Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

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pseudo3d
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:They're not going to (or at least, shouldn't) expand Market Street (or Amigos) outside of the United division, just like they won't expand Pavilions outside of SoCal.
This statement certainly makes sense... but then again who would have thought that they would open three Safeway stores in Florida?

I think Albertsons uses a dart board to make decisions about branding and decor packages, e.t.c... They're making a lot of decisions but there doesn't seem to be any strategy.
Well, technically, they're remodeling Albertsons stores, and no one said Safeway was exclusive to the West Coast, because Safeway in Washington DC was around back in the...1930s?

Anyway, there does seem to be a strategy. Generally, I can see a few patterns developing...

- They want people to return to the store they loved and lost.
- Albertsons stores get LLC décor, Safeway/Vons stores get the "Lifestyle 2.0" or the regular Lifestyle for second-tier store.
- Considerations are made for the stronger banner.

Unfortunately, some of those "rules" fall in conflict with each other...I posted a thread in a different subforum where Albertsons was to reopen a Safeway as an Albertsons with Albertsons décor, but the shoppers didn't like it so it will reopen as a Safeway...and take some more time reopening because of the swap.

The Haggen core stores are different in that they don't have a store to go back to. A good idea might be to...

- Conduct surveys regarding what Haggen shoppers actually want once the acquisition dust settles. If Haggen's regulars flee out of principle, then might as well as take Haggen to the back of the house and put it out of its misery.
- Pick one Haggen store to convert to an Albertsons early on with the surveys in mind. Close for a few days to convert, keep all employees.
- From this point, and how things fare afterwards, there are three options.
1. If things go disastrously in trying to save Haggen, then quietly convert the stores to Safeway or Albertsons, either by closing temporarily or just hanging up a banner one of these days.
2. If things go well and the Haggen name starts to recover, then keep it as an upscale brand for the Seattle division, perhaps by converting Safeway or Albertsons stores later (this is unlikely to happen).
3. Hybridize the stores by rebranding them as Safeway or Albertsons but keeping certain programs (i.e. the bakery) as Haggen.
klkla
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by klkla »

pseudo3d wrote:Well, technically, they're remodeling Albertsons stores, and no one said Safeway was exclusive to the West Coast, because Safeway in Washington DC was around back in the...1930s?
I was obviously being facetious about the dart board but some of your points just don't make any sense. The nearest Safeway in the Eastern Division is 818 miles from the nearest Albertsons in Florida so they're clearly different markets that have no relationship at all. My point was that nobody would have ever guessed that they would make a decision to rename these three orphan stores Safeway out of the blue (they could have just as easily chose to name them Market Street, Pavilions or anything else for that matter). Safeway is not a known brand for most Floridians, and most that do know of the name probably don't think of them as upscale.

Speaking of the Florida stores as stumbled across some new photos on Google that I hadn't seen before of the remodeling progress in Altamonte Springs:

It looks like a large portion, or perhaps even the entire store might have faux wood floors:
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8641405762
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8021612626
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 3296410770
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8307039730
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Well, technically, they're remodeling Albertsons stores, and no one said Safeway was exclusive to the West Coast, because Safeway in Washington DC was around back in the...1930s?
I was obviously being facetious about the dart board but some of your points just don't make any sense. The nearest Safeway in the Eastern Division is 818 miles from the nearest Albertsons in Florida so they're clearly different markets that have no relationship at all. My point was that nobody would have ever guessed that they would make a decision to rename these three orphan stores Safeway out of the blue (they could have just as easily chose to name them Market Street, Pavilions or anything else for that matter). Safeway is not a known brand for most Floridians, and most that do know of the name probably don't think of them as upscale.

Speaking of the Florida stores as stumbled across some new photos on Google that I hadn't seen before of the remodeling progress in Altamonte Springs:

It looks like a large portion, or perhaps even the entire store might have faux wood floors:
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8641405762
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8021612626
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 3296410770
https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/10 ... 8307039730
An update on Albertsons Florida Blog seemed to show that the perishables have faux wood, while the main store has shiny white tile. I don't know why Safeway was chosen as the name, but in all other cases, Star Market, Market Street, Pavilions, Tom Thumb...those are all exclusive to their divisions or market areas. It's the same reason why Kroger didn't rename that prototype QFC remodel to Mariano's or any of the names in that division. Maybe Albertsons was burned by Kroger's ill-fated attempt in Florida where they renamed the SupeRx/Family Mart stores they had as "Florida Choice".
Last edited by pseudo3d on March 9th, 2016, 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by storewanderer »

"Unfortunately, some of those "rules" fall in conflict with each other...I posted a thread in a different subforum where Albertsons was to reopen a Safeway as an Albertsons with Albertsons décor, but the shoppers didn't like it so it will reopen as a Safeway...and take some more time reopening because of the swap."

That would indicate they don't seem to have much of a consistent strategy going on. What shoppers didn't like the reopening of the Springfield, OR store with Albertsons decor? I think they flat out didn't properly coordinate which banner to place on the store... there is an Albertsons already on the next lot over from that store (a larger newer Albertsons at that, with a much larger parking lot).

The Haggen banner is relatively new to the majority of these locations anyway (even the "original" Haggens around Seattle are all former Top Foods; the first original Haggen is in Marysville, WA and then everything north of there was always a Haggen). At this point I don't think they will re-banner and I think they will generally operate the original Haggen locations "as is." As far as the former Safeway and Albertsons locations currently doing business as Haggen I expect those to be swiftly converted to Safeway and we will also see some overlapping stores closed.

