New Ralphs/Kroger Interior

[Bluelightspecial]

Santa Maria has Pak N Save decor, right? I have never seen that decor otherwise on a Vons.

There's a nice Albertsons (former Smiths) in town that at one point had Jewel decor, not sure if it has been remodeled out.

Odds are the Vons is owned real estate and breaks even or makes only a small profit so not worth a costly remodel. Similar situation in Murrieta where the Vons branded store is neglected as well. I suspect all these odd old Vons stores with an overlapping Albertsons would be offered up as "divestitures" even though they survived the last merger. When the Kroger deal dies I expect these really neglected sites to be closed as they're no longer worth holding onto as token divestitures.

Santa Maria has the decor of whoever they bought the store from. I think it was called William Brothers. There is a Spencer's out on Orcutt Road with the same decor.

There was a larger Vons in Santa Maria out on Broadway which had late 90s Safeway decor and never got a lifestyle remodel that closed under Safeway.

The decor looks like late 70s Safeway wall letters.

The Santa Maria store was a Williams Brothers. I think it used to be their headquarters also. Vons bought the chain in the 90's and most have closed. II think the Spencer's on Orcutt Rd was a Williams Brothers also. Makes sense since the people that ran Williams Brothers started Spencers. I can only think of one other previous Williams Brothers that is still open...that would be Atascadero, but that does decent business. They had one that did good business in Paso Robles, but they were forced to sell during the Albertsons takeover. There is also a Spencer's in Grover's Beach that used to be a WB, but Vons took over the old Smith's across the street and gave the old location to Spencers.

[Bluelightspecial]

Vons Avalon opened in 2019. Replacement store but built from the ground up.

Vons Coronado was completed in 2022. https://coronadotimes.com/news/2022/03/ ... d-opening/

Both of those in SoCal are relocations. NorCal opens actual organic new stores not replacements.

NorCal has opened multiple stores since 2021: These new NorCal Stores have mostly performed very well right out of the gate, so they get to have more new stores. All of these follow Albertsons prototype/layout. Nothing like a Safeway. Modern decor.

Hercules - brand new store (not a replacement) , not sure how this one is doing but suspect it is doing well

El Dorado Hills - brand new store (not a replacement) . this one maybe had a little of a slow start but since Raleys made its store in El Dorado Hills into a Raleys ONE a few months after this Safeway opened, the Safeway started to do much better

Reno - brand new store (not a replacement) . this one opened 2 weeks after Raleys made the nearby store into a Raleys ONE and has done exceptionally well from day one and hasn't looked back; this has been an extremely successful store for them.

San Jose Market Park - brand new store ( not a replacement) , this one is doing great.

Mountain House (Tracy) - brand new store , I think this one opened too soon... not enough out there to support it... it is not busy at all. Eventually it will be fine.

There is also a new Safeway under construction in Elk Grove. Again this will be brand new not a relocation.

I may be missing some. Maybe in Hawaii. That is NorCal too.

Slight correction. Coronado is an expansion, not a ground up new store. The original store there dates from the 1960's. They just expanded into the adjacent building.

[retailfanmitchell019]

Santa Maria has Pak N Save decor, right? I have never seen that decor otherwise on a Vons.

There's a nice Albertsons (former Smiths) in town that at one point had Jewel decor, not sure if it has been remodeled out.

Odds are the Vons is owned real estate and breaks even or makes only a small profit so not worth a costly remodel. Similar situation in Murrieta where the Vons branded store is neglected as well. I suspect all these odd old Vons stores with an overlapping Albertsons would be offered up as "divestitures" even though they survived the last merger. When the Kroger deal dies I expect these really neglected sites to be closed as they're no longer worth holding onto as token divestitures.

The Santa Maria Albertsons might still have the Jewel interior: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/alberts ... rYJ1WqVkxg
I’m glad they are preserving this museum piece. Even still has the Jewel interior aisle hangers (which Supervalu would remove in stores like both Albertsons in Vista, CA. Vista-Melrose still had the Blue & Green Awnings interior after Supervalu redid aisle hangers, and so did Vista-Foothill with its upscale Broadway interior).

There is an Albertsons down the street in Orcutt that was definitely built with the Grocery Palace interior.

The Albertsons ex-Smith’s in Mission Viejo (Muirlands) had the upscale Broadway interior. Also a former Lucky.

The Smith’s-turned-megachurch in Santee was going to be an Albertsons, but that plan was aborted during the Albertsons/ASC merger.