ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

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pseudo3d
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ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by pseudo3d »

News broke that ACME has officially signed a lease for the Fresh Grocer lease after they failed to renew the lease and would be out by 3/31 (they're still there). The store size is small (about 35k square feet) but ACME wants to make it a "first class urban grocer" with features including a noodle bar (in addition to sushi) and a guacamole station (as well as a Starbucks). Not sure what Fresh Grocer can do at this point legally, they were given clear warnings of when their lease was and it's coming to an end.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia ... h-wal.html
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Re: ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by mbz321 »

A lot of 'locals' seem to be upset by this and actually like The Fresh Grocer, despite the confusing layout inside due to the space. They are worried that Acme will come in with even higher prices (Fresh Grocer isn't that inexpensive either, but definitely lower than Acme. Although their prices really became better once they became part of Wakefern/ShopRite.) Acme still can't seem able to shake it's high-priced image. The demographics/income surrounding this store is pretty high, but then you have 'poor' college students as well.
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Re: ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by storewanderer »

So who owned "The Fresh Grocer" before Shop Rite?

It looks to me like this was a nice store but had a lot of execution problems when it opened and gained a not so great reputation. It appears things have improved under Shop Rite.

Based on the history of "The Fresh Grocer" it may call into question if this is even a viable location for an "upscale urban grocer" as Acme supposedly is trying to do in this location... you would think they'd know the market... There is already a Starbucks a block away and a second Starbucks 2 blocks away. Does it really make sense to have one inside the store? Noodle bar sounds like an interesting idea... that was a high margin idea, though it is a fad that has outlived its course a few years ago. Just look at Noodles & Co. stock. $46 in 2013 and $6 now.
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Re: ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote:So who owned "The Fresh Grocer" before Shop Rite?

It looks to me like this was a nice store but had a lot of execution problems when it opened and gained a not so great reputation. It appears things have improved under Shop Rite.

Based on the history of "The Fresh Grocer" it may call into question if this is even a viable location for an "upscale urban grocer" as Acme supposedly is trying to do in this location... you would think they'd know the market... There is already a Starbucks a block away and a second Starbucks 2 blocks away. Does it really make sense to have one inside the store? Noodle bar sounds like an interesting idea... that was a high margin idea, though it is a fad that has outlived its course a few years ago. Just look at Noodles & Co. stock. $46 in 2013 and $6 now.
I used to question the grocery store Starbucks when there are Starbucks in the neighborhood, but in higher-income areas of large cities they seem to do well. It is almost expected at this point. If the noodle bar serves ramen, then it should do well, as ramen is popular. If they are doing a Noodles and Co clone, well, then I agree wth you.
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Re: ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by buckguy »

If "The Fresh Market" was merchandised like the stores I've seen in Ohio and the DC area, I could see it being a poor fit for the area. In some ways, Trader Joe's would work better, so would even Whole Foods, which has a store in the middle of the George Washington University campus--that store is heavily prepared foods oriented and the Trader Joe's a few blocks away draws from a wider area and fills in the gap for affordable prepared foods. Even on an Ivy campus, few people will have the time or sophisticated tastes for a truly upscale/natural foods model---Penn & Drexel easily have more graduate than undergraduate students and they're likely to be price conscious--so an ample supply of convention foods wood work well. The GW Whole Foods sells pretty pedestrian but somewhat trendy prepared foods (pizza, burgers, etc.) and has a busy coffee bar even with Starbucks a couple blocks away (WF coffee is nothing special). A somewhat more upscale than normal Acme or one with more fresh/perpared foods probably could quite well depending on how well it was managed.
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Re: ACME signs lease for UPenn's grocery store site

Post by mbz321 »

buckguy wrote:If "The Fresh Market" was merchandised like the stores I've seen in Ohio and the DC area, I could see it being a poor fit for the area. In some ways, Trader Joe's would work better, so would even Whole Foods, which has a store in the middle of the George Washington University campus--that store is heavily prepared foods oriented and the Trader Joe's a few blocks away draws from a wider area and fills in the gap for affordable prepared foods. Even on an Ivy campus, few people will have the time or sophisticated tastes for a truly upscale/natural foods model---Penn & Drexel easily have more graduate than undergraduate students and they're likely to be price conscious--so an ample supply of convention foods wood work well. The GW Whole Foods sells pretty pedestrian but somewhat trendy prepared foods (pizza, burgers, etc.) and has a busy coffee bar even with Starbucks a couple blocks away (WF coffee is nothing special). A somewhat more upscale than normal Acme or one with more fresh/perpared foods probably could quite well depending on how well it was managed.
'The Fresh Market' is a separate chain and has nothing to do with The Fresh Grocer. The Fresh Grocer was formed in the late 2000's to put grocery stores in more urban/food desert areas of Philadelphia (the owner received huge tax incentives.) Definitely not upscale, but they have/had your typical selection of supermarket prepared foods and sandwiches. Some of these locations only made it a few years (they even tried a location in a more well off suburb of Montgomery County and it only lasted a year after another more upscale operator bailed out of the same space), and this isn't the first time they've had disputes over leases. There are currently 8 'Fresh Grocer' stores, and 4 of those came about after ShopRite took over the brand.
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