Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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storewanderer
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: May 25th, 2021, 10:48 pm 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.
To be fair the photo of the front of the store Supermarket News got appears to be pretty recent as they repainted the store and put up some odd metal thing next to one of the entrances that wasn't there before.

I went again today. I was after a few boxes of baking soda to do some cleaning. I thought that would be simple and surely something they'd have a normal selection of given it is not part of their banned items list. They still have a full assortment of standard Raleys Brand Canned Fruits, Canned Vegetables, dry Pasta, etc. (non Organic) selling at everyday low prices of the Raleys Dailies EDLP program, so I assumed they'd still have basic Baking Soda too. Well, no. The only baking soda they had was some brand I've never heard of at 1.99 a box. It didn't say it was Organic and I could not tell anything special about it. Other than the high price tag. Arm & Hammer and Raleys Baking Soda- gone, no more. Went to Wal Mart after and the baking soda is .54 there for generic which is fine for this purpose (.90 for the Arm & Hammer).

I was taking a better look at the baking aisle and this entire aisle's mix and merchandising is completely weird. They still have basic bags of sugar and plain white flour at Raleys Dailies everyday low prices (either name brands C&H or Gold Medal or Raleys brand). Also the selection of bagged chocolate chips looked like a normal store with the various brands represented including multiple Raleys SKUs at the 2.98 EDLP plus the Nestle, etc. that you typically see. If you want cake mix you are looking at $4 minimum and that was a sale price for some gluten free cake mix. They did have what appeared to be some other standard cake mixes (Annie's and some other brands I'm not familiar with) all at $5 and up again those are sale prices. Looking at canned pumpkin they have two SKUs of Raleys brand which is not Organic (again on the everyday low price) but then the other SKU is some Organic brand. No Libby. I don't think Libby Pumpkin has any banned ingredients; it is just pumpkin. Cannot wait to see how this baking aisle does during the holidays. In previous holidays the store's old normal baking aisle got literally wiped out due to demand and the high volume of customers shopping in the store.

Someone else who was commenting negatively on the converted store told me the store only sells gluten free frozen pizza so I went and took a look at the frozen pizza area. That is actually not the case, though about 1/2 of the frozen pizza area is gluten free or vegetable crust pizzas, they do still have an assortment of standard frozen pizzas in various brands such as California PIzza Kitchen, etc. I am guessing since the first 4 or so doors as you enter the aisle had the gluten free and vegetable crust varieties, the person I spoke with did not venture further down the aisle and made an inaccurate assumption.

I did buy a couple of items and when paying a $5 off $35 purchase coupon was printed along with my receipt and in the small print states it is only valid at Raleys ONE Reno location, good either online or in store, only if you have a Something Extra membership. This isn't as good of an offer as the QR code stickers they have on random items throughout the store offering $5 off $25 if you sign up for Something Extra Loyalty Program.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by klkla »

It's always a good idea to take what you read on Supermarket News with a grain of salt, or however that expression goes. It is an industry trade publication not an actual journalism-based information source.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Today the store had the "natural" cubed steak at just 4.99/lb. Amazing how the price changes every day on this item, like some kind of a joke. That is certainly a fair price though today. And the 80/20 "natural" ground beef was still 2.99/lb too. Also today they had at least 20 packages of about to expire Raleys Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast in a few forms; the best deal was on the "Thinly sliced" ones in about 1.5 pound packs which had a store meat tag at 4.99/lb then also $3 off markdown stickers attached; the 3 or 4 packs they had with a later expiration with the chicken plant tag were at 8.99/lb.

I have to say despite this store not running the normal Raleys meat ad which is something I am not happy about, the past week, they are running some great deals on quality meat if you can use the meat in the next day or two. This is certainly helpful. I haven't bought any meat yet from the new Safeway thanks to this.

Also they had two new carts of markdown general merchandise. I am not familiar with these brands but this is all stuff that just showed up in the store for the grand opening earlier this month. They had "TAG" brand napkins/cloths reg 5.49 now $1, "TAG" brand glass thing (maybe gravy holder, and some really nice looking glass coffee or tea cups) reg 9.99 now $1, and in some other brand I've never heard of before Matr Boomie, a bunch of earrings regularly 16.99-24.99 for $1, and various fabric items (some very thin looking reusable bags, little pouches, mini purse type thing looked like it was for a kid, some yoga mat straps, and other little bags) regularly 9.99-19.99 for $1.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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More negative reviews today for this place, as usual. One of the reviews commented the store does not have Claire's Potato Salad. I wonder how that works. That is the only store-made potato salad I'll buy, once I tried it a few years ago, it is outstanding.

