And there are growing numbers of folks moving back to California that is rarely covered.
The article appears and then vanishes quickly.
![Cool 8-)](./images/smilies/11_cool.png)
I think we are finally seeing some signs of declining housing prices in the urban areas. Apartment complexes in LA and OC are renewing leases without a rent increase, which hasn't happened in several years, and houses/condos are staying on the market longer before getting bought.
I think the Temecula F4L was built as a warehouse store. There were a few different concepts floating in the 90's. Fleming corporate may have been involved in something that was F4L, but not called F4L back in the early/mid 90's in SoCal (similar to the FoodsCo situation in NorCal where you have a F4L but it isn't called F4L since C&S has rights to that name there).ClownLoach wrote: ↑October 21st, 2023, 9:49 am
I will go check the baking goods which are already all on sale on Holiday displays, but Ralphs and F4L both had reached regular price of $8.99 for Land O Lakes and Danish Creamery here in the IE. They have been running sales so I think the new gimmick is comically high regular price then Macy's style sales that run for months. They had the Land O Lakes at $3.49 after sale plus extra savings if you bought two or more. This strategy of telling you whopper savings stories at checkout is probably how they intend to portray "the billion dollar price cuts" post merger by running up full price to run promotions where "you saved $85.92 today!" Yet the same basket is probably $15 higher than Winco.
The F4L looking rough was Temecula. Slightly off topic, that Temecula F4L is a converted Ralphs which doesn't match the history we thought. The walls are regular block walls unplastered, similar to many Ralphs builds in the 70s and 80s although the front doesn't match. But the back along I-15 has two obvious oval label scars on the block wall where it had a Ralphs sign. Four blocks north is a split up alleged former Ralphs as well at Winchester and Margarita that is now "the 99" and a CVS and I think Planet Fitness. Makes me think they were next to I-15 and rebranded the original Ralphs to F4L (and probably expanded it, opening the ceiling at the time), then opened a newer Ralphs four blocks North which didn't catch on across the street from a Smiths that is now a insanely busy Winco.
Not quite, Mega Foods also operated in Texas under "Texans' Warehouse Foods" or some such...having bought Kroger's recently closed San Antonio stores (they stretched as far north as San Marcos, which is in Austin's MSA), but ultimately converted to those Handy Andy before selling off Handy Andy and disappearing (I think they went bankrupt after selling off stores to various operators). By 2000, the stores were completely gone. None of them survived to Handy Andy's eventual sale to Arlan's over a decade later.retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑October 21st, 2023, 10:20 amTemecula Food 4 Less was originally a Mega Foods: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 133820387/ClownLoach wrote: ↑October 21st, 2023, 9:49 am.
The F4L looking rough was Temecula. Slightly off topic, that Temecula F4L is a converted Ralphs which doesn't match the history we thought. The walls are regular block walls unplastered, similar to many Ralphs builds in the 70s and 80s although the front doesn't match. But the back along I-15 has two obvious oval label scars on the block wall where it had a Ralphs sign. Four blocks north is a split up alleged former Ralphs as well at Winchester and Margarita that is now "the 99" and a CVS and I think Planet Fitness. Makes me think they were next to I-15 and rebranded the original Ralphs to F4L (and probably expanded it, opening the ceiling at the time), then opened a newer Ralphs four blocks North which didn't catch on across the street from a Smiths that is now a insanely busy Winco.
It could be that they're pulling back on this F4L and would sell it to C&S if a merger went through because they could easily convert this one to an Albertsons. It's surrounded by Albertsons and a couple Vons that both stink. If I were them and trying to pick the losers to sell it would be this F4L and the infamous Murrieta Vons.
Mega Foods was a discount grocer operating in the Las Vegas-San Diego-Phoenix “triangle” in the early 90s. Mega Foods was based in Mesa, AZ. They were a Fleming member. Food 4 Less bought their stores in SoCal and Vegas. Ultimately, Mega was reduced to an Arizona presence in 1996, and it was sold to Bashas’.
