Pavillions Arcadia

[CalItalian]

The 'Fresh Fare' type stores you see in places like Westwood, Sherman Oaks and Downtown all have very high customer counts. That's the primary difference between a full fledged Fresh Fare and the watered down version.

The full version is very labor intensive. So there are stores in areas with high income where you still don't have the population density to make it worthwhile and those stores get the watered down version.

Westwood Village, which is the top Ralphs in the chain in sales and (#1 in alcohol of all Krogers) plus one of the top 5 Kroger stores nationwide in sales, currently has 335 full and part time associates. They sell some high end wines & champagne in Westwood, up to $250/bottle, despite the bulk of their alcohol sales coming from UCLA students. Their expanded hot foods section, which I have not seen rivaled in size anywhere west of the Mississippi, isn't the greatest in quality IMO, though.

Do you mean $2500 a bottle? I know that H-E-B's Bunker Hill Houston location has $1000+ wines.

Yes, I left off a zero. I've been out of town for over a week so sorry for the slow response.

[CalItalian]

In this weeks separate Pavilions and Vons ads, the Pavilions and Vons store names are BOTH on the store coupons again. Page 11. Three's a Crowd is the biggest feature in their ads this week. Nothing like going back to a Lucky store program from the last century. We've sure progressed. They were touting Three's a Crowd with sign throughout the stores in the Las Vegas Vons and Albertsons stores I visited last week. For the record, there are NO more trucks coming from Southern California to supply their Las Vegas area stores unlike what I saw earlier this year. I did see a couple of Safeway trucks on US 95 in Boulder City, obviously coming from Arizona.

[HelloOutThere]

The Hermosa Beach Vons is decked out in full Three's a Crowd regalia (as I imagine all stores are this week). At about 8:45pm last night, only 3 of 8 registers were open, all with at least 7+ people in line. The lines were snaking back into the aisles. One cashier was loudly yelling about how she was about to go off-shift and asking who would cover her. One vocal customer was shouting at the manager at the front desk (from her place at #8 in line) to "get off his ass and open another register." Being immersed in this circus allowed myself and several other customers to note the irony of the Three's a Crowd effort. This is a typical scene for this store. LONG lines on weeknights and employee attitudes are dismal -- never have I encountered a business where I constantly hear employees talking about how much time they have left on the clock and how they can't wait to get off. They also openly check their cell phones between customers. I will give the store credit that on weekends all lanes are usually open and lines aren't quite as bad, but the bad employee attitudes remain.

In stores like Hermosa Beach, Three's a Crowd only serves to highlight how bad wait times are. It really makes me wonder what the point is?

[klkla]

'Three's a Crowd' type efforts don't work unless management puts some sort of incentive or guarantee behind the promise.

When Steve Burd (Someone I was not a big fan of) first took over Safeway he instituted a similar program in the Washington D.C. division. According to a manager that worked in the division at the time Burd himself appeared at a manager's meeting explaining the program and that customers would be paid ($25 gift certificate if I remember correctly) if another checkstand was not opened when there were more than three people in line. Then he added, "And by the way. Those payments will be coming out of your bonuses." Needless to say they didn't have to pay too many customers.

[storewanderer]

Maybe Bob Miller needs to go explain this program throughout the organization. His first stop needs to be whatever department is involved in budgeting, forecasting, and staffing systems control. After he figures out what the problem is there, assuming they can even afford to run this three's a crowd program based on the amount (or lack) of labor they seem to be able to give the stores, he can then go have a stern talk with the store managers about the program and that 100% compliance is needed. They will randomly spot check security camera tapes to see how stores are doing with compliance.

Drastic situations need drastic measures.

[pseudo3d]

I was told that all security cameras for all stores (even in divisions states away) could be remotely accessed by the Pleasanton headquarters. I was not able to actually prove that for a fact, but I wonder if there's some sort of infrastructure for the divisions themselves.

[storewanderer]

I'm sure it is easy to hook up the camera data feed to be viewed by any of their corporate headquarters locations. Especially for front end where the tapes tend to be retained for a while. It is my understanding Safeway has/had "remote" loss prevention in many of its locations (some do have them right in the store but not most). As in, remote, someone at some office somewhere is randomly watching cameras around liquor and drug in a variety of locations, and calls the store up when they see theft happening and tries to get the stores to go scare off the crooks before they can exit with any merchandise.

[veteran+]

I'm sure it is easy to hook up the camera data feed to be viewed by any of their corporate headquarters locations. Especially for front end where the tapes tend to be retained for a while. It is my understanding Safeway has/had "remote" loss prevention in many of its locations (some do have them right in the store but not most). As in, remote, someone at some office somewhere is randomly watching cameras around liquor and drug in a variety of locations, and calls the store up when they see theft happening and tries to get the stores to go scare off the crooks before they can exit with any merchandise.

Those cameras are real and have that all encompassing ability. I believe they were upgraded during the Burd days.

IMO, I believe that management (from store to regional) are experiencing PTSD from the Burd days. Any more of that hardline style could implode. I'm not sure what could work because it may be too late.

It would be difficult to explain in this format the pervasive destruction of people that Burd was responsible for. His management style was brutal lacking any empathy. We lost a lot of talent in those days.

[klkla]

Most new stores and remodels are built with systems that record each camera directly to disk from the corporate office or IT office. Digital storage is so cheap now and has replaced video tape. They are also integrated into the POS systems so that loss prevention employees can pull up a split screen that shows the receipt and at least two camera positions for each register. There are typically between 100-200 cameras in each store with the only blind spots being in the bathrooms.

It is definitely possible for corporate to monitor 'Three's a crowd' remotely.

[CalItalian]

'Three's a Crowd' type efforts don't work unless management puts some sort of incentive or guarantee behind the promise.

When Steve Burd (Someone I was not a big fan of) first took over Safeway he instituted a similar program in the Washington D.C. division. According to a manager that worked in the division at the time Burd himself appeared at a manager's meeting explaining the program and that customers would be paid ($25 gift certificate if I remember correctly) if another checkstand was not opened when there were more than three people in line. Then he added, "And by the way. Those payments will be coming out of your bonuses." Needless to say they didn't have to pay too many customers.

Vons use to have a program where you get Vons dollars, good just like an American dollar (and they were green, too), if they were out of any advertised item. I use to make a fortune in them.