Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

[wnetmacman]

In terms of trailers, I've seen Randalls trailers on Highway 290 and Highway 6 (yeah, as of this month I can still confirm that the trucks go through College Station), but they're different (since December 2015), rather than the "Lifestyle" trucks, they're brown and advertise "Signature" products. Additionally, I've seen Tom Thumb trailers, and even an Albertsons trailer on 610 making local deliveries to Houston. However, as of spring of last year, talking to a Randalls driver revealed that they don't do deliveries to Louisiana and that was a "different company" doing it (presumed to be SuperValu, which still had a lot of its products in Albertsons-LA just about six months prior). No idea what the case is now.

As of now, the South Louisiana Albertsons stores (excluding Shreveport and Alexandria) are Randalls in all but name, including distribution. All merchandise comes from the Houston DC. That includes the Safeway products, including Lucerne.

[arizonaguy]

In terms of trailers, I've seen Randalls trailers on Highway 290 and Highway 6 (yeah, as of this month I can still confirm that the trucks go through College Station), but they're different (since December 2015), rather than the "Lifestyle" trucks, they're brown and advertise "Signature" products. Additionally, I've seen Tom Thumb trailers, and even an Albertsons trailer on 610 making local deliveries to Houston. However, as of spring of last year, talking to a Randalls driver revealed that they don't do deliveries to Louisiana and that was a "different company" doing it (presumed to be SuperValu, which still had a lot of its products in Albertsons-LA just about six months prior). No idea what the case is now.

As of now, the South Louisiana Albertsons stores (excluding Shreveport and Alexandria) are Randalls in all but name, including distribution. All merchandise comes from the Houston DC. That includes the Safeway products, including Lucerne.

Lucerne and "Signature" products are now standard across all Albertsons / Safeway operations. It's not a Randalls/Safeway specific thing anymore.

[rwsandiego]

I never thought I'd see the day when I wished Albertsons would bring any remnant of their operation back, but that day has come. In Phoenix, the Albertsons website uses the legacy Safeway store locator, which only displays 20 stores per search. For most people this is probably fine, but when planning a shopping adventure it is damned difficult to locate all of the stores in metro Phoenix when it only displays 20 stores. The old Albertsons locator will display all of the stores within the selected radius of a zip code or address. For example, when I entered "60201" in the Jewel-Osco locator, 73 stores displayed.

If anyone knows of a workaround (or if I am doing something incorrectly) please let me know. In the meantime, I have some Albertsons stores to check out.

[SamSpade]

If anyone knows of a workaround (or if I am doing something incorrectly) please let me know. In the meantime, I have some Albertsons stores to check out.

Honestly, I don't know if this site has been update post-merger, but it might at least lead you in the right direction:
http://local.safeway.com/az/
http://www.albertsons.com/pd/stores/AZ

[rwsandiego]

If anyone knows of a workaround (or if I am doing something incorrectly) please let me know. In the meantime, I have some Albertsons stores to check out.

Honestly, I don't know if this site has been update post-merger, but it might at least lead you in the right direction:
http://local.safeway.com/az/
http://www.albertsons.com/pd/stores/AZ

Oooh! Thank you!!!!

[Super S]

I was in the Albertsons in Salmon Creek in Vancouver, WA today, and noticed that the checkstands were stocked with the tan Safeway bags complete with the "Ingredients for life" slogan. Not sure if this is occurring at other locations. I wonder if this is a hint that the Albertsons branding will be disappearing from the Portland market soon.

[Alpha8472]

The newest Safeway paper bag says "We Deliver Fresh."





The Ingredients For Life phrase has been replaced. Perhaps Albertsons is just clearing out the warehouses of old bags with the old slogan.

It is may also be the result of a shipment that got sent to the wrong store. I have seen Vons bags sent to Northern California Safeway stores in the past. Vons has not replaced the Safeway name in Northern California.

I have seen Raley's paper bags at CVS stores. CVS didn't care and used the Raley's bags anyway. Why discard perfectly good bags?

In other news, I have noticed that Safeway has been stocking very nice reusable bags featuring the latest in comic book and Star Wars movies. The bags have very high quality images from movies such as Rogue One, Spiderman, and Captain America. Safeway never had bags as good as these before Albertsons. They are collector's items.

[SamSpade]

The newest Safeway paper bag says "We Deliver Fresh."

Thanks for sharing the bag updates with us. That reflects the new font in service departments in Oregon / Washington Safeway and Idaho Albertsons stores too. So far up here, the marketing in the Portland region is still reflecting the "BETTER" stamp that they implemented with the re-branding of the house brands in both stores and emphasizing they were 'better' together.

[dcpeachy]

The Albertsons ads for the last two weeks in Albuquerque are now the United Supermarkets/Albertsons Market ads. In searching other zip codes in New Mexico, Santa Fe, Taos, and the rest of the Albuquerque metro area are all on the United ad as well. The promotions for the New Mexico stores are similar between the United and Albertsons ads, but the prices are not quite the same.

However, stores in Farmington, Las Cruces, Gallup, Silver City, are still on the previous ad, which appears to be shared with Safeway in Gallup, but segregated (two ads) in Farmington, even though both cities have both Safeway and Albertsons.

[storewanderer]

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.

I kind of wonder why they are doing this, though. Albertsons LLC Southwest Division when it encompassed Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Denver worked really well; the stores were well executed and pretty competitively priced. More recently I have not been too impressed with the Southwest Division, especially the operations in Las Vegas which need some serious help on pricing, staffing, and overall execution (both Albertsons and Vons banners).