Albertsons Costa Mesa Closing, Northgate Gonzalez Will Replace

[CalItalian]

Albertsons closing in February https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pil ... n-february

This store will be similar to Northgate Gonzalez in Riverside. The Northgate Gonzalez in Riverside which opened in November in a former Toys R Us is a very nice store. Better than most general market supermarkets. Service was very fast despite a packed store of customers on the day I visited, the Sunday before Christmas. It has a travel agency in it, also, but I didn't see anyone using their services the day I was there. https://www.yelp.com/biz/northgate-gonz ... -riverside

[CalItalian]

Apparently it was opened as an Albertsons. I was skeptical as the exterior was quite similar to the former Lucky's, former Albertson's (now Sprouts) on Venice Blvd. in West L.A.

[Bagels]

Apparently it was opened as an Albertsons. I was skeptical as the exterior was quite similar to the former Lucky's, former Albertson's (now Sprouts) on Venice Blvd. in West L.A.

The Flickr photo mentions that it was developed by Lucky but opened as an Albertsons in 2000, a year after the merger. A 1999 LA Times article mentions that Albertsons would inherit Lucky stores under construction in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin, Ladera Ranch, Culver City and West Los Angeles. All of these stores featured the interior developed for Jewel. Apparently at some point, Supervalu renovated the Costa Mesa store into their cheap, tacky interior that's most commonly seen these days. The Tustin and Ladera Ranch location were both recently updated to "Colorful Lifestyles" (after the Ladera Ranch store was re-acquired from Haggen). The scheme looks incredibly silly as it was implemented in Tustin. The Irvine location retains the Jewel interior, as do two other Irvine locations (one that opened as a Lucky in the mid-1990s, and one that may have been the last new-build store planned as an Albertsons in LA/OC).

Nonetheless, it's not surprising the store's closing -- it's far larger than the Vons a mile down the road. The Vons always seems to have more business, too. Given that Albertsons-Vons-Pavilions have a similar market share as Ralphs, but with twice the store count, I expect that we'll see plenty of closures like this in the future. Sadly, the conversion to Northgate won't help them.

[rwsandiego]

Funny that the "Jewel" interior debuted 23 years ago yet doesn't look dated while "Premium Fresh and Healthy" looks, as @bagels said, slap-dash and cheap. (The Jewel version of PFH actually looked pretty good)

As much as I love huge grocery stores, the behemoth Albertsons stores always seemed "off" to me. Maybe that's because they are usually devoid of any customers. It doesn't surprise me that the Costa Mesa store is closing. Every time I stopped in the place was empty.

[storewanderer]

The other odd twist to this story is that Vons staying open was actually built as an Albertsons Grocery Palace interior store (hence the layout with bakery on the back wall, deli on the front wall, and frozen foods on the opposite side wall. It was actually one of the first stores of that prototype. There was a Vons down the road (old 70's Vons) which was sold off to Certified and ran as Sav Max Foods briefly before going out of business.

A bit of musical chairs in Costa Mesa back in 1999:
Lucky had new store under construction, but did not open it- with Jewel interior/layout as pointed out, Albertsons opened it
Albertsons divests own store nearby which was brand new, Vons moves in
Sav Max takes over old (old) Vons

[retailfanmitchell019]

Apparently it was opened as an Albertsons. I was skeptical as the exterior was quite similar to the former Lucky's, former Albertson's (now Sprouts) on Venice Blvd. in West L.A.

The Flickr photo mentions that it was developed by Lucky but opened as an Albertsons in 2000, a year after the merger. A 1999 LA Times article mentions that Albertsons would inherit Lucky stores under construction in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin, Ladera Ranch, Culver City and West Los Angeles. All of these stores featured the interior developed for Jewel. Apparently at some point, Supervalu renovated the Costa Mesa store into their cheap, tacky interior that's most commonly seen these days. The Tustin and Ladera Ranch location were both recently updated to "Colorful Lifestyles" (after the Ladera Ranch store was re-acquired from Haggen). The scheme looks incredibly silly as it was implemented in Tustin. The Irvine location retains the Jewel interior, as do two other Irvine locations (one that opened as a Lucky in the mid-1990s, and one that may have been the last new-build store planned as an Albertsons in LA/OC).

Nonetheless, it's not surprising the store's closing -- it's far larger than the Vons a mile down the road. The Vons always seems to have more business, too. Given that Albertsons-Vons-Pavilions have a similar market share as Ralphs, but with twice the store count, I expect that we'll see plenty of closures like this in the future. Sadly, the conversion to Northgate won't help them.

I think Tustin might've had Grocery Palace interior similar to this store: http://acmestyleblog.blogspot.com/2018/ ... aware.html
Ladera Ranch Albertsons was never sold to Haggen, the Pavilions neaby was. It previously had Premium Fresh & Healthy 1.0 (SVU) decor. There are still some Jewel elements in this store. On the interior front, it probably looked similar to this former Jewel/Pick N Save in a Milwaukee suburb: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pick+ ... 88.0876567

[klkla]

Ladera Ranch Albertsons was never sold to Haggen, the Pavilions neaby was.

This is correct. That store will become a Stater Bros this year.