You would think an item based on their founder's wife's recipe sold in the original store, would have acceptable clean ingredients??? Or they could clean the ingredients up and make it work?

Actually maybe I don't want to taste like what it would taste like for them to "make it work." Based on how other things have tasted they have attempted to "make work" on the bakery side that should have been simple, there is no telling what they may do to the potato salad.

Can we just get the old store back by the 4th of July?
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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There were definite periods of increased foot traffic in this store over the holiday weekend but the trimmed down meat assortment still yields at least 20-30 packages of markdown beef nightly and chicken is scaled back and having ongoing markdowns too but not as many as before. Staffing levels are way down and the store just feels empty and has an odd vibe, museum like.

I was looking to make some drinks and wanted to buy some grenadine and some maraschino cherries. I went to the mixer area and I forget which item was which price but for like 12oz cherry and 16oz grenadine one of these was 15.99 and the other was 19.99. Only one option of each available. In disbelief I went over to canned fruits to see the cherry selection there- well there was just one and it was 7.99. Left and went to Safeway- grenadine 2.99 for a 25% smaller bottle in a known brand (has high fructose corn syrup yes, but for the amount I'm using I don't really care), cherries 3.49. So seriously good grief at this store's screwball product mix and pricing. I am sure the 15.99 and 19.99 items are great but this is just too far above typical pricing for these items and no other options.

The produce was looking better over the weekend as well but pricing is pretty terrible.

Can't wait to see how much shrink loss this store generates in the coming weeks/months. I find myself still tolerating this store, it has what I need, at a price I am willing to pay, about 50% of the time. That isn't too bad I guess? But I can see how this is frustrating to many people and the store becomes irrelevant to them after it fails them one time.

Meanwhile Safeway- every checkstand open all day over the weekend and store so wiped out especially in fresh departments it looked like the COVID stock up period last year.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: June 3rd, 2021, 7:59 pm Meanwhile Safeway- every checkstand open all day over the weekend and store so wiped out especially in fresh departments it looked like the COVID stock up period last year.
One of my friends was saying the same thing... the place is always packed and is starting to get wiped out. I'm hoping they have enough help to keep up! Another friend said he goes to a different Raley's now because of Mt Rose - Safeway is going to eat their lunch.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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bryceleinan wrote: June 4th, 2021, 6:28 pm
storewanderer wrote: June 3rd, 2021, 7:59 pm Meanwhile Safeway- every checkstand open all day over the weekend and store so wiped out especially in fresh departments it looked like the COVID stock up period last year.
One of my friends was saying the same thing... the place is always packed and is starting to get wiped out. I'm hoping they have enough help to keep up! Another friend said he goes to a different Raley's now because of Mt Rose - Safeway is going to eat their lunch.
Safeway is getting creative. They are stacking full boxes of produce in front of the cases since the cases aren't holding enough produce to meet demand. The bakery just has to produce produce produce because it is moving so much product, again they are having to add secondary displays and keep them filled. Meat area seems to be a bit clueless on what sells and what doesn't and space allocations seem to be messed up there. Safeway has many stores in the bay area (and Truckee) doing this kind of volume and the South Lake Tahoe Store does this kind of volume during a good portion of the year too so they should be able to handle this.

It is a long trek to get to a different Raley's from Mt. Rose but there are various reasons why I would prefer to shop Raley's instead of Safeway. The problem is the Mt. Rose Raley's was previously their best assorted store in the area with fantastic perimeter departments. The Mira Loma and Caughlin former Scolari's are not good at all; the only other Raley's around that comes close to what Mt. Rose was is Robb Drive, but it still isn't quite as good- and a long trek. May as well just go to Safeway, Whole Foods, or even Smiths.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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Another item I used to get at Raleys I can't get at this ONE place- Hawaiian Isles Coffee. Good bagged coffee, blended with some Kona not pure, but tastes great, also each bag comes with a metal clip to close. It is a fixture on Raleys $5 Monday promotions as well and Raleys previously gave it good eye level placement in 4 or 5 SKUs.

Not sure why they excluded it- it is just coffee... that is the only ingredient ????

They still have a bunch of SKUs of Raleys Coffee private label at everyday low price of 6.98- this isn't Organic or anything. Not sure why this made the cut but so many other brands didn't? I was about to buy it, but remembered Safeway has a deal this week on Signature or O Organics Coffee at 4.99 a bag so may as well just go to Safeway.

