Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by storewanderer »

ninersdd wrote: May 16th, 2021, 8:04 pm 2 weeks in, the Yelp reviews(including the ones that aren't recommended) are 36-0 in terms of negative to positive. The "best" one of those is a 3 star one that is lukewarm at best. Colossal failure all around.
Also over at Google Maps-
3 weeks ago (before conversion) they got a couple 5-star reviews.
Then if we start with the reviews from 2 weeks ago: 21 1-star reviews, 1 2-star review, 1 4-star review, and 2 5-star reviews.

And on Nextdoor and Reddit, even more negative comments about this conversion.

This has not been run correctly either and so far Raleys is tone deaf to any feedback. Raleys Corporation needs to do some serious outreach to all of the customers they pissed off. The store employees seem defeated and beaten down; management is hiding in the office. They know this is a massive failure but can't say it. Those employees and management are probably being blamed for this failure which is really a failure on Raleys Corporation to not properly merchandise, not properly bring in product quality that is comparable to what was there before, and not properly price this conversion.

This store is losing customers right and left and is also having massive spoilage/shrink in the process.

This went from being the best meat department in any Raleys in the area which was brimming with hundreds of packages of super fresh looking beautifully cut beef, pork, of varying sizes/thicknesses, to one that looks more like the low end low volume McCarran/Mira Loma Store, Sparks McCarran Store, or North Hills Blvd. Store in terms of variety and cuts available in a span of two weeks. The only difference is the meat prices are all drastically higher at this place.

Safeway in South Reno opens May 19. It will only become more difficult for Raleys ONE Market at that point. I am actually disappointed as I am concerned Safeway will be overcrowded as a result of Raleys Corporation handing them thousands of customers. Oh well, good for Safeway I guess. And Safeway can become the new spot in South Reno with extremely fresh products due to high product turnover (like the Truckee Safeway), so that will be nice. I would just continue to shop Raleys ONE Market if it wasn't for the pricing and freshness issues I am seeing.

I am very disgusted by Raleys Corporation and what they have done here. Not only did they destroy variety but quality has also taken a serious dive as less product is turning over and a number of their "replacement" items are lower quality than what they sold before. Produce did look a lot better this weekend- they finally went through and rotated away all the stuff that was going rotten all of last week and filled it back up with new fresh product. We will see how they maintain it; with the current customer count they have, they have too much produce out. But it is important for the produce department to look good- and yesterday it certainly did look good.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Sounds like the old adage "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" has certainly fallen flat here.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by storewanderer »

They did a reset of the dish soap already. They added in a single SKU of blue colored Dawn. So they now have one SKU of Dawn. I am surprised that blue coloring is allowed. Maybe next they can really live it up and add in a single SKU of Crest or Colgate Toothpaste.

I wonder what strings they had to pull to get that "approved." After all, if it was allowable to sell per their "banned ingredients listing" then why was it ever removed from the store in the first place? Were they just trying to jerk customers around and see how much they'd take?

Sort of like that Mahatma Jasmine Rice they didn't carry at least as of last week (maybe they will fix that too). Ingredient: Jasmine Rice. Why was that removed? Pretty sure that ingredient isn't "banned."

Raleys also runs a $5 Monday promotion. Most of the items in the promotion are not carried in this store but a few items are. No sale signs were posted on the item I looked at, and I was told they no longer run that $5 Monday promotion in this store. Odd as any other item that appears in the normal Raleys ad and is on sale, they do post the sale price from the normal ad even though they do not have that ad in print form in the store anymore.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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This afternoon in the 4 PM range- this store had at least 20-30 customers inside. Three checkouts open up front with moderate 2 or so customer lines and self checkouts (4) with fairly steady use. What I noticed was not many people with carts, those with carts, the carts were far from full. The produce area was unstaffed (and continues to have lousy rotation), meat area is still full of markdown Rocky Chicken they can't seem to get rid of but there is less than before and the space that was previously filled with it is now about 20% ground turkey, and beef has less out than before yet there are freshness issues on the beef still, also fish variety is the worst I've seen in this store. I guess certain types of fish are banned based on being farm raised as well. That is fine but figure out a way to at least get the fish variety and freshness of Whole Foods.

Also took a look at the eCart area as I left which is up front. The coolers were no more than about 20% stocked with product and there was one clerk there. Previously the eCart most of these coolers were filled with completed orders and there were multiple clerks tending to the eCart. Today I did not see any employees on the store sales floor picking orders, and did not see any customers doing pick up outside or parked in eCart spaces when I arrived or when I left.

Problem is before conversion at that time, the store would have had 4-5 checkstands open, lines of 3 to 4 customers, lines at self checkout, many full carts going through, and a busy eCart with multiple customers and clerks involved.

