Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

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storewanderer
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by storewanderer »

I do not think Kroger will be making a play for 800 Ahold Stores.

Food Lion needs to be spun off into an independent entity and allowed to go swim alone. I think bringing back a Food Lion private label and the current crop of store remodels is setting a foundation for this. They will cut it loose at the right time.

Kroger is having its own operational problems right now. All you have to do is look at their financials. The purchase of Roundys appears to be running into trouble, Pick N Save announced more closures this month. Kroger's own stores are missing numerous growth opportunities out on the west coast and Kroger's perimeter programs are becoming stale due to lack of innovation and a lack of quality. Kroger is also walking a real fine line with how it is handling private label. Discontinuing name brand or Kroger brand items to make way for (higher priced) "Simple Truth" items in categories like laundry soap or household cleaners or liquid hand soap is a really questionable move in my mind.

As far as the convenience stores go, I think the more likely scenario would be Kroger selling its c-stores off to someone else. Kroger's c-stores are having major operational problems in my observation. The Quik Stops here in Nevada have become quite dirty and sloppy, prices have been increased substantially in-store, specials are not as good, Kroger brand items have been mostly discontinued (supposedly due to a supplier change this is temporary) except on a few key items, and there has been no new store growth at Quik Stop in quite a while. Back in Wichita, KS I went into some of the Kroger Kwik Shops and also found them to be very dirty and poorly maintained, even newer and modern looking locations. I tried to find unsweetened brewed Turkey Hill Iced Tea from the fountain area at about 4 Kwik Shops and every time they were out of it (they had 4 other sweet brewed flavors available, however). I finally asked at one and was told the supplier was out of unsweetened iced tea bags so they haven't had it "in a while." That was never a problem at Quik Trip who has no problem keeping about 12 sweet or unsweet brewed iced teas available at most given times.
Last edited by storewanderer on June 20th, 2017, 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by storewanderer »

Albertsons purchasing Harris Teeter? That would be an absolute disaster... that will not happen. Albertsons cannot operate semi-upscale Safeway Stores to the standard (which was not very high) that the old Safeway operated them to. There is no way they could operate the even more upscale Harris Teeters to the standard that Harris Teeter is operating at. Kroger is being smart with Harris Teeter. They know better than to mess it up. It has better metrics than Kroger in too many areas... and they know better than to break what is working, what produces higher than average margins, and what is profitable. It is just unfortunate to me they are not interested in taking Harris Teeter ideas and bringing them to the other Kroger divisions because there are some great quality ideas there on the perimeter.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:Albertsons purchasing Harris Teeter? That would be an absolute disaster... that will not happen.
No, the whole thing was a hypothetical scenario if Kroger purchased Ahold, got worse, AND if Albertsons got better.

Real talk, though--Kroger buys Ahold and the entire Kroger/Ahold chain will suffer for it. It's not a wise purchase.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by cathandler »

pseudo3d wrote:
storewanderer wrote:Albertsons purchasing Harris Teeter? That would be an absolute disaster... that will not happen.
a hypothetical scenario if Kroger purchased Ahold, got worse, AND if Albertsons got better.
I think the chances of Albertsons getting better are somewhere between slim and none based on my firsthand experience with the Shaw's division.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by mbz321 »

pseudo3d wrote:
Knight wrote:Ahold Delhaize should get rid of the poison before Kroger catches it. That poison is Food Lion.

Hannaford ended 2016 with 189 stores.
The U.S. subsidiaries of Ahold and Delhaize did not merge, even though their parent company is Ahold Delhaize. It isn't a package deal by default.

And I was referring to the problems within Ahold...from what I heard, Stop & Shop and the Giant stores have their own set of operational problems. Those operational problems in a chain that big could negatively affect Kroger, and that's the worst case scenario for Kroger. In the imaginary scenario, Kroger buys Ahold and has to deal with integrating the 800 stores with its existing network. The operational problems begin affecting other divisions, and chain operations begin to suffer, causing people to seek other competitors.
All I can say is Giant-PA division is a mess. They have made so many cutbacks and changes over the last 5-6 years that have turned the company into absolute crap. Employees have been cut back, butchers no longer exist in-store, and even some/most of their prepared food/bakery items are not made or even baked in house. They have closed some older stores in more Urban areas despite having almost no competition around them. Some strange new store designs and remodels haven't worked out too well. Their prices are still okay, but there is very little that separates them from the grocery section in Walmart at this point. Seeing how Ahold was never able to really integrate their now-closing Martin's/Ukrop's locations, I'd imagine these problems are not just a Giant-PA issue.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by storewanderer »

cathandler wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:
storewanderer wrote:Albertsons purchasing Harris Teeter? That would be an absolute disaster... that will not happen.
a hypothetical scenario if Kroger purchased Ahold, got worse, AND if Albertsons got better.
I think the chances of Albertsons getting better are somewhere between slim and none based on my firsthand experience with the Shaw's division.
I would also say this based on my firsthand experience with this NorCal Division.

The distant hope I have from the good experiences with Albertsons LLC Stores in AZ, NM, and CO 5-10 years ago are becoming a more and more distant memory as time goes on. Seeing all those Safeway-format signs and Safeway cash registers and other Safeway crap in the Albertsons bannered stores in Idaho is somewhat surreal too.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by Knight »

pseudo3d wrote:
The U.S. subsidiaries of Ahold and Delhaize did not merge, even though their parent company is Ahold Delhaize. It isn't a package deal by default.
This is noticeable as Ahold USA and Delhaize America continue as entities of Ahold Delhaize.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by Knight »

storewanderer wrote: Food Lion needs to be spun off into an independent entity and allowed to go swim alone. I think bringing back a Food Lion private label and the current crop of store remodels is setting a foundation for this. They will cut it loose at the right time.
Food Lion is beyond the point of no return as it has been in the wrong direction for years. When Food Lion becomes serious about being easy, fresh, and affordable by having food and pharmacy departments, products, and service in its stores; has fresh foods and quality products; and lowers its prices, it can be taken seriously as a supermarket. Doing nothing more than another round of minimal store updates is another step in its self destruction. Other supermarkets and other grocery retailers will continue feasting on Food Lion's miscues.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by Knight »

storewanderer wrote:Albertsons purchasing Harris Teeter?
Albertson's has failed across the southeastern United States in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. If it made wiser decisions, it could have expanded into Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina organically or through an existing (or previous) supermarket participant.

Harris Teeter is an asset for Kroger.
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Re: Is the Kroger Company in position for an acquisition in 2017?

Post by cathandler »

How is United working out for Albertsons? I got the impression that they have pretty much left it to run semi-autonomously. Would the rest of Albertsons benefit from learning from anything United is doing?
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