Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

[pseudo3d]

It might be distribution-related but who knows. Anyway, the AlbertsonsMarket.com website confirms Taos and Albuquerque being part of "Albertsons Market", but I'm surprised they haven't done any store resets yet. El Paso is still on Southwest though. I am a bit surprised I haven't heard anything on the news though.

[rwsandiego]

I like the Albertsons Market ad. Very clean and uncluttered. Reminds me of the Fry's ads here in Phoenix.

[arizonaguy]

Albuquerque is closer to Lubbock than Phoenix by about 2 hours (drive time). El Paso is a toss up. I'm curious what this means for the two distribution centers in Phoenix. Currently Albertsons bannered stores use the Tolleson, AZ distribution center and Safeway and Vons bannered stores use the Tempe, AZ distribution center. With the elimination of the central New Mexico stores (and the closure of a few Albertsons stores in Phoenix) they may be able to consolidate everything into Tempe.

[pseudo3d]

Albuquerque is closer to Lubbock than Phoenix by about 2 hours (drive time). El Paso is a toss up. I'm curious what this means for the two distribution centers in Phoenix. Currently Albertsons bannered stores use the Tolleson, AZ distribution center and Safeway and Vons bannered stores use the Tempe, AZ distribution center. With the elimination of the central New Mexico stores (and the closure of a few Albertsons stores in Phoenix) they may be able to consolidate everything into Tempe.

From indications in the West Coast, they would keep Tolleson. In SoCal, they closed the Vons HQ and the distribution centers.

[arizonaguy]

Albuquerque is closer to Lubbock than Phoenix by about 2 hours (drive time). El Paso is a toss up. I'm curious what this means for the two distribution centers in Phoenix. Currently Albertsons bannered stores use the Tolleson, AZ distribution center and Safeway and Vons bannered stores use the Tempe, AZ distribution center. With the elimination of the central New Mexico stores (and the closure of a few Albertsons stores in Phoenix) they may be able to consolidate everything into Tempe.

From indications in the West Coast, they would keep Tolleson. In SoCal, they closed the Vons HQ and the distribution centers.

The Safeway DC in Tempe is larger and also includes a dairy facility. The land is also significantly more valuable though and I'd imagine that if they sold it they'd fetch a hefty sum.

If they did close Tolleson, I'd imagine Kroger would be interested. The Albertsons distribution center is adjacent to the Fry's division office / distribution center / dairy. Kroger currently uses the Tolleson facility as well as a few other facilities in Phoenix (which are the originally Fry's distribution centers prior to merging with Smith's).

[pseudo3d]

That is a massive divisional realignment to throw the Albuquerque Albertsons Stores over to United Division. That will also be United's first experience competing with Smiths. The Albertsons in Albuquerque are a very odd lot of stores: you have former Lucky/Jewel Oscos, you have former Furrs, you have a few former Albertsons that got back to Albertsons, and you have one built from scratch Raleys.

Last year, United picked up a lot of Lawrence Bros. stores, many of which weren't exactly prime locations (they were small and old), and some of those stores dated back to long-defunct Safeway locations (later Furr's). EDIT: Found a source for the United realignment.

[CalItalian]

Albertsons Q4 comp declines accelerate http://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-f ... accelerate

[pseudo3d]

Albertsons Q4 comp declines accelerate http://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-f ... accelerate

And here I was criticizing Winn-Dixie for letting that happen so much. The big problem with ABS is that there's still a lot of "Safeway poison" in the division (some changes at ACME that now seem to be trying to reverse the damage due to leadership changes) and staffing is a major issue chainwide that I have no idea why that isn't being dealt with. If money was an issue (isn't it always) they have plenty of room for more improvements and can do other changes without significantly compromising the chain or market share (can't say the same for SEG, though).

[klkla]

Kroger comps were down .7% last quarter and Albertson's down .4% so an argument could be made that they did better in that regard.

The above figure includes stores that have been remodeled in the last year. If you eliminate those stores comp sales were down 3.3% companywide so it appears the remodels are having at least some positive effect.

[storewanderer]

Albertsons is going against some fairly strong comp numbers from last year this year also, whereas Kroger's figures were already softer last year. I think Albertsons is adding more labor into the stores the past few months based on what I am observing, and they are executing better. Price is still a very major problem (Raleys and Save Mart are much better priced in NorCal) and actually they seem to keep increasing prices.

I do not know what Kroger has been doing the past 6 or so months but I hope they will get back on track. I think they may be getting there.