Proposed and delayed WinCo in Centralia, WA

[Super S]

https://www.chronline.com/stories/port- ... ation,7873

The article, from 2019, announced WinCo was to open by 2021. Well, this hasn't happened, and I doubt that they can build a new store in two months. I am starting to wonder about the future of this project, and would not be surprised if WinCo decides to build elsewhere.

https://www.chronline.com/stories/melle ... -2021,3545

There has been a delay related to the offramp nearby due to the pandemic, but still, there have been virtually no updates on the progress of this project.

And somebody on their Facebook page asked about the Centralia store recently. WinCo's response:

"We don't have any information about a Centralia store but we have had quite a few friends contact us about one - we'll see what we can find out & remind our real estate team how much the area would like a WinCo!"

With that kind of response, It almost looks as if WinCo never made an official announcement about a new store and the Port of Centralia jumped the gun. It's been two years and it's starting to look like this project might be fizzling out. The original proposed store was Fred Meyer, and they bailed a long time ago.

[Super S]

https://www.chronline.com/stories/port- ... ure,285970

Hopefully the project finally moves forward...it certainly has taken a long time.

[tkaye]

They've also submitted plans to move in to the old Safeway site at Highland Hill in Tacoma since mid-2020 but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere yet.

[Super S]

Looks like WinCo might be moving forward...it has taken a while but this is a good sign:

https://www.chronline.com/stories/winco ... ore,295772

[Super S]

Now they are hinting that the earliest possible opening is summer of 2024:

https://www.chronline.com/stories/port- ... nco,313387

[Super S]

Construction of the Centralia WinCo is finally underway:

https://www.chronline.com/stories/const ... ent,340113

[storewanderer]

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did.

Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition, maybe it is actually a better fit as it will provide better price competition in the market.

[ClownLoach]

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did.

Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition, maybe it is actually a better fit as it will provide better price competition in the market.

With Walmart backing out of being a price leader, and the high prices at the other chains, I agree WinCo is the best addition to any market to add price competition at this time. Although they do have some funky pricing sometimes, I never feel like the weird high priced items are more than maybe 1% of the store. And they do seem to try to customize the assortment to the community a lot more than they used to. I just don't agree with these ultra mega sized stores that are being proposed in some cases. They already have some occasional opportunities with cleaning and a larger store means more cleaning work. They can only do so much with the AI operated floor scrubber when the stores are too busy for it to run efficiently. They put a smaller than normal store in a rougher part of Oceanside where most other retailers struggled with cleanliness, and they have done comparatively well. They are certainly cleaner and neater than the Target next door which opens the doors looking great but by mid-afternoon is so destroyed that they never recover. I think if WinCo was larger than their current site they would not be able to maintain it.

[storewanderer]

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did.

Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition, maybe it is actually a better fit as it will provide better price competition in the market.

With Walmart backing out of being a price leader, and the high prices at the other chains, I agree WinCo is the best addition to any market to add price competition at this time. Although they do have some funky pricing sometimes, I never feel like the weird high priced items are more than maybe 1% of the store. And they do seem to try to customize the assortment to the community a lot more than they used to. I just don't agree with these ultra mega sized stores that are being proposed in some cases. They already have some occasional opportunities with cleaning and a larger store means more cleaning work. They can only do so much with the AI operated floor scrubber when the stores are too busy for it to run efficiently. They put a smaller than normal store in a rougher part of Oceanside where most other retailers struggled with cleanliness, and they have done comparatively well. They are certainly cleaner and neater than the Target next door which opens the doors looking great but by mid-afternoon is so destroyed that they never recover. I think if WinCo was larger than their current site they would not be able to maintain it.

I find WinCo pricing to be very weak on non foods (including cleaning, paper, pet, and drug/HBA). You can sometimes find deals on items in those categories but overall it is bad. Kroger has far more competitive pricing than they do in those categories typically. Wal Mart and Target both are also a lot more competitive. Drugstore sales/promotions are also a lot more competitive in many cases. WinCo keeps the food pricing, especially perishables it seems, very sharp.

I think part of the store size for WinCo is for supply reasons. WinCo sends full trucks to make deliveries to the store, then the truck turns around and returns to the warehouse. They aren't like the chain grocers who may send out a truck that stops and drops a few pallets at 5-6 stores in a day. They try to get full pallet loads of product from DSD vendors also. They need space to store/display this quantity of product. They don't usually have a very large backroom so things need to go to the floor and need to sell quickly.

WinCo actually spends quite a bit of labor on maintaining its center store in terms of rotation, facing, arranging shelves, pulling empty boxes, etc. A lot of this is done overnight but most stores have 2-3 employees working all day on this (they are also used as back up cashiers... and to unload trucks... and to build displays... and sometimes one of them is the supervisor on duty), and also checking for out of stocks and refilling out of stocks or fake fronting them with other nearby product to keep the shelves looking full.

[ClownLoach]

About time. Safeway desperately needs competition in this market. Wal Mart also runs extremely high volume there and this will impact them to some extent but recent WinCo openings don't seem to impact Wal Mart as much as they once did.

Fred Meyer would have been better but WinCo is a great addition, maybe it is actually a better fit as it will provide better price competition in the market.

With Walmart backing out of being a price leader, and the high prices at the other chains, I agree WinCo is the best addition to any market to add price competition at this time. Although they do have some funky pricing sometimes, I never feel like the weird high priced items are more than maybe 1% of the store. And they do seem to try to customize the assortment to the community a lot more than they used to. I just don't agree with these ultra mega sized stores that are being proposed in some cases. They already have some occasional opportunities with cleaning and a larger store means more cleaning work. They can only do so much with the AI operated floor scrubber when the stores are too busy for it to run efficiently. They put a smaller than normal store in a rougher part of Oceanside where most other retailers struggled with cleanliness, and they have done comparatively well. They are certainly cleaner and neater than the Target next door which opens the doors looking great but by mid-afternoon is so destroyed that they never recover. I think if WinCo was larger than their current site they would not be able to maintain it.

I find WinCo pricing to be very weak on non foods (including cleaning, paper, pet, and drug/HBA). You can sometimes find deals on items in those categories but overall it is bad. Kroger has far more competitive pricing than they do in those categories typically. Wal Mart and Target both are also a lot more competitive. Drugstore sales/promotions are also a lot more competitive in many cases. WinCo keeps the food pricing, especially perishables it seems, very sharp.

I think part of the store size for WinCo is for supply reasons. WinCo sends full trucks to make deliveries to the store, then the truck turns around and returns to the warehouse. They aren't like the chain grocers who may send out a truck that stops and drops a few pallets at 5-6 stores in a day. They try to get full pallet loads of product from DSD vendors also. They need space to store/display this quantity of product. They don't usually have a very large backroom so things need to go to the floor and need to sell quickly.

WinCo actually spends quite a bit of labor on maintaining its center store in terms of rotation, facing, arranging shelves, pulling empty boxes, etc. A lot of this is done overnight but most stores have 2-3 employees working all day on this (they are also used as back up cashiers... and to unload trucks... and to build displays... and sometimes one of them is the supervisor on duty), and also checking for out of stocks and refilling out of stocks or fake fronting them with other nearby product to keep the shelves looking full.

I think the WinCo pricing on non foods makes senee. They know their customer is going to shop for the lowest price and they cannot achieve economy of scale in those categories where the customer is already shopping Walmart, Target, Costco or Sam's. They carry them for convenience purposes only and still manage to be cheaper than the drugstores at least.