Raley's big announcement August 1st.

[lake]

The Raley's Fine Family of Stores has posted on it's social media accounts that it has a huge announcement pertaining to the future of it's stores on August 1st. The teaser is a picture that reads "Let's Begin" in a font somewhat similar to the current Raley's logo and the hashtag associated with said picture is #HealthandHappiness. Each Raley's store also has it's own personal facebook page that the store manager runs and one of the stores shared this and captioned is "Renegade" which would imply Raley's is doing something unheard of in the grocery world. Any speculation before the big announcement?

Personally I believe this is the new format Raley's hinted at last year when they announced their new Fair Oaks store. It was hinted that it would be a store with a focus on prepared meals and health. Therefore, I figured this store would be in Downtown Sacramento where Raley's has openly expressed their desire to build a store, but Raley's has never really hyped the opening of a new store so this seems like something more.

It seems to me like the most likely announcement is that Raley's will be drifting that much closer to becoming a health store by revamping their private labels and focusing on quality products. This could also come along with a slight rebrand although changing the iconic Raley's logo would not be smart in my opinion. Nonetheless, it should be interesting.

[pseudo3d]

Maybe a new concept...I don't believe Raley's is going to do something like revamping their chain, as that's risky, expensive, and probably not necessary since they can now capitalize off of Safeway's and Save Mart's problems.

[storewanderer]

Over the years Raleys has reinvented itself or its marketing campaigns so many times I cannot even recall all the different ways and angles they've tried to take.

In the end it is always the same: customers see them as a "little bit better than Safeway" grocery store but "not as cool or hip as Nugget or Whole Foods" grocery store. Raleys keeps striving to be Nugget or Whole Foods but they just can't seem to shake the existing customer perception. It is also my observation Raleys wants to be a "cool" or "trendy" or "young person" store but in reality Raleys is most popular with well off middle aged people in their 50's, I think this is due in part to where Raleys Stores are located (tend to be in the higher price house neighborhoods) and also in part due to the reputation the chain has for having high prices and high quality so it has the confidence of these older customers who don't want to roll the dice on food quality.

They just need to keep taking the high road with clean, well staffed stores and good quality control on perimeter. Operations are good. Buying seems to be great. Marketing never seems to be satisfied with what they have and keeps making "odd reaches." Are they already ditching the "making great food affordable" campaign (felt like a rebadged version of numerous similar campaigns they've done over the past decade saying they have everyday low prices on staple items) that was introduced with such fanfare about a year ago?

I'd like to see Raleys do a better job building on what they have, but at least they do a good job preserving it even as they try to reach in other directions.

[lake]

http://raleysletsbegin.com/
Here it is. Looking into it now, but it honestly just seems like a change of marketing slogan. Guess "Hello Savings" didn't last too long.

[storewanderer]

Sure didn't seem like much...