The Latin American focused Cardenas Market in Concord, California closed March 3 after only 6 months. This was formerly a Safeway that had been abandoned for years.
The neighborhood is a terrible one. There are purse snatchings and car break ins all the time. Shoplifting doomed the Safeway and the Cardenas Market faced the same problems.
The store itself was very clean and nice with the latest fancy decor from Cardenas Market. The in-store taqueria had a nice cafe with chairs hanging from the ceiling. There were posters of famous classic Mexican movie stars.
I am shocked that the company actually opened the store in the first place. Rumor had it that Mi Pueblo wanted to open in the abandoned Safeway years ago, but decided not to due to their financial problems. Mi Pueblo filed for bankruptcy and was later merged with Cardenas Market in 2017.
Perhaps this location is cursed.
This is the second time Albertsons has closed a supermarket in this neighborhood. There was an Albertsons (originally Lucky)across the street that closed in 2005. The Safeway at the time was owned by the original Safeway and outlived the Albertsons for many years. Then Albertsons bought Safeway and closed the Safeway. The Albertsons was taken over by FoodMaxx which is still open to this day.
I found Cardenas Market to have decent prices. You could often find good sales prices on many items. However, some items were more expensive than Safeway and definitely more expensive than FoodMaxx.
Cardenas Market Closes After 6 Months
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storewanderer
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Re: Cardenas Market Closes After 6 Months
I think there is some kind of dispute between the City of Concord and the property owner over the design of the location.
Still surprised Cardenas closed so quickly. But keep in mind the NorCal operation is the old bankrupt Mi Pueblo chain. The numbers must have been absolutely terrible in Concord to close so quickly... Food Maxx probably beat them on center store pricing and had comparable pricing in fresh departments. I don't think El Super has ever pushed north beyond Salinas which has also been curious to me.
Hispanic operators in general do not seem to do very well in NorCal. Unified NorCal really failed these independents providing them with a terrible mix of items at outrageously high shelf prices for center store. There seemed to be zero support on merchandising and promotions and the result is stores where people shop fresh departments but center store is not shopped. Nothing has changed under Supervalu/UNFI. More in the central valley are using C&S and they seem to be faring much better. Still, for the little operators in NorCal, most were on Unified.
Still surprised Cardenas closed so quickly. But keep in mind the NorCal operation is the old bankrupt Mi Pueblo chain. The numbers must have been absolutely terrible in Concord to close so quickly... Food Maxx probably beat them on center store pricing and had comparable pricing in fresh departments. I don't think El Super has ever pushed north beyond Salinas which has also been curious to me.
Hispanic operators in general do not seem to do very well in NorCal. Unified NorCal really failed these independents providing them with a terrible mix of items at outrageously high shelf prices for center store. There seemed to be zero support on merchandising and promotions and the result is stores where people shop fresh departments but center store is not shopped. Nothing has changed under Supervalu/UNFI. More in the central valley are using C&S and they seem to be faring much better. Still, for the little operators in NorCal, most were on Unified.