Retail Watchers

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loc ... 470506001/

Still no word on any store openings or locations. However, there are dozens of Fresh and Easy and former Walgreens/Osco/CVS/Eckard/Marketside sites around the Phoenix area that would be perfect for Aldi.

Tons of empty spaces in AZ available... and a lot of roadkill. It will be interesting to see if Aldi is successful...

They won't be. Warehouse style/limited brand stores don't do well out here, Winco has stalled in new store growth. And F&E was an abject failure. PHX shoppers like their full service bakery/delis, ability to use credit cards to buy groceries, and loyalty cards

jamcool wrote:They won't be. Warehouse style/limited brand stores don't do well out here, Winco has stalled in new store growth. And F&E was an abject failure. PHX shoppers like their full service bakery/delis, ability to use credit cards to buy groceries, and loyalty cards

F&E failed for more than that.

I think Aldi will be successful. Nearly every market they've entered has done well (SoCal may be a work in progress), and they've been in America since the 1970s. Also, they DO accept credit cards nowadays, and for loyalty cards, them not having one is a positive.

But I wouldn't count on the vacant space...Aldi tends to ALWAYS build new buildings, and the one example that they didn't build a new structure they did extensive interior work on it that only the columns survived (they tore out the flooring completely, I remember peeking in and six inches of the concrete foundation had been removed to dirt).

jamcool wrote:They won't be. Warehouse style/limited brand stores don't do well out here, Winco has stalled in new store growth. And F&E was an abject failure. PHX shoppers like their full service bakery/delis, ability to use credit cards to buy groceries, and loyalty cards

Phoenix area shoppers currently have the following choices (not including Costco and Sam's Club of which there are over a dozen stores each in the Phoenix area):

1.) Fry's
2.) Walmart
3.) Albertsons / Safeway
4.) Bashas' / AJ's / Food City
5.) Sprouts (probably the most Sprouts stores per capita of any market)
6.) Target (PFresh and a handful of Super Target locations)
7.) WinCo
8.) Whole Foods Market
9.) Trader Joe's
10.) Smart and Final / Smart and Final Extra
11.) Natural Grocers

There is room for Aldi in the market, especially with the number of ex-Midwesterners who live in the Phoenix area and are used to Aldi. Albertsons, Safeway, and the Bashas' banner seem to be attracting older shoppers. Younger shoppers don't like the high pricing or the pricing gimmicks. Fry's seems to get away with it as its priced better than Albertsons, Safeway, or Bashas' and they advertise anywhere and everywhere. WinCo's problem in Phoenix is that it simply isn't worth the hassle when the same items can be purchased at Fry's or Walmart without having to trudge through a massive store with an odd layout and then go through the lack of credit cards and self bagging. Aldi's smaller stores are much more user friendly than WinCo's massive (and again, I'll repeat, poorly laid out) stores.

Aldi may even do better in Tucson (where there is less competition: no Wino or Smart and Final). Fun fact about the Tucson metro area is that it has 4 Trader Joe's locations (Kansas City with over twice the population only has 2, and Phoenix with 4 times the population only has 9 Trader Joe's locations).

Does Tucson have stricter zoning ordinances than Phoenix? I seem to remember that they do and that would explain why smaller format stores are more likely to open there.

klkla wrote:Does Tucson have stricter zoning ordinances than Phoenix? I seem to remember that they do and that would explain why smaller format stores are more likely to open there.

Tucson has a "big box" law that says that supercenters of 100,000 square feet or more must restrict grocery sections to 10 percent of the floor's space. The city council can grant exceptions and anything built prior to 1999 doesn't have to fall into the law.

arizonaguy wrote:

klkla wrote:Does Tucson have stricter zoning ordinances than Phoenix? I seem to remember that they do and that would explain why smaller format stores are more likely to open there.

Tucson has a "big box" law that says that supercenters of 100,000 square feet or more must restrict grocery sections to 10 percent of the floor's space. The city council can grant exceptions and anything built prior to 1999 doesn't have to fall into the law.

That's ridiculous, and means that Walmart's grocery sections will suck even more than they usually do.

Which is why all of the big box stores are in the towns of Marana and Oro Valley, and in unincorporated areas of Pima County

pseudo3d wrote:

jamcool wrote:They won't be. Warehouse style/limited brand stores don't do well out here, Winco has stalled in new store growth. And F&E was an abject failure. PHX shoppers like their full service bakery/delis, ability to use credit cards to buy groceries, and loyalty cards

F&E failed for more than that.

I think Aldi will be successful. Nearly every market they've entered has done well (SoCal may be a work in progress), and they've been in America since the 1970s. Also, they DO accept credit cards nowadays, and for loyalty cards, them not having one is a positive.

But I wouldn't count on the vacant space...Aldi tends to ALWAYS build new buildings, and the one example that they didn't build a new structure they did extensive interior work on it that only the columns survived (they tore out the flooring completely, I remember peeking in and six inches of the concrete foundation had been removed to dirt).

Maybe in other regions they always build new, but in the Northeast, I've seen them take over (or partially take over) smaller former grocery stores smack in the middle of shopping centers, a former Eckerd/Rite Aid or two, and a whole bunch of Bottom Dollar Food stores when they bought them out a few years ago (pretty much gutting them too, despite only operating a few years as Bottom Dollar), but still stores that were older and mostly in strip centers.