Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by architect »

This is a cross post with a Southwest board post, but both the Randalls and Tom Thumb banners are on a bit of a remodeling spree right now. Stores which have been recently remodeled/are currently being remodeled in the last few months include:

Randalls
- West Lake Hills (Colorful Lifestyle with new cursive signage)
- Brodie/Slaughter in Austin (Colorful Lifestyle with existing decor repainted)
- Cedar Park (Colorful Lifestyle with existing decor repainted)
- Round Rock (Colorful Lifestyle with new cursive signage)
- Bellfort/Post Oak in Houston (Colorful Lifestyle with new cursive signage)
- Bellaire (Colorful Lifestyle with new cursive signage)

Tom Thumb
- Preston/Forest in Dallas (Colorful Lifestyle with existing decor repainted)
- Lovers/Greenville in Dallas (Florida decor)
- Inwood/University in Dallas (Colorful Lifestyle with existing decor repainted)
- Snider Plaza in University Park (Colorful Lifestyle with existing decor repainted)

In addition, on the Tom Thumb side, the rear parking lot of the Lovers/Greenville store is being used as a staging area for other store renovations in the area which have small parking lots. Presumably, this staging area fed both the Snide Plaza and Inwood/University remodels, with more to follow based on the number of trailers and equipment still located in this area.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by storewanderer »

Meanwhile back at the farm, NorCal just finished doing an expansion and remodel to its store in Tahoe City, CA. Old Lifestyle 2.0 decor again. The store now has a cement floor, throughout, though.

Maybe you wouldn't even call it a remodel but just an expansion. And then the old decor continued in the expanded area.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by SamSpade »

I thought I would add some photos of the "Reserve" version of Signature products.

The Signature Select branding definitely looked better at this low-volume Albertsons than the old "farms" packaging. It's weird how redesigns can sometimes make things really pop.

Image
Image
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by Alpha8472 »

I noticed the new packaging back in March on their premium ice cream. The change in packaging does make the ice cream look more appealing. However, the Value Corner brand packaging was a step down. The old Safeway designs looked better. Value Corner looks like a low quality dollar store brand. Safeway had oatmeal cookies in the old packaging with nice photos of the cookies. They looked very nice and high quality. The. They replaced the packaging with Value Corner branding, which took away the photos, and had ugly clashing colors. The ugly packaging makes the food look very unappealing and untrustworthy.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by mbz321 »

The Just4U program is now available at Acme, and replaces the previous (and similar and strangely named) MyMixx program. They are promoting it heavily this week with a ton of free and greatly reduced items. I went into an Acme for the first time in a year or two, scooped up the freebie/cheap items, and that was it. I had a couple other items in my cart and decided to put them back and stop at Giant afterward....regular prices are still atrocious.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: November 6th, 2018, 7:28 pm The Just4U program is now available at Acme, and replaces the previous (and similar and strangely named) MyMixx program. They are promoting it heavily this week with a ton of free and greatly reduced items. I went into an Acme for the first time in a year or two, scooped up the freebie/cheap items, and that was it. I had a couple other items in my cart and decided to put them back and stop at Giant afterward....regular prices are still atrocious.
Are their perimeters any better than Giant? Is there anything better to justify the higher prices?
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: November 7th, 2018, 10:47 pm
mbz321 wrote: November 6th, 2018, 7:28 pm The Just4U program is now available at Acme, and replaces the previous (and similar and strangely named) MyMixx program. They are promoting it heavily this week with a ton of free and greatly reduced items. I went into an Acme for the first time in a year or two, scooped up the freebie/cheap items, and that was it. I had a couple other items in my cart and decided to put them back and stop at Giant afterward....regular prices are still atrocious.
Are their perimeters any better than Giant? Is there anything better to justify the higher prices?

Not really. The only think they have going for them is they still have actual butchers on staff, when everything at Giant is 'offshored' to a central facility (owned by Ahold), but in terms of quality difference, it's about the same (or Giant being slightly better). Acme is one of the few Union chains left in the area with a lot of longtime employees which certainly adds to their expense...they have unfortunately built quite a reputation in the area for being the most expensive place to shop. People that live in Philadelphia around the 'city center' (which only really has Acme, Whole Foods, and a few The Fresh Grocer stores (ShopRite stores by a different name) routinely tell me they do the majority of their shopping at Whole Foods as even they are lower than Acme). Giant has been actively remodeling and replacing stores while a lot of Acme's are just kind of blah...even somewhat remodeled Acme's just aren't offering anything special (although some have added Beer/Wine sales which helps, but so has all the other area chains).
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by wyoretailman »

arizonaguy wrote: May 17th, 2018, 3:06 pm
SamSpade wrote: May 17th, 2018, 12:35 pm
J-Man wrote: May 17th, 2018, 8:24 am I live in an area where I receive both Vons and Albertsons ads in the mail. I noticed this week that they have become virtually identical (at least on the first page) with two exceptions: Vons still has "Club Price" under all of the sale prices, and they have different liquor beer items at the bottom of the page: Albertsons has a coupon for several brands of beer at $15.88, while Vons has a 30% off special (no coupon) on wines. The Score 4 (Vons) and Fab 5 (Albertsons) items are identical as well.
As Albertsons Co's replaced Fred Meyer as the official grocer of the Portland Timbers, they released a combined ad on the home opening week of MLS Soccer.

This last week for Mother's Day specials, both stores also sent a combined ad with that same disclosure we've seen elsewhere ("card not required at Albertsons"). The ad did include a coupon doubl'r, which have not previously been marketed as being accepted at Albertsons stores. Both stores do run a combined $10 off $50 advertisement in Redplum mailers in Just4U or paper coupon form (generally the first week of a month) in this market.

