Albertsons Store Closures

[Super S]

About that Temple City store. I noted the 1980s interior, as well as something that is becoming all too common at many Albertsons..half of the fluorescent tubes have been removed. A LOT of Albertsons I have visited recently have been dirty, and the reduced lighting seems to enhance this. I wouldn't buy food in a dirty store which charges higher prices than its competition. I wouldn't be surprised to see more store closures in Washington and Oregon.

[Alpha8472]

It seems like Albertsons is spiraling towards their own self-made doom. Closing stores like crazy is burning their few remaining customers. Not lowering their prices to compete with their competition is also a major mistake.

I wonder why they removed half of the fluorescent bulbs. Are they trying to save money in any way possible? Neglecting cleaning and proper lighting levels is not a way to save money. Customers will be turned off by such substandard conditions.

[Super S]

It seems like Albertsons is spiraling towards their own self-made doom. Closing stores like crazy is burning their few remaining customers. Not lowering their prices to compete with their competition is also a major mistake.

I wonder why they removed half of the fluorescent bulbs. Are they trying to save money in any way possible? Neglecting cleaning and proper lighting levels is not a way to save money. Customers will be turned off by such substandard conditions.

Last year Albertsons closed an older "marina" (as in Albertsons version) store in The Dalles, OR. A smaller town, grocery stores consisted of Albertsons, Fred Meyer, and Safeway, plus a Grocery Outlet. A few months before it closed, I was in that store. Dirty, and with half of the fluorescent tubes removed, it looked like a cave in there. Very few customers also. It also had not been remodeled since 1988 save for some minor wall painting. I actually visited that store in 1988 right after that remodel was finished, for an older store it looked nice at the time. It's amazing how Albertsons neglected this store, and is still neglecting a lot of them, while Fred Meyer and Safeway are aggressively remodeling most of their stores. Not to mention Wal-Mart supercenters gaining a presence in the region.

I will be driving through Boise in June and plan to visit a couple of still-open Albertsons I used to shop at. I am curious if this level of neglect is present in the Boise stores. I know in the past Albertsons kept its Boise stores in better shape than many in other areas.

[storewanderer]

The stores in Boise looked good overall; I did see some without all of the lights on and a few that were not overly clean looking. But, if I lived in Boise, would I shop them? Probably not very often; Fred Meyer and WinCo do a better job with better pricing. The problem is you have miles and miles with no store but Albertsons. I really think a strong operator backed by Associated out of Utah could challenge Albertsons in Boise very successfully; I'm surprised Ridleys gave up on the one store they had there as I was pretty impressed with what I saw of them down south of Boise.

Albertsons did have some kind of "everyday value buy" program in the Boise Stores, but it was very weak and wasn't on much more than a few canned Albertsons items. I understand this program is being used throughout Utah and Idaho. It was not in use when I crossed into OR and visited the Baker City and La Grande Albertsons. It was, however, used at the Ontario, OR Albertsons.

It is also my understanding that Albertsons has started some kind of EDLP program in Las Vegas. Probably too little too late there with the number of stores they've closed.

The stores run by Supervalu certainly don't appear to be on the upswing, to put it nicely.

All of the LLC Stores I went to in Phoenix in January were fully lit, very clean, and had very good looking perimeters. I was shocked.

[storewanderer]

That The Dalles Albertsons was in sorry shape when I was in there back in 9/07. Also, it had no customers.

The Albertsons in La Grande wasn't much better than The Dalles despite a mid 90s remodel that wasn't all that good; I predict closure shortly for it and the adjacent Rite Aid. The lack of customer aspect was familiar from The Dalles, and based on the appearance of the perimeter combined with the crowd I saw at the Safeway in town about 15 minutes prior to my going into this store, I would say the lack of customers was not an issue specific to my time of visit. Heck, the Taco Time across the street from the La Grande Albertsons had more traffic than the Albertsons (and that taco wasn't great).

[luckysaver]

A selected group of SoCal division stores now have a reduced pricing program in light of the recession. The weekly ad says the old shelf price and their new "we've cut" price tag. It does not mean the store is closing. This program is at the following stores:

920 N Ventura Rd, Oxnard
13003 Whittier Blvd, Whittier
2547 Rosamond Blvd, Rosamond
2469 Via Campo, Montebello (the former Max Foods building)
7676 Firestone Blvd, Downey
6235 E Spring St, Long Beach
43543 20th St W, Lancaster
38727 N Tierra Subida, Palmdale
1023 N Grand Ave, Covina
19725 E Colima Rd, Rowland Heights (former Lucky-Savon)
3180 N Garey Ave, Pomona (former Smiths and Lucky, 1998 Lucky-Savon decor)
4644 E Ave S, Palmdale
1301 N Norma St, Ridgecrest
927 S China Lake Blvd, Ridgecrest
5038 W Ave N, Palmdale

luckysaver

[Alpha8472]

The lower prices won't be noticed by the people who already avoid Albertsons for their past history of high prices.

What Albertsons needs to do is attract back the customers that they have lost. The best way to do this is by changing the names of their stores back to Lucky as well as lower the prices. If they did this the business at their stores would boom like crazy.

[krogerclerk]

SVU/Albertson's operates roughly 260 stores in SoCal. This includes Lucky, Monte Mart, SuperSaver, and Max Warehouse banners, but not Bristol Farms or Sav-A-Lot. Most closings occurred in Southern California in 1999 to comply with anti-trust concerns with divested locations going to Stater Bros(Ralphs would gain the NorCal divestures). While there have been closures as a result of the 03-04 strike and the 07 SuperValu acquisition, SVU's store closures seem to impact the SoCal division's Nevada stores rather than California.

Some of these closings could reopen as Lucky as the public reception to the banner seems to have been overall positive and the SoCal Lucky's are more conventional supermarkets than the Vegas area Lucky's were. I think SVU took a hard lesson in Vegas.

SVU's announcement of lowering prices in select markets, including Southern California, has resulted in more price comparisons among news outlets and consumers. The LA Times found Albertson's to be higher than Von's and Ralphs, both of which are not known for low prices. Back in Boise, ID, Albertson's home market, SVU did not initiate any price cuts which have resulted in consumer group complaints as well as publicity that WinCo, Walmart SuperCenter, and Fred Meyer/Smith's are lower priced. SVU seems to have a very slow learning curve in the retail sector. Lowering prices at only a select group of stores or in particular markets has given the company a black eye, as it underestimated the impact of news traveling much faster thanks to the internet.