Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I think we will see them close more overlapping stores over time. It will help their same store sales to close nearby stores and move that volume across the road, and that will be good ammo for them once they go public to help paint the picture of growth and successful operations they like to paint so much (looking at their understaffed stores and outrageous everyday shelf pricing does not give me much hope). But they definitely have an edge over Kroger on quality in their fresh departments when the stores execute well, especially the Albertsons banner (where execution seems to be more consistent/better). The Safeway banner is run so poorly, and so inconsistently, you have no idea what you are going to get when you go in, and sometimes the quality will be a very pleasant surprise, but high prices and slow checkout seem to be two consistent promises at Safeway.
It's probably why despite some surface good news, why this question remains: when was the last time Albertsons (or its sub-brands) went into a new metropolitan area with its own existing name? You can't count, say, buying Safeway this way, as that's Safeway's stuff. You could count ACME buying A&P, but that's just about it. No acquisitions they have ever done in the last 10+ years have done as I'm describing. That's probably for good reason--attempts to expand their brand to new markets like Iowa, the Mid-South, and Houston have all been pretty much failures.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by pseudo3d »

JUDGEMENT DAY FOR THE HOUSTON DIVISION - RANDALLS STORE TO CLOSE

...but it's not one any of us suspected. 1525 S. Mason Road, a store built around 1999 as a Randalls (either one of the last Randalls-built Randalls or the first Safeway-built Randalls).

http://www.chron.com/business/bizfeed/a ... 855646.php

If there aren't any more announcements in the next few days, then the Austin and Louisiana stores are completely spared.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote:Interesting, the Richland, WA closing is (again) 2 miles from a nearby Safeway. It's also about the same distance to Fred Meyer / WinCo Foods to the south along the well-positioned interstate that runs through the Tri-Cities.

Any news of Oregon closures / changes yet? I can't think of too many remaining "dog" ABS or SWY left to close in the Portland metro.


There are a couple that I am watching. The Albertsons across the river in Vancouver, WA at Salmon Creek. There is a Safeway a mile down the road, and that Albertsons is the only one left in Vancouver. Battle Ground has a similar situation, and is the only other Albertsons left in Southwest Washington.

I have a feeling we will see a few more scattered Albertsons closures and an eventual rebranding of what's left to Safeway. The Albertsons name was heavily tarnished in WA/OR by Supervalu.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:JUDGEMENT DAY FOR THE HOUSTON DIVISION - RANDALLS STORE TO CLOSE

...but it's not one any of us suspected. 1525 S. Mason Road, a store built around 1999 as a Randalls (either one of the last Randalls-built Randalls or the first Safeway-built Randalls).

http://www.chron.com/business/bizfeed/a ... 855646.php

If there aren't any more announcements in the next few days, then the Austin and Louisiana stores are completely spared.
Although this store was off our radar, I am frankly not surprised that it is closing. Katy is an upscale suburb throughout, but the Mason Rd. corridor south of I-10 is aging and both HEB and Kroger have blanketed the newer-developed areas nearby with stores which are overall nicer and better located. The biggest surprise in this is that both of the North Katy Randall's stores are still open, as they are within a reasonable drive of one-another. If Randall's does enter expansion mode again in Houston, a store in West Katy would make sense if they could find a site not already owned by competition.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:If there aren't any more announcements in the next few days, then the Austin and Louisiana stores are completely spared.
I'd say most of Louisiana is pretty safe. During the LLC cutbacks, all of the dead weight here was cut loose. My only concern would be Alexandria, Shreveport and Bossier, because those are all pretty independent-type stores far away from management, and none of them are high flyers any longer.

The remaining stores in Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Lake Charles should all be okay, unless Kroger's Lake Charles Marketplace is opening soon.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by architect »

architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:JUDGEMENT DAY FOR THE HOUSTON DIVISION - RANDALLS STORE TO CLOSE

...but it's not one any of us suspected. 1525 S. Mason Road, a store built around 1999 as a Randalls (either one of the last Randalls-built Randalls or the first Safeway-built Randalls).

http://www.chron.com/business/bizfeed/a ... 855646.php

If there aren't any more announcements in the next few days, then the Austin and Louisiana stores are completely spared.
Although this store was off our radar, I am frankly not surprised that it is closing. Katy is an upscale suburb throughout, but the Mason Rd. corridor south of I-10 is aging and both HEB and Kroger have blanketed the newer-developed areas nearby with stores which are overall nicer and better located. The biggest surprise in this is that both of the North Katy Randall's stores are still open, as they are within a reasonable drive of one-another. If Randall's does enter expansion mode again in Houston, a store in West Katy would make sense if they could find a site not already owned by competition.
Here's another interesting article about the Katy Randalls closing, with a couple of other tidbits:

