New Safeway for Reno

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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by storewanderer »

Safeway has started construction on this new store in Reno. It will be 62,000 square feet. The lot cost $6 million (you can't even see it from the main street) and the building will cost about $8 million. They way overpaid for this and this thing is going to have to do great volume to pay for itself. And they better hope no competitor builds across the street in the upcoming "mixed use development" or they will be screwed. Would love to see Amazon put something up, that would be fun to watch. They will have to manage this location much better than the currently manage their Nevada Stores for this to be successful. It would be nice to see them to actually operate their stores in this market well again like they did in the 90's and into the 00's. The price cut program was a step in the right direction but operations still need serious help.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: July 9th, 2020, 10:06 pm Safeway has started construction on this new store in Reno. It will be 62,000 square feet. The lot cost $6 million (you can't even see it from the main street) and the building will cost about $8 million. They way overpaid for this and this thing is going to have to do great volume to pay for itself. And they better hope no competitor builds across the street in the upcoming "mixed use development" or they will be screwed. Would love to see Amazon put something up, that would be fun to watch. They will have to manage this location much better than the currently manage their Nevada Stores for this to be successful. It would be nice to see them to actually operate their stores in this market well again like they did in the 90's and into the 00's. The price cut program was a step in the right direction but operations still need serious help.
Imagine if they branded it as an Albertsons... is there any nostalgia for Albertsons in Reno?
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

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Yes- Albertsons Intermountain Division was present in Reno and had a successful presence from the 70's through the 00's with the sale of stores to Save Mart, ending with 7 stores in Reno/Sparks and 3 more stores down in Carson City. Albertsons never closed a store in the area due to business failure- the only stores they closed were relocated into larger stores nearby which were very well located. All were original Albertsons Stores, not Lucky Stores.

Compare that to Safeway. Safeway was present in Reno from the 20's. However looking at the 60's, in 1964 Safeway had 5 stores in Reno/Sparks. Then looking at 1978 Safeway had 5 stores in Reno/Sparks (not all of the same ones from 1964- some were 70's builds). During the 80's Safeway had come and gone from multiple locations, including a real short lived Pak N Save, and by 1990 Safeway had 2 stores total in Reno/Sparks. Through a couple of new store openings by 2005 Safeway had 4 stores in Reno/Sparks but two store closures (the 1978 Sparks Store and the 1996 Reno Store) brought them back to 2 stores in Reno/Sparks again by 2012. So this new store will get them up to 3 stores again.

As for Safeway in Carson City they went out of business down there by 2012. They had a very short lived 2 stores in Carson City but one of the stores in the 70's was so short lived, I never saw it open (it was at the north edge of the Carson Mall, now some kind of medical facility).

Safeway makes a ton of money at Lake Tahoe and Reno/Tahoe are one ad market, which is probably the only reason their few Nevada locations remain. They should just transfer the Nevada locations over to Albertsons Intermountain and be done with it. We already have different (much lower) pricing now, and I am not sure how long Safeway NorCal can afford such low pricing.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

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storewanderer wrote: July 14th, 2020, 6:35 pm Yes- Albertsons Intermountain Division was present in Reno and had a successful presence from the 70's through the 00's with the sale of stores to Save Mart, ending with 7 stores in Reno/Sparks and 3 more stores down in Carson City. Albertsons never closed a store in the area due to business failure- the only stores they closed were relocated into larger stores nearby which were very well located. All were original Albertsons Stores, not Lucky Stores.
Reno/Carson City was the second area for the Albertsons dual-branding strategy(Albertsons/Sav-on) in late 2001. Tucson was the first market for dual-branding (Albertsons-Osco). Albertsons would then do dual-branding in Phoenix and Omaha (both Albertsons-Osco) in 2002.
TV commercials for the dual-branding featured a helicopter dropping a Sav-on or Osco inside an Albertsons. https://www.behance.net/gallery/1419515 ... permarkets

Should the new Safeway in Reno use the Albertsons banner or not?
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

