Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I'd give this merger an A- for its handling of the previous Supervalu Stores...

And I will give them a B- for their handling of the previous Safeway Stores...

Supervalu was completely clueless. They literally did almost nothing right.

Safeway had many ideas but constantly missed the mark, understaffed its stores, had very high pricing, and suffered from horribly inconsistent execution. The new company seems to suffer from much of the same. But they seem to be trying to some extent; more promotional most of the time, especially on meat. Shifted to all USDA Choice Beef almost immediately. Attempting to upgrade deli mix and quality with Dietz and Watson or Boar's Head. Center store and private label programs seem to be a mess. The innovation and new items Safeway was steadily rolling out when it was its own company seems to have slowed down considerably. And no, rebranding "Deli Counter" Cheese to "Signature Cafe" cheese does not count as a new item rollout. Neither does rebranding "Pantry Essentials" to "Value Corner." The biggest thing though, given that Safeway was on a path of shutting down entire divisions, it appears the situation has become more stable under Albertsons, with no divisions that appear to be a few weeks from shutting down which seemed to be the case with Safeway, even at the end with Texas being rumored to be headed toward a similar fate to that of Dominicks and Genuardis, which is also very important. It seems this new company has done a good job at showing a focus to more diverse markets, vs. Safeway, who seemed to focus just on California and ignored the rest of the operation.

They still seem customer unfriendly with the complicated promotional scheme, backing things like the California Bag Ban to which they contributed hundreds and thousands of dollars to support the ballot initiative on, and poor IT systems that result in inefficient front ends.
From the sounds of it, it even sounded like Eastern would probably be cut if Safeway wasn't able to right the ship after cutting the Texas division. But I wasn't aware that Safeway did anything on "innovation and new items" (well new items probably but in terms of innovation, everyone was aware that Lifestyle wasn't getting any newer). I never visited Albertsons under SuperValu but always read how the SVU chains were mediocre chains and overpriced. Of course, the same could probably be said for many of the stores ABS still runs today...
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by arizonaguy »

pseudo3d wrote:
storewanderer wrote:I'd give this merger an A- for its handling of the previous Supervalu Stores...

And I will give them a B- for their handling of the previous Safeway Stores...

Supervalu was completely clueless. They literally did almost nothing right.

Safeway had many ideas but constantly missed the mark, understaffed its stores, had very high pricing, and suffered from horribly inconsistent execution. The new company seems to suffer from much of the same. But they seem to be trying to some extent; more promotional most of the time, especially on meat. Shifted to all USDA Choice Beef almost immediately. Attempting to upgrade deli mix and quality with Dietz and Watson or Boar's Head. Center store and private label programs seem to be a mess. The innovation and new items Safeway was steadily rolling out when it was its own company seems to have slowed down considerably. And no, rebranding "Deli Counter" Cheese to "Signature Cafe" cheese does not count as a new item rollout. Neither does rebranding "Pantry Essentials" to "Value Corner." The biggest thing though, given that Safeway was on a path of shutting down entire divisions, it appears the situation has become more stable under Albertsons, with no divisions that appear to be a few weeks from shutting down which seemed to be the case with Safeway, even at the end with Texas being rumored to be headed toward a similar fate to that of Dominicks and Genuardis, which is also very important. It seems this new company has done a good job at showing a focus to more diverse markets, vs. Safeway, who seemed to focus just on California and ignored the rest of the operation.

They still seem customer unfriendly with the complicated promotional scheme, backing things like the California Bag Ban to which they contributed hundreds and thousands of dollars to support the ballot initiative on, and poor IT systems that result in inefficient front ends.
From the sounds of it, it even sounded like Eastern would probably be cut if Safeway wasn't able to right the ship after cutting the Texas division. But I wasn't aware that Safeway did anything on "innovation and new items" (well new items probably but in terms of innovation, everyone was aware that Lifestyle wasn't getting any newer). I never visited Albertsons under SuperValu but always read how the SVU chains were mediocre chains and overpriced. Of course, the same could probably be said for many of the stores ABS still runs today...
Safeway was a pioneer in the "premium private label" for a mainstream grocer. Safeway Select had a pretty extensive lineup of product offerings including many items that were unique. Kroger's Private Selection and Simple Truth lines are now more extensive than Safeway's private label, but it's a fairly recent development.

Safeway also jumped on the Organic and natural trend with O Organics and Open Nature before Kroger or other mainstream grocers did.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by pseudo3d »

arizonaguy wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:
storewanderer wrote:I'd give this merger an A- for its handling of the previous Supervalu Stores...

And I will give them a B- for their handling of the previous Safeway Stores...

Supervalu was completely clueless. They literally did almost nothing right.

Safeway had many ideas but constantly missed the mark, understaffed its stores, had very high pricing, and suffered from horribly inconsistent execution. The new company seems to suffer from much of the same. But they seem to be trying to some extent; more promotional most of the time, especially on meat. Shifted to all USDA Choice Beef almost immediately. Attempting to upgrade deli mix and quality with Dietz and Watson or Boar's Head. Center store and private label programs seem to be a mess. The innovation and new items Safeway was steadily rolling out when it was its own company seems to have slowed down considerably. And no, rebranding "Deli Counter" Cheese to "Signature Cafe" cheese does not count as a new item rollout. Neither does rebranding "Pantry Essentials" to "Value Corner." The biggest thing though, given that Safeway was on a path of shutting down entire divisions, it appears the situation has become more stable under Albertsons, with no divisions that appear to be a few weeks from shutting down which seemed to be the case with Safeway, even at the end with Texas being rumored to be headed toward a similar fate to that of Dominicks and Genuardis, which is also very important. It seems this new company has done a good job at showing a focus to more diverse markets, vs. Safeway, who seemed to focus just on California and ignored the rest of the operation.