As for the post about trucks, most semis here are the Albertsons logo cab and some form of Safeway truck. I am not sure if the cabs at Albertsons warehouse were cleaner for the air / newer and that is why this happened or something else.
I've noticed in Arizona there seem to be the following combinations of trucks. Albertsons cab with Albertsons trailer, Albertsons cab with Safeway trailer, Safeway cab with Safeway trailer, Safeway cab with VONS trailer, and Albertsons cab with VONS trailer.

On the Safeway cabs there is the Safeway logo, the word Safeway, and then where it used to say "Tempe, AZ" it now says either "operated by Albertsons LLC" or "a division of Albertsons LLC."
In my area it seems, as though the Albertsons or Albertsons/Osco branded trucks are gone and in favor of Safeway branded tucks, even when delivering to the two Alberstsons stores in my area (Casper, WY). It is my understanding that all stores in this area (Albertsons or Safeway) are serviced by the Safeway distribution center off of I-70 in Denver, CO.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by wyoretailman »

storewanderer wrote: February 17th, 2016, 8:36 pm It isn't too hard to jazz up a stucco exterior by adding some rocks or bricks or something along the sides. Some different lighting can also really make or break the darkness appearance of the buildings. At least these are not 1970's Kmart buildings where short of a total re-do of the front there is simply no way to make it look modern or inviting.

In a lot of cases these stores are leased and the exteriors are to some degree controlled by the landlord. Sometimes this is not the case. In Sparks, NV an older late 70's shopping center did a renovation about 12 years ago and one of the anchors sandwiched in was Safeway (owned building by Safeway) and Sav-On Drugs on an end (also owned by Albertsons). The other anchor was Mervyns and I guess it was leased. The shopping center did a total re-do including the parking lot (got rid of a bunch of trees) and re-doing the entire front to look more modern. Safeway and Sav-On did not participate so their storefronts kept looking "old." Safeway later had an issue where snow piled onto the roof and the roof became unstable and at that time Safeway took the opportunity to close the store and sold the building to whoever owned the shopping center. Safeway had been trying for a while to expand but due to the building ownership situation and no space to expand they couldn't make it happen.
This store looks like the Ridley's Family Markets store on the other side of town (Casper, WY). This former Safeway never underwent the Lifestyle remodel like the busier east-side store did. It was my understanding though his was going to be replaced with a new store a few miles away, but of course this was before the merger with Albertsons. This store replaced the older 70's style store located on its east-side and now a sporting goods store. Both former Safeway stores were never remodeled by Ridleys (even noticed signing at the front of store that reads "serving since 1936") and for a while carried a lot of the Safeway Kitchens/Select and O Organics product. This was in contrast to the merger of Albertsons and Buttreys where both Buttrey's stores in town were closed and remodeled into County Market stores. I think the Safeway/Ridley's stores may have been closed a day at most. I have seen a number of former Safeway/Ridley's store employees move over to Albertsons. That tells me that Ridleys may not be a great store to work at.
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Re: Integration of Albertsons and Safeway

Post by storewanderer »

wyoretailman wrote: November 15th, 2018, 2:21 pm
storewanderer wrote: February 17th, 2016, 8:36 pm It isn't too hard to jazz up a stucco exterior by adding some rocks or bricks or something along the sides. Some different lighting can also really make or break the darkness appearance of the buildings. At least these are not 1970's Kmart buildings where short of a total re-do of the front there is simply no way to make it look modern or inviting.

In a lot of cases these stores are leased and the exteriors are to some degree controlled by the landlord. Sometimes this is not the case. In Sparks, NV an older late 70's shopping center did a renovation about 12 years ago and one of the anchors sandwiched in was Safeway (owned building by Safeway) and Sav-On Drugs on an end (also owned by Albertsons). The other anchor was Mervyns and I guess it was leased. The shopping center did a total re-do including the parking lot (got rid of a bunch of trees) and re-doing the entire front to look more modern. Safeway and Sav-On did not participate so their storefronts kept looking "old." Safeway later had an issue where snow piled onto the roof and the roof became unstable and at that time Safeway took the opportunity to close the store and sold the building to whoever owned the shopping center. Safeway had been trying for a while to expand but due to the building ownership situation and no space to expand they couldn't make it happen.
This store looks like the Ridley's Family Markets store on the other side of town (Casper, WY). This former Safeway never underwent the Lifestyle remodel like the busier east-side store did. It was my understanding though his was going to be replaced with a new store a few miles away, but of course this was before the merger with Albertsons. This store replaced the older 70's style store located on its east-side and now a sporting goods store. Both former Safeway stores were never remodeled by Ridleys (even noticed signing at the front of store that reads "serving since 1936") and for a while carried a lot of the Safeway Kitchens/Select and O Organics product. This was in contrast to the merger of Albertsons and Buttreys where both Buttrey's stores in town were closed and remodeled into County Market stores. I think the Safeway/Ridley's stores may have been closed a day at most. I have seen a number of former Safeway/Ridley's store employees move over to Albertsons. That tells me that Ridleys may not be a great store to work at.
Ridley's bought a few divested Safeway/Albertsons stores and I don't think they've closed any yet... they seem to operate on a pretty thin cost structure and I would guess run on lower labor levels than Albertsons/Safeway run on. Ridley's did a nice remodel on the Raleys they rescued in Winnemucca (Raleys had announced closure then Ridley's stepped in and assumed operations) but I am not sure if that remodel was driven by their desire to have a nice store or by the fact that they wanted to add an Ace Hardware into half of the store, so they decided to just remodel the whole thing while they were doing that.
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