Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:
BillyGr wrote:Same up this way in NY - the two main chains (Price Chopper and Hannaford) have cut back on having stores open 24 hours (I know PC still has a few scattered ones, not sure if Hannaford has any at all). The handful of ShopRite stores opened recently were not 24 hours to start with (nor is the one that has been around for years a few miles south) and even those I think at least one cut back from say 6-12mid to 6-10pm or similar).

The only one I was ever in was one of the Hannaford stores, and that one didn't really even have a dedicated "cashier" - just one of the people overnight stocking that would come up when needed to check you out. So not much "extra" cost to being open (assuming people weren't taking off without paying - probably not a good idea with so few customers/cars in the lot) but apparently still not enough business to make it worthwhile.
This was the logic Safeway used to use as to why stores were open 24 hours. Have a stocker come and run the register as needed and it was not really a big cost. Some people argued it was a cost for the stocker to stop stocking, walk up to the register, etc. I suppose it depends if the transaction was for a few cans of beer or a medium sized grocery basket how worthwhile it was for the stocker to stop stocking and come help the customer.

The Smiths in Reno/Sparks that are still 24 hours have a dedicated cashier all night (also usually 2 self checkouts open). The Safeways that are 24 hours do not have a dedicated cashier and service is terrible, they have a squeeking dog toy at the register to get the stocker's attention at one location and at the other location you stand there forever and hope someone notices you. It is also somewhat incorrect there is no perimeter; Safeway bakeries bake in the middle of the night and if you show up at 1 AM or 2 AM you will find fresh rolls/bread and possibly fresh donuts as well. Scolaris previously had a set up similar to this with 24 hour stores (most of those have closed) and was losing a ton of money to liquor theft since nobody was watching the registers and the stockers were stocking. Their solution toward the end was to install gates over the liquor aisles after 8 or 9 PM which likely hurt business more from the customers who were coming in and paying for liquor during those times.
I speak from experience about my time working night crew at Kroger. It ran a consistent medium-high volume during the day time, but at night they kept one person at the check-outs (usually the self check-out) because it was that dead. The night stockers weren't likely to help because they had a strict hard schedule to keep (long story, don't get me started on how miserable work conditions were), and the perishables (like the bakery) were closed by 10, and didn't start operating up again until maybe 4:30 at the earliest.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by storewanderer »

I estimate the Smiths I go to most runs 25-35 transactions between 1 AM and 5 AM and I would venture a significant chunk of those are employee purchases. I think the other two Smiths that are 24 hours, due to their locations, do double to triple the actual customer transactions during those hours. But I wonder if it is worth being open.

I would guess these Albertsons/Vons, based on their locations, did a similar low number of transactions during Midnight-5 AM.

Some stores do stay busy though after Midnight. I think 1 AM is a better closing time. Perhaps 5 AM to 1 AM. But in mainly residential suburbs of Las Vegas maybe Midnight is late enough.

It is funny since Albertsons previously expanded store hours on non-24 hour stores a year and a half ago in an effort to capture more sales. Stores that were not 24 hours, at least in NorCal, started to open an hour earlier and close an hour later. In some of the smaller towns this made absolutely no sense but it was one of the first "changes" made after the merger.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I find the idea of a 24 hour deli interesting. I have noticed many times at various chains the delis are staffed with quite a few employees but only 1-2 of those employees are helping customers while the others are cleaning, or preparing items, or wrapping items, etc. With a 24 hour deli, ideally, you could have employees complete those cleaning/preparation tasks during very slow times and then during the day be better off at devoting closer to 100% of the staff's time to actually helping customers...

Then again the same logic was used for 24 hour pharmacies (can fill refills during slow hours, less interruption, more productive, etc.) and most chains have deemed that largely unprofitable other than in some large metro areas... we had a former Sav-On in Sparks that was 24 hours store/pharmacy since about 1992 and through all the mergers, buyouts, etc. it remained 24 hours store/pharmacy until last year when CVS finally eliminated the 24 hour pharmacy but for now has kept the store open 24 hours (the area has gotten a bit rough and I am surprised theft has not yet killed that idea at that location). There was also a 24 hour Longs in Sparks (former Rite Aid) which CVS closed rather than converting; not a great volume store but was 24 hours from day one due to a hospital being nearby (a low volume hospital).
A 24 hour deli would be possible, but you would need a huge all-night crowd to make it work (at least for slicing cold cuts), the whole thing with hot foods would be even harder, because it would need to adequately staffed to both serve and clean (can you imagine how filthy it would get? 24 hour diners aren't exactly known for cleanliness).
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by storewanderer »

