Oxnard's only Ralphs closing May 2024

[brendenmoney]

Ralphs at 3443 Saviers Road in Oxnard will be closing this May as their lease expires in June. Supposedly Vallarta is taking over the space. Currently, the only article that was written on this subject has a paywall, but here is a Twitter post from the news outlet:



This is the only Ralphs within the city of Oxnard, however the Port Heuneme Ralphs will be remaining open, which is kinda still part of Oxnard in a sense.

I believe this store was built by Hughes, but opened as a Ralphs in 1998 because Ralphs acquired Hughes while this store was under construction. This store I believe also hasn't received a renovation since it's opening. The interior this store has is a Hughes interior, however, it has the raised ceiling in the center of the store like many Ralphs in the 90's and early 2000's were built with.

I'm not quite sure whether Vallarta plans on relocating from their current Oxnard store, or if this will be a now-third location for them in the city. The area is very saturated, with Superior (former Albertsons/Lucky) and El Super (also former Albertsons pre-Lucky merger) also in the area, along with the existing Vallarta down the street.

[storewanderer]

I think they've known they were going to leave this site for many years. The interior when I was last there was from about 1997, I had never quite seen that exact interior before, it was a somewhat odd take on the 1998-2000 era Ralphs decor.

The Albertsons that was once nearby was one of the stores Supervalu converted back to Lucky. I can't tell exactly when it closed, but I don't think it was open long. Like maybe not even a year. It is a former Smiths building. Superior Grocers has the space now. It may not be the same building.

I see there is also an El Super across the street. The El Super is a former Albertsons Max/Grocery Warehouse divested off in the 1999 Albertsons/ASC merger to KV Mart/Top Valu.

So there you go. An intersection that once had 3 union grocers - Ralphs, the Lucky, and the Max Foods. Between mergers, inability to change with the neighborhoods, now zero union grocers.

[ClownLoach]

The architecture inside definitely is not Ralphs of that era. They were already building the lower perimeter, raised center ceiling format. And the graphics don't match anything of the era either. So must have been intended to be Hughes. Also reminds me a lot of Alpha-Beta with those weird 45 degree florescent lights above produce. Ralphs never built those. I wonder if this was a very stalled out Alpha-Beta build that had to keep original architecture plans because of some kind of long-ago-approved variance that wouldn't have been granted again?

Anyway another Ralphs bites the dust. The chain continues to disappear. Pretty sure at this point if Albertsons and Vons weren't one then Ralphs would be the 4th place chain. Probably really is 4th place or further behind when you factor in non traditional competition... Maybe like 7th place. Sad when 25 years ago they were #1.

The "Lucky" I visited once and it was typical of other Albertsons operations of the day, a large segment of the store was fenced off with drywall partitions to downsize the facility. They had created what was similar to the classic Lucky teal and orange decor but the colors and fonts were wacky. It felt like a poorly executed independent store.

[storewanderer]

The architecture inside definitely is not Ralphs of that era. They were already building the lower perimeter, raised center ceiling format. And the graphics don't match anything of the era either. So must have been intended to be Hughes. Also reminds me a lot of Alpha-Beta with those weird 45 degree florescent lights above produce. Ralphs never built those. I wonder if this was a very stalled out Alpha-Beta build that had to keep original architecture plans because of some kind of long-ago-approved variance that wouldn't have been granted again?

Anyway another Ralphs bites the dust. The chain continues to disappear. Pretty sure at this point if Albertsons and Vons weren't one then Ralphs would be the 4th place chain. Probably really is 4th place or further behind when you factor in non traditional competition... Maybe like 7th place. Sad when 25 years ago they were #1.

The "Lucky" I visited once and it was typical of other Albertsons operations of the day, a large segment of the store was fenced off with drywall partitions to downsize the facility. They had created what was similar to the classic Lucky teal and orange decor but the colors and fonts were wacky. It felt like a poorly executed independent store.

I am not sure of that. Ralphs still has 184 stores. I think they may still be the top banner. The fact that we are even having this discussion validates your point as to the complete mismanagement of Ralphs that has occurred... while other regions of Kroger have done very well and hardly close any stores...
With Albertsons at 124 stores, Pavilions at 28 stores, and Vons at 178 stores, I am not sure Ralphs would be behind any of those banners. I think the typical Ralphs is more productive than a typical Vons. I know Vons has a number of good stores so I might be wrong.

When Safeway bought Vons/Pavilions it had 325 stores (I think about 40 of those were in Las Vegas/Fresno- 13 of those are left) so let's say 285 Vons/Pavilions in SoCal were bought by Safeway and now there are 206 stores left.

According to this article in 2012 Ralphs had 245 stores.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/loca ... g/1951828/
According to this article in 1998 (before NorCal) Ralphs had 380 stores and that was pure SoCal.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

Also watch Superior, they are planning to get to 100 stores by 2025.

