Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

[storewanderer]

Big news- the Reno ONE has added back various conventional grocery items to its shelves. Mostly on bottom and second from bottom shelves, but some sets look fairly normal.

I went in and noticed in meat they had brought back the standard pork and had few packages of "natural" pork and the beef was 75% regular beef and 25% "natural" beef but thought it was just a supply thing. I moved over to the frozen aisle and saw Cool Whip- thought that was strange. Definitely has multiple "banned ingredients." Glanced at dairy as I moved to the next frozen aisle and saw about 8 rows of Yoplait Yogurt which had been taken away before. Onto the next frozen aisle and noticed all of the "where's my frozen dinner" signs were removed from the cases. Saw Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine, and Marie Callendar all back, but smaller assortment than before. Same throughout. Many items are still missing and most items have only one facing so I am not sure how that will go with how high of a sales volume this store did previously assuming they get the business back. Oreo, Coke, Pepsi, it is all back.

Wow.

Looks like the customer spoke. Or Raleys already grew tired of this ONE concept now that they have the Bashas purchase to work on. Either way getting this store back to having a regular assortment again is a huge thing and great news.

It will be interesting to see how many customers they get back from Safeway. They will certainly be getting a good chunk of business back from me. I am very happy to see this. Tired of being ripped off at Safeway and not very happy with their produce, bakery, or deli quality the past month or so.

[HCal]

That's a good sign. Hopefully they actually learned their lesson and this isn't a stopgap change due to supply chain issues. A hybrid format (conventional supermarket with a focus on natural/organic items) could be successful.

[storewanderer]

That's a good sign. Hopefully they actually learned their lesson and this isn't a stopgap change due to supply chain issues. A hybrid format (conventional supermarket with a focus on natural/organic items) could be successful.

It is definitely not a stopgap. Resets have been done, the items added have "new item" tags, and all of the "where's my (frozen dinner, yogurt, soup, bread)- you may not find your favorite item as it does not meet our ingredient standards" signs have been removed.

Raleys has always been heavy on natural/organic; nutrition departments in store dating back to the 80's.

I think they learned their lesson. Whether or not they wanted to learn the lesson I am not sure of. I had a feeling they may do something before the holidays. This store used to do some very serious volume during November and December. To walk those profits over to Safeway would have been perhaps the final blow to this store. Also I suspect the profits from this store which was very high profit before converting to ONE helped to carry a few marginally performing Raleys elsewhere in Reno/Sparks.

[TW-Upstate NY]

The question now becomes will the customers come back. Once a shopper leaves a store, there's a good chance they won't return.

[ninersdd]

Are they gonna advertise that they are more or less back to normal?

[storewanderer]

Not seeing it yet. Still the lousy little single page ONE ad being mailed out to the zip codes surrounding the store this week.

We will see if customers forgive them. I am ready to.

[storewanderer]

Raleys has some new marketing for the ONE Market format. It appears all 3 of the ONE Market units are adding back in conventional brands.

Items that meet their previous banned ingredient list "ingredient standards" are now being flagged as "Raleys ONE Market Clean Ingredient Standard Select" items.

I wonder how much money they blew on this initiative. They have had a lot of people doing resets in the Reno one over the past couple weeks to get conventional items back into the store. Given they did a remodel and had to close the store for a few days in May to do the conversion which I am sure was quite costly, now this change back which is also using a bunch of temp labor to do resets... probably worth it to not have a store that probably used to do $1.2 million a week during the holidays do $350k during a holiday week this year which is probably what would have happened had they kept the ONE format they attempted to run with for May-September.

Frankly after this ONE format alienated so many customers in Reno, the best move would be to get rid of it entirely, at least in Reno. Otherwise they can just keep watching Safeway absolutely kick in South Reno. Like they used to with the regular format Raleys.

So much for converting all stores... perhaps an important lesson was learned in Reno. I could have told them how it would go before they went live with it... I wonder how profitable the store in Truckee is that was opened with this format.

[storewanderer]

Print ad this week came and is just for Reno and El Dorado Hills ONE locations. So maybe Truckee is keeping the limited assortment format.

