New Ralphs/Kroger Interior

[ClownLoach]

One thing I do wonder is if Safeway never merged with Albertsons, and continued operating as an independent entity in this current decade, would they have continued to use the Lifestyle format in all their newly remodeled stores? Or would they have moved away onto another new prototype?

Because as of this current date and age, the Lifestyle format is now about 20 years old, and a lot of the stores that are still on Lifestyle right now, are looking very worn out.

Even under Albertsons, Safeway did some new stores using the Lifestyle format as those were planned during/right after the merger closed. Some Vons/Safeway units that got divested to Haggen then reclaimed and reopened as Vons/Safeway reverted back to the Lifestyle format (which Haggen removed, sort of). Then there is the Safeway in Oak Harbor, WA that was an Albertsons conversion and it too has a (cheap) Lifestyle interior.

However if it weren't for the Albertsons merger I don't think Safeway would still be around today as a stand alone entity. I expect Safeway would have sold off East to someone else, exited Denver Division and Texas Division, sold off Phoenix to someone else, exited NV entirely, and then the smaller west coast Safeway entity in CA/OR/WA/HI/AK would have been sold off to some other party possibly Ahold or Apollo. At which point a major shake up would have occurred. But would the Lifestyle interior still have been their interior of choice? Given how few new stores/remodels Safeway was doing before it sold to Albertsons I think they would have just kept using Lifestyle until a major branding/management shake up occurred.

I actually think the Lifestyle interior looks better than the "Modern" interior. Lifestyle is drab and depressing but it does look somewhat upscale. That "Modern" interior is just too bland and boring. The colors don't fit together well and the stores feel sterile. It looks more appropriate for a clothing store catering to senior citizens than for a grocery store. Even Wal Mart has a better looking interior package going on.

I feel the same way about the Modern/Florida interior. The decor just feels so bland and generic. My local Vons recently got remodeled into that decor package, and even after a couple months since they completed the remodel, the store somehow looks and feels unfinished.

I have sensitivity to lighting, so I’ve been shopping less and less there since the remodel due to all the bright lighting.

I wouldn't expect Kroger to do anything to fix the lighting either. They have many stores with obsolete 8ft tube lights to this day. They do not appear to touch lighting in any remodel these days. They did do a better job of managing the consistency of lighting levels than Safeway though; I'm sure you could measure very different lighting candlepower from aisle to aisle and department to department in their stores.

[storewanderer]

Why would they remove the wine rooms? They have them at their flagship stores, like Frys at Shea and Tatum in Phoenix. The only problem is that Kroger doesn't have access to the assortment Safeway does. Buying the company solves that problem.

The Pavilions relaunch was focused entirely on stores with massive liquor sales. Pavilions stores that were downgraded to a Vons all are in "family intensive" areas where liquor doesn't sell as well. The fact these stores were remodeled to this Pavilions format means their liquor sales were in the top 10% of the company. The Safeway liquor programs are award-winning and I would expect to see them rolled out to as many eligible Kroger buildings as possible. They receive far more limited allocation, expensive products than Kroger. Reducing this business could potentially kill all those stores; any store that got this format has many customers purchasing hundreds if not thousands of dollars at a time in the liquor dept. and carrying the entire store (with one notable exception in Las Vegas that obviously was a mistake). If it has Pavilions decor, then assume at least 20% of their revenue is from liquor. Obviously they can't give up 20% of the store sales. Any store in any chain that has negative 20% sales is closed instantly these days.

They're not going to remodel anything in Norcal if this merger goes through. No reason to. Albertsons runs a better 60,000 Sq ft and below format than Kroger, and I would expect to see more Ralphs and other smaller formats remodeled to an Albertsons-like format. The rumors are that they heavily favored divesting older, smaller Ralphs in SoCal vs Albertsons facilities. If this merger goes through, which is doubtful, expect to see the Vons or Albertsons kept vs the Ralphs in nearly every case.

Many QFC units have a wine room.

If the liquor programs are focused on limited allocation product, how expandable are those programs?

