The differences between Kroger and Albertsons

[arizonaguy]

United has been left on its own due to the sale agreement. Albertsons had to let United stay this way for a certain number of years. Kroger had a similar agreement with Jay C back when they bought it. Couldn't touch much for 10 years. That's passed now. These types of things get thrown in when you buy private companies.

Safeway's brands are very centralized; this is the company that made Lucerne dairy items and trucked some like yogurt back to Chicago to sell. They sell largely the same items everywhere and their line of items isn't very extensive. Safeway doesn't even have a private label baking soda and is missing hundreds of private label drug items that Supervalu offered and previously that the old Albertsons offered. The private label program used by the old Albertsons and by Supervalu varied by division in its mix, how the stores merchandised it, and its pricing. The Safeway brand roll out there is centralized, same items to every division and zero regional tinkering.

The Kroger private label program varies by division in a major way. It is very inconsistent on mix. The basic items are there in all locations but the odd items are not. You won't find Kroger cold brew tea bags in the west but you'll find them in the south. You won't find Kroger honey buns in the west either but you'll find those in the south too. You won't find much Private Selection or Simple Truth in a F4L but you'll find a lot of the generic owl brand. For some reason you won't find Private Selection frozen waffles at Smiths but you'll find them at Fry's. And I don't know why Kroger all natural crunchy peanut butter is sold at Fred Meyer but not at Smiths.

At Safeway none of what I described above happens. Same items everywhere, coast to coast. Albertsons is following that path now by implementation of Safeway private label. The only thing that causes any allowed deviation is store size and corporate controls what items get cut, not the division.

You don't see articles about HT being special or kept special because, frankly, it isn't special. You don't see many articles of people talking about changes Kroger is making there either because they have not made many... It is profitable and they are letting it be for now.

One of the articles that Pseudo mentioned actually discussed rolling out Harris Teeter ideas to the rest of the chain.

However, almost every article I read indicates Mariano's is special. I also think it's worth noting that many of the top Roundy's executives used to work for Dominick's and were responsible for selling Dominick's to Safeway. Mr. Mariano himself spent over 25 years at Dominick's. He seems to care a lot about his concept and while Safeway decimated Dominick's, I'm not sure Mariano wants his second chain to undergo the same fate.

Yes, I'm sure Mariano's will be more Krogerized in 5 years than it is today, but I don't think it'll be destroyed.

As I mentioned in my lengthy post, Kroger tends to run each and every store a little differently from one another versus Albertsons and Safeway, which are very much more "one size fits all" in approach.

[pseudo3d]

United has been left on its own due to the sale agreement. Albertsons had to let United stay this way for a certain number of years. Kroger had a similar agreement with Jay C back when they bought it. Couldn't touch much for 10 years. That's passed now. These types of things get thrown in when you buy private companies.

Safeway's brands are very centralized; this is the company that made Lucerne dairy items and trucked some like yogurt back to Chicago to sell. They sell largely the same items everywhere and their line of items isn't very extensive. Safeway doesn't even have a private label baking soda and is missing hundreds of private label drug items that Supervalu offered and previously that the old Albertsons offered. The private label program used by the old Albertsons and by Supervalu varied by division in its mix, how the stores merchandised it, and its pricing. The Safeway brand roll out there is centralized, same items to every division and zero regional tinkering.

The Kroger private label program varies by division in a major way. It is very inconsistent on mix. The basic items are there in all locations but the odd items are not. You won't find Kroger cold brew tea bags in the west but you'll find them in the south. You won't find Kroger honey buns in the west either but you'll find those in the south too. You won't find much Private Selection or Simple Truth in a F4L but you'll find a lot of the generic owl brand. For some reason you won't find Private Selection frozen waffles at Smiths but you'll find them at Fry's. And I don't know why Kroger all natural crunchy peanut butter is sold at Fred Meyer but not at Smiths.

