Missed: Earlier this year Bend, Ore. Food4Less drops branding

[SamSpade]

This store has slowly been transforming to better meet the merchandise needs of the community and likely adjacent dollars/spending they pick up from the only Trader Joe's in central Oregon being next door.

According to the article, gone are the warehouse high shelves for more of a traditional approach. Online photos look pleasant as does the new logo. They put out a monthly flyer now (unless that is just a December thing).

The rebrand began in July. My sister, who resides in Bend, really like the change. Looks like they are definitely still supplied by UNFI, with all the former SuperValu/Albertsons store brands present.
Bend Food 4 Less changes name (Bend Bulletin)

According to the article, only Medford has a "Food4Less" in Oregon. Comments dithered on whether this was true, but I think the person correcting and noting "MEGA FOODS" branding is correct.

[storewanderer]

Medford still operates as Sherm's Food 4 Less.

https://www.shermsmarkets.com/WeeklyAd/Store/52856/

Best selection and prices in the state.

[ClownLoach]

This store has slowly been transforming to better meet the merchandise needs of the community and likely adjacent dollars/spending they pick up from the only Trader Joe's in central Oregon being next door.

According to the article, gone are the warehouse high shelves for more of a traditional approach. Online photos look pleasant as does the new logo. They put out a monthly flyer now (unless that is just a December thing).

The rebrand began in July. My sister, who resides in Bend, really like the change. Looks like they are definitely still supplied by UNFI, with all the former SuperValu/Albertsons store brands present.
Bend Food 4 Less changes name (Bend Bulletin)

According to the article, only Medford has a "Food4Less" in Oregon. Comments dithered on whether this was true, but I think the person correcting and noting "MEGA FOODS" branding is correct.

The Food4Less franchise name is a perfect example of the problems with shared branding, like Piggly Wiggly and ShopRite. It means different things in different markets.

The challenge is changing it if the area is competitive. There was a franchised Food4Less in Long Beach during the late 1990s that somehow was not related to the Ralphs owned Food4Less operations, really not sure how that happened but it did. It was an IGA store and tried making the exact same changes being described here, and it rebranded to Spring Farms (IGA). The store struggled after the rebrand and didn't make it more than a few years even though everything about the changeover was right for the more upscale neighborhood it was in a couple blocks east of an original Pavilions.

This is why if Kroger and Albertsons need to be forced to divest a more significant banner to C&S without creating shared ownership. Having different Albertsons once again is a disaster. The Albertsons brandmark or Vons should be fully released to C&S. There are so many transplants in the West that the Vons name would likely carry well if they wanted to hold onto the Albertsons brand, but I think the Albertsons brand has better national recognition and thus should be released fully.

[storewanderer]

There is a store in Ashland, OR called Shop N Kart. Shop N Kart was one of these Fleming sub-brands for smaller sized price impact stores, they were at one time around the west but ended up just in OR at the end. The store sits out by the highway next to Bi Mart and it has the usual F4L style layout in a "small" building.

Ashland is known for the Shakespeare thing and is generally over the years a little different atmosphere from the rest of Southern Oregon.

So over the years this Shop N Kart in Ashland sort of re-tooled itself into being a discount natural/organic/"local" grocery store. The end result is a very neat store. The Bend F4L was trying to follow this same path but Bend has a lot more competition than Ashland and also they have a much larger store to try to deal with in Bend.

The Sherm's F4L in Medford is clearly marketed as "SHERM'S Food4Less" on all ads, in-store signs, etc. but not on the exterior signage. Back in the early 90's if you went into the F4L in Medford it was not marked as "SHERM'S F4L" (even though it was owned by the late Sherm) and didn't feel much different from a typical franchise F4L down in Central California. But over the years Sherm's F4L added additional categories and expanded their warehouse operation to do more large buys of product so the store changed and at this point it looks like a F4L but the product mix is everything of a F4L and much more.

[bryceleinan]

There is a store in Ashland, OR called Shop N Kart. Shop N Kart was one of these Fleming sub-brands for smaller sized price impact stores, they were at one time around the west but ended up just in OR at the end. The store sits out by the highway next to Bi Mart and it has the usual F4L style layout in a "small" building.

Ashland is known for the Shakespeare thing and is generally over the years a little different atmosphere from the rest of Southern Oregon.

So over the years this Shop N Kart in Ashland sort of re-tooled itself into being a discount natural/organic/"local" grocery store. The end result is a very neat store. The Bend F4L was trying to follow this same path but Bend has a lot more competition than Ashland and also they have a much larger store to try to deal with in Bend.

The Sherm's F4L in Medford is clearly marketed as "SHERM'S Food4Less" on all ads, in-store signs, etc. but not on the exterior signage. Back in the early 90's if you went into the F4L in Medford it was not marked as "SHERM'S F4L" (even though it was owned by the late Sherm) and didn't feel much different from a typical franchise F4L down in Central California. But over the years Sherm's F4L added additional categories and expanded their warehouse operation to do more large buys of product so the store changed and at this point it looks like a F4L but the product mix is everything of a F4L and much more.

I think one of the local dairy families owns “Local Acres” in Bend - I saw that at one point. F4L Bend was pretty darn expensive a few years ago while we were there. We were just in Ashland, but did not go in Shop N’ Kart on one of our trips to Bi-Mart.

[storewanderer]

There is a store in Ashland, OR called Shop N Kart. Shop N Kart was one of these Fleming sub-brands for smaller sized price impact stores, they were at one time around the west but ended up just in OR at the end. The store sits out by the highway next to Bi Mart and it has the usual F4L style layout in a "small" building.

Ashland is known for the Shakespeare thing and is generally over the years a little different atmosphere from the rest of Southern Oregon.

So over the years this Shop N Kart in Ashland sort of re-tooled itself into being a discount natural/organic/"local" grocery store. The end result is a very neat store. The Bend F4L was trying to follow this same path but Bend has a lot more competition than Ashland and also they have a much larger store to try to deal with in Bend.

The Sherm's F4L in Medford is clearly marketed as "SHERM'S Food4Less" on all ads, in-store signs, etc. but not on the exterior signage. Back in the early 90's if you went into the F4L in Medford it was not marked as "SHERM'S F4L" (even though it was owned by the late Sherm) and didn't feel much different from a typical franchise F4L down in Central California. But over the years Sherm's F4L added additional categories and expanded their warehouse operation to do more large buys of product so the store changed and at this point it looks like a F4L but the product mix is everything of a F4L and much more.

I think one of the local dairy families owns “Local Acres” in Bend - I saw that at one point. F4L Bend was pretty darn expensive a few years ago while we were there. We were just in Ashland, but did not go in Shop N’ Kart on one of our trips to Bi-Mart.

F4L Bend seemed to be kind of like the Nugget F4L units in NorCal (only one left now-Woodland).

Sherm's F4L in Medford has very strong pricing. They still deal with Supervalu/UNFI but have a warehouse and buy high turn SKUs in large quantity (much larger quantity than a typical 4 store chain), then distribute out to their stores. Sort of a mini version of how WinCo handles buying. I am somewhat nervous how WinCo will impact them in Roseburg but I think they will make things work.