Retail Watchers

For the past twelve years, Kroger has operated a pair of supermarkets directly across the highway from each other in Dearborn, MI. The location they're closing is the older of the two and was acquired in 2007 from Farmer Jack. It's really not surprising -- the store they're retaining opened up circa 2005 (as a replacement for an original super center up the road) and in 2015 underwent a $9M renovation that expanded it to 80K square feet and added a bunch of premium offerings (e.g. wine bar). Meanwhile, the ex-Farmer Jack store maintains the early 1990s A&P decor package and always had an inferior selection (and less business) than its sister store across the street.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 661711002/

That Farmer Jack purchase was always a head-scratcher for me. Kroger selectively chose which FJ stores to purchase, so it's not like they were stuck with it. It's obvious it's closing because the lease is finally up, but not obvious at all why they took over the lease to begin with, unless it was to prevent competition (not that there's a lot of competition in the SE Michigan market that could have taken the store, Kroger remains to this day the only major conventional grocery operator in the region)

That former Farmer Jack looks pretty good inside.

Maybe before they did the major expansion/remodel on the store across the street, they weren't sure which store they wanted to invest significant money into... so they just kept both. Sort of strange. There was a situation like this with Frys in Tempe, AZ but eventually one of the two stores closed.

storewanderer wrote: ↑May 12th, 2019, 8:52 am Maybe before they did the major expansion/remodel on the store across the street, they weren't sure which store they wanted to invest significant money into... so they just kept both.

If they were still in the Superstore at the time, I'd be inclined to agree, but the Kroger had just been built brand-new within the past 5-ish years when they took over the Farmer Jack.

Sounds kind of like some locations Winn-Dixie got when they bought Sweetbay. I know of at least one that was right across the intersection from an existing store. After about a year of running both store, they ended up closing the original W-D and keeping the former Sweetbay. The W-D was actually a little newer building but had never been remodeled unlike the Sweetbay which had much more updating.

submariner wrote: ↑May 12th, 2019, 8:13 am That Farmer Jack purchase was always a head-scratcher for me. Kroger selectively chose which FJ stores to purchase, so it's not like they were stuck with it. It's obvious it's closing because the lease is finally up, but not obvious at all why they took over the lease to begin with, unless it was to prevent competition (not that there's a lot of competition in the SE Michigan market that could have taken the store, Kroger remains to this day the only major conventional grocery operator in the region)

What's interesting is that initial reports indicated Kroger had agreed to acquire ~30 FJ from A&P, but the number was later reduced to 20 to avoid triggering an antitrust review. Obviously this was a store Kroger really wanted. But while the other ex-FJ received immediate upgrades - including a location just four miles away - this location just limped along until its eventual closure.

I agree Kroger was likely trying to block competition -- in media reports, they justified the twin stores by identifying the incumbent location as one of the chain's top performing. I think it's probable they feared that A&P would subsidize the FJ location to an independent, Spartan-supplied Middle Eastern grocer. I've only been into the location they're keeping once, but it's the only Kroger I've ever stepped foot into that had a huge selection of Middle Eastern groceries (including prepared foods, bakery, meat, etc.).

So... apparently they are going to have a candlelight vigil farewell. People really had some love for this store.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/busin ... 678800002/