Publix expanding to Virginia

[Knight]

Publix has entered into an agreement with Ahold to purchase ten Martin's stores in the Richmond, Virginia, area:
Martin's #6421, Short Pump Crossing, 3460 Pump Road, Henrico, Virginia 23233-1111 (Pharmacy)
Martin's #6429, Richmond Shopping Center, 3522 West Cary Street, Richmond, Virginia 23221-2729
Martin's #6433, Cross Ridge, 10250 Staples Mill Road, Glen Allen, Virginia 23060-3251 (Pharmacy, Bank)
Martin's #6434, John Rolfe Commons, 2250 John Rolfe Parkway, Henrico, Virginia 23233-6913 (Pharmacy, Fuel, Bank)
Martin's #6435, Virginia Center Marketplace, 10150 Brook Road, Glen Allen, Virginia 23059-6514 (Pharmacy, Bank)
Martin's #6438, Harbor Point Village, 13700 Hull Street Road, Midlothian, Virginia 23112-2000 (Pharmacy, Fuel, Bank)
Martin's #6439, The Village, 7035 Three Chopt Road, Richmond, Virginia 23226-3606 (Bank)
Martin's #6494, Colonial Square, 3107-15 Boulevard, Colonial Heights, Virginia 23834 (Pharmacy, Fuel (offsite), Bank)
Martin's #6498, Westpark, 9645 West Broad Street, Glen Allen, Virginia 23060-4116 (Pharmacy, Fuel, Bank)
Martin's #6499, White Oak Village, 4591 South Laburnum Avenue, Henrico, Virginia 23231-2421 (Pharmacy, Bank)

[pseudo3d]

So they did sell!

I wonder if they'll still carry Ukrops products.

[Knight]

Entering into an agreement to acquire stores does not mean it is finalized yet. With ten stores selected, the process is moving in a direction.

I wonder how the acquisition of the ten Martin's stores will speed up the expansion of Publix's distribution into its Charlotte Division.

[storewanderer]

I thought sure Albertsons would buy these. I guess there was some heat with Publix being interested, they couldn't buy any for $1.

Oh well, better luck next time. Very fortunate for the customers that Publix took over. Rite Aid/Walgreens divesting is coming up. Perhaps Albertsons will be able to get some stores there.

[Knight]

I would like to weigh in on Publix's likely acquisition in Virginia after some thought.

Stores
The acquisition of the ten Martin's stores will give Publix 12 announced stores in Virginia. One store in Bristol, Virginia, will be in the Atlanta Division, and the remaining 11 stores will be in the Charlotte Division.

Martin's #6429 may be the store that needs the most work in overhaul.

At the moment, the Charlotte Division has 102 existing and announced stores through 2018:
Georgia: 4 stores
South Carolina: 53 stores
North Carolina: 34 stores
Virginia: 11 stores

Pharmacy
Eight of the ten Martin's stores being acquired by Publix have pharmacies. Martin's stores 6429 and 6439 do not have pharmacies, and are adjacent to CVS. Publix can easily add pharmacies to these non-pharmacy stores.

Distribution
Publix's Dacula, Georgia, distribution center continues to support existing and additional distant stores. While the McCalla, Alabama, distribution center will help support stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, the Dacula location may be overwhelmed by additional stores in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. At the moment, a delivery from Dacula up to Richmond, Virginia, may take at least eight hours for a 500-mile one way trip.

In the future, distribution should open distribution centers in the Charlotte Division's territory.

[pseudo3d]

I thought sure Albertsons would buy these. I guess there was some heat with Publix being interested, they couldn't buy any for $1.

Oh well, better luck next time. Very fortunate for the customers that Publix took over. Rite Aid/Walgreens divesting is coming up. Perhaps Albertsons will be able to get some stores there.

They might not have been interested in it at all. How many stores in the Albertsons Cos. chain post-Safeway acquisition have been built or acquired in a market they already have stores in or markets directly adjacent to them? Answer: none, really. A Martin's acquisition would've been about 80 miles from the furthest store they had south, whereas the ACME acquisition of A&P stretched about 80 miles but included stores up and down that corridor. United and Lawrence Brothers had stores in largely overlapping areas, of course Haggen was in clear ABS/SWY territory, and finally Paul's being in the heart of Albertsons turf.

