Shaw's and Star Market

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pseudo3d
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Shaw's and Star Market

Post by pseudo3d »

In another post I made some comment about "who would operate two almost-identical brands", when I realized Albertsons does have that going on with Shaw's and Star Market. Apparently, someone down the line had made a decision to start converting Star stores to Shaw's, but in recent years that trend has reversed, with many Shaw's converting back to Star including some supermarkets that were never Star to begin with (such as the Shops at Prudential Center Shaw's).

I've heard that Star Market is the brand that's supposed to be the more "upmarket" one, which kind of makes sense though I don't think there are any Star Market stores outside the Boston area anymore. If they wanted to make Star Market the more "upmarket" one, they should differentiate the merchandise mix more, or if they wanted to use Star Market for "local heritage", then all the Shaw's in the Boston area should change over.

Anyone have any more insight?
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Re: Shaw's and Star Market

Post by arizonaguy »

Ultimately, I believe that in areas where there are both Albertsons and Safeway (or Pavilions, Randall's, Tom Thumb, or Vons) bannered stores the ex-Safeway brand will be the more "upmarket" brand and the Albertsons will be the "standard" banner(if they intend to run multiple banners).

Albertsons has already been doing this for the last few years in the DFW market (where Market Street is an "upmarket" banner).
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Re: Shaw's and Star Market

Post by pseudo3d »

arizonaguy wrote:Ultimately, I believe that in areas where there are both Albertsons and Safeway (or Pavilions, Randall's, Tom Thumb, or Vons) bannered stores the ex-Safeway brand will be the more "upmarket" brand and the Albertsons will be the "standard" banner(if they intend to run multiple banners).

Albertsons has already been doing this for the last few years in the DFW market (where Market Street is an "upmarket" banner).
Well, no they haven't. Shaw's and Star Market have been together long before the Safeway merger, with Shaw's (then under Sainsbury) buying Star Market, and almost dispensing with the Star Market name entirely. They have common DCs, same division, etc.

Market Street (United) entered the D-FW market as an independent and built a Dallas DC practically right next to the Tom Thumb warehouse (literally separated by just one building, no one knew at the time Tom Thumb and Market Street would be under the same parent company within the next few years). To date, Market Street is still in the United division with its own DC, and the only conversions to Market Street done in relation to that were some North Texas Albertsons that United "acquired" from Albertsons, with the current set-up in Dallas-Fort Worth having Market Street, Tom Thumb, and Albertsons, four if you count Tom Thumb Flagship (kind of the equivalent of Pavilions, even has a similar logo, but probably as been devalued like Pavilions).

What Albertsons intends to do with the Safeway names is another issue entirely, but Shaw's/Star Market isn't that way. Now, I haven't been to a Shaw's or Star Market, but the "more upscale" concept may just be a ruse to drum up declining sales...switching banners without any sort of change sounds like a move of desperation (it usually is), so I'm going to guess that as Shaw's switch to Star Market, they do a mild "renovation" (mostly reorganization, from the sounds of it), introduce concepts like people carrying out stuff to cars that "regular" Shaw's don't have, then at some point when the Boston-area Shaw's have been switched out, then roll out those sorts of niceties to the rest of the division. That's my take on it at least, but I'd like to see someone else's P.O.V. who is actually closer to these stores.
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Re: Shaw's and Star Market

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:What Albertsons intends to do with the Safeway names is another issue entirely
When Albertsons took over ASC, they truly believed that one name was the way to run the company. They only got through Lucky, and the backlash was permanent. I don't believe they will try that again. Additionally, this is a different Albertsons than the one who pulled that sad stunt.

Having said that, we really don't know what will happen. I'm still not convinced they will leave United Texas alone, much less to not rebrand Dallas, at the very least. They operate three separate banners there (Tom Thumb, Albertsons and Market Street). It can't work for long. Shaw's and Star Market are long held names in that area. ASC and its predecessors used the Star Market name in other places as well; in Illinois they used it for the franchised markets run by Eisner in the 70's. Eisner ran both Agency and owned stores; it was an interesting arrangement for sure.
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Re: Shaw's and Star Market

Post by storewanderer »

All of the Safeway bannered stores are almost identical. Vons and Pavilions, almost identical in the same market. Safeway and Pak N Save, almost identical in the same market. Safeway and Carrs, almost identical in the same market.

Same way I saw Shaw's and Star in Boston. I do think the Star I went into (which had a Supervalu remodel recently before I went there) was nicer (and doing better volume) than most of the Shaw's I visited (which were updated but high priced with limited and unappealing perimeters).

Banner changes won't get Albertsons/Safeway anywhere. Their biggest problem is price. Their next biggest problem is service. Their strong point is having some better quality items than most larger chains have.
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Re: Shaw's and Star Market

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:What Albertsons intends to do with the Safeway names is another issue entirely
When Albertsons took over ASC, they truly believed that one name was the way to run the company. They only got through Lucky, and the backlash was permanent. I don't believe they will try that again. Additionally, this is a different Albertsons than the one who pulled that sad stunt.

Having said that, we really don't know what will happen. I'm still not convinced they will leave United Texas alone, much less to not rebrand Dallas, at the very least. They operate three separate banners there (Tom Thumb, Albertsons and Market Street). It can't work for long. Shaw's and Star Market are long held names in that area. ASC and its predecessors used the Star Market name in other places as well; in Illinois they used it for the franchised markets run by Eisner in the 70's. Eisner ran both Agency and owned stores; it was an interesting arrangement for sure.
The issue at hand is that Star Market and Shaw's have co-existed in the Boston area since 1999 as common ownership. The differences in Safeway rebrands, United, those are all separate issues. Remember, the differences between Vons and Pavilions can't really be compared because it was under Safeway, not Albertsons.

Anyway, at one time, Shaw's started to eliminate the Star Market name, which wasn't a completely bad idea given the fact that running two banners is generally avoided.
storewanderer wrote: Same way I saw Shaw's and Star in Boston. I do think the Star I went into (which had a Supervalu remodel recently before I went there) was nicer (and doing better volume) than most of the Shaw's I visited (which were updated but high priced with limited and unappealing perimeters).
Good, this tends to confirm my theory.
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