Interestingly Safeway did have the Hawaiian Isles Coffee in 3 SKUs on sale at 6.99. I had not noticed this at Safeway before and almost missed it deep on the corner of a bottom shelf.

It looks like I need to make some changes to my use of this store. I have had this place not have what I want more than too many times now. I am only going to be shopping this ONE Store for raw meat/produce because the center store is just too unpredictable what they will have, what they won't, and if the cost will be way out of what I am willing to spend (like the issue I ran into with the mixers last week). I'm sure I'll get lucky and find some other items here once I am inside but at this point if I know I need something from center store immediately, I am just driving past this place to go somewhere else.

Raleys really had a nice assortment and program in center store before this ONE conversion. I cannot imagine they will do any further conversions to this format up here in Nevada based on how it is going with this store... this store is a ghost town now and has gone from being a neighborhood favorite to universally hated. Maybe they can try the Mayberry store for a ONE Conversion- one of their highest sales per square foot stores but only around 22k square feet. That is a small store that does a great job keeping up with the volume it does. Smiths does not operate in that entire half of Reno. That would really help out Save Mart (who doesn't even do close to what Albertsons used to do) on Plumb, on Keystone, and maybe even spill up to helping Save Mart on N. McCarran and Safeway up there.
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

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This store finally reopened its salad bar and hot food bar. There is a new price increase to 9.99/lb for these. ....

The salad bar looks exactly like it did a year and a half ago before the COVID thing closed it. It isn't a big salad bar but it has a nice variety of ingredients and options. Not clear if they have switched any ingredients or what as nothing was labeled. Otherwise what is the reason for the price increase? It was 7.99/lb for years then went to 8.99/lb about a year before the COVID thing hit. Now 9.99/lb with no communication of what the benefit is from this price increase- I don't even know if the lettuce is Organic.

The hot food bar yesterday afternoon had 1/2 of its pans empty/covered up and the remaining pans had no more than 20 pieces total of really bad dried up looking fried or roasted chicken (bone in only). No side items, no strips, no options. $9.99/lb? Absolutely looked terrible. If all they have is fried or roasted chicken, they should just put the customer-facing glass up and convert this to a service counter and sell it by the piece (ranges about 1.29-2.49) or in the 8pc pack at 7.99 like other Raleys vs. trying to gouge and get 9.99/lb for it this way. I find it hard to believe anyone is going to buy this unless they have some other use for it like making chicken salad this is nothing but a shrink loss and embarrassing presentation of unappetizing looking food.

Not even enough traffic to have steady customers at the 2 open checkouts and the self checkouts, but there was the usual dozen or so customers in the store.

Produce prices rising- 4.29/lb for organic nectarines/white peaches. 2.49/lb at Smiths and 3.49/lb at Safeway... Marked sign for 2.99/lb organic peaches sale but they didn't have any. Organic Kiwi not being replaced either, now just non-Organic kiwi which at 2.95/lb is a higher price than the Organic was (1.99/lb). Doesn't make sense. Also only non-Organic Cherries. Everything has a green price sign though (green Raleys logo on the non-Organic signs).

Only T-Bone Steaks in meat department were 24.99/lb "dry aged" T-Bones with $5 off markdown stickers. About six of them. Porterhouse? Forget it- none here. This place used to have dozens of T-Bones and Porterhouses out on the weekends before the remodel in a variety of thicknesses, really great assortment and selection of meat before this turned into Raleys ONE and I cannot believe what has happened here. At least they had some New York Steaks that were priced not much over $10/lb. Those were labeled like the old Raleys meat (not even "Natural"). Probably got labeled wrong but at least it was a fair price.

Can't wait to see how this plays out- something is going to have to change here and it better change fast. I talked to someone this week who normally shops at a different Raleys but stopped into this ONE store on the way out to Lake Tahoe and was so turned off by it, frustrated by not being able to buy what they were planning to buy, and the whole trying to "tell me what I can and can't eat" thing that they said they were going to start shopping at Save Mart instead of the Raleys near where they live because they didn't want to support a company that is going in this direction...

Nice 2.5 star review average there on Yelp too- https://www.yelp.com/biz/raleys-o-n-e-m ... =date_desc
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Re: Raleys converting Reno Store to ONE Market Format

Post by ninersdd »

Technically that's not even a 2.5 star average, since it carried over before the change.
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