Retail Watchers

That’s quite the headline, but it looks like ALDI is taking on Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s, although possibly not Fresco y Mas? This marks ALDI’s entrance into the traditional supermarket business, but they say they may convert some stores:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-release ... 02141.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/phillemper ... mart-move/

From The Shelby Report about Fresco y Mas:

"Concurrently, SEG has agreed to divest its Fresco y Más operations. SEG anticipates that the sale of the Fresco y Más banner will be consummated in the first quarter of 2024. The Fresco y Más banner, including all 28 stores and four pharmacies, will be sold to Fresco Retail Group LLC, an investment group focused on food and grocery. Fresco Retail Group LLC plans for all stores and pharmacies in the Fresco y Más banner to continue operating as they are presently."

So it appears to be bye bye Winn Dixie, and all the banners they've assimilated over the last 80 years.

wnetmacman wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:07 am From The Shelby Report about Fresco y Mas:

"Concurrently, SEG has agreed to divest its Fresco y Más operations. SEG anticipates that the sale of the Fresco y Más banner will be consummated in the first quarter of 2024. The Fresco y Más banner, including all 28 stores and four pharmacies, will be sold to Fresco Retail Group LLC, an investment group focused on food and grocery. Fresco Retail Group LLC plans for all stores and pharmacies in the Fresco y Más banner to continue operating as they are presently."

So it appears to be bye bye Winn Dixie, and all the banners they've assimilated over the last 80 years.

It specifically states that SOME may be converted to Aldi but that others will remain under the Winn Dixie/Harvey's names, so not bye bye to anything!

BillyGr wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:32 am It specifically states that SOME may be converted to Aldi but that others will remain under the Winn Dixie/Harvey's names, so not bye bye to anything!

Aldi is quite adept at operating one type of store and doing it well. I do not believe for a moment that WD and Harvey's will continue as-is. I would wager that those stores not converted will most likely be sold off piecemeal or closed outright.

BillyGr wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:32 am

wnetmacman wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:07 am From The Shelby Report about Fresco y Mas:

"Concurrently, SEG has agreed to divest its Fresco y Más operations. SEG anticipates that the sale of the Fresco y Más banner will be consummated in the first quarter of 2024. The Fresco y Más banner, including all 28 stores and four pharmacies, will be sold to Fresco Retail Group LLC, an investment group focused on food and grocery. Fresco Retail Group LLC plans for all stores and pharmacies in the Fresco y Más banner to continue operating as they are presently."

So it appears to be bye bye Winn Dixie, and all the banners they've assimilated over the last 80 years.

It specifically states that SOME may be converted to Aldi but that others will remain under the Winn Dixie/Harvey's names, so not bye bye to anything!

Never believe a press release. A friend of mine that was in PR said his nose grew by a foot doing PR.

This seems to have been a well kept secret. Interesting!

Since this is a large transaction I wonder if this has had some sort of "pre-approval" from the FTC?

I was pretty shocked by this.

I concur with wnetmacman about the future of W/D et al.

Aldi is not Ahold/Del. It is like Traders, Tesco, etc. (their way or the highway).

wnetmacman wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:36 am

BillyGr wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:32 am It specifically states that SOME may be converted to Aldi but that others will remain under the Winn Dixie/Harvey's names, so not bye bye to anything!

Aldi is quite adept at operating one type of store and doing it well. I do not believe for a moment that WD and Harvey's will continue as-is. I would wager that those stores not converted will most likely be sold off piecemeal or closed outright.

Aldi Süd doesn't run any traditional supermarkets, and with the exception of smaller stores, most Aldi stores are too small for Winn-Dixie's footprint, meaning lots more vacant space.

But who knows?

wnetmacman wrote: ↑August 16th, 2023, 7:07 am From The Shelby Report about Fresco y Mas:

"Concurrently, SEG has agreed to divest its Fresco y Más operations. SEG anticipates that the sale of the Fresco y Más banner will be consummated in the first quarter of 2024. The Fresco y Más banner, including all 28 stores and four pharmacies, will be sold to Fresco Retail Group LLC, an investment group focused on food and grocery. Fresco Retail Group LLC plans for all stores and pharmacies in the Fresco y Más banner to continue operating as they are presently."

So it appears to be bye bye Winn Dixie, and all the banners they've assimilated over the last 80 years.

I suspect Fresco will be thrown into the Save Mart/SpinCo conglomerate... Could be a good vehicle for divested Albertsons/Tom Thumb stores in Hispanic neighborhoods of DFW...

I'm hoping Aldi doesn't buy divested stores from Albertsons/Kroger...

Well that was definitely sudden news…

My guess is while most Winn Dixie stores are too big to convert to Aldi per se, that’s what we’ll see.

And towns like mine that already have Aldi will end up with one or two vacant Winn Dixie’s.

Probably still quite a bit of empty stores. Not a lot of independent grocers will be able to manage a store as large as a former WD, none in my part of Florida at least.

If this was the plan for a while, makes me wonder why WD wasted time and money remodeling stores the last few years.

Further, I have to wonder WHY Aldi would want to acquire WD? If Aldi is only doing this to expand their store base, it seems like a waste of money. It would be cheaper to build locations from the ground up, and from what I’ve seen Aldi typically only does new builds, and separate from shopping centers/strip malls.