[klkla]

I thought sure Albertsons would buy these. I guess there was some heat with Publix being interested, they couldn't buy any for $1.

LOL. That was my first thought, too. This is how the Albertson's / Safeway divestiture should have been done.

[pseudo3d]

I thought sure Albertsons would buy these. I guess there was some heat with Publix being interested, they couldn't buy any for $1.

LOL. That was my first thought, too. This is how the Albertson's / Safeway divestiture should have been done.

Yeah, but in the West Coast, how many applicants would they have actually gotten? Most of the stores divested were unionized, and SoCal had changed so that traditional unionized supermarkets had a much smaller market share, so there was little besides Ralphs, Raley's, Save Mart, or Stater Bros. (none of them in expansion mode) to divest in the first place. In the East Coast, you have Safeway/Albertsons, Weis, ShopRite, and even Publix, all of whom have an interest to expand. Heck, I bet even Wegmans would've been interested, even if for a tear-down. (I don't know the union statuses of the divested stores here)

There's just not a comparison.

[klkla]

Yeah, but in the West Coast, how many applicants would they have actually gotten? Most of the stores divested were unionized, and SoCal had changed so that traditional unionized supermarkets had a much smaller market share, so there was little besides Ralphs, Raley's, Save Mart, or Stater Bros. (none of them in expansion mode) to divest in the first place. In the East Coast, you have Safeway/Albertsons, Weis, ShopRite, and even Publix, all of whom have an interest to expand. Heck, I bet even Wegmans would've been interested, even if for a tear-down. (I don't know the union statuses of the divested stores here)

There's just not a comparison.

It's very likely Ralphs and Stater Bros. would have bid earlier had they been allowed to. But, as we have discussed here many times Albertson's approached Haggen and a deal was made and the FTC accepted it. By the time Haggen failed the business case was vastly different for the surviving stores and clearly Ralphs and Stater Bros. were no longer interested (with the exception of one store that SB did pick up).

[pseudo3d]

Yeah, but in the West Coast, how many applicants would they have actually gotten? Most of the stores divested were unionized, and SoCal had changed so that traditional unionized supermarkets had a much smaller market share, so there was little besides Ralphs, Raley's, Save Mart, or Stater Bros. (none of them in expansion mode) to divest in the first place. In the East Coast, you have Safeway/Albertsons, Weis, ShopRite, and even Publix, all of whom have an interest to expand. Heck, I bet even Wegmans would've been interested, even if for a tear-down. (I don't know the union statuses of the divested stores here)

There's just not a comparison.

It's very likely Ralphs and Stater Bros. would have bid earlier had they been allowed to. But, as we have discussed here many times Albertson's approached Haggen and a deal was made and the FTC accepted it. By the time Haggen failed the business case was vastly different for the surviving stores and clearly Ralphs and Stater Bros. were no longer interested (with the exception of one store that SB did pick up).

I don't think Ralphs or Stater Bros. did bid at all. Stater Bros., as mentioned, is very conservative and didn't want to venture outside of its core area (at least not at the initial prices they went at), and Ralphs has been continually closing stores in SoCal to focus on their more profitable stores. If they had been in expansion mode I'd be suspicious, but they weren't. The 1999 divestments were in a time pre-strike AND a better time economically, when retailers were allowed to expand (Ralphs picking up NorCal stores, for instance).

I can also see one other difference here is that they're divesting to non-union stores, like Publix or Weis, which I understand was a big thing for the status of divesting the other stores. The Dallas stores as I understand weren't union either, but it ran into the problem of not having enough competitors...for traditional grocery stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, only Kroger stands, and most of the divested stores had Kroger nearby. The status of East Coast retailers, with a far more diverse group of stores spread across roughly the same area, makes it a much more favorable environment for varied purchasers, AND most of those competitors are interested in expanding one way or another.

Like I said, it's not a comparison.