At Safeway none of what I described above happens. Same items everywhere, coast to coast. Albertsons is following that path now by implementation of Safeway private label. The only thing that causes any allowed deviation is store size and corporate controls what items get cut, not the division.

You don't see articles about HT being special or kept special because, frankly, it isn't special. You don't see many articles of people talking about changes Kroger is making there either because they have not made many... It is profitable and they are letting it be for now.

One of the articles that Pseudo mentioned actually discussed rolling out Harris Teeter ideas to the rest of the chain.

However, almost every article I read indicates Mariano's is special. I also think it's worth noting that many of the top Roundy's executives used to work for Dominick's and were responsible for selling Dominick's to Safeway. Mr. Mariano himself spent over 25 years at Dominick's. He seems to care a lot about his concept and while Safeway decimated Dominick's, I'm not sure Mariano wants his second chain to undergo the same fate.

Yes, I'm sure Mariano's will be more Krogerized in 5 years than it is today, but I don't think it'll be destroyed.

As I mentioned in my lengthy post, Kroger tends to run each and every store a little differently from one another versus Albertsons and Safeway, which are very much more "one size fits all" in approach.

I think I need to back up. Let's observe the real facts:

1) We all have our own biases on whether we like/don't like Albertsons or Kroger, which influences our decisions and our POV. I don't like Kroger, and for the longest time I thought that Albertsons was a more expensive version of Kroger, which was not a compliment toward Kroger.

2) Divisions of both stores have variable quality, I think we've cleared that. Most of my dislike of Kroger is focused on the Southwest (Texas) division (though, as of August 1, was dividing into Houston and Dallas), though that's not the only thing about it.

3) Consumers react harshly to takeovers and the initial response is universally negative. Albertsons, Safeway, and others (A&P) have had their share of this (and usually deservedly so) but Kroger is no exception.

4) Whether Albertsons lets divisions like United ultimately stay or get absorbed down the line is speculation. Whether Kroger lets divisions like Mariano's ultimately stay or get absorbed down the line is speculation.

5) Comparison isn't a good deal because we have so little to go on for Albertsons, a company patched together from the remains of the "poor divisions" of Albertsons Inc., SuperValu's Albertsons/ASC brands, Safeway (which has been a poster child on how not to run acquired chains), and United, therefore we can't rush to judgement much.

[arizonaguy]

United has been left on its own due to the sale agreement. Albertsons had to let United stay this way for a certain number of years. Kroger had a similar agreement with Jay C back when they bought it. Couldn't touch much for 10 years. That's passed now. These types of things get thrown in when you buy private companies.

Safeway's brands are very centralized; this is the company that made Lucerne dairy items and trucked some like yogurt back to Chicago to sell. They sell largely the same items everywhere and their line of items isn't very extensive. Safeway doesn't even have a private label baking soda and is missing hundreds of private label drug items that Supervalu offered and previously that the old Albertsons offered. The private label program used by the old Albertsons and by Supervalu varied by division in its mix, how the stores merchandised it, and its pricing. The Safeway brand roll out there is centralized, same items to every division and zero regional tinkering.

The Kroger private label program varies by division in a major way. It is very inconsistent on mix. The basic items are there in all locations but the odd items are not. You won't find Kroger cold brew tea bags in the west but you'll find them in the south. You won't find Kroger honey buns in the west either but you'll find those in the south too. You won't find much Private Selection or Simple Truth in a F4L but you'll find a lot of the generic owl brand. For some reason you won't find Private Selection frozen waffles at Smiths but you'll find them at Fry's. And I don't know why Kroger all natural crunchy peanut butter is sold at Fred Meyer but not at Smiths.

At Safeway none of what I described above happens. Same items everywhere, coast to coast. Albertsons is following that path now by implementation of Safeway private label. The only thing that causes any allowed deviation is store size and corporate controls what items get cut, not the division.

You don't see articles about HT being special or kept special because, frankly, it isn't special. You don't see many articles of people talking about changes Kroger is making there either because they have not made many... It is profitable and they are letting it be for now.