It is painful to watch what was done to this store. But the store has foot traffic still in the daytime, it is far from deserted. I almost wonder if somehow this is going to pan out- with way fewer customers, if they can somehow make as much or more money than before with higher margins, less labor, and less upkeep as a result of fewer customers. They did increase prices on most of the same items they sold before by 3-7% depending on the item so right there is a margin lift from that alone not to mention the margin lift from having fewer specials, more "high margin" type products, etc. Just too bad they ruined what was a great showcase store for the chain to "try this."
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Went to this store mid-day. First thing I noticed was the parking lot which used to be full on weekends was no more than about 25% full. Noticed quite a few carts in the parking lot though, so there was that.

Went in. Didn't see many customers. Only one checkstand open plus the self checkouts, with a small line for each. Meat had two employees. Tons of markdown meat again as usual, the Rocky chicken that is on perpetual markdown and also a bunch of vacuum packed prepared meats in addition to a dozen or so packages of store cut beef. Heard some customer complaining they didn't have a beer he used to buy there, so I guess they did remove some liquor too. Produce as it has been in this place- lousy. Someone could fill a lot of trash bags with produce in this place that is over-ripe. Maybe they need to start a cut fruit in store program to help rotate through ripe produce. Some of this stuff has been sitting there for literally over a week shriveling up more and more. Also like their trick of selling "bulk" Organic strawberries which are probably good ones that came out of the plastic clamshells that had a few go bad. Novel idea to not lose the entire clamshell. More fitting for a discount store than a store with the highest prices in town. Also the mixing of Organic and non-Organic items is sloppy at the least and deceptive at the worst.

When I went up to pay they managed to get a second checkstand opened up and now the 2 checkstands and the self checkouts had moderate lines of 2 or so customers waiting. Mostly small transactions. eCart area is almost dead and had very few orders staged and ready for pick up.

Staffing levels look to have been cut significantly and I am not sure where the employees went who used to work there but few of them still seem to be around.

Previously on a weekend this store was a full parking lot and difficult to park. Inside the store there would have been many checkouts open with lines all over the place. This is quite an achievement Raleys made here. Truly incredible really. But customers are still coming to the store. I think there were still around 25-35 shoppers in the store today despite the issues. But before there would have been hundreds.

Also they have stickers on random items all over the store- from meat to things like 8-12pks of seltzer water- with a QR Code to scan offering $5 off $25 if you sign up for Raleys Something Extra Loyalty Card. Not sure what the point of this is, this is an established loyalty program. Rather than pushing for new sign ups they probably need to go mine their data for all the customers they've lost and work on figuring out how to get them back. It is a lot cheaper to keep an existing customer than find a new one.

I am really trying with this place but the price hikes on everything and the horrible produce ruin it. I can get easily 80% of the items I need from this store, I don't go buy Coke or Doritos or Mahatma Rice everyday and can deal with these items missing but this store has serious problems that are only getting worse. The only reason to go here instead of Safeway is to avoid the crowds, but you will pay a premium to do so and deal with the selection issues and freshness issues.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Went to this place again this afternoon mid-day to see what was going on. Got a parking spot right up front but had to dodge some carts since they aren't bothering to go outside and clear the lot much. About 10 customers in the store total. Three employees working in produce who appeared to be trying to do some much needed product rotation, so hopefully that will yield positive results. Endcap with conventional white nectarines and organic apricots mixed together both product signs said Organic so the only way you know the nectarines aren't organic is to look at the sticker. What a joke. Much of the meat markdown that was there yesterday was gone today I assume some was sold but wonder how much went to shrink. I also can't wait to see how much shrink this place has as the dairy, prepackaged meat, etc. starts to expire that isn't selling because the prices are so outrageously high for Reno.

When I paid for my purchase there was actually not one other customer checking out up front at the regular register or the self checkouts. Unreal to see this little traffic in this store.

I will say the store looks very nice after the remodeling project. Too bad nobody likes the store's poorly executed fresh departments and lousy selection, or the bay area pricing they are using that is higher than the pricing before the conversion (this is a NASTY price scale- no wonder Raleys has struggled with the Nob Hill Foods banner with this price scale).

Meanwhile Safeway- hundreds of customers. Checkouts all open with customers lined up 3-4 deep and hoards of customers everywhere in the store. Many middle aged couples shopping in Safeway who are driving luxury SUVs and other high cost vehicles- looks like all the cars that used to be shopping at Raleys. These folks think nothing of dropping $200 on not many items and were doing it all day at Safeway.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Today the bulk Organic Strawberries that are close to rotten are .99/lb and they also have a new deal in the meat department, "natural" ground beef (this is the shop trim) 80% lean at 2.99/lb though there is no sale sign or anything else you have to look at the label to see this hidden deal. Those strawberries also seem to be tough, lack juice, as if they were overrefrigerated or something. Probably were okay quality but have been ruined by poor handling at the store level. Also on the plastic barriers at the checkstands they have now taped up a bunch of promotional materials about the 5+ year old Something Extra Loyalty Card, images of the coupons you can earn by signing up, etc. As if the loyalty program will save this situation. If anything it will make it worse. This store doesn't even sell most of the items my last Something Extra Coupon Mailer gave me coupons for.