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retailfanmitchell019 wrote: July 14th, 2020, 6:53 pm
storewanderer wrote: July 14th, 2020, 6:35 pm Yes- Albertsons Intermountain Division was present in Reno and had a successful presence from the 70's through the 00's with the sale of stores to Save Mart, ending with 7 stores in Reno/Sparks and 3 more stores down in Carson City. Albertsons never closed a store in the area due to business failure- the only stores they closed were relocated into larger stores nearby which were very well located. All were original Albertsons Stores, not Lucky Stores.
Reno/Carson City was the second area for the Albertsons dual-branding strategy(Albertsons/Sav-on) in late 2001. Tucson was the first market for dual-branding (Albertsons-Osco). Albertsons would then do dual-branding in Phoenix and Omaha (both Albertsons-Osco) in 2002.
TV commercials for the dual-branding featured a helicopter dropping a Sav-on or Osco inside an Albertsons. https://www.behance.net/gallery/1419515 ... permarkets

Should the new Safeway in Reno use the Albertsons banner or not?
NorCal Safeway does not have any Albertsons banner stores in its division (Reno is part of NorCal Safeway). If they are going to run the stores like a NorCal Safeway but have an Albertsons sign out front, it may as well just be a Safeway. If they were to run the store like an Albertsons (put the region back with Intermountain Division which is primarily Albertsons banner stores, where this market was before things got so screwed up in the 00's) then it would make sense to use that banner and also rebanner the other two Safeways in Reno/Sparks to it. Not sure the banner matters much for the other NV Safeways- Fallon (always Safeway, does pretty well; only store there other than Wal Mart and NAS Commissary), Hawthorne (only store in town, little volume, always Safeway), and Lovelock (only store in town, extremely little volume, always Safeway).

NorCal Safeway as it is does a separate ad for the NV Stores and always has, due to different liquor pricing than CA, and now due to the "new low price" program that is in use at most of the NV Stores. Actually they do 2 separate ads for the Nevada Stores- the store in Zephyr Cove, NV is not part of the "new low price" program like the others, so there is a special ad printed up just for that one store.

Yes, the Albertsons/Sav-On concept was done in Reno when the stores were under Intermountain. That resulted in the closure of one Sav-On Store (next to the 10500 N. McCarran Blvd. Albertsons). There was also one Albertsons with no pharmacy (Oddie Blvd., Sparks-Save Mart closed it) and it still had a Sav-On department but no signage (drug items all had Sav-On shelf tags). That program also coincided with them opening a new store in Carson City (North Carson Street- was in the middle of construction when they did the combo store thing) and then not long after remodeling a 1992 blue/gray store in Reno (4995 Kietzke) into the Larry interior (the industrial look). Then for a very brief period the stores were moved to NorCal Albertsons Division (rumor has it, the only way to make NorCal Albertsons Division profitable, was to add the Reno Stores to the Division), then the rumors started going about the company being sold off. There was zero capex the year or two that NorCal had the stores (most were blue gray stores were hitting their 10 year old mark and in need of remodels). Of course, we see what happened not long after that- the company was split up and sold off. I do wonder, had Reno been retained by Supervalu as part of Intermountain Division, what would have happened. I don't think it would have been good given Supervalu Intermountain Division's sale of Salt Lake City and random one off store sales in Blackfoot, ID, Burley, ID. Save Mart was able to maintain Albertsons volumes at first but after about a year and a half their ongoing operational issues created an ongoing bleed of volume, closure of departments, staff cuts, etc. The biggest beneficiary of Save Mart's mistakes was Raleys.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by bryceleinan »

Well, the new Safeway opened today... I'm not an expert on store styles (Storewanderer might know what style this is considered,) but I was fairly impressed. Concrete floors and the newer styles used in the other Reno stores were present here. Prices are a bit higher than other stores like Walmart, Winco, and Smith's - however, it's not as high as other retailers in the region. This is definitely a store I will be visiting often.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