One of the articles that Pseudo mentioned actually discussed rolling out Harris Teeter ideas to the rest of the chain.

However, almost every article I read indicates Mariano's is special. I also think it's worth noting that many of the top Roundy's executives used to work for Dominick's and were responsible for selling Dominick's to Safeway. Mr. Mariano himself spent over 25 years at Dominick's. He seems to care a lot about his concept and while Safeway decimated Dominick's, I'm not sure Mariano wants his second chain to undergo the same fate.

Yes, I'm sure Mariano's will be more Krogerized in 5 years than it is today, but I don't think it'll be destroyed.

As I mentioned in my lengthy post, Kroger tends to run each and every store a little differently from one another versus Albertsons and Safeway, which are very much more "one size fits all" in approach.

I think I need to back up. Let's observe the real facts:

1) We all have our own biases on whether we like/don't like Albertsons or Kroger, which influences our decisions and our POV. I don't like Kroger, and for the longest time I thought that Albertsons was a more expensive version of Kroger, which was not a compliment toward Kroger.

2) Divisions of both stores have variable quality, I think we've cleared that. Most of my dislike of Kroger is focused on the Southwest (Texas) division (though, as of August 1, was dividing into Houston and Dallas), though that's not the only thing about it.

3) Consumers react harshly to takeovers and the initial response is universally negative. Albertsons, Safeway, and others (A&P) have had their share of this (and usually deservedly so) but Kroger is no exception.

4) Whether Albertsons lets divisions like United ultimately stay or get absorbed down the line is speculation. Whether Kroger lets divisions like Mariano's ultimately stay or get absorbed down the line is speculation.

5) Comparison isn't a good deal because we have so little to go on for Albertsons, a company patched together from the remains of the "poor divisions" of Albertsons Inc., SuperValu's Albertsons/ASC brands, Safeway (which has been a poster child on how not to run acquired chains), and United, therefore we can't rush to judgement much.

I'll agree with this.

I' guess my opinion on the matter is that I think Kroger is a far better managed chain and has done a better job with its most recent mergers and acquisitions.

All is not perfect there. Kroger couldn't make Northern California work in the 1980s when it bought Fry's and couldn't make it work in the late 1990s/2000s with Ralph's / Cala / Bell.

Speaking of Ralph's, the Ralph's division ncluding Food4Less seems to be operating more like the recent histories of Albertsons and Safeway versus other Kroger divisions (where they have been stagnant with more store closings versus openings). This may be more of a situation where Southern California is just a very difficult market to have any success in (Haggen failed there spectacularly in a very short time) or it may not be (Stater Bros. seems to be the healthiest traditional chain there and seems to be growing).

Kroger also has some pristine stores and some nasty stores in the same division. There are some downright disgusting Fry's stores in the Phoenix area as well as some stores that are on maybe only a slight step below a Mariano's, Market Street, or Central Market.

Overall they seem to be growing and have focused on targeted acquisitions of a well run chain (Harris Teeter) as well as a "fixer upper" with a lot of potential (Roundy's).

This is in contrast to Albertsons which went on a rapid expansion binge in the 1990s that ended in 2002 quite spectacularly. The company limped along until 2006 and then split up. The 2 parties that bought its supermarkets: Albertsons LLC and Supervalu continued to suffer from many of the same problems that plagued the chain before it was split up. Albertsons LLC shed 70% of the stores it acquired and Supervalu shed 22% of the stores it acquired. Then the 2 chains merged and the reunited company has gone since gone on an acquisition spree not unlike the original Albertsons of the 1990s - early 2000s. First, they bought United Family. Then, they bought Safeway. Finally, they bought 70+ A&P stores.