I am not sure how you can say Albertsons runs a better 60k square foot box than Kroger based on the way Smiths, Frys, City Market, Dillons, and the Kroger banner itself have many stores in the 45k square foot range that perform very strongly and when they compete against any Albertsons banner they outperform it, typically significantly, every time. Ralphs is obviously some kind of a problem but what you are seeing with how Ralphs performs is not how the typical Kroger banner performs. Also I am pretty sure Ralphs almost always outperforms the Vons banner at this point (most of the lousy Ralphs that were getting beat by Vons have closed). Albertsons banner what is left of it in CA, I am not so sure...

I still expect more store divests under the "Vons" banner than any other banner. That is also the banner that should be sold. I am not sure how converting Albertsons units in CA they keep to Ralphs or Vons will work out but I don't think it will work out too well. I still do not understand divesting the Albertsons banner unless the majority of divested stores will be Albertsons Stores. Or maybe the smallest number of "remaining" stores will be Albertsons so that gives Kroger the fewest stores to rebrand.

There is no way Kroger is going to shift all stores under 60k square feet to a Safeway like model or format. That would be suicide.

[Alpha8472]

If Kroger takes over will Kroger still use the wine tasting rooms at Safeway or the bar? What about the giant glass displays with the hanging dry aged beef? What about the Pavilions style Patisserie? Is Kroger's Bakery program better than Safeway or Pavilions?

[storewanderer]

If Kroger takes over will Kroger still use the wine tasting rooms at Safeway or the bar? What about the giant glass displays with the hanging dry aged beef? What about the Pavilions style Patisserie? Is Kroger's Bakery program better than Safeway or Pavilions?

Kroger's bakery program is rather poor. Basically any bread product they make in the in-store bakery is poor (bread aisle bread-the stuff Kroger plants make for bread aisle is far better quality than the terrible stuff the Safeway bread plants make). Kroger bakery has acceptable quality cakes (better than Safeway's current cakes which went way downhill in 2021), very good bakery croissants made in store, very good "Private Selection" Pies made in store, and that is about it. Kroger's made in store cookies are better than the absolutely terrible Safeway ones but that isn't saying much and I won't buy either chain's bakery cookies due to lousy quality. Kroger has "basic" store made cookies that taste marginal, same basic item as what Safeway sells in a 16ct for 4.99 or maybe this week 2.50 that are barely edible they are so poor, Private Selection ones which are better but just too sweet, and "soft baked" which are more cake like that some people really like but I don't care for. Kroger also tends to sell a lot of single serve but already packaged in a plastic container units in their bakery; slices of pudding ring cakes at 1.50-2.29, single cinnamon rolls at 1.49, sandwich cookies (two cookies with cream in the middle) at maybe 1.99. This varies by store/division. However I suspect the Kroger bakery program with fewer made in store items and a lot more thaw and sell items is more profitable than Safeway's labor intensive program that is sloppily/inconsistently executed and has massive product waste. This is one of the ways Kroger can cut costs with this merger by moving bakery to their programs.

A number of the items are actually the same. The "thaw and sell" "bar cakes" in flavors like Tiramisu and various others (more flavors at Smiths than Safeway) all come from the same vendor called Original Cakerie. The only difference is how they package them and pricing, obviously Safeway does a nicer job and charges significantly more. Cheesecakes also all thaw and sell may also be from the same supplier and again the pricing is just higher at Safeway.

Muffins are terrible at both chains. Donuts are also pretty poor at both.

Safeway has various items they make in store using real whipped cream, including things like parfait cups, eclairs, cream puffs, strawberry boston cakes, and such. These items are very good quality. These items also have a lot of spoilage due to lack of sales and are labor intensive to prepare. I have not seen Kroger use real whipped cream on any bakery products they make in the store in quite some time; Fred Meyer used to do some nice cakes with it but it has been a while.

Safeway doesn't mark bakery down consistently and ends up with a lot of spoilage. Sometimes at Safeway I see 50% off stickers on items expiring that day or the day before in bakery. Most Safeway bakeries throw away cartfulls of items every day (mostly breads and cakes). Kroger marks all bakery items down the evening before the day before the item expires. So if the item has a sell by of 2/6, on the evening of 2/4 the item gets a markdown sticker (50% off usually but sometimes more, sometimes way more like 80% off). If a store is short staffed it may not do markdowns until morning of 2/5. On 2/6 the item is supposed to get frozen/donated if not sold but there usually isn't much left.

