So, I learned a lot about United "Family" of stores this and last visit to Amarillo. I spoke with a former employee that explained that United is basically now in 4 pieces:
Small/rural stores which carry grocery basics
Mid-sized stores that have a larger deli and more packaged groceries (saw an example in NW Amarillo)
Full-line stores (2 in Amarillo) / Market Street
Amigos
Produce was in a rear corner [of varying size] in almost all of these stores. Is that a Texas thing?
Here in Amarillo, the Amigos is an older United that's been converted on the east side of town near I-40. It is definitely a well-worn store, but was busy on both of my visits. I found the baked goods to be rather unpleasant. There were moisture-absorbing sandbag like things around the aging refrigerated and freezer cases, but staff were very friendly. Deli was more of a taqueria with guisados but did have some basic lunch meat and cheese.
On the north end of Amarillo, I went into two basic stores (as well as one in Canyon). One didn't have an in-store bakery and seemed like a good candidate to flip to Amigos. Its baked goods were even from Amigos with those labels rather than United. Neither to me felt like a modern or particularly nice supermarket. Both had a deli counter with an actual kitchen to support preparation of much more hot vegetable / side orders than a typical grocery in other places I've seen. Neither deli sold Boar's Head but instead had Kretschmar.
The mid-sized store was pretty nice with a big open warehouse style ceiling and a great deli selection to choose from. The store felt a little dated to me, like when you find a Fred Meyer that is still sporting the late 1990s decor from around when Kroger took ownership.
The new full-line store on Soncy Rd. might as well be a Market Street and I don't know why they didn't open it as such. It has a warehouse ceiling, produce under a combination of a skylight and a fake tree decor piece made of plastic panels. Deli has a large seating area with indoor and outdoor areas. The big differences between this store and a Market Street were - no service coffee department (Starbucks / Peets) or a large home decor section. Store features the new LED lights that look like florescent panels and stained concrete floors. There is a full-service meat and seafood counter.
The other full-line Amarillo store is on the south side of town and open 24 hours a day. It had wagon wheel shaped overhead lights as you enter and a dining area where they would bring you wrapped real silverware sets to your table with your food. The deli otherwise looked a lot like most United stores except for offering a big breakfast menu. (marketed as Henry D's Cafe) I found this store really uncomfortable to shop in as it had a dropped ceiling around most of the store, but a more open center - not warehouse level height though.
Market Street in Amarillo is beautiful. It's just off I-40 at Georgia St. and has a United Express gas station out front. There was an extensive hot deli much like New Seasons in the northwest, with the exception of serving a much more Texas style food menu. This is probably the closest thing to a Whole Foods Market in the panhandle. The store also has LED lighting and warehouse ceilings, an extensive "wellness" department, a concierge.
Things I didn't like about United:
Confusing rewards program. What a mess. Just be straightforward like Fred Meyer and mail a thank you rebate.
Pricing. Some of it was comparable to all Albertsons family stores, but a bottle of water that I'd bought in BigLots was $0.50 at BigLots and $1.29 at United.
House brands from TX costing more than other house brands - I bought a bottle of Krystal water not realizing it was United's house brand until later. It was more than the Refreshe (relatively identical) product
Things I did like about United:
Friendly (albeit largely very young) staff
Proper staffing to maintain a clean, efficient store environment
Big deli counter with scratch cooking
Carryout / courtesy clerks
Other stores in the area are:
Walmart, in both supercenter and neighborhood market form. I did not go into the latter, but I had to visit a supercenter for one item and it was relatively pleasant. Some have the tan exterior, others have the new revamped gray and blue.
Cash Saver: Who owns this company again? This store was a former Albertsons from the Plaza - Theme Park era as it had awnings above departments and a very wide central aisle with beverages and chips (but no more giant decor, if it ever had that). Produce had the styled paint wall decor and frozen had the dropped ceiling / flourish around it. The store kept its pharmacy operating and it was at the front of the store with floral on the side. Produce was a mess when I was in the store, hardly taking up any space. Cash Saver threw up some big "Wall of Values" style warehouse shelving at the entrance and it really throws the place off. I think produce was weird because the floors were being cleaned that day or something. In the back of the store, several bins were sitting along the wall where meat and paper goods are stored. The pricing here didn't seem that much better than United, but they play a good game with the "Posted price + 10%" thing at the register.
