Albertsons/Safeway 2018 & 2019: Openings and Closings

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by arizonaguy »

It seems like the DFW area closures were thinning out of the store base (as there are other either Albertsons, Market Street, or Tom Thumb stores fairly close to the closing stores).

As far as Houston, they might as well just pull the plug at this point.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by architect »

arizonaguy wrote: October 30th, 2018, 5:48 pm It seems like the DFW area closures were thinning out of the store base (as there are other either Albertsons, Market Street, or Tom Thumb stores fairly close to the closing stores).

As far as Houston, they might as well just pull the plug at this point.
Overall, I would say that that is the case. Here is a bit more backstory on the closing stores:

Tom Thumb, 2600 Flower Mound Rd, Flower Mound - This store was originally built in the mid-90's under Randalls leadership. At the time of its construction, it was the only Tom Thumb in the immediate area and one of two in Lewisville-Flower Mound (the other being located at 745 Cross Timbers Rd right on the Lewisville border, a store which is still in operation today). Overall, this store was first to the market in the area but over the years grew redundant with the opening of another Tom Thumb to the east on Valley Pkwy in Lewisville in the late 90's, another Tom Thumb to the west at 4301 Cross Timbers Rd in Flower Mound which opened in 2012, and after the Albertsons merger, a Market Street just to the north at 3800 Long Prairie Rd. Between all of these stores and surrounding competitors, the closing Tom Thumb simply felt undersized and fairly outdated, despite receiving a Lifestyle remodel. Actually, when the Cross Timbers Tom Thumb to the west was opened in 2012, Safeway originally planed to close this store but elected to keep it open after all, so it has been somewhat questionable for some time.

Tom Thumb, 820 S. MacArthur Blvd, Coppell - A late-80's Tom Thumb which hasn't received any renovation since the early 2000's. Overall, this store is simply a victim of shifting traffic and poor planning. Although Coppell is an upscale suburb which has trended gradually upward in income over the years, the demographics are a bit atypical for traditional grocers as there is a heavy Indian population in the area. This store is located right on the outskirts of the town, on the wrong side of the road to catch homebound traffic in the evenings. In addition, this store is a hassle to shop for nearby residents of Valley Ranch because after one leaves the store, it is impossible to head back south without taking an unprotected left onto either Belt Line or MacArthur, both busy thoroughfares. Otherwise, a creek which runs to the south largely separates these neighborhoods from the store itself. Lastly, this store was functionally replaced by a much nicer Tom Thumb to the northwest in Coppell's main shopping district in the late 90's, a store which continues to see strong traffic today. I am honestly surprised that this store was not closed under Safeway, as it has been a low-traffic dog for some time now.

Albertsons, 10800 N. Beach St, Fort Worth - Now this one is a bit of a surprise. Although this store has not received any renovation since opening (a mid-2000's Albertsons), it is the only Albertsons-owned store in the west side of Keller or close to the nearby Alliance developments in the 35W corridor. This is one of the fastest growing areas of DFW, and by closing this store, Albertsons is essentially ceding the market in this area to numerous Kroger stores in the area, having already closed another Albertsons on 377 to the east about a year or so ago. There is a Tom Thumb in the west part of Keller which seems to perform well, so maybe Albertsons is hoping that shoppers will migrate towards that store.

Albertsons, 1300 W. Belt Line Rd, DeSoto - Not surprised by this one in the least. This store is a mid-90's Albertsons which hasn't been renovated in years, was built for residential growth which didn't fully materialize, and is now sandwiched between another Albertsons to the west in Cedar Hill and a Tom Thumb to the northeast which is also in DeSoto. The demographics in this area would also tend to favor stores such as Walmart, Aldi or Kroger and likely are hesitant to pay Albertsons' high pricing.

Randalls, 9420 College Park Dr, The Woodlands - This one has been coming for years. This store was opened by Safeway in the early 2000's in anticipation of development which never really materialized. It hasn't been renovated in years, and a nearby HEB to the west which opened a few years ago was likely the nail in the coffin. Just looking at an aerial view of the two stores on Google, the HEB lot is packed while the Randalls lot has almost no cars by comparison. During a visit two years ago on a Sunday afternoon, I noticed this exact same thing with maybe 5-10 shoppers in the entire store on what is often the busiest shopping day at many stores.

