auburn, Placerville, and Elk Grove

Raley's - 21 Raley's, 19 Bel Air, 5 Food Source, 45 total, 4 currently under construction
Safeway - 25 locations - 1 currently in stalled negotiations
Savemart - 12 Savemart, 4 Foodmaxx, 16 total

Nugget - 8 Nugget, 1 Food4Less, 1 ForkLift, 10 total
Trader Joes - 7 locations
Sprouts - 4 locations, one opening in two weeks
Whole Foods - 4 locations with one announced but not under construction

Walmart - 19 Walmart Supercenters, 10 Walmart Neighborhood Markets
Smart and Final - 13 locations
Winco - 5 locations, 1 under construction
Food Co - 2 locations
Viva Market - 2 locations (local)



Some former-
Ralphs, left the market and sold some to Raley's and Nugget but most kind of drifted to nothing
Albertsons, left the market by selling all to Savemart who has closed about half the stores acquired
The Fresh Market, was here for less than a year but Nugget is too good of an operator for TFM to succeed. Even WFM has some troubles here
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by Andrew T. »

Wisconsin's grocery market is a bit...unique.

Some names can be found throughout the state (Copps, Pick 'n Save, Piggly Wiggly); others are hyper-subregional. Out-of-state operators can be hyperselective: Hy-Vee is strong in Madison, but nonexistent elsewhere. Schnucks has a lone Wisconsin store in Janesville. And so it goes. Traditionally the state also had a high proportion of independent SuperValu, Red Owl, and IGA franchises: Some still remain; others have vanished into the ether.

There's also been a lot of change and turnover. 15 years ago, three of the biggest grocery chains in Madison were Kohl's Foods (owned by A&P), Cub Foods (owned by SuperValu), and Sentry (owned by Fleming). All are now gone, and others have leaped to fill their place (and sometimes, fill their buildings).

Here's my rundown for Madison as it exists today. First, the "major" stores:

Roundy's (and by consequence now, Kroger) is the market leader, with no fewer than 11 Copps stores in the area, plus 3 Pick 'n Saves scattered in the periphery and 1 Metro Market. It's fun to riff on Roundy's, but for the most part these stores are average with nothing either exceptional or really bad about them. They're everyone's "default" supermarket when they don't feel like seeking out anything better.

Woodman's is the established local competition, with 3 warehouse-style stores. Woodman's is unique enough to almost be a destination. Their stores have incredibly broad and deep selections (with entire aisles devoted to "natural" and ethnic foods) and rock-bottom prices. They also have simplistic decor, terrible produce, and don't accept credit cards, so they're not for everyone.

Hy-Vee is the aggressive new player, with 3 stores that opened starting in 2009. Their prepared foods and perimeter departments have made quite a splash; center-of-store merchandising is a bit different from other chains, which can be either good or bad depending on what you're looking for. Hy-Vee isn't perfect, but it's the place I find myself shopping at most often.

Metcalfe's is a local Sentry offshoot with 2 stores. Both stores have the most attractive interiors of any local supermarket in the area, with colorful splashes of floor tile and well-placed accent lighting. They play classical music, and strive for a "higher-end" vibe. Unfortunately, good looks only go so far: Every time I've bought milk there, it tasted sour.

Festival Foods, a northeast Wisconsin chain, recently entered Madison with a lofty new store. I haven't been there yet, so I'm not the best judge to predict whether it will sink or swim.

Now, the specialty and one-off players:

Aldi has 4 stores. They offer what you'd expect.
The Willy Street Co-Op is a Madison institution that's come to encompass 3 stores. The co-op's stores are large enough now to count as supermarkets, and feature a hot bar and a loyal clientele.
Wal-Mart isn't the grocery juggernaut here that they are in other places. They have 2 supercenters (both of them relative latecomers) and 2 straggling non-supercenter locations.
Fitchburg contains one of the few Super Target locations that exist. It opened in 2007.
Fresh Madison Market (no relation to the Fresh Market) is a small store with a captive downtown audience. Its selection and pricing are one step from a convenience store.
The Whole Foods Market has a token presence with one store. (You'd honestly be better off going to Willy Street Co-Op instead.)
Trader Joe's has one store.
There are a few one-off independents like Miller's in Verona, the Regent Market Co-Op in a decades-old neighborhood storefront, and some international food stores.

