United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

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pseudo3d
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United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by pseudo3d »

United Supermarkets opened a 44k square feet store in Pecos, Texas today, the first new grocery store in the town in decades. From video I've seen it looks modern and clean, but not particularly fancy.

https://www.cbs7.com/2020/11/11/united- ... -location/
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by storewanderer »

Store looks good. No Safeway influence in sight (other than the private labels). Even the shelf tags are still different.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by SamSpade »

Strange, with the amenities mentioned, this is a Market Street level store to me. I wonder why they chose to sign it United.

Then again, in Amarillo, the United locations varied widely by neighborhood. The newest one that was closest to my hotel resembled this. :)
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by pseudo3d »

SamSpade wrote: November 12th, 2020, 7:52 am Strange, with the amenities mentioned, this is a Market Street level store to me. I wonder why they chose to sign it United.
This is actually "normal" for most United stores, just like how a lot of H-E-B stores have a similar layout. Market Street usually is significantly bigger (55k square foot minimum), with a coffee shop, a higher-end selection (even without additional amenities), "The Dish" gift shop, an expanded HBA department, and a few other things.

More cynically, I also assume that they're trying to push the store's better features as a way to attract shoppers so the store will still coast on its own popularity when it gets slowly downscaled like H-E-B stores in working-class neighborhoods in Houston.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by rwsandiego »

Could this be a case where a fancy store would be perceived as "expensive" (regardless of the prices charged) and therefore lose business? That's what happened when Jewel expanded to Milwaukee in the 1990's. They remodeled a bunch of Cub stores and were perceived as being too "fancy" by Milwaukeeans.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: November 12th, 2020, 8:14 pm Could this be a case where a fancy store would be perceived as "expensive" (regardless of the prices charged) and therefore lose business? That's what happened when Jewel expanded to Milwaukee in the 1990's. They remodeled a bunch of Cub stores and were perceived as being too "fancy" by Milwaukeeans.
I think this is exactly it. This store does not have near the perimeter of a Market Street. These are basic stores in markets that are price sensitive and only need so much on the perimeter. And this is probably part of why United gets to keep doing its own thing vs. integrating over to the Safeway programs the rest of the chain has. And why they shifted Albuquerque over to United to run. I think there is one Market Street in Santa Fe.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: November 12th, 2020, 9:20 pm
rwsandiego wrote: November 12th, 2020, 8:14 pm Could this be a case where a fancy store would be perceived as "expensive" (regardless of the prices charged) and therefore lose business? That's what happened when Jewel expanded to Milwaukee in the 1990's. They remodeled a bunch of Cub stores and were perceived as being too "fancy" by Milwaukeeans.
I think this is exactly it. This store does not have near the perimeter of a Market Street. These are basic stores in markets that are price sensitive and only need so much on the perimeter. And this is probably part of why United gets to keep doing its own thing vs. integrating over to the Safeway programs the rest of the chain has. And why they shifted Albuquerque over to United to run. I think there is one Market Street in Santa Fe.
I don't think Pecos can support a Market Street at all, perception or not. They have literally one other grocery store (not including Walmart—it's still a non-Supercenter store, clocking in at around 40k square feet), which is La Tienda Thriftway, which used to be a Safeway originally (and then Furr's after they bought Safeway's El Paso division, and sold before Furr's went out of business entirely).

I give this United about a year before it loses features.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by SamSpade »

I didn't even think about the store not having a coffee bar, that's a good point. They are pretty much in every store here now so it would be strange to find the opposite. :lol:

Well, I wish the town of Pecos and the site decision team at United good fortune.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by rwsandiego »

pseudo3d wrote: November 13th, 2020, 3:18 am
storewanderer wrote: November 12th, 2020, 9:20 pm
rwsandiego wrote: November 12th, 2020, 8:14 pm Could this be a case where a fancy store would be perceived as "expensive" (regardless of the prices charged) and therefore lose business? That's what happened when Jewel expanded to Milwaukee in the 1990's. They remodeled a bunch of Cub stores and were perceived as being too "fancy" by Milwaukeeans.
I think this is exactly it. This store does not have near the perimeter of a Market Street. These are basic stores in markets that are price sensitive and only need so much on the perimeter. And this is probably part of why United gets to keep doing its own thing vs. integrating over to the Safeway programs the rest of the chain has. And why they shifted Albuquerque over to United to run. I think there is one Market Street in Santa Fe.
I don't think Pecos can support a Market Street at all...
That was my suspicion.
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Re: United Supermarkets opens in Pecos

Post by klkla »

rwsandiego wrote: November 12th, 2020, 8:14 pm Could this be a case where a fancy store would be perceived as "expensive" (regardless of the prices charged) and therefore lose business? That's what happened when Jewel expanded to Milwaukee in the 1990's. They remodeled a bunch of Cub stores and were perceived as being too "fancy" by Milwaukeeans.
Yes. That is it and it's a real phenomenon. In the 1990's Lucky, which was known by all Californians as The Low Price Leader, tried to make their image a little more upscale. They spent a fortune remodeling virtually every store and initiated a new ad campaign to reinforce their new image called The Other Side of Lucky. It was a huge failure and they tried to walk it back but the damage was already done and their stock price fell to a point where Albertson's was able to make an opportunistic takeover of the company.
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