[ClownLoach]

Why would they remove the wine rooms? They have them at their flagship stores, like Frys at Shea and Tatum in Phoenix. The only problem is that Kroger doesn't have access to the assortment Safeway does. Buying the company solves that problem.

The Pavilions relaunch was focused entirely on stores with massive liquor sales. Pavilions stores that were downgraded to a Vons all are in "family intensive" areas where liquor doesn't sell as well. The fact these stores were remodeled to this Pavilions format means their liquor sales were in the top 10% of the company. The Safeway liquor programs are award-winning and I would expect to see them rolled out to as many eligible Kroger buildings as possible. They receive far more limited allocation, expensive products than Kroger. Reducing this business could potentially kill all those stores; any store that got this format has many customers purchasing hundreds if not thousands of dollars at a time in the liquor dept. and carrying the entire store (with one notable exception in Las Vegas that obviously was a mistake). If it has Pavilions decor, then assume at least 20% of their revenue is from liquor. Obviously they can't give up 20% of the store sales. Any store in any chain that has negative 20% sales is closed instantly these days.

They're not going to remodel anything in Norcal if this merger goes through. No reason to. Albertsons runs a better 60,000 Sq ft and below format than Kroger, and I would expect to see more Ralphs and other smaller formats remodeled to an Albertsons-like format. The rumors are that they heavily favored divesting older, smaller Ralphs in SoCal vs Albertsons facilities. If this merger goes through, which is doubtful, expect to see the Vons or Albertsons kept vs the Ralphs in nearly every case.

If the liquor programs are focused on limited allocation product, how expandable are those programs?

The way allocated product works is simple, the more regular product you sell the more allocated you get. The big distilleries know that their allocated programs are in high demand and they've been increasing production annually but it takes a decade or two, and by the time a hot product's supply catches up with demand something else has come along to take its place as a hard to find "in demand" allocated item. So if you expand the assortment and are good at driving sales volume then you'll get more of the limited items as well. I don't see much of anything besides the most mainstream liquor at Kroger. For example they'll always have all Jack Daniel's whiskies, but very little of the Buffalo Trace line which has dozens of different products that are harder to chase down and more rare allocated products. Large chains can more easily afford entire special barrel buys, where their buyers go pick a few premium barrels and they're bottled and labeled for the chain. I have seen multiple brands of whiskey labeled "Albertsons SoCal Reserve Barrel Pick" and such including Makers Mark and others; usually you can get $15-30 more per bottle on a Barrel Pick as people seek these out. Costco does tons of these and usually picks several distilleries to buy entire special barrels from to commemorate grand openings which are pretty cool. So if you have real buyers (an entire region may only need one), then you build the relationships with the vendors, you can easily get the best and yes limited products. And the vendors pay travel costs etc. so the employee isn't going to run up a big bill. When Albertsons has their 30% off 6 or more bottles going their pricing is about the same as Costco or a reputable discounter like Total Wine.

Kroger doesn't seem to even try to grow the business. That San Luis Obispo store I love to criticize seems to forget that it's even in central coast wine country and carries very few local wineries. Meanwhile the Albertsons and Vons stores have expanded presentations with special custom graphics and carry thousands of local bottles from Paso Robles etc. Even the wineries themselves tell customers to avoid the few Ralphs in the area and look for their products at Albertsons and Vons. Many people who go wine tasting will try several wineries in the area and if they find something they love they buy it on the spot, but then they'll think about what they liked most and hit up a grocery store when they're ready to head home and get the others they decided on buying... Ralphs ignores this entire business. They pretty much ignore the business in the Temecula valley as well, meanwhile Albertsons and Stater Bros have good selections of the local product too. Even Walmart has a large display at the front of their store.

Shrink is not really an issue as much as other products these days because they can't sell liquor online. As we know the organized retail crime focuses on commodity items easily resold on Amazon and other marketplace sites which is why Tide detergents for example are a popular stolen good. Liquor is heavy, breakable, and historically not stolen in mass quantities. And the customer knows to expect glass cases or cages for the best stuff which doesn't stop them from buying.

Kroger carries a lower-end assortment across the chain, and the few stores with the wine rooms or expanded premium wine cases still source what is available on a national basis. Nothing really special in those rooms, just expensive product that sits there.