They still seem customer unfriendly with the complicated promotional scheme, backing things like the California Bag Ban to which they contributed hundreds and thousands of dollars to support the ballot initiative on, and poor IT systems that result in inefficient front ends.
From the sounds of it, it even sounded like Eastern would probably be cut if Safeway wasn't able to right the ship after cutting the Texas division. But I wasn't aware that Safeway did anything on "innovation and new items" (well new items probably but in terms of innovation, everyone was aware that Lifestyle wasn't getting any newer). I never visited Albertsons under SuperValu but always read how the SVU chains were mediocre chains and overpriced. Of course, the same could probably be said for many of the stores ABS still runs today...
Safeway was a pioneer in the "premium private label" for a mainstream grocer. Safeway Select had a pretty extensive lineup of product offerings including many items that were unique. Kroger's Private Selection and Simple Truth lines are now more extensive than Safeway's private label, but it's a fairly recent development.

Safeway also jumped on the Organic and natural trend with O Organics and Open Nature before Kroger or other mainstream grocers did.
Right, but when Kroger launched Simple Truth in 2012, Safeway basically played dead on O Organics/Open Nature and didn't fight back, at least, not to the extent they were supposed to. Albertsons did introduce O Organics kombucha though.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by rwsandiego »

arizonaguy wrote:
Safeway was a pioneer in the "premium private label" for a mainstream grocer. Safeway Select had a pretty extensive lineup of product offerings including many items that were unique. Kroger's Private Selection and Simple Truth lines are now more extensive than Safeway's private label, but it's a fairly recent development.

Safeway also jumped on the Organic and natural trend with O Organics and Open Nature before Kroger or other mainstream grocers did.
"Private Selection" was a Ralph's invention under Yucaipa's ownership. It showed up at Dominick's when that chain was acquired by Yucaipa in 1996. When Safeway bought Dominick's in 1998 and substituted Safeway Select, the difference in quality was noticeable - and not in a good way.

That being said, I agree that Private Selection was not as extensive as Safeway Select and it is true that Simple Truth/Simple Truth Organic was introduced long after O Organics and Open Nature. I prefer Safeway's use of separate brands to differentiate between "natural" and "organic." It ticks me off when I accidentally pick up the "Open Nature" instead of the "Open Nature Organic" product.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by storewanderer »

My observation is Albertsons is pushing Open Nature and O Organics hard but the products are mostly outrageously priced, even when on promotion, priced above comparable (same supplier in a lot of cases) items at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Kroger. The past month in NorCal division they have steadily had most of the Open Nature and O Organics items on "pick 4 save more" promotions (50 cents off per item) and also had $1 off any item $1.99+ Open Nature and O Organics item in their monthly coupon book. Don't forget the few (very few) Eating Right items still hanging around at Safeway too.

Kroger has had many organic/natural brands. We have seen Kroger Organic, Private Selection Organic, Naturally Preferred (carry over from Fred Meyer Natural Choices brand), and now Simple Truth. It seems Kroger has put all its weight behind Simple Truth the past few years and has actually done quite well with it; it is a comprehensive and fairly priced product line. While I think some of the recent additions like bath tissue, lotion, body wash, and such are a stretch, I guess we will see how it all does, and I look forward to the upcoming clearance sales on the items that do not work out; Kroger is very generous with its clearance promotions.

I always thought Safeway Select was a great product line. They had a lot of really good items over the years, which over time kept getting discontinued. Some Safeway Select items over the years I really liked included yogurt (they had some that were double fruit or something along those lines), the preserves (now with a different supplier and just not the same), sparkling cider, pizza sauce, enchilada sauce... all of those items were manufactured by Safeway plants too. My favorite remaining item is the Southwest Salsa. Recently the small jars got discontinued but they still have the large jars. Back in the 90's, Safeway was using great private label items at great prices to drive sales. Remember the 2.99 mix/match 6pk 4ct cases of Safeway Select Soda? Routine promotions on Safeway Select paper products (towels/bath tissue) at $2.99 for large packs, 24oz Mrs. Wrights Buttertop Breads at 2/0.99 with a coupon or just a flat 99 cents each without, etc. The current "Signature Select" line is just sad, a shadow of the former Safeway Select line. I think at this point the old Albertsons premium label, Essensia, may have been more extensive than what "Signature Select" currently offers.

I vaguely remember the Ralphs Private Selection line being very similar to the old Safeway Select line. It had the paper products, it had the soda, it had some random things like canned tomatoes that were special in some way that escapes me, it had Hawaiian Canned Pineapple, etc.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway Merger - Two Years Old

Post by pseudo3d »

I should add that another "positive" is the work put into Pavilions (unique decor, gourmet items). Under Safeway, Pavilions/Vons were starting to becoming interchangeable.
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