1. Apparently, both the Bellaire and a Kingwood Randalls are in the planning stages for remodels. Clearly, the Bellaire Randalls is remodeling to better compete with the mega-HEB to be built across the street. I am assuming that the Kingwood location to be remodeled is the store Kingwood Dr/Lake Houston Pkwy, as this store is directly across the street from a brand new HEB. Out of these two stores, Bellaire is obviously a lost cause simply due to its size and age, regardless of what Albertsons tries to convence themselves of otherwise. On the other hand, the Kingwood location is an early New Generation store, and could potentially be adapted to feasibly compete with the new HEB across the street as long as the renovation is carried through properly.
2. Also, Randalls market share has now dropped below 4%. As of the time of the Albertsons purchase, their market share was around 6%.

Link: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/busines ... 857550.php
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by storewanderer »

Another closure: Lewisville, TX.

https://www.lewisvilletexan.com/news/ne ... -to-close/

Randalls is down to 4% marketshare? That number sounds too low. At that rate they are practically not even in the market anymore... what market is this? Houston? Or a subset like Katy?
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

storewanderer wrote:Another closure: Lewisville, TX.

https://www.lewisvilletexan.com/news/ne ... -to-close/

Randalls is down to 4% marketshare? That number sounds too low. At that rate they are practically not even in the market anymore... what market is this? Houston? Or a subset like Katy?
Lewisville is just north of Dallas.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote:Another closure: Lewisville, TX.

https://www.lewisvilletexan.com/news/ne ... -to-close/
This may explain why this store was not divested during the Minyard Sun Fresh era, particularly if the financials weren't strong to begin with. This closure is not surprising, as Lewisville proper has declined greatly in recent years, particularly due to school quality issues and old apartments around the city which attract a less than desirable resident base. Most upper-middle class families in the area have moved into Flower Mound or Highland Village, in areas zoned for Marcus or Flower Mound high schools (which are top notch). In addition, a new WinCo just down main street provides a healthy dose of competition.
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Re: Albertsons and Safeway Openings/Closings 2017

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:
architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:JUDGEMENT DAY FOR THE HOUSTON DIVISION - RANDALLS STORE TO CLOSE

...but it's not one any of us suspected. 1525 S. Mason Road, a store built around 1999 as a Randalls (either one of the last Randalls-built Randalls or the first Safeway-built Randalls).

http://www.chron.com/business/bizfeed/a ... 855646.php

If there aren't any more announcements in the next few days, then the Austin and Louisiana stores are completely spared.
Although this store was off our radar, I am frankly not surprised that it is closing. Katy is an upscale suburb throughout, but the Mason Rd. corridor south of I-10 is aging and both HEB and Kroger have blanketed the newer-developed areas nearby with stores which are overall nicer and better located. The biggest surprise in this is that both of the North Katy Randall's stores are still open, as they are within a reasonable drive of one-another. If Randall's does enter expansion mode again in Houston, a store in West Katy would make sense if they could find a site not already owned by competition.
Here's another interesting article about the Katy Randalls closing, with a couple of other tidbits:

1. Apparently, both the Bellaire and a Kingwood Randalls are in the planning stages for remodels. Clearly, the Bellaire Randalls is remodeling to better compete with the mega-HEB to be built across the street. I am assuming that the Kingwood location to be remodeled is the store Kingwood Dr/Lake Houston Pkwy, as this store is directly across the street from a brand new HEB. Out of these two stores, Bellaire is obviously a lost cause simply due to its size and age, regardless of what Albertsons tries to convence themselves of otherwise. On the other hand, the Kingwood location is an early New Generation store, and could potentially be adapted to feasibly compete with the new HEB across the street as long as the renovation is carried through properly.
2. Also, Randalls market share has now dropped below 4%. As of the time of the Albertsons purchase, their market share was around 6%.

Link: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/busines ... 857550.php
The market share dropped because Randalls hasn't built any stores in the last past two years, while their competitors blazed ahead.

The Bellaire store is definitely the worst store to remodel unless they were going to tear it down entirely and rebuild. The bus station brings in all sorts of riff-raff and there's loitering in the café area, there's significant operational problems (management), some serious back-room capex that needs to be addressed, not enough space in the back for storage (merchandise blocks fire exits, there's even a semi-covered structure behind it made of metal roofing and chain link fence that has extra merchandise), the shipping dock is horribly out of date (literally, the back of the store has been barely modified since it opened as a Weingarten 60 years ago), it's one of the smallest stores in the chain, and there's still that issue of the H-E-B opening. They're just going to waste money, and while I appreciate them staying in Bellaire, it's the WORST choice to try to save as-is.
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