Gelson's To Debut New Store Concept At EV Charging Stations

[Alpha8472]

Gelson's is debuting a new convenience store concept at EV charging stations with poke bowls, sushi, and better for you items.

https://chainstoreage.com/gelsons-debut ... g-stations

[veteran+]

Gelson's is debuting a new convenience store concept at EV charging stations with poke bowls, sushi, and better for you items.

https://chainstoreage.com/gelsons-debut ... g-stations

Perhaps they would be smarter to offer a better value of service to price metric.

Their prices are outrageous and the service keeps on shrinking year by year. Even the "attitude" seems to be deteriorating.

Like Jensen's in the Desert, they are ridiculous. I don't mind paying more but the service and offerings better match the PRICE.

[storewanderer]

Gelson's is debuting a new convenience store concept at EV charging stations with poke bowls, sushi, and better for you items.

https://chainstoreage.com/gelsons-debut ... g-stations

Perhaps they would be smarter to offer a better value of service to price metric.

Their prices are outrageous and the service keeps on shrinking year by year. Even the "attitude" seems to be deteriorating.

Like Jensen's in the Desert, they are ridiculous. I don't mind paying more but the service and offerings better match the PRICE.

Operationally they run a clean neat store.

Their prepared items always tasted bland. Quality was there but any sort of creativity in flavor was not.

I think this chain will have a lot of trouble in the future years attracting the younger customer base (even as that younger customer base ages) due to the blandness of offer.

They need to reinvent themselves or develop a new format entirely to convert to in the future. They did it once going from Mayfair to Gelsons in many locations. Now it is time to transition beyond the stuffy but unremarkable bland Gelsons for something with more flavor and personality.

[veteran+]

I agree but that value proposition is just not there.

The Price does not match the experience in all that they present.

If I'm going to pay their price I want world class customer service and top tier foods.

Snarky little cashiers too busy talking to another employee doesn't work for me. I can go to Ralphs for way cheaper foods and deal with that.

[rwsandiego]

I agree but that value proposition is just not there.

The Price does not match the experience in all that they present.

If I'm going to pay their price I want world class customer service and top tier foods.

Snarky little cashiers too busy talking to another employee doesn't work for me. I can go to Ralphs for way cheaper foods and deal with that.

Thank you for confirming I'm not the only one who has this opinion of Gelson's. I stopped into multiple locations when I'd visit LA from San Diego and always felt like I was a bother to the employees when I'd ask a question. As @storewanderer mentioned, their prepared foods were not very exciting.

[ClownLoach]

That and they should have signed a deal with Tesla.

Tesla has signed up Ford and GM for their charging standard. They'll have adapters soon for Ford and GM vehicles to charge on Tesla chargers, and in a couple of years the Ford and GM vehicles will change their charging ports so they will only charge on Tesla chargers.

At this point, it's going down like other classic technology battles, but basically Tesla is VHS and Gelsons just signed with Betamax. By the time these charging stations and grocery stores are even built this technology standard will be finished in the US and Tesla will be it.

Now that will pose a new problem: Tesla becomes this century's Standard Oil monopoly when it comes to charging stations, and that means they'll be forced to license out the charging itself but I don't see that happening for at least 15 years. By then these stores and other charging standards will all be dead.

And no, I'm not one of the Tesla zealots, never even driven one before. But I see the realities that are fundamental disadvantages of EVs now preventing adoption. These are all going to be fixed in the next generation of EVs towards 2029-2030 and that is when I think I would consider it. Right now the price/performance/mileage is best with a performance hybrid.

Issue (Fix)
Home charging cost (massive cost drops in solar panels and home batteries coming in next 5 years)
Risk of Li-Ion fire and shortage of lithium (solid state batteries, noncombustable and different materials)
Charging time and range anxiety (solid state batteries, 10 minutes full charge of 1000mi range)
Inadequate network of public chargers besides Tesla (Tesla becomes universal charging standard in US through licensing)
Cost (volume of adoption of new generation EV vehicles by 2030 with new technologies listed above brings price to same or less than gas, plus first generation resale value drops dramatically for affordable used cars with less capability than new standard)

[buckguy]

Some of the inspiration for this is probably the upscale c-store chains in other parts of the country. Foxtrot, which is based in Chicago and has stores in Texas and the DC area is probably the closest to this. They offer a mix of prepared and regular packaged convenience foods, although they're designed more for urban neighborhoods. Streets Market in DC has some of this, but is more like a small grocery store. This also sounds like the semi-healthy fast food options that have been going into highway rest stops.

Pairing this model with a high volume charging station could work, if the charging volume meets their expectations and the locations have the right demographics. My recollection of Gelson's was that they seemed overpriced for what they have, but that may be less of a barrier in this kind of venue. I think people tend to lower their expectations for val if they're offered convenience.

[Alpha8472]

The government is giving out money to fund these charging stations. Even Walmart wants to build charging stations now. It is free money. For now, these charging stations are not costing much to open up.

The electric vehicle owners are usually higher income people. They will spend money at these convenience stores if they are nice looking and well kept. Convenience stores have always been higher priced than supermarkets. Whole Foods manages to make money, because the higher income people like to be seen at a fancy exclusive supermarket.

We may see many more upscale convenience store chains. The chargers can always be upgraded to the new standard. The government may even pay for the upgrades.

[storewanderer]

Save Mart has had charging stations at a few of its stores since before COVID. I am not sure who the provider is and nobody is ever using them.

This was an initiative of Save Mart due to the lack of fuel operations.

[ClownLoach]

The government is giving out money to fund these charging stations. Even Walmart wants to build charging stations now. It is free money. For now, these charging stations are not costing much to open up.

The electric vehicle owners are usually higher income people. They will spend money at these convenience stores if they are nice looking and well kept. Convenience stores have always been higher priced than supermarkets. Whole Foods manages to make money, because the higher income people like to be seen at a fancy exclusive supermarket.

We may see many more upscale convenience store chains. The chargers can always be upgraded to the new standard. The government may even pay for the upgrades.

Tesla doesn't want to play along with that plan. The chargers the government is rolling out aren't Tesla standard compatible except at a low speed. The upgrade you're talking about would be demolishing and starting from scratch.