Albertsons was forced to sell this store when buying their share into United. The front of the store was painted over the blue Albertsons lettering with maroon, but otherwise is much the same. For reasons unknown, Cash Saver isn't using the tall sign next to I-40 that would help highlight its existence to passers-by. It remains a big ^ where the peak of the Albertsons A would have been. Like many Albertsons cast offs, they have gone around and stuck their Cash Saver $C logo over all the A's in store but used the same signs, similar to what a SaveMart apparently looks like in California.
SamSpade wrote:Cash Saver: Who owns this company again? This store was a former Albertsons from the Plaza - Theme Park era as it had awnings above departments and a very wide central aisle with beverages and chips (but no more giant decor, if it ever had that). Produce had the styled paint wall decor and frozen had the dropped ceiling / flourish around it. The store kept its pharmacy operating and it was at the front of the store with floral on the side. Produce was a mess when I was in the store, hardly taking up any space. Cash Saver threw up some big "Wall of Values" style warehouse shelving at the entrance and it really throws the place off. I think produce was weird because the floors were being cleaned that day or something. In the back of the store, several bins were sitting along the wall where meat and paper goods are stored. The pricing here didn't seem that much better than United, but they play a good game with the "Posted price + 10%" thing at the register.
Albertsons was forced to sell this store when buying their share into United. The front of the store was painted over the blue Albertsons lettering with maroon, but otherwise is much the same. For reasons unknown, Cash Saver isn't using the tall sign next to I-40 that would help highlight its existence to passers-by. It remains a big ^ where the peak of the Albertsons A would have been. Like many Albertsons cast offs, they have gone around and stuck their Cash Saver $C logo over all the A's in store but used the same signs, similar to what a SaveMart apparently looks like in California.
Cash Saver stores are typically independent operators who have gotten a store for a song, and are trying to make a buck from it. It's about the only way an independent can compete with the bigger names. There is typically little investment, and a decent return. They aren't much for a reason; the operator can't afford much. That's why there will be a lot of recycled decor and fixtures.
SamSpade wrote:So, I learned a lot about United "Family" of stores this and last visit to Amarillo. I spoke with a former employee that explained that United is basically now in 4 pieces:
Small/rural stores which carry grocery basics
Mid-sized stores that have a larger deli and more packaged groceries (saw an example in NW Amarillo)
Full-line stores (2 in Amarillo) / Market Street
Amigos
Honestly, sounds a lot like the way H-E-B does it, a mix of stores that are around 25k square feet and almost no perishables or pharmacies (to be fair a few of these will be replaced in a few years) to stores that are over 100k square feet and clearly based off of Wegmans, and all that go in between. Many are of course quite sub-par.
Produce was in a rear corner [of varying size] in almost all of these stores. Is that a Texas thing?
Not really, it's been a mix. H-E-B always has it up front unless it was a store acquired from United, some Kroger stores do and some don't (even non-acquired stores), Whole Foods puts produce in the front, Randalls (Safeway) puts it near the front as well.
On the north end of Amarillo, I went into two basic stores (as well as one in Canyon). One didn't have an in-store bakery and seemed like a good candidate to flip to Amigos. Its baked goods were even from Amigos with those labels rather than United. Neither to me felt like a modern or particularly nice supermarket. Both had a deli counter with an actual kitchen to support preparation of much more hot vegetable / side orders than a typical grocery in other places I've seen. Neither deli sold Boar's Head but instead had Kretschmar.
I know some of the Market Street stores had Boar's Head, I think they still do, otherwise I'd think they'd switch to D&W like most of the Albertsons stores do.
