WinCo planning to enter Phoenix market

[jamcool]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... arman.html

Warehouse grocery stores have been a bust in Phoenix in the past.

[submariner]

No! It's Impossible! How can they be WinCo in Arizona?!? It's madness, I'm telling ya!

But seriously, I wonder how they will justify the WinCo name by adding another state? (WinCo, of course, stands for Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon; it's current operating states.)

[Super S]

WinCo actually stands for "WINning COmpany":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinCo_Foods

They have also opened stores in Utah.

[storewanderer]

I think they will do just fine in Phoenix, but they are going to get kicked around on price heavily. Of course, they are used to that. I expect Albuquerque and Las Vegas in the not too distant future too. Smiths is going to need to make some adjustments to how they price especially certain perishables like produce and prepack lunchmeat if they don't want to lose major amounts of share.

The thing about WinCo is they don't saturate a market with stores and they don't ever end up taking a large chunk of share anywhere, but they take enough share and open enough stores to impact the other people around...

4-5 stores in Phoenix is nothing; I could drive a 5-10 mile radius there and find more Frys and Bashas, and in some circles Safeways and Wal Mart operations.

[tesg]

That seems like kind of a stretch for their existing distribution network. One would have to think they'll infill and have a new distribution center in Nevada or Arizona.