Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

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Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by reymann »

I was at Food Maxx today and I noticed a lot of the Market Essentials branded products are reverting back to Sunny Select. I guess it's easier to use the Sunny Select name since Save Mart distributes the Sunny Select branded products.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by storewanderer »

Save Mart's private label program keeps changing. I never understood what was different between Market Essentials and Sunny Select anyway.

The odd "Market Essentials ME and my life" label for paper products was... just odd.

They are using Simply Done now on cleaning/picnic/food storage wrap/trash bag categories (not clear yet what they are doing with paper products).

They also have some "Unbranded" generic items with no branding on the packaging at all. I forget what I noticed- I think it was bottled syrup. But there were other items too.

Some categories they have no private label at all (frozen waffles) and some distributor label (Maple Lake Foods or something).

I also see some random Food Club items (pie crusts, stuffing mix).

Sunny Select is a lousy label (my perception of that label dates back to when Raleys carried it- lousy quality stuff) and I do not buy anything in that brand due to past poor experiences. It is probably fine now, but I still don't buy it. Enough other stores to shop at with better prices in Reno with more reliable private labels (that would be, any other store). Perhaps if I was in a different location with fewer choices, I would give Sunny Select some more chances. I have been shopping Save Mart/Food Maxx a little more often in recent months (most of this shopping was previously done at Smiths) as I have found some positive things at both, but still won't touch this brand.

Save Mart is using TopCo for its private label, so they should give it up and just go 100% Food Club (TopCo stock label, like Simply Done and Top Care) for private label. They have changed their in house labels back and forth too many times. As long as they can get a lower cost with Food Club, vs. this Sunny Select-Market Essentials-Unbranded yo-yo game they are playing, that is what they need to do. Food Club has a wide mix and attractive packaging. It would give Save Mart the opportunity to finally have all of their private label food items under a single label - no more packer label on frozen waffles, "unbranded" label on bottled syrup, and Sunny Select label on the canned goods.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Food Club brand seems to have a very nice selection of products. It would be a vast improvement over Sunny Select.

https://foodclubbrand.com/
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 31st, 2020, 9:14 pm The Food Club brand seems to have a very nice selection of products. It would be a vast improvement over Sunny Select.

https://foodclubbrand.com/
Food Club is quite good. Much improved package designs from when Scolaris carried it in NV in the early 00's, though even then I recall a pretty large mix of items and do not recall any quality issues. I was really disappointed to see Western Family discontinued and replaced with Food Club at the AFS-Utah-supplied independent stores, but as the dust settled, the last few Western Family items went away (there are still a few randoms like school supplies sitting around some of the stores), and more and more Food Club items showed up, it became very clear that TopCo has put a lot into this Food Club label, its mix, and its package design. The packages are appealing to the eye with attractive coloring and graphics.

A chain the size of Save Mart should have its own private label but the unique thing with Save Mart is they are running under 3 distinct banners (4 if you count that one Maxx Value Foods in Modesto) so it would not make sense to do a banner brand. Save Mart has never had any items with the "Save Mart" label on them, though Lucky prior to 1999 had a large private label program with its brand. So they have to do some generic thing like Sunny Select that makes sense to run across banners. It may have made sense if they had committed to 100% Sunny Select but they haven't really done that, going back and forth on labels, especially the past few years, to the point where their private label program is confusing and there is no clear line what any of their brands stand for (are they better than name brand, equal to name brand, hard value items at the lowest price but not the best quality?). At this point- time to go all in on that Food Club label for food and just go with that.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by veteran+ »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 31st, 2020, 9:14 pm The Food Club brand seems to have a very nice selection of products. It would be a vast improvement over Sunny Select.

https://foodclubbrand.com/
What is the difference between Topco branded products and Food Club branded products?
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by rwsandiego »

veteran+ wrote: November 1st, 2020, 4:33 am
Alpha8472 wrote: October 31st, 2020, 9:14 pm The Food Club brand seems to have a very nice selection of products. It would be a vast improvement over Sunny Select.

https://foodclubbrand.com/
What is the difference between Topco branded products and Food Club branded products?
I wasn't aware Topco was used as a brand. The closest I've seen is "Top Care." Food is usually "Food Club," HBA is "Top Care," and household is "Simply Done." They have a natural/organic brand called (I think) "Full Circle."

In my experience, Food Club has excellent products. Bashas' sells Topco's private label products and the prices are good and the quality is great.