Let's analyze their assets:

Albertsons LLC (and the stores acquired from Supervalu) are the rotting carcass of Albertsons Inc. They haven't built new stores in 10 years while steadily closing stores. The only growth that they have had has been acquiring stores from other dying chains (Dominick's in Chicago and A&P in PA/NJ). The chain has really done nothing innovative, in fact it removed self-checkouts and eliminated shopper's cards. It's store base is in dire need of capital and almost all renovations over the past 10 years have been done on the cheap.

Safeway is a supermarket chain that has been limping along for the past 30 years. Like Albertsons between 2002 - 2006, Safeway had been expanding at a rapid clip until the late 1980s when they sold off / closed most of their assets in the central US and Southern California/Nevada. The company started to turn around its core operations in the 1990s and then went on a buying spree to re-enter Southern California/Nevada and Texas. It also tried to enter Chicago and Philadelphia by buying grocers there. We all know the rest of this story. Safeway failed spectacularly in Chicago and Philadelphia, sold its profitable Canadian division, and was rumored to be about to pull the plug on its Texas operations when it sold itself to Cerberus/Albertsons. Unliked Albertsons, Safeway actually has, for the most part, a store base in decent condition. Safeway kept its stores clean and well maintained, and most of its stores had been renovated in the 2000s.

United was a well run family chain that is probably the brightest star in the Albertsons universe. It has a modern store base and seems to compete very well with its completion. For the most part, it has been untouched by its parent.

Really, the brightest spots in the combined entity are: Chicago, the Intermountain West, Northern California, Philadelphia / New Jersey, and West Texas.

Up until Monday, Kroger had a token presence in Chicago with Food4Less; had failed twice in Northern California with only a token presence via FoodsCo, and doesn't operate any stores in Philadelphia / New Jersey or West Texas.

I am rooting for Albertsons / Safeway. They just don't have a great track record against strong competition and overlap with Kroger everywhere except for Hawaii, New England, New Jersey/Philadelphia, and West Texas. In all of the overlapping markets, Kroger is the stronger operator except for Chicago, Idaho / Intermountain West, and Northern California.

[klkla]

Your analysis is spot on Arizona guy and I would add something else regarding Albertsons. In addition to being weaker than Kroger in all the areas you mentioned they have a much bigger debt load. Their upcoming IPO should help this but they will still have a lot of debt afterwards and that is going to hamper their ability to make capital improvements to the stores and/or their ability to be competitive on price.

Before the next recession comes they will have to raise more capital or sell off some divisions in order to get their debt down.

[storewanderer]

I think the problems with Ralphs are mainly because Ralphs, especially historically, ran in the old high price model very similar to how Safeway does business. Stater is more like the rest of Kroger: middle tier store, a little bit messy, kind of plain, but a strong price message, big push on multiple item ads/promotions, etc. Business has been great in SoCal for ethnic operators (99 Ranch, Cardenas, El Super, Northgate, Shun Fat, Seafood City, Vallerta), price/true warehouse operators (Wal Mart, WinCo, Smart & Final, Costco, Superior), and upscale/natural operators (Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Sprouts, Gelson's, etc.). Lots of store growth from those other stores.

Albertsons Intermountain West Presence is a little bit odd. They have pretty good dominance in Montana and Wyoming. Idaho is a bit of a mixed bag as Albertsons left places like Burley and Blackfoot and barely hangs on in Twin Falls. Albertsons only has 3 stores in metro Salt Lake City and 2 stores in southern Utah and I don't think these are exactly star performers. Kroger is pretty inconsistent in that region with stores from Fred Meyer, Smiths, King Soopers, and City Market all involved and it is difficult to tell if Albertsons Montana dominance makes up for the way they have very little left in Utah. I think this region is a bit of a toss up.

I feel like Albertsons recent acquisitions and expansions are done without much rhyme or reason other than to simply add more stores. Safeway wasn't growing much but they seemed to be pretty smart about their capital when it came to new stores and also seemed committed to redeveloping old dumpy stores in high density areas into nice new stores, spending mostly in their successful markets with limited conventional format competition like NorCal (including Hawaii). Albertsons seems to be going for quantity over quality in its new store efforts.

