Pavilions?

California. No non-grocery posts.
storewanderer
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Re: Pavilions?

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: March 23rd, 2021, 9:34 pm Having a different set of SKUs for Pavilions might be a logistical challenge though. Pavilions is supplied from the same distribution centers as Vons (and now Albertsons, I assume) and the Pavilions stores are kind of scattered around.

As for shrink on fresh items, this is one of my pet peeves. I wish they would at least donate to food banks or something. But financially, I'm sure the appearance of abundance drives sales, and margins are probably high enough that this approach maximizes profits.
It is a logistical challenge but if they want to run an upscale format their logistics system needs the ability to run some different SKUs to make the stores unique and draw customers in. Maybe you have a nice imported Italian pasta made with special water from some ancient source in Italy and some special flour. At Vons you slot 3 rows of 2 pasta shapes, perhaps at a larger Vons you slot a couple more shapes and at a smaller Vons you slot less or even none. At Pavilions you may slot 18 rows of 9 pasta shapes from that line and you may run promotions on that instead of the perpetual 88 cent coupon on Barilla.

Some chains donate some of the bakery items out. But things like hot chicken (and I suspect a significant portion of all those deli mayonnaise based and oil based pasta salads) just go straight out as shrink/waste.
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Re: Pavilions?

Post by jamcool »

Don't they just package the leftover hot chicken and sell it in the cold case along the premade sandwiches?
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Re: Pavilions?

Post by pseudo3d »

jamcool wrote: March 24th, 2021, 12:24 am Don't they just package the leftover hot chicken and sell it in the cold case along the premade sandwiches?
I know that's what they used to do. It was a mess to take a cold roti chicken, rip off the skin, de-bone it, and tear it into shreds, but it worked. I'm not sure if it actually sold well, though...I was told that people (the upper-class houses to the east of us) would use it as dog food.
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Re: Pavilions?

Post by veteran+ »

What I have noticed at the West Hollywood Pavilions:

1. Prices have slowly come down but still a bit higher than Ralphs.

2. Staff levels and customer service has improved (above Vons and Ralphs).

3. Corporate, store level management communications with customers have dramatically improved (positive attitude, follow through, call backs, listening skills, etc. - a world apart from Ralphs!).

About large format grocers in my immediate area........................ABSENT!

But I still keep on wishing :cry:
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Re: Pavilions?

Post by pseudo3d »

The current playbook for the Albertsons chains is to not really experiment with new names and upscale formats (Balducci's and Haggen aside, especially since those were acquired) and to just make some stores nicer than others. Some of the new Tom Thumbs like the one in Deep Ellum that opened November of last year have features like a from-scratch bakery with exclusive recipes. Like California's Vons, Tom Thumb had its own "upscale" version (Tom Thumb Flagship, based after the similar Randalls Flagship in Houston), and like Vons, the "upscale" version fell by the wayside.

Maybe it's time to retire the Pavilions name and just have Vons, even if some of them are destination-tier and some of them are bog-standard Lifestyle stores. It seems to work for other chains.
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