Piggly Wiggly does not operate in Madison, but their franchises do operate in some of the smaller villages like Cottage Grove that surround it.

Save-a-Lot also does not operate in Madison, even though they have a distribution facility in the county.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by Brian Lutz »

Apparently this thread has been around for a while, since the last update on Seattle was in 2010. Here's the picture now:

Major players:
Kroger: Fred Meyer and QFC. Still the strongest presence in the market, and although there seems to be little effort to increase store count at this point, they are investing heavily in keeping existing stores updated. QFC stores have generally been following the same trends as high-end Kroger stores in other markets, adding things like Murray's cheeses and in-store bars in some locations.
Safeway/Albertsons: They have consolidated their operations following the merger, and still have both brands in the market. A lot of former Albertsons locations had been shut down while Albertsons was still faltering under Supervalu, but Safeway had remained fairly steady. They have shut down a number of their manufacturing operations in Bellevue, most likely because they could get more out of the real estate than from continuing to run the factories.
Walmart / Sam's Club: They have opened a handful of Neighborhood Markets in the area, but most of their grocery business remains in existing stores. There are still no Walmart stores (and only 1 Sam's Club) in the Seattle City limits, and if anything the city government is probably even more hostile to them now than it was before.
Costco: Still strong, and once the economy started to pick up they started opening a number of new stores in the area (Lynnwood opened last year, and Redmond will be opening in November.) Established stores are generally VERY crowded, esepcially on weekends.
Whole Foods: Focused mostly on upscale areas. They did recently open one of the first 365 stores at Bellevue Square.
Trader Joe's: Still pretty popular in their niche market. Gradually adding new stores in areas they aren't currently in.

Minor players:
Haggen: A few scattered stores remain following their flameout, mostly in more rural areas. A few former Albertsons stores got rebranded to Haggen, then a number of them ended up going back to Albertsons after the bankruptcy. 1 or 2 rebranded stores remain as Haggens for the time being.
Winco: They seem to be in roughly the same position they were in 2010. A few scattered stores, little recent expansion.
Grocery Outlet: A few small stores mostly in lower grade real estate. Adding a few stores here and there.
Target: Mostly still in the same place they were before. They took a hit from the credit card breaches a few years ago and the failure of Target Canada, but haven't closed any stores here.
PCC: Local natural foods chain, don't make much noise.
Metropolitan Market: Holding steady, mostly focuses on upscale areas.
Red Apple: 21 stores, mostly rural but with a few in Seattle, Kirkland, Des Moines and Issaquah.

Various chain ethnic grocers:
Uwajimaya: Japanese. 3 stores here (Seattle International District, Bellevue, Renton) and 1 in the Portland area.
H-Mart: Korean. 2 stores (Lynnwood, Bellevue)
Seafood City: Fillipino. 1 store at Southcenter.
99 Ranch: Chinese. 2 stores (Edmonds, Kent)
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by pseudo3d »

So an update in my town, which I don't think I've done before (I think I last did it in Houston), it is dominated by H-E-B with four stores and a fifth under construction. Kroger has scaled back, closing a store last summer without replacement (now down to two, though the two still draw a decent business) and although rumors swirl about a Marketplace store, it's unknown if it will be new construction or replace one.

