Ralphs Ventura Closing

[CalItalian]

http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/ ... /91685450/
Closing by the first week of November. East Ventura area.
I don't think the picture in the story in correct. It's not a Fresh Fare.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/ralphs-grocery-company-ventura
You can tell it's an old Alpha Beta just from the exterior.

[pseudo3d]

At least three of those photos aren't even from that Ralphs and clearly from a Vons somewhere.

[klkla]

Another 20,000 sq. ft. ex-Alpha Beta bites the dust. Nothing to really see here. There was no justification for making additional capital improvements into this store. The lease is up, sayonara baby.

[storewanderer]

How many of these stores are left now? I thought by now they were all gone. Surprised to see this last one.

These stores never should have had the Ralphs brand in the first place.

[pseudo3d]

How many of these stores are left now? I thought by now they were all gone. Surprised to see this last one.

These stores never should have had the Ralphs brand in the first place.

Like Lucky and Albertsons, they and others were rebranded as the strongest brand under Yucaipa, even if not all stores were equal.

[CalItalian]

How many of these stores are left now? I thought by now they were all gone. Surprised to see this last one.

These stores never should have had the Ralphs brand in the first place.

Like Lucky and Albertsons, they and others were rebranded as the strongest brand under Yucaipa, even if not all stores were equal.

Lucky was by far the stronger brand NOT Albertsons in California in that merger. Stores should never have been rebranded as Albertsons in California.

Yucaipa bought Ralphs to make something of their failing Alpha Beta, Boys and Viva brands. They even built a new Alpha Beta to look like a Ralphs, that opened as an Alpha Beta, during the time it took to close the merger (Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles). Remember, Yucaipa only got Alpha Beta because American Stores was forced to sell most of it off when American Stores bought Lucky.

[storewanderer]

Don't forget the NorCal Stores they brought to the table too with Cala, Bell, and FoodsCo. We see how that went. Well, I think 4 of the Yucaipa FoodsCos are still open. I don't think Cala or Bell had a store above 20,000 square feet but at least half of those have evolved into being other grocers after Ralphs failed with those stores (Whole Foods in some, Nugget in one, Trader Joes in at least one, etc.) so they were not necessarily bad grocery locations.

I notice most stores Ralphs closes seem to get occupied by some other grocer of some kind...

[pseudo3d]

How many of these stores are left now? I thought by now they were all gone. Surprised to see this last one.

These stores never should have had the Ralphs brand in the first place.

Like Lucky and Albertsons, they and others were rebranded as the strongest brand under Yucaipa, even if not all stores were equal.

Lucky was by far the stronger brand NOT Albertsons in California in that merger. Stores should never have been rebranded as Albertsons in California.

Yucaipa bought Ralphs to make something of their failing Alpha Beta, Boys and Viva brands. They even built a new Alpha Beta to look like a Ralphs, that opened as an Alpha Beta, during the time it took to close the merger (Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles). Remember, Yucaipa only got Alpha Beta because American Stores was forced to sell most of it off when American Stores bought Lucky.

Yeah, but even if Lucky was the strongest brand (certainly had more in store count in NorCal), the Albertsons brand had no business going on rinky-dink 20-30k square feet stores owned by Lucky or Alpha Beta.

[CalItalian]

Like Lucky and Albertsons, they and others were rebranded as the strongest brand under Yucaipa, even if not all stores were equal.

Lucky was by far the stronger brand NOT Albertsons in California in that merger. Stores should never have been rebranded as Albertsons in California.

Yucaipa bought Ralphs to make something of their failing Alpha Beta, Boys and Viva brands. They even built a new Alpha Beta to look like a Ralphs, that opened as an Alpha Beta, during the time it took to close the merger (Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles). Remember, Yucaipa only got Alpha Beta because American Stores was forced to sell most of it off when American Stores bought Lucky.

Yeah, but even if Lucky was the strongest brand (certainly had more in store count in NorCal), the Albertsons brand had no business going on rinky-dink 20-30k square feet stores owned by Lucky or Alpha Beta.

American Stores was allowed to cherry pick & keep the best stores in areas they were forced to divest. Example: Westchester (Los Angeles), the larger Alpha Beta location on Lincoln Blvd. became a Lucky (now a Bristol Farms) while the Lucky location down the street became an Alpha Beta and then (and still is) Ralphs.

I don't see the problem with 20-30K stores in California. Most of our supermarkets are not large in size because of land size and cost issues. Albertsons just reopened a 10K Vons that use to be an Albertsons in the Mesa area of Santa Barbara http://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara- ... s/87597479 One of the smallest stores in their chain. I've been in a number of small Vons locations such as Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach or Westchester or Santa Monica Pavilions or Beverly Hills Pavilions. Most of these were former Safeway locations (not Westchester). All are VERY busy.
Ralphs (former Hughes) on the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills is the smallest Ralph's there is. It's an incredibly busy store. I wish they would rebuild that store as the lot with underground parking could be a big store.

[CalItalian]

Don't forget the NorCal Stores they brought to the table too with Cala, Bell, and FoodsCo. We see how that went. Well, I think 4 of the Yucaipa FoodsCos are still open. I don't think Cala or Bell had a store above 20,000 square feet but at least half of those have evolved into being other grocers after Ralphs failed with those stores (Whole Foods in some, Nugget in one, Trader Joes in at least one, etc.) so they were not necessarily bad grocery locations.

I notice most stores Ralphs closes seem to get occupied by some other grocer of some kind...

Most of the Ralphs closed are in areas that have become highly ethnic (San Gabriel Valley, for example, either Asian or Hispanic). Only four Ralphs in West Los Angeles through the South Bay have been closed since the 1970's and none because the store was failing (although Ralphs picked up Hughes, Alpha Beta, Market Basket, Boys, Marina Market, former Zody's stores in the same area during that time). Most recently, Ralphs Hermosa Beach lost its lease and is becoming a Trader Joe's because that's what the property owner wanted. Ralphs in the Beverly Connection closed because the lease was bought out by the property owner so they could do a major makeover on the mall. Ralphs was forced to sell off its location across from The Grove shopping center when it bought Hughes Markets (to Lucky and it's now a Whole Foods). Ralphs Wilshire Blvd. near Barrington (former Market Basket) was closed to make way for a highrise office building and grocery store behind (became a built from the ground up Pavilions but is now empty).

Both Ralphs and Vons have had incredibly good luck over the decades with stores in the more affluent areas of Los Angeles. Most of the Vons stores aren't post 1994 earthquake built or large (exception Santa Monica which was built because the Safeway was destroyed in the earthquake or West Hollywood where the former Safeway, Pavilions Place was replaced with a new build). Most Ralphs - especially in West L.A. - are new builds since the 90's and are larger.