I was being facetious about Dominick's. Although I never heard the quote about Mariano's being developed to kill Dominick's (it didn't need the help, as Safeway did a perfectly good job on its own), I have heard it was developed to take Bob Mariano's vision of Dominick's to the next level. And that he did.pseudo3d wrote:I seem to remember there being a quote that Mariano's was built to kill Dominick's, so there is no way Mariano's or Kroger will dredge up the Dominick's name even if Albertsons abandoned it. Rebranding Jewel to Albertsons might have happened if Lucky's absorption was a success and Albertsons kept marching north and east like they were doing up until 2001.rwsandiego wrote:I agree.storewanderer wrote:...I don't think the Mariano's banner will be disappearing. If they structured the deal in a way that that name goes away, it would be a terrible deal.
Perhaps Pick'n'Save would be re-branded as Copp's (or vice versa), but there is no reason for the Mariano's name to go away. Kroger hasn't operated in Chicago since 1971, so there's no brand equity there and Food 4 Less is a completely different operation. I suspect Albertsons would not sell them the Dominick's name, so what else would they call the stores? Besides, Mariano's has a great reputation, even in parts of the metro area where they do not yet have stores. It would make about as much sense as re-branding Jewel as "Albertsons."
Now, if they want to re-brand and convert Ralphs to Mariano's I'll be doing handstands, but that would be equally foolish.
Kroger won't change Mariano's name at all. Worst case scenario is it basically becomes like Kroger's brands in other parts of the country.
Regarding Jewel, even Albertson's wasn't dumb enough to rebrand it. There was no reason to. Albertson's was not known in Chicago. Of course, they should never have rebranded Lucky. Albertsons should have rebranded their SoCal stores to Lucky or rebranded the more upscale Luckys to Albertsons and the more downscale Albertsons to Lucky.