My experience as well with Gelson's (and also Jensen's in the Desert).ClownLoach wrote: ↑February 27th, 2024, 9:42 amI think the standards for what makes a "good store" for Gelsons are pretty low in general. None of them are ever all that busy, but they have a loyal customer base that buys full baskets at high, high prices. I've never been impressed with their meat or seafood in any of their stores, some locations like Irvine never even had a service case although they did sometimes have a butcher behind the low case of prepackaged meats. They also usually outsource the bakery counter. Their produce is usually both spectacular in quality as well as even more spectacular in how high the prices are. The deli seems to specialize in dishes that I am not interested in, like fancy pasta salads and smoked fish. It is a strange store that just does not appeal to me, nor a store I can afford to shop.magowan wrote: ↑February 27th, 2024, 7:11 am Good info, forgot about how Frazier has the far north end covered and Cardiff handling the coast. Leaves inner Carlsbad or Encinitas as the white space.
Amazes me the Gelsons in Del Mar is a strong performer. It's typically a ghost town inside and there's rarely activity in the sushi / to-go area.
The fresh meats/seafood are pretty unremarkable, more like what you'd find in a 'good' Vons. Same for the cheese and liquor. Guess they have enough overpriced shelf stable items in the center of the store to make it do well.
Speaking of Vons, the Solana Beach location got the upgraded Pavilion's like meats and seafood (Snake River, etc) in the last month.
The Gelsons customer skews older and very rich. I should warn I might be mixing up the Del Mar and the La Jolla Gelsons as to which is the top in their relatively new SD County market, but they both were considered "strong" while the La Costa location was "weak" and problematic from day one. La Costa was physically downsized by Gelsons because of its low volume, a gymnastics place took over about a third of the store. When Haggen had all these sites, Del Mar was their best store in California (not saying much).
Also, I believe Gelsons acquires their sites whenever possible. I believe they even own the Irvine location despite being an Irvine Company property (it isn't unprecedented for them to sell sites, Home Depot owns their own building at Woodbury Town Center too). So they have a pretty decent private equity owner that self finances the costs of acquiring these buildings and doesn't try to bleed the stores of cash by charging them rent like an Apollo or Blackstone type owner would. Thus the stores do not need a lot of volume to become very, very profitable with customers who like to buy weird $15 jars of spaghetti sauce and $13 pints of fancy ice cream along with a $100 floral arrangement to put in the foyer this week.
The value balance (price vs service vs quality vs variety) is way off. Service up front is subpar for the price. Variety, for lack of a better word, un-modern. Perhaps old school gourmet? It's just plain boring and does not match the upscale current palate.
When you charge those prices you better deliver better than Bristol Farms (the one on Beverly & Doheny in West Hollywood at least).
