Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by submariner »

klkla wrote: June 3rd, 2019, 6:57 pm
I'm pretty sure that most, if not all Ralphs offer online ordering: https://delivery.ralphs.com/
Sort of. I used online ordering from "my store" in Garden Grove, but the delivery came from the Fresh Fare in Brea. The meal prep kits are also only at the Fresh Fare stores, so it seems like Fresh Fare stores are where most of Kroger/Ralphs' energy toward new technology or services are focused... not to say they mainline stores are being ignored, on the contrary, most stores are still on a regular decor refresh cycle and for the most part clean and updated
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: June 3rd, 2019, 6:57 pm
storewanderer wrote: June 2nd, 2019, 11:29 am Given what has happened to Ralphs (tons of store closures, general underperforming position compared to other Kroger banners with few stores offering online ordering, no Marketplace stores, and few with fuel stations) I can see how they may not be able to justify having it have its own private label.
I'm not disagreeing about your general argument that Ralphs doesn't need to have it's own brand names but I think the remaining Ralphs stores are probably among the highest performing in the company, especially the core stores in metro L.A. that often do twice the volume of competing Vons and Albertson's stores.

I'm pretty sure that most, if not all Ralphs offer online ordering: https://delivery.ralphs.com/

The Marketplace stores wouldn't make sense in SoCal because of the price of real estate.
storewanderer wrote: June 2nd, 2019, 11:29 amBack when Ralphs was a 300+ store chain
They became a 300 store chain after buying a lot of mediocre locations through acquisitions. Focusing on their core locations and closing the mediocre stores as their leases expire makes sense.
storewanderer wrote: June 2nd, 2019, 11:29 amRalphs in particular does not have very good transaction velocity compared to the rest of Kroger due to its pricing, smaller store sizes, and its markets and it becomes very evident that putting everything there to the Kroger label is the right move.
Ralphs has excellent transaction velocity despite it's pricing and a lot of those smaller locations are in areas where barriers to entry will keep competition from ever becoming a problem. Their remaining stores are in either very wealthy markets or very densely populated markets.
I think those delivery services are through third parties. I was referring to the online ordering where store employees pull orders and customers pull up to designated parking lot spaces to pick the order up. Hardly any Ralphs offer that. Every Smiths in my market has that now or is about to have it... and this isn't exactly a major market for them.

They did pick up quite a few bad stores... the mystery is why they put so much money into those stores then closed them (specifically Northern California).

I hope you're right about the remaining stores... the flow of store closures does seem to have slowed down considerably. I'd like to see them try to grow some; I think there are some opportunities but they don't seem to be taking them.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by ninersdd »

Yeah speaking of which with questionable locations near me in Sacramento, the former Ralphs on Bradshaw(just West of the former Mather AFB) was vacant for 12 years before becoming a Dollar Tree and Grocery Outlet in its place. There is one that closed in Carmichael which became this place called Eve's Market, which didn't last long and closed in late 2008. It is still vacant to this day.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

That Bradshaw Ralphs got caught up in the Fresh & Easy mess. It was one of those finished stores that never opened. I don't think Bradshaw did particularly well (heard it was always profitable, but I am guessing not very) but may have potentially done okay as a FoodsCo.

Not sure what the story on Carmichael is... that was actually a pretty good performing Ralphs.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by Bagels »

klkla wrote: June 3rd, 2019, 6:57 pmI'm not disagreeing about your general argument that Ralphs doesn't need to have it's own brand names but I think the remaining Ralphs stores are probably among the highest performing in the company, especially the core stores in metro L.A. that often do twice the volume of competing Vons and Albertson's stores.
I'm curious about this. Ralph's has long been known to underperform compared to the rest of the Kroger chain, but I can't find any recent articles that guesstimate Ralph's average sales per store. Does anybody know of a source that cites this? Playing with general statistics provided by Shelby Report, my rough math concludes Ralph's is still below the $30M average store sales within the Company, but I'm guesstimating.
They became a 300 store chain after buying a lot of mediocre locations through acquisitions. Focusing on their core locations and closing the mediocre stores as their leases expire makes sense.
No disagreement that at the time of the acquisition by Kroger, Ralph's had too many stores in LA/OC. I'll give them a pass on LA/OC -- in the late 2000s, Walmart predicted it'd have more than 200 Neighborhood Markets by 2020, but did not open a single Neighborhood Market beyond the initial wave, and a few years ago closed about half of the stores they did open during the initial wave. Ultimately, traditional chains can't compete against the ethic markets for Hispanic and first generation Asian shoppers.

That said, I'm baffled that Kroger couldn't complete in Northern or Central CA, and continues to reduce its store count in the IE. It isn't like Staer Bros. is that great of a market.
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Re: Ralphs Apparently Dropping Van de Kamp's Bakery Brand Name

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: June 6th, 2019, 3:25 pm
klkla wrote: June 3rd, 2019, 6:57 pmI'm not disagreeing about your general argument that Ralphs doesn't need to have it's own brand names but I think the remaining Ralphs stores are probably among the highest performing in the company, especially the core stores in metro L.A. that often do twice the volume of competing Vons and Albertson's stores.
I'm curious about this. Ralph's has long been known to underperform compared to the rest of the Kroger chain, but I can't find any recent articles that guesstimate Ralph's average sales per store. Does anybody know of a source that cites this? Playing with general statistics provided by Shelby Report, my rough math concludes Ralph's is still below the $30M average store sales within the Company, but I'm guesstimating.
They became a 300 store chain after buying a lot of mediocre locations through acquisitions. Focusing on their core locations and closing the mediocre stores as their leases expire makes sense.
No disagreement that at the time of the acquisition by Kroger, Ralph's had too many stores in LA/OC. I'll give them a pass on LA/OC -- in the late 2000s, Walmart predicted it'd have more than 200 Neighborhood Markets by 2020, but did not open a single Neighborhood Market beyond the initial wave, and a few years ago closed about half of the stores they did open during the initial wave. Ultimately, traditional chains can't compete against the ethic markets for Hispanic and first generation Asian shoppers.

That said, I'm baffled that Kroger couldn't complete in Northern or Central CA, and continues to reduce its store count in the IE. It isn't like Staer Bros. is that great of a market.
Ralphs could have competed very effectively in Northern or Central CA if they had wanted to. Their problem was pricing, and also some remodeling mistakes where stores in low income parts of Sacramento got remodeled for some mysterious reason while stores in more middle class suburbs did not (was probably based on volume). The bay area Cala/Bell Stores also had a different perimeter than Ralphs did with extremely high pricing and not so great quality of products (Safeway was better quality and pricing). Something was weird with those stores. The bay area Cala/Bell stores needed a QFC-like approach and the ones in Sacramento/central valley needed a standard Kroger-type approach similar to what is used at Smiths or Frys (everyday low pricing, hot ads, and a strong focus on product freshness on perimeter). Same goes in the IE, a standard Kroger approach like what is successful at Smiths or Frys in Las Vegas or Arizona would work just fine. Some slight tinkering to what is advertised (more focus on fresh produce and certain ethnic food items) and they would be all set.

All of the new stores Ralphs built in Northern or Central California house other grocers, but it was only 5 stores... 3 around Sacramento and 2 in Fresno.

Ralphs just didn't want to do it... and they left behind some great stores and great store teams in the process.

Maybe if Ralphs continues to shrink they can just buy Stater. I've said it before, Stater seems a lot more in line with the rest of Kroger than Ralphs.
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