Also that IPO was supposed to be re-tried before the end of this year. I guess they still can't get the price they are looking for...

While private, Albertsons needed to take some hard hits and fix its pricing. They haven't. Maybe, due to the debt load, they simply can't...

[klkla]

Safeway wasn't growing much but they seemed to be pretty smart about their capital when it came to new stores and also seemed committed to redeveloping old dumpy stores in high density areas into nice new stores, spending mostly in their successful markets with limited conventional format competition like NorCal (including Hawaii).

The problem With Safeway is that the initial conversions to the LifeStyle format in wealthier neighborhoods was successful and had a good return on investment. But when they applied this approach to stores in less-wealthy neighborhoods the return on investment was terrible and they just kept going down that path. They should have developed an alternate format that would have appealed to lower income shoppers. The look and feel of the LifeStyle stores was just too upscale for people that need to stretch their food dollars.

[pseudo3d]

I'll agree with this.

I' guess my opinion on the matter is that I think Kroger is a far better managed chain and has done a better job with its most recent mergers and acquisitions.

All is not perfect there. Kroger couldn't make Northern California work in the 1980s when it bought Fry's and couldn't make it work in the late 1990s/2000s with Ralph's / Cala / Bell.

Speaking of Ralph's, the Ralph's division ncluding Food4Less seems to be operating more like the recent histories of Albertsons and Safeway versus other Kroger divisions (where they have been stagnant with more store closings versus openings). This may be more of a situation where Southern California is just a very difficult market to have any success in (Haggen failed there spectacularly in a very short time) or it may not be (Stater Bros. seems to be the healthiest traditional chain there and seems to be growing).

Kroger also has some pristine stores and some nasty stores in the same division. There are some downright disgusting Fry's stores in the Phoenix area as well as some stores that are on maybe only a slight step below a Mariano's, Market Street, or Central Market.

Overall they seem to be growing and have focused on targeted acquisitions of a well run chain (Harris Teeter) as well as a "fixer upper" with a lot of potential (Roundy's).

This is in contrast to Albertsons which went on a rapid expansion binge in the 1990s that ended in 2002 quite spectacularly. The company limped along until 2006 and then split up. The 2 parties that bought its supermarkets: Albertsons LLC and Supervalu continued to suffer from many of the same problems that plagued the chain before it was split up. Albertsons LLC shed 70% of the stores it acquired and Supervalu shed 22% of the stores it acquired. Then the 2 chains merged and the reunited company has gone since gone on an acquisition spree not unlike the original Albertsons of the 1990s - early 2000s. First, they bought United Family. Then, they bought Safeway. Finally, they bought 70+ A&P stores.

Let's analyze their assets:

Albertsons LLC (and the stores acquired from Supervalu) are the rotting carcass of Albertsons Inc. They haven't built new stores in 10 years while steadily closing stores. The only growth that they have had has been acquiring stores from other dying chains (Dominick's in Chicago and A&P in PA/NJ). The chain has really done nothing innovative, in fact it removed self-checkouts and eliminated shopper's cards. It's store base is in dire need of capital and almost all renovations over the past 10 years have been done on the cheap.

Safeway is a supermarket chain that has been limping along for the past 30 years. Like Albertsons between 2002 - 2006, Safeway had been expanding at a rapid clip until the late 1980s when they sold off / closed most of their assets in the central US and Southern California/Nevada. The company started to turn around its core operations in the 1990s and then went on a buying spree to re-enter Southern California/Nevada and Texas. It also tried to enter Chicago and Philadelphia by buying grocers there. We all know the rest of this story. Safeway failed spectacularly in Chicago and Philadelphia, sold its profitable Canadian division, and was rumored to be about to pull the plug on its Texas operations when it sold itself to Cerberus/Albertsons. Unliked Albertsons, Safeway actually has, for the most part, a store base in decent condition. Safeway kept its stores clean and well maintained, and most of its stores had been renovated in the 2000s.

