Smith's California Adventure

California. No non-grocery posts.
storewanderer
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Smith's California Adventure

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: March 8th, 2020, 2:50 pm
storewanderer wrote: March 7th, 2020, 11:15 pm They opened stores that were too big and could not pull the sales volumes they needed. They pulled good volumes, higher than other stores in CA were pulling, but they were too low given the size of the stores was simply too large. They did go with a scaled down store size by the mid 90's but by then they were in way too deep. Lucky and Vons fought them pretty hard on price.
Only about a third of their stores were viable. The others failed for one reason: Crappy real estate!
Quite a few of them did continue as supermarkets into the 00's though. Many of the ones that went to Albertsons did end up closed but I think there are still a few open like Santa Maria. I am not really sure if those store failures are a reflection on the stores or on how Albertsons ran things into the ground. Also a handfull that went to Ralphs/F4L remain open. And there is that Vons in Grover Beach that was a Smiths, an excellent high volume store. I suspect they overpaid big time for the locations.

Somewhere I have the property auction book from when they sold off the stores.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by Bagels »

Smith’s built a store in Garden Grove that became a Lucky’s and survived as an Albertsons until the late 2000s. I recall that, in the mid-2000s, Albertsons shrunk the foot print of the store and put up curtains to hide the empty section. Obviously they planned to sublease but I don’t think it ever happened. Looked incredibly tacky... Kmart pulled the same move with many of its Super Kmarts that it pulled groceries from.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by Bluelightspecial »

I think there are a couple of the old Smiths still operating as other operators. I'm pretty sure the store in Redondo Beach on Inglewood Blvd used to be a Smiths and is now a Vons. It has a center entrance.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by klkla »

Smith's decision to leave SoCal was announced on January 9th, 1996. They had opened their first store in September 1991.

At the time they had 34 stores and agreements to sell only 18 of them.

"Ralphs, the region’s leading chain, bought eight of the stores: in Riverside, La Puente, Highland, Vista, Glendora, Beaumont and two locations in Bakersfield."

"Vons, the No. 2 chain in Southern California, acquired stores in Yorba Linda, La Habra, Torrance, and Grover Beach."

"Lucky, the third-ranked chain, also acquired four stores. Those stores are in El Cajon, Lancaster, Oxnard and Hemet."

The other two buyers were not announced at the time.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

This article was posted earlier in the thread but I wanted to bring it back up to show the break down. Just slightly more than half the stores were sold and the other half were dogs.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by Bagels »

Smith's biggest problem was that the size of its stores lead to widespread community opposition. It scrapped plans for stores in Irvine, Lake Forest (Foothill Ranch), Laguna Niguel, Simi Valley, Gardena and elsewhere after sites were rejected. Toward the end, it had selected sites in Crenshaw (!) and Hawaiian Gardens for new stores, but both were scrapped after it exited Southern California.
klkla wrote: March 12th, 2020, 2:29 pmAt the time they had 34 stores and agreements to sell only 18 of them. ... Just slightly more than half the stores were sold and the other half were dogs.
Several other stores were picked up later, but I don't think that's fair criteria to judge specific stores. Remember, at the time of the divestiture, both Vons and the merged Ralphs-Alpha Beta-Food4Less-Boys had over 300 supermarkets each. The former Smith stores likely did not add to their geographic reach, and at 80K-100K SF each, were too big anyway.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Bagels wrote: March 13th, 2020, 12:59 am Smith's biggest problem was that the size of its stores lead to widespread community opposition. It scrapped plans for stores in Irvine, Lake Forest (Foothill Ranch), Laguna Niguel, Simi Valley, Gardena and elsewhere after sites were rejected. Toward the end, it had selected sites in Crenshaw (!) and Hawaiian Gardens for new stores, but both were scrapped after it exited Southern California.
Do you know of any planned stores Smith's had in San Diego County?
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by steps »

klkla wrote: March 12th, 2020, 2:29 pm Smith's decision to leave SoCal was announced on January 9th, 1996. They had opened their first store in September 1991.

At the time they had 34 stores and agreements to sell only 18 of them.

"Ralphs, the region’s leading chain, bought eight of the stores: in Riverside, La Puente, Highland, Vista, Glendora, Beaumont and two locations in Bakersfield."

"Vons, the No. 2 chain in Southern California, acquired stores in Yorba Linda, La Habra, Torrance, and Grover Beach."

"Lucky, the third-ranked chain, also acquired four stores. Those stores are in El Cajon, Lancaster, Oxnard and Hemet."

The other two buyers were not announced at the time.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html

This article was posted earlier in the thread but I wanted to bring it back up to show the break down. Just slightly more than half the stores were sold and the other half were dogs.
I'm going to assume the Torrance Vons is the large store on Crenshaw in the shopping center? I thought it might have been planned as a Pavilions since it was so large but if it was a Smith's prior, that would make since given its size.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 23rd, 2021, 2:37 pm
Bagels wrote: March 13th, 2020, 12:59 am Smith's biggest problem was that the size of its stores lead to widespread community opposition. It scrapped plans for stores in Irvine, Lake Forest (Foothill Ranch), Laguna Niguel, Simi Valley, Gardena and elsewhere after sites were rejected. Toward the end, it had selected sites in Crenshaw (!) and Hawaiian Gardens for new stores, but both were scrapped after it exited Southern California.
Do you know of any planned stores Smith's had in San Diego County?
Smiths operated in El Cajon 198 West Main Street (store went to Lucky, was Albertsons for a couple years).

Also La Jolla Ralphs is a former Smiths.

Also Food 4 Less Vista is a former Smiths.

Also in San Diego Smiths had a 5 acre land site at NE Corner of Euclid and Highway 94. The part of the lot Smiths had is the part of the lot is in the final half of the offramp and the space along Euclid up to the McDonalds. The half of the lot on the half of the offramp closest to the main highway was not part of their lease.

There may have been additional locations. Seems like Food 4 Less has had success with the former Smiths locations it took over.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by J-Man »

"Ralphs, the region’s leading chain, bought eight of the stores: in Riverside, La Puente, Highland, Vista, Glendora, Beaumont and two locations in Bakersfield."
The Glendora Ralphs lasted for a while, but a few years back the whole center was remodeled and now the former Smith's houses a Sprouts and a Marshall's.
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Re: Smith's California Adventure

Post by veteran+ »

There was at least ONE Smiths in Palms Springs on Highway 111.

I believe the building and center were torn down and the lot is still empty?
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