The biggest threat to the business is Total Wine because of their good selection and pricing, and the damage they were causing is what inspired the revival of Pavilions. All the remodeled stores added multiple aisles of additional product and a wine room, and they were chosen specifically from sales history. Total Wine is testing a small format store in Newport Beach currently (it's in a former Petco), which has been open a couple years now and I haven't seen any sign of expansion. Total Wine still has many areas to saturate including Norcal (they just got established in San Diego). I would imagine that the Safeway units remodeled to a Pavilions interior were in areas that Total Wine is on the way to or has arrived in already. The expansion of the format indicates that it must be working. For Kroger I could see a few billion dollars in additional sales if they adopt and expand the Albertsons liquor programs (plus protection of existing sales against the formidable threat of Total Wine as they expand nationwide).

[Bagels]

If Kroger takes over will Kroger still use the wine tasting rooms at Safeway or the bar? What about the giant glass displays with the hanging dry aged beef? What about the Pavilions style Patisserie? Is Kroger's Bakery program better than Safeway or Pavilions?

If the merger is successful, I doubt much will change about Safway in NorCal sans the product assortment. Kroger does not compete in the market and Albertsons has renovated most of the Safeway store fleet…. It much reason to re-do them.

ACME, Shaws and Albertsons stores in markets where both chains compete will probably get priority.

[storewanderer]

If Kroger takes over will Kroger still use the wine tasting rooms at Safeway or the bar? What about the giant glass displays with the hanging dry aged beef? What about the Pavilions style Patisserie? Is Kroger's Bakery program better than Safeway or Pavilions?

If the merger is successful, I doubt much will change about Safway in NorCal sans the product assortment. Kroger does not compete in the market and Albertsons has renovated most of the Safeway store fleet…. It much reason to re-do them.

ACME, Shaws and Albertsons stores in markets where both chains compete will probably get priority.

Has Albertsons renovated most of Safeway NorCal? Most of the stores I go into still are Lifestyle stores... I have not seen any remodeling since 2021. I know remodels are occurring but they are not widespread. I know they did remodel a couple stores into Modern that they closed one in Madera and one in San Francisco.
Also that store they just threatened to close in San Francisco is still a Lifestyle store.

The first order of business will be store rebrandings in markets where they keep stores that are part of a banner they divest (QFC, Albertsons, or Marianos). I expect any retained QFC gets rebranded to Safeway. Retained Albertsons Stores will be interesting to see what decision they make on those- shift to a Kroger banner or shift to Safeway/Vons banner. Retained Marianos Stores I assume shift to Jewel even though they are a poor fit for the Jewel banner- but it is what it is for the stores Kroger keeps. hopefully C&S keeps the chain going well as they are great stores.

[Alpha8472]

Safeway has remodeled some stores in the San Francisco Bay Area into the Modern Decor and some into Pavilions decor near the San Ramon area.

There are many unremodeled stores still that have Lifestyle Decor. In fact, in Pleasant Hill, California there is a large and busy store that has the original oldest version of Lifestyle. Only recently did they change the refrigerators. The store still has the ancient 80s Safeway logo on the front of the store. It was never replaced. I know it has old fashioned neon inside because one day the plastic panels fell off and you could see neon inside.

Safeway has been slow to remodel stores and even the former Flagship in Dublin, California was only remodeled a couple of years ago. Even then, the worn and damaged Lifestyle floors are still unchanged.

[ClownLoach]

I walked into the Brea Ralphs (#192) today, and I was caught off guard when I realized that the store was renovated to a new interior package called Reclaimed, which I believe was first being tested specifically at Ralphs stores in 2022, and has since been implemented at various stores in Kroger's store network. I'm curious if this is now the official default interior for all new Ralphs renovations. This would replace the Neighborhood interior, which for a while has been the default interior for all Ralphs renovations, with the exception of Fresh Fare stores, including #67 in Fullerton that was recently renovated to the Neighborhood interior.

The Brea Ralphs is now one of the numerous Ralphs I have seen with this interior, as I can additionally recall La Brea (#39), Century City (#156), Marina Del Rey (#279) and Villa Park (#68) all now have this interior. I at first thought this was a Fresh Fare specific decor package since the last three stores listed are all Fresh Fare stores, and is where I first have seen this interior, but since this is also appearing in traditional Ralphs locations, and I also since there is a new more upscale Fresh Fare interior that some Fresh Fare stores have received, there is a good chance overall that this may be a new interior decor package that Kroger is starting to roll out more widespread.

