Retail Watchers

There is an article flying around from Phoenix Business Journal with Trey Basha stating they are looking for expansion opportunities for the Bashas and Food City banners with divested stores from the Safeway/Kroger merger. Not sure what stores would be logical conversions to Food City. I guess there...

I think the 3 stores in Astoria area will fly. 75-80% share in a county is not quite uncommon in these more remote locations anyway. Costco has grocery share there too. Safeway already has practically 100% marketshare in other places like Burns and Lakeview (tough to imagine Kroger wanting to bother...

Wichita has some surprisingly tough areas, but nothing like Tulsa. I think the problem in Wichita is there is a lack of traffic in the middle of the night, whereas Tulsa has more traffic at all hours. The other issue with closing overnight is when the sites are closed, there is a greater likelihood ...

FM has been trying to make a new build work in Centralia / Chehalis for so long and had deals go south so many times, that I imagine someone in Portland rubbing their hands with glee, actually cackling about being able to break in to that market. The irony of their lack of presence is magnified by ...

I think this is going to be the watershed moment when it comes to the local banners. If they want to convert everything to Kroger, this is the time. If they don't do it now, then I don't think they ever will. In OR/WA they should stick with Fred Meyer on large stores and QFC on smaller stores. Alber...

I don't think Safeway has any exclusives on produce anymore. They are wise to keep Haggen produce as Haggen produce was. I think Charlie's is still in business in SoCal but I know they lost $$$$$ in the bankruptcy. The Safeway produce program is one of the worst out there, just basics, nothing speci...

I think over the past 20 years Aldi has successfully evolved. Aldi used to be the hard discounter who secretly had high quality products at bottom barrel prices. The store didn't try to be nice, packages didn't try to look cool, marketing was word of mouth, and slowly the reputation built. Perishabl...

I don't know about Roth's, I think the results with them would be similar to Haggen's expansion attempt. Same old story. UNFI supplied. In way above their abilities; too large of stores for them. I suppose Pattison could try to bring that Save On Foods banner down and put it onto these stores and se...

What I do not understand about Kroger and how they have treated Ralphs in my area is this: Ralphs on Sunset Blvd. (Rock n Roll Ralphs) is worn out, in disrepair, dirty and ugly. High volume store! Ralphs on La Brea Av. & Fountain Av. is worn out, in disrepair, dirty and ugly. High volume store!...

She refused to give me a refund, and I couldn’t find any contact information on their website, so I gave up. But you’re right - the “new” Aldi is a lot more expensive operation. In May, the Detroit Free Press went comparison shopping, and Aldi was $2.50 cheaper for 18 items vs. Meijer (private labe...