Safeway wholesale in the Northwest?

[kr.abs.swy]

Has anyone heard anything about some kind of new Safeway wholesale program in the Northwest?

I was at King's Market in Friday Harbor (San Juan Islands) a couple of weeks ago and they seemed to be selling the full line of Safeway/Albertsons store brands. I saw Open Nature, O, and Signature in dozens of places across multiple categories. I was in a hurry and didn't look too closely, but I didn't see other store brands (Food Club, Best Yet, etc.) anywhere.

Yesterday I was at the Everson Market near Bellingham and saw several varieties of Lucerne cheese, mixed among Food Club cheese. The rest of the store was Food Club from what I saw (but I wasn't in there for long).

Although small, both of these are true grocery stores. These aren't the types of rural general stores where the owner drives to WinCo and buys a bunch of stuff at retail. They are big enough that they are getting their stuff from distributors.

[ClownLoach]

Has anyone heard anything about some kind of new Safeway wholesale program in the Northwest?

I was at King's Market in Friday Harbor (San Juan Islands) a couple of weeks ago and they seemed to be selling the full line of Safeway/Albertsons store brands. I saw Open Nature, O, and Signature in dozens of places across multiple categories. I was in a hurry and didn't look too closely, but I didn't see other store brands (Food Club, Best Yet, etc.) anywhere.

Yesterday I was at the Everson Market near Bellingham and saw several varieties of Lucerne cheese, mixed among Food Club cheese. The rest of the store was Food Club from what I saw (but I wasn't in there for long).

Although small, both of these are true grocery stores. These aren't the types of rural general stores where the owner drives to WinCo and buys a bunch of stuff at retail. They are big enough that they are getting their stuff from distributors.

I've seen Albertsons house brand product at a small market in Cannon Beach, Oregon for 15+ years. Must be a old program that dates from the Supervalu days. That store also is big enough to get from distributors.

[storewanderer]

Alaska has had a program for years where Carrs serves as a wholesaler to very remote stores.

So Seattle Division may be using this elsewhere in its territories.

Probably getting this built up to be ready for C&S.

[storewanderer]

Everson Market is part of that old ghost of Brown & Cole chain with the various banners like Food Pavilion, Cost Cutter etc. Their ad is a (very strong) URM ad so it is odd they'd be selling any Lucerne product.

However that outfit had changed wholesalers enough times that nothing would surprise me.

[Super S]

There was also a period where Waremart, and later WinCo, carried Lucerne brand yogurt. Right up until WinCo started rolling out its own store brand.

[bryceleinan]

There was also a period where Waremart, and later WinCo, carried Lucerne brand yogurt. Right up until WinCo started rolling out its own store brand.

I believe WinCo still gets some product from Safeway, such as some breads. However, there was also some Fred Meyer and other Kroger brand trays the bread was on, so not sure if this was some other DSD product thrown on whatever trays / racks were available.

[storewanderer]

There was also a period where Waremart, and later WinCo, carried Lucerne brand yogurt. Right up until WinCo started rolling out its own store brand.

I believe WinCo still gets some product from Safeway, such as some breads. However, there was also some Fred Meyer and other Kroger brand trays the bread was on, so not sure if this was some other DSD product thrown on whatever trays / racks were available.

None of the WinCo products come from Safeway anymore. That arrangement was terminated shortly after the Albertsons merger. I think they wanted the capacity to supply Albertsons branded stores. It is odd since the SoCal portion of Safeway started to supply 99 Only with bread, yogurt, soda, a year or so after the OR portion of Safeway quit supplying WinCo. And the NorCal portion of Safeway supplies bread and some jar tomato products to Dollar Tree throughout the west.

Bread private label all comes from Franz.

The bread trays are all mixed up at these stores.

For instance Smiths around Reno now gets store brand bread from some Kroger plant. I still haven't figured out which plant but guess it is Fred Meyer. The trays they have include Ralphs, La Habra, King Soopers, Lucerne, Franz, Vons...