I definitely think this is a great new interior to roll out widespread, especially in California. It is much better than Albertsons Modern/Florida Safeway interior that Albertsons for some reason loves to renovate stores with in California. Modern is most likely now the current default interior in place of Colorful Lifestyle. Albertsons is certainly due for a new interior package, as both colorful lifestyle and the Modern interiors have been around in some way since 2016, but they may not make that decision until a decision on the merger takes place. The Heritage interior package is a great Albertsons interior, but the only California stores that have received this are Goleta and Lakeside.

I am very curious if anyone knows of other Ralphs locations this interior has been implemented in, and if they have more information on it?

So I wandered into the Anaheim Hills Ralphs Fresh Fare today, which is a store that has been an oddity for years. It has had Fresh Fare signage for a very long time, but it has gone through multiple remodels where it received standard (non FF) decor.

I discovered quickly that it had been remodeled to this "reclaimed" decor. I think this hands down is the worst decor I have ever seen at a supermarket in this latest version, and it is so tacky I wouldn't install it at Food4Less as it would be a downgrade from their current decor.

First off, the store is drab and colorless. The high ceilings in previous FF decor packages would have earth tones painted on the soffit walls up to the ceiling. Not here, it is a drab gray-white. So are basically all of the walls. When you couple that with riser shelves atop every aisle there is virtually no wall decor visible unless you are walking around the perimeter, with the exception of produce. Blank, bleak, and cheap.

When I say cheap, here's where I'm coming from. They did switch away from the actual reclaimed barn wood for the big Whole Foods knockoff "Grown for CALIFORNIA" wall in produce, but now it's cheap plastic fake wood that looks like vinyl decals. Not even like vinyl flooring strips. Cheap. And then about a third of the wall signage is die cut brown cardboard. No color added. Like something a crafter made with a Cricut machine. When you walk into the right side you see a giant cardboard Pickup sign in a excessively narrow walkway, locked and armed Pickup door on your right and excessively tall Starbucks on the left. On the left side is another cheap cardboard sign that says something bizarre like Sparkles of Fresh or something else meaningless. The rest of the decor is really impossible to read because it was obviously designed to be viewed from a distance, but the aisles were lengthened to create a very narrow back walkway so that you are too close to see any of the signs all at once to even read their meaningless phrases about freshness and blah whatever. The layout is as horrific as the decor.

The flooring was stripped out and a light gray tint applied to the poor condition concrete, which makes the floor almost too light as it manages to show every stain and scuff unlike regular darker concrete. Another mistake.

Later I happened to go into a Smart and Final and realized even that is a superior, more upscale and classy design package than this horrid, hospital decor that makes Albertsons/Safeway Modern decor look like a rainbow of color.

I think even Winco looks classier than this crap decor package. The entire store felt bleak and cold. They managed to reclaim all the feelings of walking through the hallways of a hospital.

If Kroger wants to make a new ultra low end store, this is the decor package for it. It is an embarrassing screw up that I cannot believe is still being applied to any store, anywhere. It is a pathetic excuse for either an organics focused or a upscale focused line of stores like Fresh Fare. This store looked 1000% better with the dated 2010s era Ralphs decor. The original version of this barn wood decor junk is at least 5 years old now but at least before they managed to create a series of different wall textures and appearances. Now it's either plain drywall with ugly cardboard glued to it, plastic wood, or vinyl decals on straight wood strips up and down that you might learn how to decorate with in amateur woodworking class. I think it would look better if they just went in and painted everything just a decent plain white with nothing on the walls. This ugly millennial gray paint with mismatched brown refrigeration and ugly floor is absolutely nausea inducing. Maybe this is an especially bad application of it, but really they took what was always a very nice store (even though it mysteriously was only signed as FF) and made it feel a thousand times worse. It gets like a negative 10 on a scale of 1 to 5. Really that bad. Even worse remodel than that Menifee store. Probably the worst grocery remodel I've seen in a decade.

[storewanderer]

This sounds terrible. I think a remodel to a Smiths in my area is coming shortly so it will be interesting to see what they do to it. It basically has a 2010 wall job on the guts of a 1988 Smiths interior (flooring, shelving, etc.). They have remodeled dairy, pharmacy, deli, fairly recently.