Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

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Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by ninersdd »

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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by storewanderer »

Good thing there is Nugget, an established Safeway, and a 9 month old Safeway nearby.

Interesting decision given the new Safeway nearby.

Locals in Truckee I've talked to don't like the new Raleys at all. Safeway and Save Mart in Truckee both seem as busy as ever and Grocery Outlet is also staying fairly busy there.

Probably picked this location since it is only 39,000 square feet. I wonder if Nugget and Safeway's two stores there are causing them problems. All 3 are larger and more modern facilities with the Nugget being a former new build Ralphs then remodeled by Nugget so very nice to begin with and then taken up another level by Nugget, a 9 month old Safeway which is arguably somewhat sterile but certainly nice enough, and a 10 or so year old lifestyle Safeway in the standard configuration.

That El Dorado Hills Raleys- they sort of cheaped out on the last remodel, did not take out the drop ceiling and the cement floor conversion looks bad (maybe they put a replacement floor in since I was there; they re-floored some stores that had bad looking cement). They have done quite a bit of remodeling to that store over the years trying to chase Ralphs, then Nugget, etc. Whenever I've been there it never has much activity but I always assumed given the location it probably did not need to do a ton of volume to make money.

The article says "additional store conversions could follow." Could? I thought they wanted to convert every store to this format within 5 years. What happened?

They could try to target for conversion around Sacramento, some of those Bel Air Stores. Those also seem to be smaller in size. The problem is this O-N-E format isn't very good... and Truckee has not gotten any better since it opened... maybe execution will be better in El Dorado Hills in a mature store with established staff. It is tough to open and staff a new store in a seasonal area with transient employees and that is what Raleys did in Truckee- in a new format to boot. May not have been the best spot to try the first location.
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: March 29th, 2021, 9:51 pm The article says "additional store conversions could follow." Could? I thought they wanted to convert every store to this format within 5 years. What happened?
Maybe similar to Price Chopper over here in NY. They came out with a new format/name (Market 32) and started doing conversions but have slowed down (or at least it seems) on them. I don't think they worked out as well as the chain hoped either, which in itself may slow down the process (if they were planning on a certain increase in sales in those renovated stores to cover future renovation costs, and that increase hasn't occurred at the level they expected).
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by lake52 »

ninersdd wrote: March 29th, 2021, 9:11 pm https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ... j=23367505

2nd store after the Truckee one.
If they were to pick a pilot store, this would be the one to do it. As storewanderer mentioned, this store does good business, but it’s not in their top half traffic wise. If traffics increases, they figure they’ve got something and do some riskier conversions (Granite Bay and Redwood City come to mind). If traffic decreases, they can convert it back to Raleys and there’s little harm. With a short closure, they can’t be doing much more than changing out the merchandise so this probably won’t be a big investment for them.
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by storewanderer »

lake52 wrote: March 30th, 2021, 7:05 pm
If they were to pick a pilot store, this would be the one to do it. As storewanderer mentioned, this store does good business, but it’s not in their top half traffic wise. If traffics increases, they figure they’ve got something and do some riskier conversions (Granite Bay and Redwood City come to mind). If traffic decreases, they can convert it back to Raleys and there’s little harm. With a short closure, they can’t be doing much more than changing out the merchandise so this probably won’t be a big investment for them.
I just don't know. I have gone into the Truckee Store quite a few times now. I am just not thrilled with it. There are too many issues with the store execution as well as the mix of items. The store just feels unfocused and confused. Maybe they will do better in El Dorado Hills with a slightly larger store that isn't in a seasonal area and more supervision.

It is tough in general for me because I think Raleys normal format has improved so much in the past decade on its merchandising, pricing, and overall mix of products carried. Plus their execution and service levels are generally good to excellent. I hate to see them throw those improvements out for this confused new format.

If they were upscaling to focus more on gourmet items, clean label perimeter departments, clean label private label, but keep small facings at full retail of the Coke and Doritos around for the folks who want them, I would say they are on to something. And strict quality standards on those clean label perimeter items and clean label private label items so they are so good they sell themselves due to the quality. Basically clean label on the items they can control, without trying to preach to the customer what they should and shouldn't buy in the manner of "banning" certain brands.
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by jamcool »

People still want their “comfort” foods, especially nowadays
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

BillyGr wrote: March 30th, 2021, 1:41 pm Maybe similar to Price Chopper over here in NY. They came out with a new format/name (Market 32) and started doing conversions but have slowed down (or at least it seems) on them. I don't think they worked out as well as the chain hoped either, which in itself may slow down the process (if they were planning on a certain increase in sales in those renovated stores to cover future renovation costs, and that increase hasn't occurred at the level they expected).
They converted one store in my immediate area (Amsterdam) and really all they did was paint the walls brown, put a new sign on the outside and by the road and replace the carts. It's still a Price Chopper in every, way shape and form. Of the two remaining stores in my neck of the woods (Gloversville and Johnstown), it would seem Johnstown would've been the logical candidate (fairly high volume in a visible location along a busy highway) but there's no indication they're going to do anything with that store and it will be left as is. Basically, if it ain't broke don't fix it. To tie this in with the topic, if all that really ends up changing is the name, what's the point in doing that in the first place? Seems like a total waste of capex if you ask me.
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by ninersdd »

https://www.yelp.com/biz/raleys-o-n-e-m ... rado-hills

This is the yelp page for the store(carried over when it was Raley's). The 5 most recent reviews all pan it, saying they will go somewhere else to buy groceries. Not the brightest idea to change a store that had been in the community for 40+ years according to one of the reviews.
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by veteran+ »

I guess Raley's did not perform deep demographic research.

The community does not seem to care much about organic foods.

Perhaps Raley's needs a larger store to accommodate the choices for in demand and popular Junk foods and Organic alternatives.

You know how we hate to be told what to do, no matter if it's "good" for us.

:lol:
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Re: Raleys converting El Dorado Hills Store to Raleys O-N-E Market next month

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: April 20th, 2021, 6:12 am I guess Raley's did not perform deep demographic research.

The community does not seem to care much about organic foods.

Perhaps Raley's needs a larger store to accommodate the choices for in demand and popular Junk foods and Organic alternatives.

You know how we hate to be told what to do, no matter if it's "good" for us.

:lol:
The problem is you have Nugget right across the highway (former Ralphs... gave up a gold mine there) running a format that has top of the line perishables, a heavy bend toward gourmet/organic, but still sells the "banned" ingredient items as well.

El Dorado Hills has very strong income demographics and my guess is Raleys picked this location due to that. Given Nugget, plus a brand new Safeway which I find unremarkable but it is a new store so there is that, plus an established Safeway, there is no shortage of competition.

The problem is Raleys ONE Format. This format- you are going to displace a lot of customers with it. Even if the customer has a list of 20 items and the store satisfies the customer on 19 items, if there is that ONE (no pun intended) item they want on their list that Raleys has opted to "ban" from its store- Raleys loses that entire basket in the future.

For someone like me who goes to multiple stores every week it is no big deal I will get any missing item(s) elsewhere however for the customer who just wants to go to the store once a week and be done, this simply does not work.

Raleys- it isn't too late to retract the Reno conversion. There is still time... you can still fix the produce department you messed up by removing about 40% of the displays from and the bakery you decided to wall off/hide.
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