The two Ralphs in the SLO area are absolutely horrible. SLO finally got a remodel out of their original 2002 decor, if you call new paint letters and aisle hangers a remodel. They left the cut outs on the walls that held the wooden Ralphs ovals and just capped all the lights then painted and stuck on decals and letters. Same old brown checkerboard floor 20+ years old. No new fixtures or cases. I don't think they actually remerchandised the store either. Hands down the cheapest remodel I've seen at a Ralphs since the Alpha-Beta conversions. I didn't go into Los Osos/Baywood but last I saw it still had the old late 1990's Ralphs decor with "bolted" Teal letters and they had only changed to the newer aisle hangers and removed the Marketplace sign outside.
All the Albertsons stores I visited have been remodeled to Colorful Lifestyle and the ones with the old "turned" aisles have been straightened. All looked pretty good overall inside. All got new floors, no concrete conversions (I think these don't work out well in coastal areas due to the high concentration of mineral salts in the soil which leach through the concrete, leaving milky stains that have to be constantly scraped off)
The SLO Ralphs must be the lowest volume unit in the chain and should just close. Los Osos is basically there because nobody else is. Ralphs has no clue what the Central Coast customer wants, they don't have any of the unique local merchandise, and they have given the entire market to Albertsons on a silver platter. They must have done something to drive away the local wineries because they had one small aisle (on reduced height fixturing) of some cheaper local wines from maybe half a dozen wineries. They brilliantly put Oregon wine on an endcap under a custom "Wines of the Central Coast" sign. Only cheap vacuum packed tri tip on the meat case that looked horrible. Tiny produce section in terrible condition, they're not sourcing from the abundance of local growers and everything looked like it was sitting too long in transit. And pricing was absolutely horrific. $9 for butter? Finally the store reeked of rotten meat and fish both during the day and at night (so it wasn't just the emptied out seafood case). For a 2002 or so build store to be in this poor of condition, and smell that bad in such an upscale area it is just shocking they haven't closed.
A decade ago (before the merger) Albertsons was on their way out here. They seem to have divested "extra" stores especially in SLO where a just opened Scolari conversion was jettisoned to Haggen. They didn't buy back into SLO county at all after Haggen went bust.
Now every Albertsons I visited was slam packed with customers and cranking full basket sales. I repeatedly saw $300+ baskets going through for the traditional weekend Central Coast barbecue. If you told me Buellton, Morro Bay, and especially Paso Robles are in the top 25 volume stores in the Albertsons chain I would believe you. Paso might be top 10 and gives the Walmart across the street a run for it's money.
What makes this difference is that Albertsons has embraced the market and customized the assortment to become a truly "local" central coast grocer. All these stores have a massively expanded wine department and carry product from nearly every winery at superb prices. They have large displays of local favorite brands like Taco Works chips and salsa, all the Santa Maria style seasonings, Brian's bread, pinquito beans, and all the others plus the essential Red Oak firewood for grilling. The meat cases are loaded with beef tri tip and racks of beef ribs for Santa Maria style BBQ. The stores are carrying most of the "Pavilions" specialty food SKUs (orange tags) and massively expanded produce departments at least 50% larger than a typical SoCal unit.
The Vons units I visited previously were smaller size and still were customized for the market, but in this area it seems the best facilities have the Albertsons banner. The Santa Barbara Ralphs Fresh Fare was struggling last time I visited and the entire parking lot and storefront was jammed with homeless.
Even the El Rancho/California Fresh IGA stores have picked up; nobody understood the El Rancho name when it first showed up on converted Haggens in Pismo and SLO but they're doing fine now that those stores outside of Solvang use the California Fresh IGA name. They clearly outperform Ralphs in volume too.
In this market if a merger happens every Ralphs should be divested, or if kept converted to Albertsons format and assortment so they can get some sales volume by bringing in the special merchandise this market demands. The Ralphs name and format are cancer in Santa Barbara and SLO counties now. Albertsons has become the king.
If you don't understand what Central Coast cooking is all about, this simple picture tells it all. You couldn't even start this fire if you shopped at Ralphs, nor put anything on it. It's a simple way of cooking that they've been doing for centuries up there. Albertsons is selling cart load after cart load of meat, vegetables and red oak with a couple of cases of wine for about a $300 average basket and that's about every other basket in line with 7 to 8 registers open all day in Paso, Buellton, Morro Bay and even Lompoc. The central coast is my favorite place in the world (eventually I'll retire up there). The smell of all those Red Oak fire pits going all weekend long is addicting. Just wanted to share how the grocery business is going there because it's fascinating to see the rise of Albertsons from worst to first.
Has Kroger (Ralphs) become completely irrelevant outside of LA, Orange, and San Diego counties? I think it has...