Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

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wnetmacman
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Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by wnetmacman »

Rouses Markets announced yesterday on their Facebook page that they will be building stores in Sulphur and Moss Bluff, Louisiana, which are suburbs of Lake Charles. Unlike their recent Baton Rouge expansion, these will be all new stores in all new locations. The Lake Charles area has 1 Albertsons, 3 Kroger, 3 Market Basket, 1 Brookshire Brothers and 3 Walmart Neighborhood Markets, in addition to several Supercenters.

I am interested to see how this will play out for Rouses, as they seem to be good at heading into uncharted territory.
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:Rouses Markets announced yesterday on their Facebook page that they will be building stores in Sulphur and Moss Bluff, Louisiana, which are suburbs of Lake Charles. Unlike their recent Baton Rouge expansion, these will be all new stores in all new locations. The Lake Charles area has 1 Albertsons, 3 Kroger, 3 Market Basket, 1 Brookshire Brothers and 3 Walmart Neighborhood Markets, in addition to several Supercenters.

I am interested to see how this will play out for Rouses, as they seem to be good at heading into uncharted territory.
Sulphur has a Kroger and a Market Basket, with the Kroger inherited from Albertsons (it was a casualty of the Houston collapse). The other Market Basket is the former Winn-Dixie(?)/Delchamps/H-E-B Pantry, and there's another small one not far from it. Moss Bluff also has a fourth Market Basket.
The Kroger stores, besides the former Albertsons, consist of a Family Center near the railroad tracks consist of an expanded(?) Greenhouse store.

Basically, apart from the Neighborhood Markets, there probably hasn't been a new-build supermarket since the late 1990s. The Albertsons builds are the "newest" and that's not saying much. Rouses will do fine, and it will create a scenario where Rouses is 30 miles from the Florida border and 30 miles from the Texas border...truly the supermarket of the South. 8-)
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Sulphur has a Kroger and a Market Basket, with the Kroger inherited from Albertsons (it was a casualty of the Houston collapse). The other Market Basket is the former Winn-Dixie(?)/Delchamps/H-E-B Pantry, and there's another small one not far from it. Moss Bluff also has a fourth Market Basket.
Sulphur also has a Brookshire Brothers store (the lone full line store for them in the market) and Cormie's, which is a smaller Brookshire Brothers format store. Market Basket seems to pick up everyone's leftovers, which is their operative mantra throughout their chain.
pseudo3d wrote:The Kroger stores, besides the former Albertsons, consist of a Family Center near the railroad tracks consist of an expanded(?) Greenhouse store.
The greenhouse store was replaced earlier this year with a near-marketplace sized store on Country Club Road. I've been to it; it's essentially a smaller version of the Marketplace format.
pseudo3d wrote:Basically, apart from the Neighborhood Markets, there probably hasn't been a new-build supermarket since the late 1990s. The Albertsons builds are the "newest" and that's not saying much.
Partially true; Kroger has really done a good job there of keeping up with their stores. The Family Center has been remodeled throughout, and, well, see my comment about the other one. Albertsons' Country Club store is newer; their Ryan St. store is older. Market Basket is open for business.....
pseudo3d wrote:Rouses will do fine, and it will create a scenario where Rouses is 30 miles from the Florida border and 30 miles from the Texas border...truly the supermarket of the South. 8-)
I hadn't really looked at it that way, but yes; that's true.
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by pseudo3d »

This is also the first market where Rouses competes against Kroger, right? What are the chances (at this point) that they could enter Texas anytime soon?
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:This is also the first market where Rouses competes against Kroger, right? What are the chances (at this point) that they could enter Texas anytime soon?
It is. But they have competed successfully against Walmart already, so I don't think Kroger will be a big challenge. If anything, they'll knock Market Basket or Brookshire Brothers out of the area, as both are pretty weak there.

As for Texas, you never know. The aforementioned Market Basket is the only one there fully catering to the locale. Kroger doesn't, and neither does Walmart. We know Albertsons can't really do it with two stores.
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:This is also the first market where Rouses competes against Kroger, right? What are the chances (at this point) that they could enter Texas anytime soon?
It is. But they have competed successfully against Walmart already, so I don't think Kroger will be a big challenge. If anything, they'll knock Market Basket or Brookshire Brothers out of the area, as both are pretty weak there.

As for Texas, you never know. The aforementioned Market Basket is the only one there fully catering to the locale. Kroger doesn't, and neither does Walmart. We know Albertsons can't really do it with two stores.
Texas would put them against H-E-B, and either they're going to have to compete head to head, or they're going to sign non-compete agreements, which I don't think they do anymore. Randalls, H-E-B, and United all had non-compete agreements before mergers and backdoor attempts at market share, and besides, outlawing Rouses and H-E-B from competing would be a disservice to both regions.

Well, that or the unlikely possibility that Rouses gets bought by a bigger fish, like H-E-B, Publix, Kroger, or Albertsons, which would be a game-changer under any of those four. (Additional Speculation in Spoiler)
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Re: Rouses Markets to open 2 stores near Lake Charles

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Texas would put them against H-E-B, and either they're going to have to compete head to head, or they're going to sign non-compete agreements, which I don't think they do anymore. Randalls, H-E-B, and United all had non-compete agreements before mergers and backdoor attempts at market share, and besides, outlawing Rouses and H-E-B from competing would be a disservice to both regions.
I'm pretty sure those don't exist any more. I know Rouses is non-union, and while Kroger is union, they simply don't care.
pseudo3d wrote:Well, that or the unlikely possibility that Rouses gets bought by a bigger fish, like H-E-B, Publix, Kroger, or Albertsons, which would be a game-changer under any of those four.
HEB isn't interested in leaving Texas. They can't even get into Dallas, and they really need to get over that fear before coming back here. Publix could bite, as they have a tiny bit of overlap, but I don't see it as most of their southern expansion has been organic. Rouses is too small a target for both Kroger and Albertsons, especially the latter considering they just can't afford another acquisition now. Also, there is now significant overlap in Lafayette and Baton Rouge with Albertsons. Kroger has a small possibility considering the Roundy's acquisition, but it's doubtful, as they look for groups of stores that self-distribute in their regions, which Rouses does not.
pseudo3d wrote:(Additional Speculation in Spoiler)
► Show Spoiler
See my notes about Kroger and Albertsons above.
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