Retail Watchers

In contrast to the Ralphs near you, there is a Ralphs Fresh Fare in Carlsbad that was converted from a standard Ralphs 10 years ago. The location I was referring to received new signage in late summer, so a little more recently than 10 years ago :). Additionally, when the Woodbridge Irvine location...

From the Los Angeles Times article on Amazon's SoCal planned store, Ralphs, for instance, is overhauling its Ralphs Fresh Fare format stores this year, adding thousands of natural, organic, vegan and gluten-free produce items, meats and other foods. There are 63 such stores among Ralphs’ 189 Southe...

Is that a recent number? If so, what is Vons excuse with Pavilions? I'm sure between Vons and Albertson's, there's locations perfect for Pavilions. On the other hand, they de-Pavilionsed (i.e., converted to Vons) the two locations in my area (Arcadia and Monrovia.) These stores were Pavilions in na...

Albertsons did a couple real nice Pavilions remodels a few years ago. Back around the time they were trying to merge with Rite Aid. They were using photos of those very nice looking stores in the materials to try to show investors how their stores look (what a joke, ought to go take photos of all t...

According to the LA Times article quoted in the Amazon store thread 63 of Ralphs 189 stores are Fresh Fares (33.3%). Is that a recent number? If so, what is Vons excuse with Pavilions? I'm sure between Vons and Albertson's, there's locations perfect for Pavilions. When’s the last time you were in a...

I was referring to the past and present. No, it was not quite common for Ralphs to have everyday pricing different. I have been shopping at Ralphs since the 1970's and have extensive knowledge of this as I was extreme couponing before the term was ever invented. The side of L.A. (West) that I was l...

Closing the Kmart in Bishop, CA which has no competition for like 3 hours, or the one in Jackson, WY which has no competition for like 1 hour... I really have to think it is over at this point... Bishop was in really rough shape when I was there last month and the employee morale was obviously very...

You can see a Ralphs ad for any particular store you wish to view on Ralphs.com. Compare them. You'll see they don't have ads that are different. Biggest difference is Fresh Fare stores get that heading on their ad, then there is the regular Ralphs ad and Ralphs in Hispanic areas get a few differen...

It reminds me of when K-Mart remodeled a few stores into a new concept in the early 2000s: beautiful stores featuring a design K-Mart should've adapted a decade earlier (when it rolled out the "Big K" remodels)... but the chain knowingly lacked the capital to move forward with chainwide re...

Thought it was worth mentioning that the Pavilions I've visited recently have removed their hot bar. They've also cut back on the prepared foods offered within the deli case and completely removed the prepared "meal idea" section from the meat department (that carried stuffed bell peppers,...