Given the Lucky in Oxnard was a Smiths I am guessing it was not a pretty looking store because Smiths of that era were not/are not pretty looking stores. Would the Lucky have possibly just repainted the old 90's Lucky decor? That is what they did in some of the other stores Supervalu converted to Lucky, such as South Gate and the short lived Las Vegas ones. I think one of the Las Vegas ones didn't even get a repaint, maybe Bonanza Road. They just painted the old Lucky decor Red/Black as Albertsons had never remodeled. The Lucky stores in El Centro and San Ysidro which converted from Max Foods didn't really have any decor or wall signs at all, just some red/black stripes on the walls.

[HCal]

I am not sure of that. Ralphs still has 184 stores. I think they may still be the top banner. The fact that we are even having this discussion validates your point as to the complete mismanagement of Ralphs that has occurred... while other regions of Kroger have done very well and hardly close any stores...
With Albertsons at 124 stores, Pavilions at 28 stores, and Vons at 178 stores, I am not sure Ralphs would be behind any of those banners. I think the typical Ralphs is more productive than a typical Vons. I know Vons has a number of good stores so I might be wrong.

When Safeway bought Vons/Pavilions it had 325 stores (I think about 40 of those were in Las Vegas/Fresno- 13 of those are left) so let's say 285 Vons/Pavilions in SoCal were bought by Safeway and now there are 206 stores left.

According to this article in 2012 Ralphs had 245 stores.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/loca ... g/1951828/
According to this article in 1998 (before NorCal) Ralphs had 380 stores and that was pure SoCal.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

Also watch Superior, they are planning to get to 100 stores by 2025.

Given the Lucky in Oxnard was a Smiths I am guessing it was not a pretty looking store because Smiths of that era were not/are not pretty looking stores. Would the Lucky have possibly just repainted the old 90's Lucky decor? That is what they did in some of the other stores Supervalu converted to Lucky, such as South Gate and the short lived Las Vegas ones. I think one of the Las Vegas ones didn't even get a repaint, maybe Bonanza Road. They just painted the old Lucky decor Red/Black as Albertsons had never remodeled. The Lucky stores in El Centro and San Ysidro which converted from Max Foods didn't really have any decor or wall signs at all, just some red/black stripes on the walls.

To be fair, the average Ralphs store is larger now than it was a couple of decades ago. Some of this may simply be due to consolidation. But I think the main factor is the ethnic grocers. Thanks to Unified Grocers, SoCal has more successful mid-size ethnic chains than anywhere else. As they grew, the conventionals shrank, and Ralphs was the big victim since Kroger was prioritizing other areas.

[storewanderer]

I am not sure of that. Ralphs still has 184 stores. I think they may still be the top banner. The fact that we are even having this discussion validates your point as to the complete mismanagement of Ralphs that has occurred... while other regions of Kroger have done very well and hardly close any stores...
With Albertsons at 124 stores, Pavilions at 28 stores, and Vons at 178 stores, I am not sure Ralphs would be behind any of those banners. I think the typical Ralphs is more productive than a typical Vons. I know Vons has a number of good stores so I might be wrong.

When Safeway bought Vons/Pavilions it had 325 stores (I think about 40 of those were in Las Vegas/Fresno- 13 of those are left) so let's say 285 Vons/Pavilions in SoCal were bought by Safeway and now there are 206 stores left.

According to this article in 2012 Ralphs had 245 stores.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/loca ... g/1951828/
According to this article in 1998 (before NorCal) Ralphs had 380 stores and that was pure SoCal.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

Also watch Superior, they are planning to get to 100 stores by 2025.

Given the Lucky in Oxnard was a Smiths I am guessing it was not a pretty looking store because Smiths of that era were not/are not pretty looking stores. Would the Lucky have possibly just repainted the old 90's Lucky decor? That is what they did in some of the other stores Supervalu converted to Lucky, such as South Gate and the short lived Las Vegas ones. I think one of the Las Vegas ones didn't even get a repaint, maybe Bonanza Road. They just painted the old Lucky decor Red/Black as Albertsons had never remodeled. The Lucky stores in El Centro and San Ysidro which converted from Max Foods didn't really have any decor or wall signs at all, just some red/black stripes on the walls.

To be fair, the average Ralphs store is larger now than it was a couple of decades ago. Some of this may simply be due to consolidation. But I think the main factor is the ethnic grocers. Thanks to Unified Grocers, SoCal has more successful mid-size ethnic chains than anywhere else. As they grew, the conventionals shrank, and Ralphs was the big victim since Kroger was prioritizing other areas.

