Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

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Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by storewanderer »

Tom Thumb in Flour Mound appears to be the only one identified so far...

http://www.crosstimbersgazette.com/2018 ... -to-close/

"On Friday, it was announced that the 22-year-old Tom Thumb grocery store at 2600 Flower Mound Road, located on the northeast corner of FM 3040 and FM 2499 adjacent to The Mound will be closing soon.

The parent company, Albertsons Companies, based in Boise, Idaho, included the southern Flower Mound store as one four stores in North Texas, it has decided to close."

I think they need to just turn over operations of all of Texas to United. I can't imagine they'd do any worse. Given what is happening at Kroger lately, this is the prime chance for Albertsons to try and pick up some of the business they've given up to Kroger over the years. Closing stores won't accomplish that.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

Actually, this specific closure is not exactly unexpected. When the nearby Tom Thumb at 4301 Cross Timbers opened in 2012, the Flower Mound Rd store was pegged for closure but Safeway elected to keep the store open after all. Since the Albertsons merger however, this store has been made even more redundant with a Market Street to the north, along with the aforementioned Cross Timbers store and another Tom Thumb to the east just across the Lewisville border. In addition, even though this store received a Lifestyle remodel, it still feels quite undersized and outdated compared to surrounding locations.

I definitely agree that DFW would be in a much better position if United was running the show. Now is their opportunity to take market share with Kroger backing off on capital investment, but yet they seem to be throwing away the opportunity. It will be interesting to see where the other three closures are.
Last edited by architect on October 29th, 2018, 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

The list is out, and the only surprise really is the Beach St. Albertsons in North Ft. Worth. Both the Coppell Tom Thumb and the DeSoto Albertsons haven't been renovated in years and are in relatively isolated locations.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/ret ... fort-worth

Also, apparently three more Houston-area Randalls are closing, in addition to the three closed earlier this year.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

The Randall's closures are the following:

5800 New Territory Blvd, Sugar Land
2075 Westheimer Rd, Houston
9420 College Park Dr, The Woodlands

https://m.chron.com/business/real-estat ... obbreaking
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by storewanderer »

I do not see how Randalls can continue in Houston with such a low store count. How do the remaining stores perform? Are they somehow star performers?

I guess they can just operate a few successful stores, cut off most market-wide advertising, and sort of "lie low."
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote: October 30th, 2018, 9:59 pm I do not see how Randalls can continue in Houston with such a low store count. How do the remaining stores perform? Are they somehow star performers?

I guess they can just operate a few successful stores, cut off most market-wide advertising, and sort of "lie low."
Since Albertsons consolidated the Houston division operations into DFW, the market has honestly been treated as an afterthought. As long as a store is profitable and pulling its own wait, Albertsons seems to be keeping it open despite the distraction that these Houston stores become to improving operations in DFW and other markets. A perfect example of said distraction: In many cases, Randalls is seemingly playing at cat and mouse game with HEB at many locations (which has repeatedly played out as a losing battle), with this likely being a major factor in the closure of both the Shepherd and Woodlands stores, along with the Cypress store which closed earlier this year. Similarly, while the Bellaire HEB was being reconstructed, Randalls gave their undersized and outdated store across the street a Colorful Lifestyle remodel but failed to do anything to actually improve selection, pricing and service. This move is now being repeated at the Meyerland Randalls while the nearby HEB is being constructed. There are a few star performers left in the Houston area (Midtown being the big one, with Holcombe and Town & Country also likely performing decently), but overall, Albertsons would be better off selling the stores that they can to other operators, pulling the plug and then focusing on defending their DFW market share, particularly with HEB moving into the fringes of the market.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

Cross post with the 2018 Openings/Closings thread, but at least two more DFW stores are on the chopping block: the Tom Thumb at 3535 N. Belt Line in Irving and the Albertsons at 4126 S. Carrier Pkwy in Grand Prairie. Both of these closures are being reported by the Dallas Morning News, which reports that other closures may be also coming but have not been formerly announced by Albertsons.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by storewanderer »

It seems like closures have largely stopped in other regions, but continue in Texas. What will happen if HEB ever seriously enters DFW?

Who does WinCo appear to be taking business from in DFW?

I am surprised nothing more is happening in Colorado especially around Denver because they are really running low volumes in a lot of those Safeways. Maybe they are expecting to somehow benefit from what Kroger has been doing lately but they aren't in a great position to capitalize on it with D grade operations and dead feeling stores.

Grand Prairie looks like it was probably time to go... early 90's store with a late 90's remodel. Well past time.
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote: November 28th, 2018, 7:32 pm It seems like closures have largely stopped in other regions, but continue in Texas. What will happen if HEB ever seriously enters DFW?

Who does WinCo appear to be taking business from in DFW?

I am surprised nothing more is happening in Colorado especially around Denver because they are really running low volumes in a lot of those Safeways. Maybe they are expecting to somehow benefit from what Kroger has been doing lately but they aren't in a great position to capitalize on it with D grade operations and dead feeling stores.

Grand Prairie looks like it was probably time to go... early 90's store with a late 90's remodel. Well past time.
Actually, even if HEB moves into DFW, it will likely be a slow process as they almost always pay cash for their stores and thereby expand more slowly. They currently are working on two new stores in the area, one in Hudson Oaks (west of Fort Worth) which is scheduled to open next April, and one in Mansfield (southern suburb) which is currently working its way through city approvals. If they do make further entry though, it could seriously damage Albertsons' prospects in the region, as quite a few of the Albertsons/Tom Thumb stores in the region are running on moderate volume. Just offhand, I could probably come up with a list of 15-20 stores which could be potential closure candidates. Currently, the biggest threats to Albertsons in DFW are Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, Costco and Winco.

Winco's DFW locations seem to pull good volume, but they are simply not widespread enough yet to be a major player. However, several of their locations directly compete with nearby Albertsons/Tom Thumb locations and seem to beat them handily on traffic, so they as a competitor could be particularly bad news for Albertsons considering Albertsons' noncompetitive pricing strategy. The Carrolton, Garland, Lewisville and South Fort Worth locations are all particularly worth watching, as all are located close to Tom Thumb/Albertsons stores which have operated on moderate traffic for a while.

I am assuming that the Grand Prairie store has to have been underperforming for some time considering the fact that it was not required to be divested to Minyard Sun Fresh a few years back. I am surprised that it has lasted this long just based on condition alone. Interestingly, Albertsons seems to be playing a game of cat and mouse with HEB right now both in DFW and Houston, renovating stores close to new/upcoming HEB and Cenral Market locations. HEB owns land near these Grand Prairie stores, so maybe Albertsons knows something which we don't?
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Re: Albertsons North Texas closing 4 stores

Post by architect »

Cross post with the openings/closings thread, but the Randalls at 3050 N. Fry Rd. in Katy is closing and converting to El Rancho.
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