New King Soopers in CO Springs

[Bakeragr]

Looks like a new Marketplace just opened, with two more in the works. Doesn't appear to be slowing down, but I'm not knowledgeable about Colorado Springs. Maybe there aren't many Safeways there, but it sounds like Falcon has a new one nearby. Also, the picture of the store with the "King Soopers Marketplace" looks good. I'm surprised it doesn't have the fruit cart logo on it.

https://gazette.com/business/king-soope ... 15802.html

[veteran+]

Looks like a new Marketplace just opened, with two more in the works. Doesn't appear to be slowing down, but I'm not knowledgeable about Colorado Springs. Maybe there aren't many Safeways there, but it sounds like Falcon has a new one nearby. Also, the picture of the store with the "King Soopers Marketplace" looks good. I'm surprised it doesn't have the fruit cart logo on it.

https://gazette.com/business/king-soope ... 15802.html

I believe there are around 12 Safeways there. There were 2 Albertsons that were supposed to be converted to Safeway by now.

[ClownLoach]

Looks like a new Marketplace just opened, with two more in the works. Doesn't appear to be slowing down, but I'm not knowledgeable about Colorado Springs. Maybe there aren't many Safeways there, but it sounds like Falcon has a new one nearby. Also, the picture of the store with the "King Soopers Marketplace" looks good. I'm surprised it doesn't have the fruit cart logo on it.

https://gazette.com/business/king-soope ... 15802.html

Looks identical to the about one year old Smiths Marketplace that opened in far east Henderson, NV about twenty minutes from Las Vegas.

[storewanderer]

Safeway used to be dominant in Colorado Springs but over the past 25 years as Wal Mart has expanded and King Soopers keeps expanding, Safeway has not kept up. I'm not sure when the last new build Safeway opened in Colorado Springs, but I think it has been a while, and competitors have been opening more new stores than they have. There were still a couple non-Lifestyle Stores in Colorado Springs but those have recently gotten the "Modern" interior low budget wall repaint (didn't redo flooring or anything else just the walls). Adding a couple former Albertsons units may have helped Safeway's standing to an extent but their stores in Colorado Springs are moderate volume at best whereas the competitor stores are mostly all high volume operations.

[retailfanmitchell019]

Safeway used to be dominant in Colorado Springs but over the past 25 years as Wal Mart has expanded and King Soopers keeps expanding, Safeway has not kept up. I'm not sure when the last new build Safeway opened in Colorado Springs, but I think it has been a while, and competitors have been opening more new stores than they have. There were still a couple non-Lifestyle Stores in Colorado Springs but those have recently gotten the "Modern" interior low budget wall repaint (didn't redo flooring or anything else just the walls). Adding a couple former Albertsons units may have helped Safeway's standing to an extent but their stores in Colorado Springs are moderate volume at best whereas the competitor stores are mostly all high volume operations.

I think Walmart is #1 in Colorado Springs market share.

Chain Store Guide data overestimates and underestimates Walmart’s share in many places. They’ve said that Walmart has lost share in Metro Denver from 2018-2022 (from 23% down to 19%), even with inflation. King Soopers is of course the big dog up there, with around 1/3 of the market share.

It looks like 3 Albertsons stores in Colorado Springs were converted to Safeway:
4405 Centennial Blvd: 1995 model store, still has blue-gray interior tile. I believe this one had the LLC interior before it was converted to Safeway.
8750 N Union Blvd: 2002 model store, had the Grocery Palace interior before conversion to Safeway.
7055 Austin Bluffs Pkwy: 2003 build, had the upscale Larry (Broadway) interior before conversion to Safeway. I’m 99.9% sure this was the last Albertsons to be built in Colorado. I’m surprised that one wasn’t given the Jewel interior. But then again, this was the Albertsons Denver division, known for lack of investment. I believe the Jewel interior was the most expensive to install.

I know you think Hy-Vee would be scared of King Soopers, but it would be better for Hy-Vee to take advantage of a possible Kroger/Albertsons merger in Colorado instead of going against Publix in the Southern states.

A Safeway is down the street from this new King Soopers in Falcon. We all know what would be divested…

[storewanderer]

Safeway used to be dominant in Colorado Springs but over the past 25 years as Wal Mart has expanded and King Soopers keeps expanding, Safeway has not kept up. I'm not sure when the last new build Safeway opened in Colorado Springs, but I think it has been a while, and competitors have been opening more new stores than they have. There were still a couple non-Lifestyle Stores in Colorado Springs but those have recently gotten the "Modern" interior low budget wall repaint (didn't redo flooring or anything else just the walls). Adding a couple former Albertsons units may have helped Safeway's standing to an extent but their stores in Colorado Springs are moderate volume at best whereas the competitor stores are mostly all high volume operations.

I think Walmart is #1 in Colorado Springs market share.

Chain Store Guide data overestimates and underestimates Walmart’s share in many places. They’ve said that Walmart has lost share in Metro Denver from 2018-2022 (from 23% down to 19%), even with inflation. King Soopers is of course the big dog up there, with around 1/3 of the market share.

It looks like 3 Albertsons stores in Colorado Springs were converted to Safeway:
4405 Centennial Blvd: 1995 model store, still has blue-gray interior tile. I believe this one had the LLC interior before it was converted to Safeway.
8750 N Union Blvd: 2002 model store, had the Grocery Palace interior before conversion to Safeway.
7055 Austin Bluffs Pkwy: 2003 build, had the upscale Larry (Broadway) interior before conversion to Safeway. I’m 99.9% sure this was the last Albertsons to be built in Colorado. I’m surprised that one wasn’t given the Jewel interior. But then again, this was the Albertsons Denver division, known for lack of investment. I believe the Jewel interior was the most expensive to install.

I know you think Hy-Vee would be scared of King Soopers, but it would be better for Hy-Vee to take advantage of a possible Kroger/Albertsons merger in Colorado instead of going against Publix in the Southern states.

A Safeway is down the street from this new King Soopers in Falcon. We all know what would be divested…

Albertsons was doing okay in Colorado Springs with those last few stores, those were nicer than the Safeway units which were mostly early 90's build stores with multiple remodels applied but corners cut every time (Marketplace-late 90's-Lifestyle). One or two Safeways may have been early 00's builds. I am not sure if any of the Albertsons are former Cub Stores (Albertsons bought the Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs in the 90's- may have closed all those- Pueblo Grocery Warehouse may have been the last one of those).

The Safeway in Falcon was a great store decades ago before Wal Mart opened.

It is a lot cheaper to go into Southern States than go into Colorado. I understand what Hy-Vee is doing. I think their probability of success would be higher in Colorado than the Southern States despite the business environment that is being created in Colorado and Hy Vee's price structure is high enough that it should be able to deal with the Colorado overhead. I am suspicious they are scared of the future business environment in Colorado (various new laws/fees/mandates keep getting passed) and they are going to states that are more similar to their core markets in these regards. Look at how they got cold feet on Minneapolis despite what I observed to be VERY busy stores. I'm not sure if any other states Hy Vee operates in have $14 minimum wage ($18 in Denver city), and to get labor in the ski towns in the mountains you will be paying $20+ minimum wage (market dictated there in those towns- not some politician derived number in those ski towns).