Springfield Private Label

[greenfalcon]

Despite being listed on the UNFI private label page, I cannot seem to find the Springfield private label brand in any independent or regional store advertising. I had been able to find it at Vallarta, but the Madera store had none on my last visit.

[storewanderer]

I still saw some at El Super in Las Vegas a few months ago but very little, and Marketon in Reno still has a little. You can see what items they have on their website for Reno. It looks like they currently only have 6 Springfield items. Some are endcaps, so heavy quantity. I should check dates. They are pretty good about updating the website.

AFS Utah is their primary supplier in Reno but they get some Springfield items from the Marketon warehouse in SoCal. Pricing is extremely disappointing on their Springfield and AFS Utah items. Great deals on some other items they get though.

[HCal]

I see Springfield regularly at Vallarta, Superior and other stores that were formerly supplied by Unified before the sale to Supervalu. I'm not sure if they are slowly phasing it out and replacing it with Essential Everyday. That would be a shame, as "Springfield" sounds better in my opinion. But it's been 7 years since Supervalu took over and Springfield is still around, so I'm guessing not.

[storewanderer]

I see Springfield regularly at Vallarta, Superior and other stores that were formerly supplied by Unified before the sale to Supervalu. I'm not sure if they are slowly phasing it out and replacing it with Essential Everyday. That would be a shame, as "Springfield" sounds better in my opinion. But it's been 7 years since Supervalu took over and Springfield is still around, so I'm guessing not.

It seems like there is a very limited number of items still being produced in Springfield. I am wondering if these are items produced directly in California as many seem to be canned goods, I think there is still some soda too.

I am seeing fewer and fewer items in this brand and it doesn't seem to be adding new items at all. They have not redesigned the packages much, but did shine up the Springfield logo a little at some point.

At this point these wholesalers need to do what they can do to get stores the best prices. Moving everything to Essential Everyday would translate into cents of cost savings on every unit. The Essential Everyday line is much larger, already present on thousands of items in the store, and has been redesigned recently and is relatively attractive. At this point having some items Springfield and some items EE is sloppy and confuses the customer as both are "equal quality level" labels. The warehouse offers 100% of items in EE if a store wants them that way.

They do not distribute Springfield in NorCal or Central California; only the SoCal warehouse handles it. Some retailers like El Super do bring up Springfield products to those territories. 99 Ranch seems to be using all EE product and it is coming from SoCal to NorCal. Cardenas in Las Vegas/Phoenix who pulls from UNFI SoCal has little to no Springfield; all EE or their own brand. Marketon in Las Vegas still has quite a bit of Springfield. Marketon in Reno is supplied by Associated Utah but sometimes brings UNFI product from SoCal on its own truck; lately most of it is EE and not Springfield but they have a few Springfield items sitting around in Reno.

[jamcool]

Springfield used to be the predominant private label brand in California, even having its own ad campaign and billboards. It became the store brand of Arden Mayfair even sold at its El Rancho stores in Arizona.

[storewanderer]

Springfield used to be the predominant private label brand in California, even having its own ad campaign and billboards. It became the store brand of Arden Mayfair even sold at its El Rancho stores in Arizona.

The initial demise of Springfield came when United Grocers and Certified Grocers merged. United Grocers (CA/OR/WA etc.) used Western Family for private label. Western Family/WF Shur Fine (not to be confused with Topco Shur Fine) was a joint label of sorts involving multiple wholesalers and had a lot of SKUs and a lower cost since it was distributed far more widely. So in NorCal, under Unified, Springfield was replaced with Western Family at the stores that carried it (which weren't too many but there were some). But in SoCal, Unified kept supporting Springfield as a full line. Cost went up since distribution on the line fell. Meanwhile numerous Unified customers were in the process of developing their own private labels on a limited basis (like Cardenas or Superior) at this time which further hurt sales of Springfield product.

Then Supervalu showed up. They cut Western Family out from that CA/OR/WA territory which was so detrimental it caused Western Family to basically go out of business and Topco picked up the pieces with various other Western Family wholesalers (Associated Utah, Affiliated Amarillo, URM Spokane) switching to Topco Food Club. Meanwhile Supervalu offered their EE program to 100% of stores but some in SoCal refused it and wanted to keep Springfield. So here we are. Over time SF items got discontinued forcing those stores who "wanted" to keep SF to slot hundreds of EE items or have incomplete private label mix. At this point it is probably time to be done with Springfield and just shift it all to EE.

You won't find a SF or EE item in the present day Gelson's Store. They don't do private label.