veteran+ wrote:pseudo3d wrote:Apparently about a week ago, SEG converted over 70 Winn-Dixie and BI-LO stores into Harveys, including six in Jacksonville alone, literally overnight [
http://www.winn-dixie.com/about/press]. I guess in some respects it may be a way to purge dated stores from the chain as they try to remake the stores' images, but to me, sets off a lot of warning bells when a chain tries to do something like this.
With not nearly the amount of remodels SEG was supposed to do on Winn-Dixie, I'm starting to think that SEG doing a round of sales or closings is a very real possibility. With Mississippi only having 14 stores and the continued decay of Winn-Dixie stores west of the Mississippi River, I can see a forecoming scenario where Winn-Dixie's stores only go so far as mid-Alabama with a tiny island of Winn-Dixie stores in New Orleans that will last as long as the rest of the chain does.
I believe your predilection on this is very likely.
Side note:
What do you think of the look of the interiors of these stores?
I find them to be extremely garish, to put it mildly. Very uncomfortable milieu (for me) to shop in.
Looks basically like the Fresco y Mas decor, which to me is yucky. Plus, studies have shown that babies cry more when exposed to bright yellow rooms, and given that Harveys is trying to appeal to lower-income families (who likely have babies), they'll actually likely be more crying babies in the stores.
I've been told third hand that operation hours are being cut and pharmacies are closing. I don't think that the Harveys conversions will save the chain, and if anything just make it worse, especially in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Winn-Dixie name is much well known. That is pretty much the absolute sin of any grocery chain, if you cannot make it in your own hometown and command a decent market share (if not the top market share by a long run), then you're finished. The good news is that SEG wasn't dumb enough to convert Winn-Dixie stores en masse to Harveys. Personally, here's my prediction for SEG's next move:
1. SEG will remodel a handful of Winn-Dixie stores. They likely won't look as nice, think late-era Lifestyle remodels.
2. SEG announces it will pull out of North Carolina (or at the very least, most of NC), Mississippi (central MS, looks like most of the Winn-Dixies extant are on the Gulf Coast), and west of the Mississippi River entirely. To cut losses, viable stores will be sold to competitors.
3. SEG will retire the BI-LO name in favor of Winn-Dixie to save on branding costs.