Personally, I don’t think this merger stuff is going through, with AG Bonta potentially suing to stop the merger in CA, and the Feds potentially railing against the merger too: https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... cane-storm
The opposition is gaining steam lately with this ill-advised C&S deal.
Mega didn't use an oval logo but had that rainbow looking logo thing.pseudo3d wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2023, 9:03 am
Not quite, Mega Foods also operated in Texas under "Texans' Warehouse Foods" or some such...having bought Kroger's recently closed San Antonio stores (they stretched as far north as San Marcos, which is in Austin's MSA), but ultimately converted to those Handy Andy before selling off Handy Andy and disappearing (I think they went bankrupt after selling off stores to various operators). By 2000, the stores were completely gone. None of them survived to Handy Andy's eventual sale to Arlan's over a decade later.
I had a pretty positive impression of Fleming in the 90's but then in the early 00's when I started seeing some of what they were doing with their corporate stores, plus the odd behavior of the company (like weekly or monthly press releases announcing all the "new business" they had gotten listing the most random stores, school cafeterias, gas stations, vending machines, etc. I became suspicious of the company's activities and what they were trying to present to the investment community. I also felt Fleming ran some pretty good ad groups and a lot of independents ran them and executed them well.
What Fleming should've done back in 2000 is merged with Kmart and divested their contracts with independents to other wholesalers (SuperValu, C&S, and other players at the time), it would've saved Fleming trouble when the independent grocers were suing for lack of shipments, and would've given Kmart a reliable base for their food operations.storewanderer wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2023, 7:33 pmI had a pretty positive impression of Fleming in the 90's but then in the early 00's when I started seeing some of what they were doing with their corporate stores, plus the odd behavior of the company (like weekly or monthly press releases announcing all the "new business" they had gotten listing the most random stores, school cafeterias, gas stations, vending machines, etc. I became suspicious of the company's activities and what they were trying to present to the investment community. I also felt Fleming ran some pretty good ad groups and a lot of independents ran them and executed them well.
I started looking closer and noticed they had decent (at the time) private labels in Best Yet and Marquee (non food), but with independent IGAs they'd slot both Best Yet and IGA which made no sense as these stores already were smaller and had limited shelf space (C&S continues this practice today at least in NorCal) other than to inflate sales for Best Yet and hurt IGA (since the more IGA items got sold the better it was for the IGA group). The Best Yet and IGA items often are not from the same supplier (that also continues today- for instance IGA canned pie fillings have no high fructose corn syrup but the Best Yet ones do).
Then I watched as Fleming exited regions and various independent operators lost their stores (since Fleming was guaranteeing the lease contingent on a supply agreement). Then I watched during the Kmart fiasco where Fleming service levels to various independents were dropping to unacceptable levels and they were prioritizing Kmart instead. I realized this "wholesaler" was no friend to the independent grocer. There are various "co op" wholesalers throughout the US who picked up the pieces of Fleming and exist for the betterment of the independent grocer. Fleming as a publicly traded company had different goals.
In theory the IGA Store Operator could turn around and edit/modify the product mix and discontinue the redundant Best Yet item. But most of them don't seem to do that. There aren't enough SKUs in IGA brand to have it be your only private label, it is lacking in a lot of categories or maybe Fleming just never carried all of the available SKUs in NorCal? They take the product sets that C&S sends them which have both private labels slotted. This has been going on forever- it used to be Bonnie Hubbard brand next to IGA.pseudo3d wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2023, 9:47 pm
I started looking closer and noticed they had decent (at the time) private labels in Best Yet and Marquee (non food), but with independent IGAs they'd slot both Best Yet and IGA which made no sense as these stores already were smaller and had limited shelf space (C&S continues this practice today at least in NorCal) other than to inflate sales for Best Yet and hurt IGA (since the more IGA items got sold the better it was for the IGA group). The Best Yet and IGA items often are not from the same supplier (that also continues today- for instance IGA canned pie fillings have no high fructose corn syrup but the Best Yet ones do).
Pointing out C&S slots both brands is a red flag for the Albertsons/Safeway stores being divested.