Retail Watchers

The Food 4 Less in Hollywood (once a Zody's then Ralphs Giant) was going to be closed anyway (Sunset and Western). The property is going to be redeveloped. A newly built Target, that was delayed for a decade, and was once an Alpha Beta is across the street. A Ralphs is just up the street (Hollywood Blvd. and Western). This area is being gentrified. Was mostly immigrant Eastern Europeans, Russians, Russian Jewish and just south Salvadorian. But it's now going hipster.

The Ralphs on Pico Blvd. is underground. There's also a CVS, opened as a Longs Drugs, above it. There was once only an Alpha Beta on this property that was torn down and rebuilt with a Ralphs. This store catered to the nearby traditional (Pico-Robertson) Jewish area. It's just a couple of blocks from Beverly Hills. I use to shop at this store from time to time when I lived in Westwood. I was heckled by Ralphs employees for crossing the picket line at this store. Lease must be up because this store is in a great upscale area.

The Ralphs on Slauson (and Crenshaw) is in an area that had been traditionally an African-American area. But it has been moving much more immigrant Latino.

https://www.foxla.com/news/ralphs-food- ... or-workers
https://progressivegrocer.com/kroger-sh ... -stores-la

I think the Slauson location was formerly a Boys Market.

I suspect that sales at the Pico location had been in decline. Traditionally, the store carried an extensive selection of Jewish groceries but that selection had dwindled in recent years. Most telling, most of the prepared Jewish foods had transitioned into the typical Kroger fare well before Covid.

Upscale area, yes, but Ralph’s continues to lose ground with the uber wealthy.

Well, okay then... continue closing stores and losing market share over temporary wage mandates that can be easily addressed through price increases.

Perhaps Albertsons would like to add 3 locations. Or any other operator.

Customers will not forget these moves. Most customers seem to be in support of the wage increase (easy for them to support it, it isn't coming out of their wallet directly anyway)... so not sure what Kroger is accomplishing here. Certainly not accomplishing a positive image for customers, employees, or the neighborhoods. Even I don't like this and this does not make me want to go run out and support Kroger.

Frankly I think the hazard pay is just an excuse to close stores they had been planning on for a long time. As someone mentioned earlier, the one in Hollywood has been a redevelopment play for a long time. Ralphs/Kroger doesn't own the property so it will end up being some kind of mixed use development. I wouldn't be surprised if the final development included a supermarket. The one on Slauson is an eyesore and there is a Food 4 Less right down the street so I bet they are counting on the business going there. The store on Pico is more interesting. It was designed originally for Alpha Beta in a great area, but the design is terrible. Parking is horrendous and the layout confusing. I doubt Ralphs/Kroger ever made money on this store. It would probably end up being a good place for a Trader Joes or Sprouts.

It appears Slauson got a fairly extensive remodel about 4 years ago and it looks like it has a lot of foot traffic. Maybe it was not selling a mix of items that made it as profitable with high traffic as other stores with similar high traffic.

Pico probably had some challenges with the location, I recall going to that store at some point and this isn't the first time an underground supermarket has had problems with access and people knowing it exists... But it had all of those Kosher perimeter programs which were quite extensive and at the time I was there very well executed. I found it odd the store was not designated as a Fresh Fare based on the neighborhood. Maybe adding all those Kosher programs in which I suspect are quite costly to operate were the only way the place got enough traffic to survive and the decision was made to expand perimeter that way rather than through a Fresh Fare designation. Still strikes me as an odd store to close... suspect margins were good even if volume wasn't great.

Glad to know that Food4Less is closing. It was gross when it was a Giant and worse as a F4L.

Now Kroger, why don't you close RocknRoll Ralphs and the Fresh Fare in West Hollywood?

You clearly do not care about those stores either.

With this thread and others, like the closing of the two Albertson's in Irvine, it's not all about the hazard pay completely. In the last 30 to 40 years the percentage of supermarkets that were union have decreased dramatically. There are other costs other than hourly pay costs. Forty years ago you had Lucky, Ralphs, Vons, Safeway, Alpa Beta, Gelsons etc negotiating a UFCW contract while having a huge percentage of market share. SoCal now you have Kroger & Albertsons (Vons) the remaining large signatories. Stater Bros, Gelsons and a few others would sign sweetheart deals to go along with whatever is negotiated. Times have changed.. Now the market is so segmented,. Market Share for union stores as a percentage of sales has dropped significantly.....a Northgate, Superior, or Seafood King can operate the same locations cheaper because they are non-union. Yes the national chains like Kroger weren't flexible enough to adapt to the market changing demographics

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/on-air/kr ... y/2559611/
UFCW held a protest in front of the closing Ralphs on Pico Blvd. today (video)

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 10th, 2021, 9:22 pm Well, okay then... continue closing stores and losing market share over temporary wage mandates that can be easily addressed through price increases.

Perhaps Albertsons would like to add 3 locations. Or any other operator.

Customers will not forget these moves. Most customers seem to be in support of the wage increase (easy for them to support it, it isn't coming out of their wallet directly anyway)... so not sure what Kroger is accomplishing here. Certainly not accomplishing a positive image for customers, employees, or the neighborhoods. Even I don't like this and this does not make me want to go run out and support Kroger.

ACI could take the store at Slauson/Crenshaw and convert it to either Albertsons or Vons, as it is a few miles from the nearest ACI store.
The Pico Ralphs is blocks away from a Pavilions, so they wouldn't take it.
The Hollywood F4L could become a Market Street format.