Crazy about retail.
http://www.retailwatchers.com/
Great news for Mid-Atlantic! Also it's been 10 years since ACME dropped that place (2012, right?). And ShopRite has been pushed all the way down to #7, which is surprisingly low. Not great for them. That's consistent with my observations in the northern NJ area, that ACME seems to be more than surviving in a lot of those A&P stores. Not every one is doing great, of course, but they're certainly not the total crash-and-burn that some have predicted. A newly revitalized Albertsons might be better positioned to take ACME from a solid market contender to a market leader in more of their markets, but that's a long ways off.pseudo3d wrote: ↑April 21st, 2022, 1:13 pm Surprisingly, ACME came in first in market share in Philly, beating out Giant (by 1.8%), Walmart (by 4.9%), and ShopRite (by 11.1%). The article still tries to poison the well by bringing up the "sale of the Mid-Atlantic Division" rumor but things seem to be looking up for ACME.
https://www.axios.com/local/philadelphi ... acme-giant
I'd also wonder what's up with the NYC market area. They entered the area with A&P and despite rumors of poor performance, bought Kings up there. So they obviously haven't given up on the area yet.storewanderer wrote: ↑April 21st, 2022, 6:22 pm I am not surprised by this. Albertsons put one of their best people in charge of Acme and he had a brief period with Ahold/Giant as well during the period when Supervalu was a mess and LLC was shrinking.
I noticed a real difference in the quality of the Acme Stores I went into a few years ago, vs. the Safeway units I went into in VA/MD. The Acme Stores had a far wider product mix, more regional items, larger and more full fresh departments that had fresher looking products, stronger ads, and better staffing levels. Everyday pricing was not great at either banner. The Safeway units in VA/MD were quite lousy that I went into (one of them was large but later ended up closed, one had just been remodeled) and had little business.
Acme also continues to operate without a club card for discounts and markets that fact.
The bigger problem with Acme is that it is connected to the sinking Safeway Eastern Division. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Acme has had to work extra hard to get where it is. This was not an easy task for Acme nor was it a cheap task. Safeway continues to operate with the usual Safeway attitude, like it is doing you a favor to be there selling you a boring mix of groceries that is tailored to nowhere and almost ignores regional tastes entirely. Lousy pricing all over the store and marginal at best fresh departments. I wouldn't be surprised if the way Safeway does things is somehow more profitable and suspect that is why it keeps going how it goes with Safeway. But more profitable doesn't translate into more pleasant for the customer...mjhale wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2022, 7:07 am How much integration is there now between Safeway and Acme? It seems that Safeway is being supplied from the Albertsons Denver, PA warehouse. This is after Safeway closed their Upper Marlboro, MD facility in early 2020. If Acme is the stronger operation in the Eastern Division one might think they should be running or more influential in Safeway's operations. I'm not saying a rebrand over to Acme. However Safeway seems to be limping along even after the remodels that have been done in the DC area. High pricing (makes Giant look like a discount operation), inconsistent operations and I personally have noticed a decrease in quality and selection in the bakery and deli.
Oh, I don't think this is by any means a long-term win. This is a somewhat hard fought victory of sorts, but it will be short lived. Only 1.8% above Giant is not significant and all it will take is a couple expansions and a prolonged period of aggressive ads by Giant to easily edge up Acme again.mbz321 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2022, 1:26 pm With Giant rapidly expanding in Philly itself (ShopRite really hasn't added any new locations in the region recently besides some replacement stores in NJ), one of Acme's last true strongholds, I'm not going to stay so positive. Acme still has atrocious pricing that makes Whole Foods look like a bargain. Acme has been remodeling locations, but the remodels themselves have been pretty blah. It still puzzles me why they haven't used the look that is going into remodeled Safeway stores which are slightly less drab. Mainly those that shop at Acme seem to be the older crowd that are just set in their ways, and/or people that have no other nearby option. They have been forcing beer and wine into all their PA locations that they can (including a super small store in Dresher, PA...this might be their oldest store that they still operate---which has both a beer distributor and a state store in the same small plaza. Not sure if the ROI on that one is all there given how expensive beer licenses are in PA).
They were, having dropped there just right before NAI was sold off. ShopRite was number one at the time, and yeah I know it's more of a co-op but they dropped the ball pretty hard since then.retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2022, 6:01 pm Wasn't Acme #3 in Philly market share during the SVU era?