Frankly, "Market Essentials" sounds better than "Sunny Select," which smacks of something Saturday Night Live would make up. Reminds me of the dumb "Raggedy Ann" brand Certified Grocers Midwest used to have. Save Mart should probably retire that silly brand name in favor of Food Club.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: November 1st, 2020, 4:33 am
Alpha8472 wrote: October 31st, 2020, 9:14 pm The Food Club brand seems to have a very nice selection of products. It would be a vast improvement over Sunny Select.

https://foodclubbrand.com/
What is the difference between Topco branded products and Food Club branded products?
There seem to be some differences as I have a few items here in Food Club brand that I obtained from AFS-Utah supplied stores, and then in Raleys brand (Raleys private label is handled by TopCo)- identical items that appear to be from the same packers- and the ingredient order/nutrition/salt information vary slightly between the two brands on 2 of the 3 items, the other item it is identical. All are canned items. The Raleys items have lower salt contents. Maybe Raleys is having something done to their items to get the salt down.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: November 1st, 2020, 7:49 am Frankly, "Market Essentials" sounds better than "Sunny Select," which smacks of something Saturday Night Live would make up. Reminds me of the dumb "Raggedy Ann" brand Certified Grocers Midwest used to have. Save Mart should probably retire that silly brand name in favor of Food Club.
Sunny Select was formed around 1992 by Raleys and Save Mart joint venture Super Store Industries (SSI)- at that time Raleys used Fleming's Bonnie Hubbard brand for private label... not sure what Save Mart was using back then. Burkle was involved in some way as well as the SoCal F4L Stores sold Sunny Select under him but with different distributor information on the back of the label (maybe Alpha Beta, Boys, etc. had it at the end too?). Cala/Bell in NorCal sold Sunny Select items as well until 1999 when they started to sell Ralphs brand items. NorCal Ralphs banner never sold any SSI items but the Cala/Bell/FoodsCo stores continued to sell some limited Sunnyside dairy items up until the formal closure of Cala/Bell took place around 2009 (the 3 Cala/Bell that continued a few more years stopped selling those few Sunnyside items when the rest of Cala/Bell formally closed as did FoodsCo).

Raleys seemed to phase Sunny Select out very slowly over time over the past decade; their Food Source stores still had Sunny Select items up until about 2 years ago though.

Raleys/Save Mart at that time already had a joint venture for dairy under the name Sunnyside-Mid Valley Dairy (and Bayview as a budget brand). So Sunny Select was basically an extension of Sunnyside. Both stores continue to sell Sunnyside at this time but there is less Sunnyside at Raleys than there is at Save Mart and Raleys doesn't have any Bayview anymore.

At one point Raleys/Save Mart had a combined private label for drug called Today's Health. At some point that went away in favor of the Top Care items.

Raleys switched to "Simply Done" for paper products/household plastic bags/wraps 2-3 years ago and it is interesting Save Mart is just now making that change.

I have noticed more Full Circle Organics items at Save Mart lately as well. Previously (and maybe still in some cases) Save Mart was doing their own label for those items called Pacific Coast Organics. They still seem to have some stuff in that label as well. That label is attractive and the few items I've purchased have been of good quality.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: November 1st, 2020, 11:03 am Sunny Select was formed around 1992 by Raleys and Save Mart joint venture Super Store Industries (SSI)- at that time Raleys used Fleming's Bonnie Hubbard brand for private label... not sure what Save Mart was using back then.
I think Save Mart used Hy-Top (from Federated) before then.

I agree that Topco has improved their quality and packaging in the last couple years. Good quality, but not as good as Albertsons brands.
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Re: Save Mart phasing out Market Essentials

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: November 1st, 2020, 2:11 pm

I agree that Topco has improved their quality and packaging in the last couple years. Good quality, but not as good as Albertsons brands.
I'm not too impressed with Albertsons brands. I find Kroger's program to be far superior in mix and price and about on par in overall quality (some items better, some items worse). And all you have to do is look at how much private label Kroger sells vs. how much Albertsons sells to see that other shoppers agree.

They have really downgraded the old Safeway private label program which was above average but priced way too high (Safeway seemed to like to use private label as a profit center pricing it at or above brand names, rather than as a competitively priced traffic draw that makes profit in high volume of sales). There are some items they make in the Safeway plants that are still quite good (yogurt, tomato-based glass jar items like salsa, pasta sauce, etc., soda/seltzer are also very good). Their private label ice cream isn't very good, their milk is passable at best and chalky at worst, and the rest of their stuff is hit and miss. The preserves used to be good (back when they were made in a Safeway plant) but they stopped that shortly after the merger and the new suppliers (this again has changed multiple times) are not as good as when they were made by Safeway in the Safeway plant. The frozen pizzas have changed suppliers at least 3 times in the past few years and seem to get worse every time- they are still fine, but not great. The frozen meals are definitely above average. The Lucerne cheese is interesting; I find the shredded cheese to be of excellent quality but the cheese slices in the 6 or 8oz deli-sliced type packaging (Swiss, etc.) are terrible waxy stuff. Overall I find Albertsons private label program to change suppliers a lot, it is not clear what is a mid-level item and what is a premium item (many Signature Reserve items have already been discontinued), and pricing is very often above national brands and they do not promote the items well.

Back to the Food Club topic, the AFS-Utah Stores have settled pretty well with Food Club. They really pushed Western Family hard at AFS-Utah; most stores had a Western Family logo on their storefront, bags said Western Family, and there was a lot of in-store signage. Food Club doesn't quite have the level of promotion Western Family had with the marketing support yet. However, it is priced very competitively (as was Western Family before) and the mix is larger than Western Family was at the end as Western Family hadn't added many new items in the last 2 years it was running.
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