Anyway- the ad- still just a single page flyer (front and back). Advertises "more options than ever" and "expanded selection of everyday favorites." Not seeing much in the way of DSD items they pulled and re-added (like Coke or Lay's Chips) but they did run some Eggo Waffles and Hot Pockets in the ad.

It is a weak ad with weak price points and they'd be better off just running the standard Raleys ad instead at this point. It seems the slogan "no fake stuff just good stuff" has been removed. Still wondering what is fake about their USDA Choice Raleys California Beef that they quit selling at the ONE (it is back now) and replaced with "Raleys ONE Natural Beef."

Many unanswered questions and I suppose I am still somewhat fickle. Raleys really screwed this up badly. We will see how the resolution process goes in the coming months as the store is made more "normal."

[storewanderer]

Received a mailer with a $10 off $40 coupon good only at Reno, NV Raleys ONE location. This "exclusive offer" is addressed to "RESIDENT."

It says:
"Hello, At Raleys O-N-E Market, we now offer everyday favorites as well as all our organic options and nutritious foods to nourish and delight your family.

Discover something for everyone in one place. Use this exclusive offer to save even more on your next visit."

Other side of postcard has a photo of various grocery products:
Campbell Soup, Progresso Soup
Yoplait
Random produce
Best Foods Mayo
Canned beans
Vinegar
Best Foods Mayo

No photos of Coke, Pepsi, Lay's Chips, Oreo, etc.

I don't think this postcard does a good job communicating that the store now sells a FULL ASSORTMENT of normal items again. It also completely skips that they brought back a regular assortment of household cleaning items, drug/OTC, pet food, etc.

I am interested in seeing this Reno store return to its past form and get its customer base back but I am not sure this is going to do it.

At this point I think the only way to fix this is re-banner to normal Raleys, get the red sign back up, and end this awful now confused and watery ONE concept. Go open a Raleys ONE in San Francisco or Marin County- bring the ONE concept to new markets and see if it will work there. I suspect it won't work in those places either. Try one in Portland and Seattle too. With as low volume as Raleys ONE does, far flung locations won't be a logistics problem because they will hardly have to send anything up there.

[ClownLoach]

Received a mailer with a $10 off $40 coupon good only at Reno, NV Raleys ONE location. This "exclusive offer" is addressed to "RESIDENT."

It says:
"Hello, At Raleys O-N-E Market, we now offer everyday favorites as well as all our organic options and nutritious foods to nourish and delight your family.

Discover something for everyone in one place. Use this exclusive offer to save even more on your next visit."

Other side of postcard has a photo of various grocery products:
Campbell Soup, Progresso Soup
Yoplait
Random produce
Best Foods Mayo
Canned beans
Vinegar
Best Foods Mayo

No photos of Coke, Pepsi, Lay's Chips, Oreo, etc.

I don't think this postcard does a good job communicating that the store now sells a FULL ASSORTMENT of normal items again. It also completely skips that they brought back a regular assortment of household cleaning items, drug/OTC, pet food, etc.

I am interested in seeing this Reno store return to its past form and get its customer base back but I am not sure this is going to do it.

At this point I think the only way to fix this is re-banner to normal Raleys, get the red sign back up, and end this awful now confused and watery ONE concept. Go open a Raleys ONE in San Francisco or Marin County- bring the ONE concept to new markets and see if it will work there. I suspect it won't work in those places either. Try one in Portland and Seattle too. With as low volume as Raleys ONE does, far flung locations won't be a logistics problem because they will hardly have to send anything up there.

The red sign needs to go back up, original decor and layout put back to the best of their ability, the store needs to be fully reset back to regular planograms for a regular Raleys, and they need to plaster the town with ads that state, clear as crystal, "YOU SPOKE, WE LISTENED. We made the changes you asked for and we are sorry if we disappointed you recently. The Raley's you loved to shop is back.". Couple that with the $10 off coupon. That might save them. Maybe. But this message that "everyday" items are now at the store does not make it clear enough as you said that it is a full line grocer again. Sad when the ego doesn't go away and they don't do the obvious right thing.