Randalls, 5800 New Territory Blvd, Sugar Land - As a whole, I am not super familiar with this store. However, the west Houston suburbs along the Grand Parkway are some of the fastest growing areas in the Houston metro, so for Randalls to close this location is clearly a bow out. In addition, the only real competition in the area seems to be two HEBs which are located at a reasonable distance from this store, but aren't exactly adjacent to it. It would not surprise me to see Kroger attempt to pick up this store, as they have essentially no presence in the area and the demographics in the area are very strong.

Randalls, 2075 Westheimer Rd, Houston - This one is problematic on multiple fronts. Although competition in the area is cutthroat (with two Krogers, an HEB, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Central Market all being located in the vicinity), this Randalls arguably has the best location out of most of these stores, at a high-profile intersection which pulls from multiple directions. In addition, this store is one of the largest in the whole chain and is the only Randalls heading west along the Westheimer corridor between downtown and the Galleria area (a major thoroughfare). This is a significant and somewhat unexpected closure to say the least, particularly considering this store's reputation (it was considered one of the premier Randalls stores up until its ruin at the hands of Safeway/Albertsons). This store was actually rumored to be closing a few years ago with a Fiesta to take its place, but at the time, this rumor seemed somewhat out of touch with reality. Now it appears that at least the first part of this rumor is coming true. It will be interesting to see what fills this space.

Side note, a flashback to the Westheimer/Shepherd store's opening: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk9FWVx2K2s) along with some photos taken a couple of years ago:

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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by storewanderer »

I find it interesting Albertsons is closing things like the Randalls Flagship or that Safeway up in far north Portland, OR that was also a flagship store of stores, while not replacing them with other flagship stores elsewhere in the respective metro areas. Yet they are busy opening two stores in Boise that are very much like "flagship" stores.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by architect »

Apparently, The Westheimer/Shepherd Randalls closure in Houston is partially due to the store's lease expiring next year. Although the store might have been performing decently, it sounds like Albertsons did not want to commit to another lease term (which is likely a reflection of their outlook on the Houston market as a whole). The CEO of the company which manages Shepherd Square expects that the space will be retenanted quickly once Randalls vacates and the store's lease expires.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/busine ... 349599.php
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by storewanderer »

I guess we will see what happens with Houston. I assume Austin is fairly safe. Also, I wonder if they have renewed any leases in Houston since they shut down the division. Store remodels don't mean much after what they did in Florida.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: October 30th, 2018, 10:10 pm I find it interesting Albertsons is closing things like the Randalls Flagship or that Safeway up in far north Portland, OR that was also a flagship store of stores, while not replacing them with other flagship stores elsewhere in the respective metro areas. Yet they are busy opening two stores in Boise that are very much like "flagship" stores.
In Portland, it seems like Safeway is the stronger of the two brands. With that said though, it seems like more Safeway branded stores are now closing than the Albertsons branded stores. The locations closing seem to be more visible locations that should be doing well enough to stay open, particularly Vancouver's Mill Plain/136th location. It's getting hard to figure out now which direction they are going to go...at one point it looked like the Albertsons name would eventually disappear from the Portland market, now I am not so sure.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: November 2nd, 2018, 10:33 am
storewanderer wrote: October 30th, 2018, 10:10 pm I find it interesting Albertsons is closing things like the Randalls Flagship or that Safeway up in far north Portland, OR that was also a flagship store of stores, while not replacing them with other flagship stores elsewhere in the respective metro areas. Yet they are busy opening two stores in Boise that are very much like "flagship" stores.
In Portland, it seems like Safeway is the stronger of the two brands. With that said though, it seems like more Safeway branded stores are now closing than the Albertsons branded stores. The locations closing seem to be more visible locations that should be doing well enough to stay open, particularly Vancouver's Mill Plain/136th location. It's getting hard to figure out now which direction they are going to go...at one point it looked like the Albertsons name would eventually disappear from the Portland market, now I am not so sure.
They are supposedly negotiating with the landlord of Mill Plain again... store might not close. Given the space has been being marketed for the past six months and it appears there are no takers, it would appear to be in everyone's best interest to work something out to keep the store open at least for the time being.

