Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

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Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by storewanderer »

Vallarta to take the store over.

Wal Mart Supercenter is in the same parking lot... this was a new build FoodsCo probably in the late 90's or early 00's.

The other two FoodsCo locations in Bakersfield that are staying open are both former Smiths.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by lake52 »

FoodsCo strikes me as a group of stores that Kroger doesn't particularly want, but the rent is cheap and the volume is high, so they hold on to them. Vallerta was probably willing to pay a bit more than Kroger.

I'd imagine with the prices FoodsCo charges and the overhead they have to pay for armed security, Kroger can't make any kind of rent increase work. Especially with how much they have to pay to truck their goods in from SoCal/Utah (more of a Norcal comment than Bakersfield).
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by storewanderer »

lake52 wrote: December 13th, 2020, 7:11 pm FoodsCo strikes me as a group of stores that Kroger doesn't particularly want, but the rent is cheap and the volume is high, so they hold on to them. Vallerta was probably willing to pay a bit more than Kroger.

I'd imagine with the prices FoodsCo charges and the overhead they have to pay for armed security, Kroger can't make any kind of rent increase work. Especially with how much they have to pay to truck their goods in from SoCal/Utah (more of a Norcal comment than Bakersfield).
I'm not sure about in Bakersfield, but a lot of the FoodsCo product for bay area/Sacramento is coming from C&S facilities in NorCal including many Kroger brand items. The rest of their product is coming up from SoCal. FoodsCo does not directly receive any items from Utah. Some non-fluid milk dairy items are being trucked from Utah to SoCal then distributed up to NorCal (yogurt and such).

What is interesting is Reno Smiths receives dry goods from Las Vegas and perishable from Utah and has never received any product directly from California distribution centers, despite the additional distance involved with what they are doing.

The lack of new store growth at FoodsCo on its face comes off as a lack of interest, but it isn't much different than the lack of new store growth in general with Kroger on the west coast. Sacramento and Oakland both got new construction FoodsCo stores in the past 10-12 years.

FoodsCo serves a niche in NorCal with where it operates stores, in places where others do not seem to be very interested in going, with stores that provide very affordable prices in an otherwise very high cost market. I also think FoodsCo has strong loyalty among its customer base as well as its employee base in NorCal. The stores are a mess and not very pleasant places to shop, but they definitely fill a niche.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by pseudo3d »

lake52 wrote: December 13th, 2020, 7:11 pm FoodsCo strikes me as a group of stores that Kroger doesn't particularly want, but the rent is cheap and the volume is high, so they hold on to them. Vallerta was probably willing to pay a bit more than Kroger.

I'd imagine with the prices FoodsCo charges and the overhead they have to pay for armed security, Kroger can't make any kind of rent increase work. Especially with how much they have to pay to truck their goods in from SoCal/Utah (more of a Norcal comment than Bakersfield).
I don't know...beyond the Great COVID Mess-Up, Kroger seems to have an idea for the homogenization of its brands and line-up, and I wouldn't think FoodsCo would be part of that. There sure have some been odd closures throughout the entire chain in the last 12 months.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: December 13th, 2020, 8:50 pmWhat is interesting is Reno Smiths receives dry goods from Las Vegas and perishable from Utah and has never received any product directly from California distribution centers, despite the additional distance involved with what they are doing.
I didn't realize Kroger has a DC in Las Vegas. Maybe the Reno stores are receiving product from their to justify keeping that DC open.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: December 14th, 2020, 5:47 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 13th, 2020, 8:50 pmWhat is interesting is Reno Smiths receives dry goods from Las Vegas and perishable from Utah and has never received any product directly from California distribution centers, despite the additional distance involved with what they are doing.
I didn't realize Kroger has a DC in Las Vegas. Maybe the Reno stores are receiving product from their to justify keeping that DC open.
It is a brand new DC for dry goods only. It opened last year. Technically it is in Henderson... It is just for Smiths. It serves Las Vegas, part of Utah (St. George/Cedar City), the 4 AZ Smiths, and New Mexico. Probably about 70 stores.

I think Frys AZ Distribution which was previously sending dry goods to most of these stores (except the Reno ones) may have been rather over capacity.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by HCal »

I went to this store on the last day... quite sad, but at least the employees said they were being transferred to other locations.

Was it a former Ralphs by any chance? I spotted a Ralphs logo on a sign behind the counter, but I've seen that at various Food4Less locations as well.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: February 1st, 2021, 11:22 pm I went to this store on the last day... quite sad, but at least the employees said they were being transferred to other locations.

Was it a former Ralphs by any chance? I spotted a Ralphs logo on a sign behind the counter, but I've seen that at various Food4Less locations as well.
That store was built as FoodsCo. I don't think it was planned as a Ralphs but am not sure. Ralphs of course built 2 stores there, one is still open as Save Mart, the other which Save Mart was slated to take over then didn't get to at the last second which even had a Ralphs gas station, is some non-grocery use now.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by HCal »

storewanderer wrote: February 2nd, 2021, 7:43 pm That store was built as FoodsCo. I don't think it was planned as a Ralphs but am not sure. Ralphs of course built 2 stores there, one is still open as Save Mart, the other which Save Mart was slated to take over then didn't get to at the last second which even had a Ralphs gas station, is some non-grocery use now.
It's actually vacant again. It was a Sport Chalet for a number of years until they closed the chain. That area is completely over-stored, with a Smart & Final and Aldi having opened up in the same shopping center, and Vons across the street.
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Re: Foods Co Closing Bakersfield, CA- Rosedale Hwy

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: February 2nd, 2021, 9:07 pm
It's actually vacant again. It was a Sport Chalet for a number of years until they closed the chain. That area is completely over-stored, with a Smart & Final and Aldi having opened up in the same shopping center, and Vons across the street.
What a waste; that was a very nice Ralphs. One of the largest Ralphs.

The Vons across the street- was actually built as Save Mart. They didn't operate it long and Vons took it off their hands (pre-Safeway merger). Supposedly that was why they could not take the old Ralphs over, some kind of a non-compete.
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