WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

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WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by kr.abs.swy »

WinCo is taking part of a former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon: http://www.argusobserver.com/news/winco ... d5622.html

Apparently WinCo is only taking 40,000 square feet. That is going to be a small WinCo store.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by SamSpade »

WinCo seems to be willing to reduce service departments now when moving into smaller locations. Today they had a grand opening / opening in Portland, Ore. on SE 82nd Ave and Powell and there is not a typical bakery department. Instead, it's more like Walmart neighborhood market, offering 3 large tables of baked goods. So, perhaps the Ontario store will be similar - a more modest produce department, basic bakery, (no service deli / meat?) etc.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by storewanderer »

WinCo has a lot of, to be polite, I will call it questionably utilized space in its larger stores in my opinion. Lots of items spread out that do not necessarily need to be spread out so much. Also, WinCo uses a lot of coffin refrigeration/freezers that I think could be replaced with door-style coolers and take up less space (I may be wrong about this). Back to the dead space, I am thinking of things like the large displays of stuff that sit between produce and bulk foods. I am also thinking of the aisle around cards/office supplies that seems to be the seasonal department but often houses very random plastic houseware type items.

But I also know part of the WinCo situation is due to the massive high volume the stores do. They really need these large displays of items to meet their volume demand, especially around the first of the month and around holidays. They also need the large amounts of space in the store so customers can move through the store without it being a complete and congested traffic jam. WinCo is always a store I can count on to be in-stock for whatever item I go in for. Even around the holidays when every other store is out of stock on random items like pumpkin canned or french onions in the plastic container, these items are always in good supply at WinCo.

So it will be interesting to see how this works out in 40,000 square feet. Too bad they didn't take Baker City.

Well, it probably wouldn't cost much to put up brand new 40,000 square foot buildings in a lot of small towns...
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by kr.abs.swy »

It seems like WinCo has been the Southwest Airlines of grocery stores for the past 15-20 years. They have had one major store template (massive), placed it at a reasonably prominent location (not afraid to go on the main drag or by an Interstate) and have stayed away from markets that can't support their model. Not to say there haven't been exceptions ...

If they have successfully adapted their model to fit into a used, smaller space like the Food 4 Less in Portland or the Kmart in Ontario, the other chains need to be very scared. There are lots of empty 40,000 square foot spaces out there and there are going to be more. Ontario isn't the type of market that WinCo would have even considered going into 10 years ago ... this is the company that debated building a new store to replace a store that it outgrew a decade before in Idaho Falls for years and years.

I don't want to overstate things, but this could have a major effect on the competition over the next 10 years. If Ontario is fair game, then essentially any small / medium-sized town that has a Walmart Supercenter could be fair game in the future. The Albertsons / Safeway strategy of operating neighborhood stores and hoping that a Walmart or Winco doesn't open up nearby starts to look even less tenable.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by Super S »

WinCo may be noticing markets such as Portland where the Walmart Neighborhood Markets have been popping up. WinCo is in a good position to take them on if they can adapt a smaller store model. Although I have to question the lack of service departments at the 82nd & Powell store when there is a traditional WinCo not too far away to the south on 82nd that has been there for many years, I think it was one of the first of its kind to open (as Cub Foods) in the Portland area. It seems like the lack of service departments may keep people away from the new store. But WinCo may be waiting to see the response to the smaller store and then might make changes later on.

The Ontario store puzzles me a bit though. It seems like they could have easily occupied that entire Kmart building and probably would have done ok, especially considering what little competition really exists in Ontario. That Kmart wasn't overly huge.You have Walmart, Albertsons, and the independent store in an old Safeway, and that's pretty much it. No Fred Meyer (another chain that I am surprised does not have a bigger presence in eastern Oregon).

It seems like the WinCo in Hillsboro is in an old Kmart building, but I am not sure if they took over the whole thing or not.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by storewanderer »

WinCo in Medford, OR is also a former Kmart building.

I feel like there are others too.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by VibeGuy »

Bremerton, WA was a new build without service bakery and a fairly small produce set. There's also no front pizza. Deli/seafood is smaller than most of their stores, and I thought it was the bottom of the sizes they'd be willing to build at 55,000 sqft. Clearly I was wrong.

They move a lot of merchandise. I'm in there at all hours and it is always busy. They get their market (biggest competition isn't Walmart, as there isn't a SuperCenter in Bremerton - it's the Navy Commissaries) and they're very, very aggressive on pricing - cheaper on some items in Bremerton than they are in Tacoma.

(and yes, the location near downtown Hillsboro was a K-Mart)
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by pseudo3d »

It might be that the landlord decided a lease too high for WinCo to move into all of it and want some of it to be used for an alternate tenant. Since Kmart stores usually become oversized empty plots, I'm surprised that WinCo isn't filling all of it or most of it.
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by storewanderer »

They will be using the Waremart name on this store. Interesting development. I expect this won't be the last...
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Re: WinCo moving into former Kmart in Ontario, Oregon

Post by SamSpade »

Link to local newspaper article (with Waremart Foods name) with photo:
http://www.argusobserver.com/news/warem ... d0eef.html
I am thinking this may also be a way to not be open 24/7.
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