As far as who has the stronger brand goes, after all of the closures of the Albertsons banner over the years, many of the remaining stores are the very best representations of that brand. So the few stores that brand has left, are going to be above average type stores. Those stores are a cut above the typical Safeway with better perimeters (especially meat) and a wider mix of center store products (especially drug). Safeway on the other hand has been on a major decline for years, the stores suffer from a lack of capex, poor merchandising, inconsistent perimeter execution, and various other problems that I think got "resolved" in the Albertsons banner soon after Cerberus got control of their respective groups of stores (both the groups they got over a decade ago as well as the more recent Supervalu purchase), either through swift store closures or swift changes in operations. For some reason, Cerberus has not been able to fix these problems with the Safeway banner with the success they did with the Albertsons banner.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: November 2nd, 2018, 10:57 pm
Super S wrote: November 2nd, 2018, 10:33 am
storewanderer wrote: October 30th, 2018, 10:10 pm I find it interesting Albertsons is closing things like the Randalls Flagship or that Safeway up in far north Portland, OR that was also a flagship store of stores, while not replacing them with other flagship stores elsewhere in the respective metro areas. Yet they are busy opening two stores in Boise that are very much like "flagship" stores.
In Portland, it seems like Safeway is the stronger of the two brands. With that said though, it seems like more Safeway branded stores are now closing than the Albertsons branded stores. The locations closing seem to be more visible locations that should be doing well enough to stay open, particularly Vancouver's Mill Plain/136th location. It's getting hard to figure out now which direction they are going to go...at one point it looked like the Albertsons name would eventually disappear from the Portland market, now I am not so sure.
They are supposedly negotiating with the landlord of Mill Plain again... store might not close. Given the space has been being marketed for the past six months and it appears there are no takers, it would appear to be in everyone's best interest to work something out to keep the store open at least for the time being.

As far as who has the stronger brand goes, after all of the closures of the Albertsons banner over the years, many of the remaining stores are the very best representations of that brand. So the few stores that brand has left, are going to be above average type stores. Those stores are a cut above the typical Safeway with better perimeters (especially meat) and a wider mix of center store products (especially drug). Safeway on the other hand has been on a major decline for years, the stores suffer from a lack of capex, poor merchandising, inconsistent perimeter execution, and various other problems that I think got "resolved" in the Albertsons banner soon after Cerberus got control of their respective groups of stores (both the groups they got over a decade ago as well as the more recent Supervalu purchase), either through swift store closures or swift changes in operations. For some reason, Cerberus has not been able to fix these problems with the Safeway banner with the success they did with the Albertsons banner.
Well, considering that Safeway has made an official closing announcement, I have my doubts about the store staying open. I also doubt it would reopen as Albertsons considering they have already closed all but one Vancouver location.

And speaking of that one Vancouver location (Salmon Creek) it received a cheap Supervalu remodel which consisted of a wall repaint and rearranging a few aisles, but not repositioning lighting where the aisles ran a different direction before. It also retained the original blue-gray flooring. This one is certainly NOT the best representation of the Albertsons brand. Oddly, there is a Safeway about a mile south which is also still open, and Albertsons still has a store about the same distance from the Safeway in Battle Ground.

I don't think they are worried about the best representations when you see stores like Jantzen Beach closing.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by storewanderer »

Supervalu's remodels toward the end were pretty bad.

I doubt we will see any Safeway Stores rebrand to Albertsons. Even in markets like Las Vegas where it would make sense to do a rebrand, they aren't doing a rebrand.
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Re: Albertsons/Safeway 2018: Openings and Closings

Post by pseudo3d »

The Westheimer/Shepherd store wasn't doing that well. It had some of the lowest produce sales in the region (not the lowest profit or the highest shrink--and as for how I know this, let's just say some paperwork got left out). The traffic snarls in the area prevent left turns at the nearby stoplight, and that also makes it difficult to get out.
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