"The Market" stores by Safeway/Vons

[pseudo3d]

I would really wait and see what the 1489 Bird Avenue store in Willow Glen turns out to be. For reference, the downtown Market by Safeway is 24k square feet. The former Lucky/Albertsons/Fresh & Easy is even small at 23.2k square feet. If Bird Avenue turns out to be a Market, then I'll say that Albertsons is interested in reviving the concept and may rebrand smaller stores to it. If not, then I would expect the Market name to eventually disappear.

[storewanderer]

I think they have too many banners already that are generally all the same (and the Albertsons banner is fast turning into a Safeway clone) so this "The Market" banner to simply designate small stores strikes me as somewhat redundant. I don't think "The Market" ever even had its own uniforms or bags or ads; they just used the standard Safeway/Vons programs. The thing that was different about "The Market" was it had a much larger perimeter than a typical small store and a smaller center store than a typical small store (but really the mix was quite good and quite deep, it was just fewer facings of each item) and it also got a bit different of a decor. This is nothing like the difference between, for instance, the Kroger "Main & Vine" format and a standard Kroger. It was a format to potentially combat Fresh & Easy, nothing more. I actually think this format could have wings but it seems the failure of Fresh & Easy spooked them. Small stores have a future if done right and I think we will continue to see this grocer and other grocers develop small stores but as far as designating them as "The Market" that is basically a non mover.

[CalItalian]

Still no smaller Vons than the two Catalina Island locations, Vons and Vons Express. Looks like construction is about to start on the new 20k ft. Vons on Catalina Island that will replace both of these stores.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/vons-avalon
https://www.yelp.com/biz/vons-express-g ... ore-avalon

[pseudo3d]

I think they have too many banners already that are generally all the same (and the Albertsons banner is fast turning into a Safeway clone) so this "The Market" banner to simply designate small stores strikes me as somewhat redundant. I don't think "The Market" ever even had its own uniforms or bags or ads; they just used the standard Safeway/Vons programs. The thing that was different about "The Market" was it had a much larger perimeter than a typical small store and a smaller center store than a typical small store (but really the mix was quite good and quite deep, it was just fewer facings of each item) and it also got a bit different of a decor. This is nothing like the difference between, for instance, the Kroger "Main & Vine" format and a standard Kroger. It was a format to potentially combat Fresh & Easy, nothing more. I actually think this format could have wings but it seems the failure of Fresh & Easy spooked them. Small stores have a future if done right and I think we will continue to see this grocer and other grocers develop small stores but as far as designating them as "The Market" that is basically a non mover.

Yeah, I think that the format really was designed to compete with Fresh & Easy, which failed. I think The Market may have had its own bags at one time, though that's long gone and won't be brought back.

In reality, I highly doubt that Safeway will brand anything as such unless Albertsons is intending to roll it out across the entire chain, which is extremely unlikely.