Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by CalItalian »

I don't know what is going on with the Santa Monica location but many of the clerks and managers from that location have been working at Manhattan Beach, Marina del Rey and Century City as of late. Down to one or two checkstands open in Santa Monica at most times. They had a terrible Thanksgiving week unlike the three other locations mentioned.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by klkla »

I have noted in previous posts that the store is not very busy, as well. This location is clearly not working for them. I wonder how long they will give it to find it's niche before closing it. I have been there three times since they remodeled between 5-7 p.m. when supermarkets are generally busy and they were not very busy, at all. All three times they just had two cashiers working and no lines.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by CalItalian »

klkla wrote: December 12th, 2018, 9:03 am I have noted in previous posts that the store is not very busy, as well. This location is clearly not working for them. I wonder how long they will give it to find it's niche before closing it. I have been there three times since they remodeled between 5-7 p.m. when supermarkets are generally busy and they were not very busy, at all. All three times they just had two cashiers working and no lines.
Over the next few days a number of Santa Monica employees, clerks and clerks helpers, will be training in Century City, Marina del Rey and Manhattan Beach for one day only in just one location. Gelsons cut hours to current clerks and clerks helpers last minute to accomodate them. I may be reading too much into this but to me that sounds like they're training where they are going to get transferred sometime after the holidays.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by BreakingThrough »

I pass directly by the Manhattan Beach Gelson's and the new Hermosa Beach Lazy Acres on my drive home from work. Lazy Acres looks MUCH busier on any given weeknight than Gelson's. Just an observation.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by storewanderer »

I never got the impression Gelson's ran particularly high volume stores... it seems like competition is fierce and Gelson's offering is not modern enough.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: December 13th, 2018, 10:02 pm I never got the impression Gelson's ran particularly high volume stores... it seems like competition is fierce and Gelson's offering is not modern enough.
In their last year as a public company their average sales per store figure was a little more than $500,000 a week (that was five years ago) and included a very low volume store in Pasadena that was closed.

Their core stores are still high volume. The stores acquired from Haggen appear to be the main problem. In hindsight they probably should not have opened them until they had been remodeled. The stores opened with just a paint job and then went through a long two year remodeling process (except Pacific Beach and Thousand Oaks which received full remodels before opening). First impressions are really important and they not only failed in that aspect but also for the first two years of operation. That will be hard to overcome.

The two new stores built from ground up since then are problematic, too. Rancho Mission Viejo is a new master planned community and is still far from be fully developed. I'm sure they understood that from the begining, though, and in time that store will probably be O.K.

Manhattan Beach is at a location that should be a home run for Gelson's but there was a lot of opposition from some of neighbors that live near the store. Even though the project was eventually approved there is still some bitterness from that group. Gelson's had a similar situation in the late 1980's when they opened a store in Rancho Palos Verde. That store only lasted one year.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by storewanderer »

Has any new competition impacted the original stores that existed back when they were publicly traded that may have caused volumes in those stores to drop?

The situation with the former Haggen Stores is not very surprising. This seems to be a somewhat common problem. You have an above average operator who takes over some other average operator's stores, well intentioned so as to not disrupt the customers and employees, and tries to turn them around for a quick reopening. The result seems to be a poorly converted store that loses sales, which in turn does no favors for the customers (who go shop elsewhere) or the employees (who lose hours).
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: December 15th, 2018, 12:26 pm Has any new competition impacted the original stores that existed back when they were publicly traded that may have caused volumes in those stores to drop?
Bristol Farms took over the former Haggen/Vons in Woodland Hills which has had an impact on the Calabasas store. They will also be opening in the former Vons location in Santa Barbara which will probably impact their store there.

An Eataly opened in the same shopping center as Gelson's in Century City. They sell fresh produce, meat, wine, bakery, deli and limited groceries so that has probably had an impact.

The Sherman Oaks store was definitely impacted when Ralphs built a new replacement store on Ventura Blvd. Pavilions is also building a replacement store in Sherman Oaks and Whole Foods will be opening a new store at the corner of Ventura & Tyrone Ave.

Those are the only ones I know of off the top of my head.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by CalItalian »

klkla wrote: December 15th, 2018, 5:49 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 15th, 2018, 12:26 pm Has any new competition impacted the original stores that existed back when they were publicly traded that may have caused volumes in those stores to drop?
Bristol Farms took over the former Haggen/Vons in Woodland Hills which has had an impact on the Calabasas store. They will also be opening in the former Vons location in Santa Barbara which will probably impact their store there.

An Eataly opened in the same shopping center as Gelson's in Century City. They sell fresh produce, meat, wine, bakery, deli and limited groceries so that has probably had an impact.

The Sherman Oaks store was definitely impacted when Ralphs built a new replacement store on Ventura Blvd. Pavilions is also building a replacement store in Sherman Oaks and Whole Foods will be opening a new store at the corner of Ventura & Tyrone Ave.

Those are the only ones I know of off the top of my head.
Eataly has caused no impact on the Century City location. Their sales are at a record. Gelson's completed a complete remodel of Century City over the summer and the store has incredible business.

Calabasas Gelson's was impacted by the Woolsey fire not Bristol Farms. Their sales have rebounded in recent weeks.
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Re: Gelsons opening first of former Haggen locations January 14

Post by CalItalian »

Many Gelson's associates from Santa Monica will be transferred after the holidays. They have already been told the store locations they will be transferred to (as far as Long Beach, Silverlake and SFV). The one day training in other locations was to put them in a busy store environment which they don't have in Santa Monica. I don't know if the plan is to run Santa Monica with just fewer employees or wind down operations.
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