I think they should convert all locations to Safeway and just get it all over with. Safeway has better metrics in the northwest than Albertsons or the original Haggens. The FTC never should have allowed this to happen; the concentration of stores it gives Albertsons in some spots is unreal. But, it definitely will make future grocery mergers much easier because the FTC has no oversight on this anymore after this.
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by storewanderer »

Well they don't have Safeway signs up just yet in Florida, do they? Who knows what will happen... they said they will be Safeway, but they could change their mind.

At this point the stores are on Safeway systems, have Safeway shelf tags, and are running Safeway-like ads ($5 Friday, etc.), but so are the Albertsons Stores in Baton Rouge, LA. Are those also slated to be converting?
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:
I think they should convert all locations to Safeway and just get it all over with. Safeway has better metrics in the northwest than Albertsons or the original Haggens. The FTC never should have allowed this to happen; the concentration of stores it gives Albertsons in some spots is unreal. But, it definitely will make future grocery mergers much easier because the FTC has no oversight on this anymore after this.
Clearly you've never been to Florida, or at least, seen some of the spots where Publix operates. The concentration there is amazing, and no competitor even comes close to that.
storewanderer wrote:Well they don't have Safeway signs up just yet in Florida, do they? Who knows what will happen... they said they will be Safeway, but they could change their mind.

At this point the stores are on Safeway systems, have Safeway shelf tags, and are running Safeway-like ads ($5 Friday, etc.), but so are the Albertsons Stores in Baton Rouge, LA. Are those also slated to be converting?
Well, I don't know if they actually will convert...maybe they'll stay as Albertsons. None of the marketing materials indicate as such either way. I presume that the Albertsons stores are changing due to the fact that since approx. 2012, Albertsons in Florida is an also-ran.

The Albertsons in Louisiana are substantially healthier and were probably one of the least-affected markets under LLC (not that Albertsons Inc. did them any favors, as by 2006 they had long pulled out of NOLA).

Randalls in Houston will stay...Albertsons and Safeway already were there and weren't met with the best of arms...Safeway racked up a good market share but was never really loved as a supermarket in the area and had taken over Weingarten's leases, which not only left a lot of bad feelings among former Weingarten shoppers but left them with a lot of dated stores. Needless to say, the resulting spin-off of the division when Safeway was divested them didn't last too long as an independent. Albertsons fared even worse, as it offered an unimpressive offering (it wasn't particularly cheaper or better or whatever) at the wrong time (too many stores) and often in the wrong places (many have not been grocery stores since Albertsons left).
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by storewanderer »

Albertsons has much better concentration in some places after this transaction than Publix in Florida has. Places like Oregon City, OR; Henderson, NV; Olympia/Lacey, WA... probably a lot of other spots spread around the Pacific Northwest too. These are situations where the combined company has 2-3 stores within a mile of one another.

Still this does somewhat resemble how Publix grew in Florida; nobody else wanted to buy failing stores there, so they did. Was Publix always outperforming its competition though? Albertsons has been underperforming its competition for years and Safeway underperforms the Kroger affiliates, WinCo, Whole Foods, and Wal Mart. So this is different; stores that many customers dislike buying up competition, whereas with Publix it seemed the store that many people really liked was buying...
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:The Albertsons in Louisiana are substantially healthier and were probably one of the least-affected markets under LLC (not that Albertsons Inc. did them any favors, as by 2006 they had long pulled out of NOLA).
As we've discussed previously, Albertsons never did well in NOLA. They just couldn't give enough local flavor. None of the stores were in good locations, and they just couldn't hang. As for Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the stores are just in better locations; the Johnston St. store in Lafayette was the only grocer in that part of town for 2 decades. Nobody was even close, and when they were, it was still no contest.

I believe there's more to the FTC's side of the story here. You don't allow the company who divested the stores to buy them back. It just doesn't make sense. I wonder if this wasn't the plan all along.
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by marshd1000 »

There is still a auction but it is Moved to March 18th. That might be where the official announcement comes.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 05702.html

Here's a article about 4 more stores to be closed. The were originally considered to be "core" stores but are no longer and will be closed:

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 01912.html
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Re: Haggen to close, liquidate 100 more stores

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:Albertsons has much better concentration in some places after this transaction than Publix in Florida has. Places like Oregon City, OR; Henderson, NV; Olympia/Lacey, WA... probably a lot of other spots spread around the Pacific Northwest too. These are situations where the combined company has 2-3 stores within a mile of one another.

Still this does somewhat resemble how Publix grew in Florida; nobody else wanted to buy failing stores there, so they did. Was Publix always outperforming its competition though? Albertsons has been underperforming its competition for years and Safeway underperforms the Kroger affiliates, WinCo, Whole Foods, and Wal Mart. So this is different; stores that many customers dislike buying up competition, whereas with Publix it seemed the store that many people really liked was buying...
Apart from Kroger, Winco, Whole Foods, and Walmart (both Supercenter and NM) aren't direct competitors to Albertsons/Safeway. And while Publix does well in Florida, there are stores that aren't "all that"...I remember one just had this pathetic little wine section tucked in a back alcove...
wnetmacman wrote: I believe there's more to the FTC's side of the story here. You don't allow the company who divested the stores to buy them back. It just doesn't make sense. I wonder if this wasn't the plan all along.
I think that the union has a huge part in this. They probably rejected the actual biggest bidders, banks that would sell off stores to competitors (Albertsons, QFC, etc.) because they couldn't guarantee that everyone would still have jobs, and Albertsons could submit a relative pittance and still get the stores.

The unions are also a significant force in politics and could have lobbied the FTC to do so.
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