Produce area continues to look terrible, rotation is terrible, and seeing the table shriveled up wrinkled Organic cantaloupes touching a table of non-Organic Melons that has been there since opening day is a shining example of what is wrong with this store's produce area, but nobody fixes it and nobody cares. Also the price of Organic Peaches was posted tonight at 4.39/lb. Last week was 3.39/lb and it was not showing as a sale. But I'll note who does have a sale- Safeway- Organic Peaches (or Nectarines or Apricots)- regular 3.49/lb and sale 1.99/lb, quality is excellent too.

Also noticed 4 shopping carts of various clearance items, mostly non food but also some liquor and Easter (????) items near the back wall where the old clearance area was. Interesting the clearance disappeared after the conversion but is back now. They always had some great deals in this section before due to a lot of mispicks from the warehouses and the sheer volume this store used to do it was getting in tons of product (would see a lot of Whole Foods 365, Equaline, Sunny Select items in that area before).

Again very few customers in the store. Security guard walking around the store and supposedly employees have been or will be treated to some kind of mandatory training on how to address negative feelings over changes.

How about listening to customers to try and gain customers back? Oh, the customers are all already at Safeway. Oh, all those well off middle aged customers who had a great image of Raleys for decades, that goodwill has been completely killed by upsetting those customers with this store conversion? Lot of old well off folks around Reno who got the real push off from this ONE conversion who only ever shopped at Raleys- they were too good for Smiths or Safeway- only Raleys for them.

Raleys ONE format in Reno- miserable failure poorly executed and with a very nasty price scale not appropriate at all for Reno. Beyond the fact that the store looks great they have literally done everything wrong here. Convert the store back to standard format and go back to the old price scale and hope the customers forgive. If the plan is really to convert all Raleys into this ONE format, I think some difficult decisions will need to be made about quite a few locations long term. Actually it won't be difficult since most of these locations do work as a CONVENTIONAL format grocery store with a full VARIETY of SKUs and strong fresh departments, something various competitors can do. If the ONE format can't make it in the wealthiest part of Reno, I don't know where it can.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: May 24th, 2021, 11:43 pm Today the bulk Organic Strawberries that are close to rotten are .99/lb and they also have a new deal in the meat department, "natural" ground beef (this is the shop trim) 80% lean at 2.99/lb though there is no sale sign or anything else you have to look at the label to see this hidden deal. Those strawberries also seem to be tough, lack juice, as if they were overrefrigerated or something. Probably were okay quality but have been ruined by poor handling at the store level. Also on the plastic barriers at the checkstands they have now taped up a bunch of promotional materials about the 5+ year old Something Extra Loyalty Card, images of the coupons you can earn by signing up, etc. As if the loyalty program will save this situation. If anything it will make it worse. This store doesn't even sell most of the items my last Something Extra Coupon Mailer gave me coupons for.

Produce area continues to look terrible, rotation is terrible, and seeing the table shriveled up wrinkled Organic cantaloupes touching a table of non-Organic Melons that has been there since opening day is a shining example of what is wrong with this store's produce area, but nobody fixes it and nobody cares. Also the price of Organic Peaches was posted tonight at 4.39/lb. Last week was 3.39/lb and it was not showing as a sale. But I'll note who does have a sale- Safeway- Organic Peaches (or Nectarines or Apricots)- regular 3.49/lb and sale 1.99/lb, quality is excellent too.

Also noticed 4 shopping carts of various clearance items, mostly non food but also some liquor and Easter (????) items near the back wall where the old clearance area was. Interesting the clearance disappeared after the conversion but is back now. They always had some great deals in this section before due to a lot of mispicks from the warehouses and the sheer volume this store used to do it was getting in tons of product (would see a lot of Whole Foods 365, Equaline, Sunny Select items in that area before).

Again very few customers in the store. Security guard walking around the store and supposedly employees have been or will be treated to some kind of mandatory training on how to address negative feelings over changes.

How about listening to customers to try and gain customers back? Oh, the customers are all already at Safeway. Oh, all those well off middle aged customers who had a great image of Raleys for decades, that goodwill has been completely killed by upsetting those customers with this store conversion? Lot of old well off folks around Reno who got the real push off from this ONE conversion who only ever shopped at Raleys- they were too good for Smiths or Safeway- only Raleys for them.