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Was it the Florida Safeway decor with decorative wall signs with black or white tiles? Did they paint some walls green?
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

bryceleinan wrote: May 19th, 2021, 8:23 pm Well, the new Safeway opened today... I'm not an expert on store styles (Storewanderer might know what style this is considered,) but I was fairly impressed. Concrete floors and the newer styles used in the other Reno stores were present here. Prices are a bit higher than other stores like Walmart, Winco, and Smith's - however, it's not as high as other retailers in the region. This is definitely a store I will be visiting often.
Looking at pictures, this store has the Modern interior (Florida). The layout is an ancient late 80's Albertsons Superstore layout.
Very nice store, gives off a Hy-Vee vibe.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by storewanderer »

The store has the Florida interior and 80's Albertsons or Alpha Beta layout. Layout of this store is near identical to Save Mart in Grass Valley, Save Mart in Chico (former Albertsons) or Lucky in San Bruno (former Alpha Beta). It is larger in size I think, but not by much. The other store the layout is identical to here (minus the eating area)- is the Broadway Albertsons in Boise.

The store is very, very nice.

Produce department is large, despite having little wall space (just a little on the back wall for salad prepack), the produce area is wide open and large. Presentation is great. I was really surprised liquor was only 1.5 aisles, very small, but doesn't matter to me. Deli is large, spacing is weird (the leased chinese food hot case and leased sushi area separates the rest of deli from the sandwich counter- bad work flow there). Bakery is good sized. Meat area has a good sized service case but prepack may be a bit small; they squeeze in a lot of extended shelf life meat.

The store doesn't feel like a Safeway at all.

As far as the grand opening goes, Safeway did a fantastic job getting this store set, stocked, displays made, and merchandising it. I am really surprised they were able to pull this together so well but given this is the third store NorCal Division has opened this year, they definitely have a process and they made it happen. One of the best looking grand opening stores I've seen.

I expect this store to perform exceptionally well. Given what Raleys did to their Wedge Store, there is no need for Safeway to duke it out much with Wal Mart, WinCo, and Smiths on price in this location (they should probably reconsider what they are doing over in Sparks though). Raleys released thousands of not price sensitive shoppers to other stores and many will come here to Safeway.
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Re: New Safeway for Reno

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: May 19th, 2021, 10:55 pm The store has the Florida interior and 80's Albertsons or Alpha Beta layout. Layout of this store is near identical to Save Mart in Grass Valley, Save Mart in Chico (former Albertsons) or Lucky in San Bruno (former Alpha Beta). It is larger in size I think, but not by much. The other store the layout is identical to here (minus the eating area)- is the Broadway Albertsons in Boise.

The store is very, very nice.

Produce department is large, despite having little wall space (just a little on the back wall for salad prepack), the produce area is wide open and large. Presentation is great. I was really surprised liquor was only 1.5 aisles, very small, but doesn't matter to me. Deli is large, spacing is weird (the leased chinese food hot case and leased sushi area separates the rest of deli from the sandwich counter- bad work flow there). Bakery is good sized. Meat area has a good sized service case but prepack may be a bit small; they squeeze in a lot of extended shelf life meat.

The store doesn't feel like a Safeway at all.

As far as the grand opening goes, Safeway did a fantastic job getting this store set, stocked, displays made, and merchandising it. I am really surprised they were able to pull this together so well but given this is the third store NorCal Division has opened this year, they definitely have a process and they made it happen. One of the best looking grand opening stores I've seen.

I expect this store to perform exceptionally well. Given what Raleys did to their Wedge Store, there is no need for Safeway to duke it out much with Wal Mart, WinCo, and Smiths on price in this location (they should probably reconsider what they are doing over in Sparks though). Raleys released thousands of not price sensitive shoppers to other stores and many will come here to Safeway.
I agree - Raley’s is an early grand-opening gift to Safeway. One of the things I liked is how the pharmacy is right up front, and you can walk right into it from the outside doors on the left hand side. I haven’t been in a lot of the old Albertsons (now Save Mart stores in NorCal,) so it took a second to get used to the layout. but I agree this definitely didn’t feel like a Safeway to me.

I also happened to run into the district manager for Reno-Tahoe there too, and the entire management team was continually circulating through the store.
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