Delanos IGA Novato CLOSED

[romleys]

Delanos IGA Market located at 2045 South Novato Blvd. in Novato has closed their doors...
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_13002165

But a new store in Davis,CA?

[Alpha8472]

This is quite fascinating. The competition from other supermarkets probably reduced the number of customers to the store. However, it seems like the store's main problem was its high prices.

If the prices were competitive to the other nearby grocery stores, then Delano's would not have lost customers. The problem is that the store did not lower its prices in the first place to keep customers.

The news of a new Delano's in Davis is surprising. Delano's announced that they are going to take over the abandoned Food Fair supermarket in West Davis. Davis lost the only supermarket serving West Davis years ago. The empty supermarket in West Davis was formerly Ray's Food Place. It was sold by Ray's and became Food Fair. Food Fair suffered due to its absurdly high prices and eventually went out of business just over a year later.

There is a need for a supermarket in West Davis. Davis is a college town. Many college students don't have cars and desperately need a supermarket within walking distance.

[storewanderer]

Delano's needs to have a better perimeter and better prices. Actually the one in Fairfax seemed okay. I don't like their other stores at all; lousy perimeters and bad prices; bad bad prices.

Delano's was trying to get about 1/3 of the old Ray's space in Davis. The building owner in Davis, after Food Fair closed, gutted the place to make it real hard for another supermarket to move in. I think they were courting Fresh & Easy and that didn't work out. Last I heard, Delano's can't get the loan necessary to open the new 12,000 square foot Davis Store. I wonder if it will actually open in November.

I was also unaware they closed one of the Tiburon Stores.

It is interesting to see these folks continuing on the same path they took Cala/Bell on under Kroger/Ralphs: closing store after store. I really don't think all of these stores needed to be shuttered; had they been operated properly...

[storewanderer]

Okay so they closed the store that was in downtown Tiburon (former Safeway). That is real interesting. They repainted the inside of that store and it had a more complete looking perimeter than their other stores. They also redid part of the floor adjacant to the deli up front and installed a few tables to eat at. I guess Safeway was subleasing the space to Delanos; maybe they will return to that location.

The remaining Tiburon Delanos is terrible; has some old looking interior with red bahus font wall letters on plain white walls, no service departments, awkward entry, and is about a 2-3 minute drive from the Safeway in Strawberry Center (Mill Valley). I never understood how that store was making it when it was Bell.

http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_115 ... arinij.com

The reader comments on both articles, are not kind.

[storewanderer]

Wait, here's the article on Davis. They are actually going forward with 11,000 square feet, about 1/3 the size of Rays space. http://www.davisvanguard.org/index.php? ... &Itemid=86

I don't think the issue here was that Ray's failed as much as the issue was the operator who took the store over from Ray's (Food Fair) completely ran it into the ground. I'd venture a guess this store was marginally profitable as Ray's.

[Alpha8472]

Ray's Food Place was a decent store in Davis. "Food Place" was kind of silly, but it showed that the company had a sense of humor.

Food Fair went out of business because the shelves were constantly empty and the store was a mess. I am sure that Delano's will be no where near as bad as Food Fair.

Currently the closest supermarket to West Davis is the Safeway in North Davis. Since Davis is a college town, this Safeway store is extremely crowded with student customers. Lines at the store are completely out of control. You can wait for 30 minutes in line even at nighttime. The shelves at the stores are frequently empty. It is a very frustrating place to shop at.

A new supermarket in West Davis will be welcomed with open arms.

[storewanderer]

"Food Place" replaced Sentry for them. I've never heard of anyone use using the term "Food Place" for a grocery store.

I was only in that Ray's once and it seemed okay, not too busy but it did appear to be surviving. The pricing seemed to be a bit low for that area. Both times I went to Food Fair it had steady traffic but wasn't in very good shape. The first time was pretty soon after Ray's sold off, and they had absolutely no items on sale or at a reduced price however they were offering $10 off if you spent $50. The prices were very high. My next visit to Food Fair, the shelves were poorly stocked, service deli closed, meat area mostly closed, produce mostly closed, but they did have some price reduced center store items (the ones I considered buying were out of date). The store closed not long after. On that visit to Food Fair I saw two employees on duty, one cashier and someone else sitting in the back office reading a textbook who appeared to be in charge.

I think the main issue with Delano's is going to be the size and an inability to offer a decent product selection. It sounds like their store is going to be very perimeter-focused which is going to be a major departure from what both Ray's and Food Fair did there. I also question Delano's ability to run a decent perimeter. They pretty much shuttered the bakeries in the old Ralphs units they got beyond some vendor items, and made significant cuts to the delis. Delano's produce seems to vary by location but their price structure on produce is lower than Ralphs. All of their other pricing is horrible.