United was a well run family chain that is probably the brightest star in the Albertsons universe. It has a modern store base and seems to compete very well with its completion. For the most part, it has been untouched by its parent.

Really, the brightest spots in the combined entity are: Chicago, the Intermountain West, Northern California, Philadelphia / New Jersey, and West Texas.

Up until Monday, Kroger had a token presence in Chicago with Food4Less; had failed twice in Northern California with only a token presence via FoodsCo, and doesn't operate any stores in Philadelphia / New Jersey or West Texas.

I am rooting for Albertsons / Safeway. They just don't have a great track record against strong competition and overlap with Kroger everywhere except for Hawaii, New England, New Jersey/Philadelphia, and West Texas. In all of the overlapping markets, Kroger is the stronger operator except for Chicago, Idaho / Intermountain West, and Northern California.

Good analysis, though I think you're being a little too harsh on the Albertsons LLC division. SuperValu's closures were partly because they were a company that struggled to run a full supermarket empire, while Albertsons LLC decided what divisions that clearly weren't working to be sold for the most profit. They leased out some stores instead of them taking up dead weight (Waco was a market where they were up against like 5 H-E-Bs, and all they had was a dated Skaggs store...they leased it to a private school), sold stores by the block (Publix, Save Mart), and so on. Getting rid of the shopper's card was also a move that needed to be done (it's less necessary for shopper data, it's generally annoying, it gives competitors an edge otherwise, and so on), and the self check-out lines are kind of a retailer flip/flop anyway (some stores just don't like it, Costco and Meijer took theirs out, Walmart has reverted in some stores).

It looks like they may be able to lower prices, as from what I've heard, Acme and Southwest DID lower prices.

As for "acquisition spree", while Modern Albertsons did buy back New Albertsons, United, Safeway, a bunch of A&P stores, and some Haggen leftovers in fairly short order, it wasn't the Old Albertsons method of building entirely new divisions from scratch (or just expanding from there), acquiring random stores in parts of the country to expand presence (Smitty's, Seessel's), or a company with just as much if not more traditional supermarkets than you (the number of Albertsons-branded stores in December 1999 was almost a third former Lucky stores, and we all know how that turned out...not sure how many more were J/O and Acme). The other fatal mistake Old Albertsons made was getting through a brutal cost-cutting process (goodbye Houston, San Antonio, Seessel's...) then turning right back around and buying Shaw's and Bristol Farms.

Safeway's sell-off was due to takeover attempts in the 1980s but it's doubtful that even those divisions really would've worked in the long run, as a fleet of outdated stores will ruin anyone in the end (and those that did buy the stores ended up failing or being acquired). Their
"regrowth" was botched as they attempted to integrate and centralize stores they had no idea how to run.

[storewanderer]

Where did you hear Meijer is removing self checkouts? It is my understanding they are piloting new technology (Kroger piloted this a few years ago and it hasn't gone anywhere). http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/The ... kout100130

Costco just tried them in a limited number of stores and had shrink issues with them. You can also add Ikea US to the list of stores who removed or plans to remove self checkouts. Ikea in other countries is still using it but they couldn't make it work in the US.

Wal Mart removed self checkouts from some high theft stores about 5 years ago but has since, in the past 1-2 years, gone onto a huge self checkout installation kick installing 8-10 lanes in many locations except the high theft ones.

I don't care if there is self checkout or not but I am fed up waiting 5+ minutes to make a transaction at Albertsons/Safeway locations that clearly previously had self checkout, where I never used to wait more than a minute or so. Albertsons/Safeway have slow POS (even the new systems at Safeway are slow), usually no bagger, and slow card processing. If they don't want to do self checkout, they need to do a major overhaul to their entire front end system, add more staffing, and have baggers on duty. They need to go see Stater Bros. for an example of a retailer who has gone the no self checkout route but still gets it right: fast systems, fast cashiers, always a bagger, ample staffing, no loyalty card...