Beyond that and three Walmart Supercenters, that's just about it. There's an Aldi that replaced Village Foods, and a few small Mexican meat markets that are well under 30k square feet. Target has two stores that are P-Fresh (neither are very large) and there's a Sam's Club. It's a bit sad because it once had a diversity of stores that operated in the area. Safeway (later AppleTree) had four stores during its height, Albertsons had three, Winn-Dixie had two, Randalls had one, there was also a Skaggs Alpha Beta/Jewel-Osco as well. This was the only place in Texas where H-E-B Pantry, Winn-Dixie, and Kroger all competed in one market, too (Dallas lacked H-E-B, Houston lacked Winn-Dixie, and Waco lacked Kroger).
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by arizonaguy »

Here's what the situation is like in Phoenix:

Major Players

Walmart: All of their stores in the Phoenix area are either Supercenters or Neighborhood Markets (except for the remaining Walmart on campus store at Arizona State University). The Supercenters tend to be fairly high volume stores whereas the Neighborhood Markets seem to be a mix of high volume and low volume operations. There hasn't been much expansion of Walmart in recent years.

Fry's: The Kroger owned dominant "traditional" chain. Fry's has gotten more active in recent years of closing duplicative stores from the late 1990s combination of Fry's / Smith's / and Fred Meyer Marketplace (Smitty's). They've also recently opened a handful of their standard large Marketplace stores that seem to be all over their Eastern divisions.

Albertsons / Safeway: Two banners are still in operation. Many Albertsons stores have closed during the LLC and post merger eras (probably 1/2 of the pre-breakup store count). A few Safeways have also closed (but generally they were stores where the demographics no longer fit). Of the "duplicative" stores most of the closures have been of the Albertsons banner and recent Albertsons renovations are into the Colorful Lifestyle decor.

AJ's / Bashas' / Food City: The local chain. They've shed so many stores since their 2009 bankruptcy and they continue to close about 2 stores a year. There's nothing really special about either the Bashas' or Food City banners but they have been renovating some of their stores recently.

Sprouts: This chain is based in Phoenix and continues to open 1 to 2 stores a year. They have stores all over the metro area.

Target: All of their stores are pFresh or Super Targets (only a handful of Super Target stores). They've recently opened a "flexible format' store in a former Sports Authority (which was a former Albertsons).

WinCo: They have a handful of stores spread thoughout the metro area. After a few waves of expansion when they initially entered the market, they seem to have stagnated.

Smart and Final / Smart and Final Extra: They opened up a handful of Extra stores a few years ago and have a decent number of stores in the market.

Trader Joe's: Very popular stores. They haven't expanded in years.

Whole Foods: They have a handful of stores (all on the East side of the metro area).

Costco: The very dominant membership warehouse chain for the area. They have stores all over the area.

Sam's Club: The far less dominant membership warehouse chain. Their stores always seem to have a fraction of the customer base Costco has.

Los Altos Ranch Market: The nicest Hispanic oriented chain.

Lee Lee International Market: An Asian chain that has re-purposed formerly closed supermarkets.

El Super: Another Hispanic oriented chain.

There are also a handful of other Hispanic and Asian supermarkets with just one location.
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Re: Grocery chains in your area

Post by wnetmacman »

So it's been a while since this update. Here's what has changed in Louisiana:

Walmart has quietly been opening Neighborhood market stores throughout the state in some unlikely places (Thibodaux, Pineville, Alexandria, Monroe, Lake Charles and Opelousas, to name a few). The D1 Walmart in Bogalusa did get replaced by a Supercenter. An all new Supercenter opened 4 miles north of Lafayette in Carencro.

Rouses Markets purchased the 9 store LeBlanc's chain, who had stores in Hammond, Gonzales, Prairieville, Donaldsonville and Baton Rouge. All have been integrated into Rouses. Rouses also added a 3rd Lafayette store and has announced plans for stores in Sulphur and Moss Bluff near Lake Charles.

Winn Dixie continues their retreat, closing two stores in Lafayette and a store in Walker that flooded. Lafayette-Moss is empty for now, but Lafayette-Ambassador and Walker are now Shopper's Value Foods, owned by a Baton Rouge group. That same group has converted all the Piggly Wiggly stores in Lafayette and Baton Rouge to the same banner. A separately owned PW in Scott (just west of Lafayette) remains PW.