I think hot foods would have to have reduced hours. Chilled service case salads, etc. could also get crusty sitting on the display too long so they need the right procedures. I have noticed at Smiths they now empty out the chilled service case salads every night and put them all into smaller containers marked down (cannot imagine the shrink cost on this) vs. holding them in the case, covering with plastic at night, for a few days like they used to.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by Brian Lutz »

Most QFCs around here are still 24 hours, although there are exceptions to that (mostly smaller stores near other ones). For Safeway and Albertsons there are a few 24 hour stores out there but most seems to be 6am-1am or 6am to midnight. In the case of QFC I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that Fred Meyer does not operate any 24 hour stores, at least not that I know of.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote:Most QFCs around here are still 24 hours, although there are exceptions to that (mostly smaller stores near other ones). For Safeway and Albertsons there are a few 24 hour stores out there but most seems to be 6am-1am or 6am to midnight. In the case of QFC I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that Fred Meyer does not operate any 24 hour stores, at least not that I know of.
Fred Meyer did experiment with 24 hour grocery departments sometime in the early 90s. I imagine that it was hard to maintain security for the nonfood areas which were NOT 24 hours. I don't think Fred Meyer has ever had the whole stores open 24 hours though.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by SamSpade »

Super S wrote:
Brian Lutz wrote:Most QFCs around here are still 24 hours, although there are exceptions to that (mostly smaller stores near other ones). For Safeway and Albertsons there are a few 24 hour stores out there but most seems to be 6am-1am or 6am to midnight. In the case of QFC I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that Fred Meyer does not operate any 24 hour stores, at least not that I know of.
Fred Meyer did experiment with 24 hour grocery departments sometime in the early 90s. I imagine that it was hard to maintain security for the nonfood areas which were NOT 24 hours. I don't think Fred Meyer has ever had the whole stores open 24 hours though.
Super S, is that why one of my long-time local friends insisted that "Hawthorne" Fred Meyer was open 24 hours? With its current design (and probably Stadium, too) it probably could be but only the parking lot door open and 2nd floor closed to the public. Stadium would be a bit more of a challenge/risk in its current configuration.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote:
Super S wrote:
Brian Lutz wrote:Most QFCs around here are still 24 hours, although there are exceptions to that (mostly smaller stores near other ones). For Safeway and Albertsons there are a few 24 hour stores out there but most seems to be 6am-1am or 6am to midnight. In the case of QFC I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that Fred Meyer does not operate any 24 hour stores, at least not that I know of.
Fred Meyer did experiment with 24 hour grocery departments sometime in the early 90s. I imagine that it was hard to maintain security for the nonfood areas which were NOT 24 hours. I don't think Fred Meyer has ever had the whole stores open 24 hours though.
Super S, is that why one of my long-time local friends insisted that "Hawthorne" Fred Meyer was open 24 hours? With its current design (and probably Stadium, too) it probably could be but only the parking lot door open and 2nd floor closed to the public. Stadium would be a bit more of a challenge/risk in its current configuration.
Could be. Although I do remember a "Food department open 24 hours" banner on the Longview Fred Meyer which is a single story mid 70s build. At the time it had three entrances.
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by SamSpade »

Super S wrote:
Could be. Although I do remember a "Food department open 24 hours" banner on the Longview Fred Meyer which is a single story mid 70s build. At the time it had three entrances.
The friend was originally from Kelso so that really explains it. :-)
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Re: Albertsons eliminates 24 hours at 7 Las Vegas locations

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Even in Sacro,24-hour supermarkets have become rare.Safeway still keeps certain area locations open around the clock(mostly quite a ways from me,primarily in downtown Sac or in outlying fringe suburban/exurban areas like Folsom and in opposite ends of Roseville),but at one point most of their locations were 24 hours.During the 80's,even Lucky and select Bel Air(pre-Raleys merger)were also open 24 hours.Until recently,many FoodMaxx locations were open 24 hours as well.I recall for a time after the ABS/ASC merger(early 2000's),selected Lucky-turned-Albertsons locations were open 24 hours.Ironically,that included the Orangevale store that just closed as Save Mart.
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