[pseudo3d]

Where did you hear Meijer is removing self checkouts? It is my understanding they are piloting new technology (Kroger piloted this a few years ago and it hasn't gone anywhere). http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/The ... kout100130

I could've sworn I read a few years that they were removing them, and there were recent articles that seemed to support that (the Meijer hybrid check-out began with a variation of "self checkout is dead" or something, seemingly confirming erroneous information). I never want to never spread untrue information...

I don't care if there is self checkout or not but I am fed up waiting 5+ minutes to make a transaction at Albertsons/Safeway locations that clearly previously had self checkout, where I never used to wait more than a minute or so. Albertsons/Safeway have slow POS (even the new systems at Safeway are slow), usually no bagger, and slow card processing. If they don't want to do self checkout, they need to do a major overhaul to their entire front end system, add more staffing, and have baggers on duty. They need to go see Stater Bros. for an example of a retailer who has gone the no self checkout route but still gets it right: fast systems, fast cashiers, always a bagger, ample staffing, no loyalty card...

Self checkout I am generally a fan of, but if Albertsons does want to avoid it, they do need to implement other tactics to avoid lines and other problems (this may have been related to it, hiring thousands in SoCal). We've discussed that the 3's a Crowd system exists at Albertsons/Safeway but that often isn't upheld.

Kroger's new Houston division (Southwest's split) features a Houston-centric concentration of Kroger stores (ranging from dated greenhouses to shiny new Marketplace stores) with some scattering in Louisiana as well as some satellite sites (Bryan-College Station, Huntsville) while the ABS Houston is a patchwork of Randalls stores in Austin and Houston (many remodeled but in declining health), Albertsons in southern Louisiana (but none in New Orleans), and a few Albertsons in Florida (and yes, newspaper articles indicate that they do truck goods all the way from the NW Houston warehouse), while the Dallas division has more of the same for Kroger with Albertsons having a bigger concentration of Tom Thumb and Albertsons LLC stores that seem to do okay on their own. H-E-B doesn't exist in Dallas, which gives Safeway/Albertsons an edge. The downside of this is that they only have a limited time to prepare when H-E-B comes in fast and hard, or they're going to be relegated to third place or worse. Neither chain has stores in Waco-Temple-Killeen or San Antonio anymore.

There's no ABS equivalent for Kroger's Delta Division (basically Arkansas, Memphis, MS), Nashville, or Atlanta. Albertsons reach into the South was never much.

The ACME division has no Kroger equivalent but they've got others to worry about. Worth noting about the ACME division is that SuperValu nearly gave up on it, but Cerberus managed to stem store closures and turn it around. While Albertsons/Safeway has a stretch of stores almost filled in from Washington DC to Maine (Kroger has only some DC-area stores), it does not have the concentration in the Great Lakes Kroger has, including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and now Chicagoland (Albertsons only has Jewel-Osco in Chicago).

Both stores have a lot of stores in the West Coast but some areas are weaker than others (Fry's has a stronger showing in Arizona, not so much for Ralphs) and missing spaces (no Albertsons in Utah, but no Kroger in NorCal).

[samho_143]

Hey there! I totally get what you're saying abt Kroger stors being pretty diverse across its divisions. It's interesting how they used to have different interior and print ad-formats not too long. And the variety in things like cashier unload checkoutt, touchscreen registers, and even employee adds a unique flavor to each store division.

It's kind of surprising that even after all these years, they still haven't homogenized shelf tags and slogans across the board. I guess that's what keeps each Kroger store a bit distinct. I've noticed that too when it comes to bakery, deli, meat, and produce programs—sounds like a bit of a mixed bag depending on where you are.

It's cool that some divisions like Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Frys, QFC stand out with their nice stores. But, like you said, there's always the flip side with some lousy stores in the mix. Overall, it sounds like Krogr got this mix of consistencyy & unpredictability going on, making each shopping experience a bit of a adventure!