Brookshire Grocery bought all the Walmart Express stores in the western half of the state, while Dollar General bought the eastern stores.
wnetmacman wrote: July 13th, 2013, 4:29 pm A couple of minor updates here:

In Lafayette, Rouses Markets has opened two stores; one was a completely new build just south of town in Youngsville (which is a very nice store) and another replaced a store built by Weingarten in the late 70's that had last been a nightclub. Also, Albertsons closed one Lafayette store, and remodeled (thoroughly) at least three of the remaining 4 stores. Brookshire Grocery added a Super 1 Foods store in Carencro just north of Lafayette (which killed the local guy, thank goodness), and massively remodeled the two Lafayette stores, and completely gutted the Opelousas store and remade it into a true Super 1 Foods.

Generally, the rest of the state is pretty stagnant; one main point is that there are only three 'Division 1' Walmart stores remaining, in Vivian, Bogalusa and Franklin. These three stores, at least at this point, will not become Supercenters. As of this writing, the D1 store in New Roads is about to be replaced, if it hasn't already.
wnetmacman wrote:Louisiana -

Shreveport/Bossier:
Kroger (4 stores: one greenhouse, one superstore, one acquisition and one Signature)
Brookshire's (7 stores)
Super 1 Foods (4 stores, owned by Brookshire)
County Market (3 stores, including one former Kroger greenhouse)
Walmart (5 supercenters)
Albertsons (LLC, 2 stores)
SuperTarget (1 store)
Piggly Wiggly, A&P and Safeway had significant presences here. All are now gone.

Alexandria/Pineville:
Kroger (1 signature)
Super 1 Foods (2 stores, including the original in Alexandria)
Walmart (3 supercenters)
Albertsons (LLC, 1 store)
A&P had a significant presence here, as did Piggly Wiggly. Kmart had a supercenter here. When it closed, there was an article in the paper that stated the supercenter's sales were the same as the retail store; thus the store actually lost business. This store closed before the others.

Lake Charles/Sulphur:
Kroger (4 stores: one greenhouse, one 80's store, one former Albertsons and one Family Center)
Albertsons (2 stores remaining)
Walmart (3 stores)
Market Basket TX (5 stores)
Brookshire Bros. (1 store)

Lafayette/Acadiana (Acadiana is the 9 parish section immediately around Lafayette):
Albertsons (5 stores)
Winn Dixie (2 stores in Lafayette, one each in Crowley, Rayne, New Iberia, Eunice and Breaux Bridge)
Walmart (10 Supercenters: 4 in Lafayette and one each in Crowley, New Iberia, Eunice, Breaux Bridge, Abbeville and Opelousas)
Super 1 Foods (2 stores in Lafayette and one each in New Iberia, Eunice, Opelousas and Abbeville. Opelousas is a former Winn-Dixie; Eunice and Abbeville are former Delchamps; New Iberia is a former Woolco/Walmart, and one Lafayette store is in a former Kmart.)
Piggly Wiggly (4 stores in Lafayette)
SuperTarget (1 store)
Kroger, A&P and National each had presences here, with Kroger Family Centers in Lafayette, New Iberia, and Morgan City. Kmart had a supercenter here.

Baton Rouge:
Winn Dixie (6 stores)
Albertsons (LLC, 7 stores, plus one in Hammond and one in Mandeville)
Piggly Wiggly (6 stores)
Walmart (10 stores in East Baton Rouge Parish alone, 3 Neighborhood Markets and 7 Supercenters)
SuperTarget (2 stores)
A&P closed its final two stores here in 2006. Kmart had a supercenter here.

Greater New Orleans:
Walmart (10 stores, 2 Neighborhood Markets and 8 Supercenters)
Winn Dixie (25 stores in communities around Lake Pontchartrain)
Numerous Independants surround New Orleans. A&P and National/Canal Villere/Real Superstore had their divisions close here in the last 15 years. Schwegmann Giant Supermarkets closed in 1999. Albertsons left in 2004.

Monroe:
Brookshires (4 stores)
Super 1 Foods (2 stores)
Walmart (2 stores)
Albertsons left here in the last year. Kmart had a supercenter here. Safeway had a significant presence here until 1987.
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