Raleys ONE format in Reno- miserable failure poorly executed and with a very nasty price scale not appropriate at all for Reno. Beyond the fact that the store looks great they have literally done everything wrong here. Convert the store back to standard format and go back to the old price scale and hope the customers forgive. If the plan is really to convert all Raleys into this ONE format, I think some difficult decisions will need to be made about quite a few locations long term. Actually it won't be difficult since most of these locations do work as a CONVENTIONAL format grocery store with a full VARIETY of SKUs and strong fresh departments, something various competitors can do. If the ONE format can't make it in the wealthiest part of Reno, I don't know where it can.
And yet their latest PR tripe in Supermarket News portrays something quite different (perhaps in a parallel universe).

This is why I have no faith whatsoever in corporate agendas and proclamations. And the employees always have to carry their nonsense.

Companies do NOT listen to consumers but they say they do. Surveys, questionnaires, discussion panels, market research......................all nonsense.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: May 25th, 2021, 7:34 am
And yet their latest PR tripe in Supermarket News portrays something quite different (perhaps in a parallel universe).

This is why I have no faith whatsoever in corporate agendas and proclamations. And the employees always have to carry their nonsense.

Companies do NOT listen to consumers but they say they do. Surveys, questionnaires, discussion panels, market research......................all nonsense.
I read the PR piece. I am clearly mistaken in my assessment of the store and the concept. Given the company's Customer Experience Officer gave this information to Supermarket News and this is current information 5/25 it is clear that internally this concept is seen as a smashing success. Despite the complaining customers all over social media which I am sure the Customer Experience Officer is well aware of, there must be many more customers telling them how great the new format is and that they love the store. I will tow the line here.

The store is so innovative and forward thinking, I am ecstatic. It is patronized only by smart customers who love the curated mix that still is full of alcohol but doesn't carry a major brand of Jasmine Rice. I am sure Safeway's likely record setting grand opening in Reno last week had nothing to do with what happened to this store and is all hype. Perhaps this ONE store has fewer customers than before it converted because all of its customers simply are on diets, all eating at restaurants again with the reopening (wait, we reopened last year), or are on vacation and have been all month.

Also I greatly appreciate the fair prices. I really appreciate that an item that costs 1.89 at the Carson, Reno North Hills, South Lake Tahoe Casino Area, or Sparks McCarran Raleys, or 1.99 at any other area Raleys, costs 2.15 at this place. Or the 7.69 item at the low price scale stores costs 8.19 here. I also love how the promised fair pricing changes day to day on a whim. The cubed steak was 6.99/lb when the store converted, 5.98/lb on Saturday and no longer labeled "Natural," but yesterday it was all labeled as "Natural" again and had a nice hike to 8.19/lb. Never a sale sign on this item either. Fair and consistent pricing indeed.

Also all those one star reviews over on Google, the negative comments on Facebook on Raleys store page, number of negative comments responding to random ads Raleys is posting on Facebook, and those one star reviews on Yelp, they must all be for the wrong store and everyone is confused who is leaving those one star reviews. Perhaps they got lost looking for the grocery store and ended up at the Circle K in the parking lot and thought they were at Raleys, yes, that must be why so many people are complaining they can't find what they needed. They went to the gas station with 1 aisle of goods and not the 60k square foot grocery store, then left a negative review on the 60k square foot grocery store. That has to be it.

Also great the PR piece noted the store is one with exceptional customer service. When the number of employees in the store outnumbers the number of customers in the store, that is definitely the formula for exceptional customer service. It is a little tough to notice since the employees tend to congregate in groups talking or messing around but yes I will give them that the employee to customer ratio is literally perfect for exceptional customer service.

Also the education piece, yes. There is a little kiosk in the middle of the store where a nutritionist is supposed to stand. So far I have seen this staffed one time and the employee looked so bored there, but I am sure there are folks lined up there all day asking for advice, I guess the middle of the day on Saturday or Sunday is not the time for it. And no, I have not observed anyone on the sales floor talking to customers about nutrition topics away from that kiosk, either. I have observed the wine expert on the sales floor discussing liquor with customers though. Maybe that is the education element they are referring to but they've offered that for years and he has been in the store for about 4 years or more and yes he is very knowledgeable about helping folks pick out liquor and very pleasant to transact with. But the liquor expert and education he provides about selecting the right wine is not new or unique to the ONE concept (perhaps unique to this location).

It is good to have things straightened out, that PR piece in Supermarket News today absolutely set the record straight here.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by rwsandiego »

Perhaps the Customer Experience person stopped by their local dispensary prior to providing commentary for the PR piece highly informative article.

But seriously, it's one thing to execute a bad idea and fail. It's another to execute a bad idea, fail, and claim it is a success when reviews on the public internet are overwhelmingly negative. My guess is the piece was written before the place even re-opened.
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