Back in the Certified Grocers days these chains bought the vast majority of what they sold from Certified. If they had warehouses of their own they were very small. Remember Certified also had a milk plant and a bread plant- those things helped these chains get lower cost of goods on milk and bread. Unified sold both of those off which was a lousy move for these stores. 99 Only also pulled milk/bread from them and the product quality of what they made was above average... Back in the Certified days, these smaller ethnic chains did not have their own private labels at all, they relied on Certified for that. Maybe some got a few random tortillas or bags of foam plates from some Los Angeles area manufacturer who got some plastic bags to pack the stuff in with the store name/logo but not a formal private label program. Things seemed to change after Unified and really changed after Supervalu.

My initial reaction to your comment is Unified Grocers is not why the region has so many of these mid sized ethnic chains. But maybe indirectly it is- due to the high product costs and various other issues with Unified grocers, these ethnic chains had to seek out other supply options, open small warehouses of their own, work with smaller suppliers to source products at lower costs than Unified could provide, and also pushed them to work with more suppliers who do imports which helped them get a much more interesting product mix than a US wholesaler could ever possibly provide. And all of this enabled these chains to seriously differentiate themselves from the standard old Vons/Ralphs/Albertsons. Had these chains stuck with doing 100% of their supply from Unified they'd have been trying to run a copycat but inferior Vons/Ralphs/Albertsons type program and would have never been successful to this magnitude. So I guess you are right that Unified is the reason why this happened... the issues of Unified that pushed these chains to find other sources for more and more products is what pushed them from being "small regional chains" to medium sized rapidly expanding chains.

[ClownLoach]

I am not sure of that. Ralphs still has 184 stores. I think they may still be the top banner. The fact that we are even having this discussion validates your point as to the complete mismanagement of Ralphs that has occurred... while other regions of Kroger have done very well and hardly close any stores...
With Albertsons at 124 stores, Pavilions at 28 stores, and Vons at 178 stores, I am not sure Ralphs would be behind any of those banners. I think the typical Ralphs is more productive than a typical Vons. I know Vons has a number of good stores so I might be wrong.

When Safeway bought Vons/Pavilions it had 325 stores (I think about 40 of those were in Las Vegas/Fresno- 13 of those are left) so let's say 285 Vons/Pavilions in SoCal were bought by Safeway and now there are 206 stores left.

According to this article in 2012 Ralphs had 245 stores.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/loca ... g/1951828/
According to this article in 1998 (before NorCal) Ralphs had 380 stores and that was pure SoCal.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

Also watch Superior, they are planning to get to 100 stores by 2025.

Given the Lucky in Oxnard was a Smiths I am guessing it was not a pretty looking store because Smiths of that era were not/are not pretty looking stores. Would the Lucky have possibly just repainted the old 90's Lucky decor? That is what they did in some of the other stores Supervalu converted to Lucky, such as South Gate and the short lived Las Vegas ones. I think one of the Las Vegas ones didn't even get a repaint, maybe Bonanza Road. They just painted the old Lucky decor Red/Black as Albertsons had never remodeled. The Lucky stores in El Centro and San Ysidro which converted from Max Foods didn't really have any decor or wall signs at all, just some red/black stripes on the walls.

To be fair, the average Ralphs store is larger now than it was a couple of decades ago. Some of this may simply be due to consolidation. But I think the main factor is the ethnic grocers. Thanks to Unified Grocers, SoCal has more successful mid-size ethnic chains than anywhere else. As they grew, the conventionals shrank, and Ralphs was the big victim since Kroger was prioritizing other areas.

Stater Bros has closed several locations this last year and might have fallen behind Ralphs in store count, for now. However Ralphs allegedly only brings in $3B a year now, and Stater Bros claims $4B a year with effectively the same store count or a third more revenue then Ralphs. On another thread I had calculations indicating Ralphs had given up over 70% of their 1998 revenue when adjusted for inflation. Stater is larger than Ralphs, and probably Vons or Albertsons if they hadn't merged.

[storewanderer]

Stater Bros has closed several locations this last year and might have fallen behind Ralphs in store count, for now. However Ralphs allegedly only brings in $3B a year now, and Stater Bros claims $4B a year with effectively the same store count or a third more then Ralphs. On another thread I had calculations indicating Ralphs had given up over 70% of their 1998 revenue when adjusted for inflation. Stater is #1, Albertsons-Vons is #2, and Ralphs is #3 if you're only discussing conventional grocers in SoCal. Albertsons-Safeway is #1 statewide.

For Stater to become more productive per store than Ralphs heavily pruned store base is really not good. But when you look at the two chains what is the biggest difference between the two? Staffing. The typical Stater has exponentially more staffing than the typical Ralphs and is properly maintained with good looking fresh departments. Ralphs fresh departments might look good but might also look sloppy and always feel understaffed.

[storewanderer]

Looking at liquor license- this store was developed by Hughes but may have never operated as Hughes as it opened 03/04/1998.
It was a relocation of a Hughes store at 3501 Saviers Road that opened 04/11/1983. That building was later the Oxnard Swap Meet but eventually demolished.

[CalItalian]

Reddit user comment, if true, says Vons on 5th & Ventura is also closing.