Things I didn't like about United:
Confusing rewards program. What a mess. Just be straightforward like Fred Meyer and mail a thank you rebate.
Pricing. Some of it was comparable to all Albertsons family stores, but a bottle of water that I'd bought in BigLots was $0.50 at BigLots and $1.29 at United.
House brands from TX costing more than other house brands - I bought a bottle of Krystal water not realizing it was United's house brand until later. It was more than the Refreshe (relatively identical) product
The Rewards program was introduced under Albertsons ownership but it does not seem to be compatible with their other systems at all. Pricing I've also heard was generally more expensive than H-E-B, even before Albertsons. But I also remember reading the price of goods plummeting at some stores down to "normal" levels when some north Texas Albertsons were converted to "Albertsons Market" (not on the exterior), owned by United. The house brands thing is interesting...I would think that with Albertsons and Better Living Brands taking over even the unique United brands, that Krystal would be discounted and on its way out.
Friendly (albeit largely very young) staff
Proper staffing to maintain a clean, efficient store environment
Big deli counter with scratch cooking
Carryout / courtesy clerks
Sounds good, maybe they should get United to run the whole company. (But seriously, as much as the "Safeway influence" seems to be harming Albertsons, Safeway would've immediately X'd all those programs almost from the start)
Walmart, in both supercenter and neighborhood market form. I did not go into the latter, but I had to visit a supercenter for one item and it was relatively pleasant. Some have the tan exterior, others have the new revamped gray and blue.
Walmart pushed the whole tan exterior through the chain so quickly that I wasn't even aware it was already out of date. First brown, then blue in the 1990s, then brown again, now blue? Geez.
Cash Saver: Who owns this company again? This store was a former Albertsons from the Plaza - Theme Park era as it had awnings above departments and a very wide central aisle with beverages and chips (but no more giant decor, if it ever had that). Produce had the styled paint wall decor and frozen had the dropped ceiling / flourish around it. The store kept its pharmacy operating and it was at the front of the store with floral on the side. Produce was a mess when I was in the store, hardly taking up any space. Cash Saver threw up some big "Wall of Values" style warehouse shelving at the entrance and it really throws the place off. I think produce was weird because the floors were being cleaned that day or something. In the back of the store, several bins were sitting along the wall where meat and paper goods are stored. The pricing here didn't seem that much better than United, but they play a good game with the "Posted price + 10%" thing at the register.
Albertsons was forced to sell this store when buying their share into United. The front of the store was painted over the blue Albertsons lettering with maroon, but otherwise is much the same. For reasons unknown, Cash Saver isn't using the tall sign next to I-40 that would help highlight its existence to passers-by. It remains a big ^ where the peak of the Albertsons A would have been. Like many Albertsons cast offs, they have gone around and stuck their Cash Saver $C logo over all the A's in store but used the same signs, similar to what a SaveMart apparently looks like in California.
Cash Saver appears to be a licensed concept (in Dallas, RLS Supermarkets converted a few stores to the concept before giving up and selling the rest of the Minyard/CS stores to Fiesta), but here it's IGA operator Lawrence Bros., which acquired Wichita Falls and Amarillo in 2013 when Albertsons bought United. United recently bought a handful of Lawrence Bros. and Cash Saver stores from them earlier this year, resulting in some incredibly small (and no doubt very dated) stores in the most desolate of places.
One kind of cool thing about United / Market Street I forgot to add:
Produce has signs all over that indicate "if you're not sure about something, ask for a complimentary taste." I thought that was pretty smart. Also, unless you were there in the off hours, there was usually at least one produce clerk working, so this concept wasn't just "blowing smoke."
RE: Boars Head
The Soncy Rd, Bell Plaza and Market Street Locations all had the Boars Head deli selection. There were radio ads in town supporting the new teriyaki chicken B.H. seem to want everyone to buy. (same ads here in Portland)
(But seriously, as much as the "Safeway influence" seems to be harming Albertsons, Safeway would've immediately X'd all those programs almost from the start)