Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: February 19th, 2021, 9:12 pm
If that happens, I imagine they would simply amend the ordinance to include Walmart and such stores.

Seattle covers grocery stores over 10,000 square feet and supercenters over 85,000 square feet if 30% or more is dedicated to groceries. So to me, that sounds like it would cover Amazon, Walmart, Costco, etc. But I don't think those stores are going to throw a tantrum like Kroger is doing.
Certainly other stores through the trade groups are attempting to file lawsuits, etc. against these ordinances. But the bottom line is this- you are not closing every store in the city. You must have some kind of plan to operate the remaining stores under this new ordinance. To say you are closing stores due to this temporary ordinance just sounds like a load of...

And that is what the other chains are doing. Using their trade groups to try and fight this but in the mean time they continue to operate the stores and do the best thing for their employees, customers, and the neighborhoods/surrounding shopping centers. How it will look once the stores that stay open have to pay this increased cost- will prices go up, will services be cut, store hours cut a bit, who knows what will happen...but the threat of Kroger closing stores doesn't stop anyone from passing more of these ordinances. Maybe they think they can bully some city councils in the midwest out of the idea or something but it sure isn't stopping the city councils on the west coast.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by marshd1000 »

The Burien City Council also passed an ordinance like this. But Kroger only has one ver well patronized Fred Meyer in Burien so I don’t think that is going away. Albertsons has not done closures for this reason yet so at this point, I think the two Safeway’s are safe!
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by marshd1000 »

The Burien City Council also passed an ordinance like this. But Kroger only has one ver well patronized Fred Meyer in Burien so I don’t think that is going away. Albertsons has not done closures for this reason yet so at this point, I think the two Safeway’s are safe!
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by storewanderer »

marshd1000 wrote: February 20th, 2021, 6:43 am The Burien City Council also passed an ordinance like this. But Kroger only has one ver well patronized Fred Meyer in Burien so I don’t think that is going away. Albertsons has not done closures for this reason yet so at this point, I think the two Safeway’s are safe!
Albertsons seems smart enough to not make rash moves so rash as closing stores for good over a mandated temporary hazard pay increase. There are many options they have to address this. Cut hours, cut services, increase prices, do nothing and just eat it out of profits... With Kroger's attitude their store count and market share in the west is going to be declining. Very short sighted behavior. Unfortunate as they had such a good run at being a great operator.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 9:57 am
marshd1000 wrote: February 20th, 2021, 6:43 am The Burien City Council also passed an ordinance like this. But Kroger only has one ver well patronized Fred Meyer in Burien so I don’t think that is going away. Albertsons has not done closures for this reason yet so at this point, I think the two Safeway’s are safe!
Albertsons seems smart enough to not make rash moves so rash as closing stores for good over a mandated temporary hazard pay increase. There are many options they have to address this. Cut hours, cut services, increase prices, do nothing and just eat it out of profits... With Kroger's attitude their store count and market share in the west is going to be declining. Very short sighted behavior. Unfortunate as they had such a good run at being a great operator.
Albertsons/Safeway got rid of their marginal stores during the merger and subsequent Haggens drama. I think they have a cleaner store base than Kroger. Since Kroger doesn't have a merger to fall back on, they are using the pay increase as their justification.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: February 20th, 2021, 11:33 am Albertsons/Safeway got rid of their marginal stores during the merger and subsequent Haggens drama. I think they have a cleaner store base than Kroger. Since Kroger doesn't have a merger to fall back on, they are using the pay increase as their justification.
Not really. QFC has been closing stores for years. QFC had 89 stores back when it was merged into Fred Meyer in 1998. At one brief point their store count was closer to 100 (probably when they had the most stores in Portland open). But still Portland metro at the most they had was what 10 stores open at a single point in time? So forgetting the near-exit from Portland, it has still had considerable store closure activity. Now QFC has- 60 stores?

I think store closure activity at QFC has been pretty close to Albertsons banner, and significantly more than Safeway banner.

If this keeps up with QFC, Kroger is going to have another Cala/Bell on its hands in another decade- a chain store closures drove into being shut down. A banner that closed so many stores it became irrelevant, despite being in a low competition area. The Cala/Bell Stores were very, very similar to QFC Stores in size, merchandising, pricing, and positioning.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 4:32 pm Not really. QFC has been closing stores for years. QFC had 89 stores back when it was merged into Fred Meyer in 1998.
Was that including the 56 Hughes Markets in SoCal they bought in 1997?

At the time of the merger there were 64 QFC's plus 56 Hughes stores.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: February 20th, 2021, 5:26 pm
storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 4:32 pm Not really. QFC has been closing stores for years. QFC had 89 stores back when it was merged into Fred Meyer in 1998.
Was that including the 56 Hughes Markets in SoCal they bought in 1997?

At the time of the merger there were 64 QFC's plus 56 Hughes stores.
89 QFCs in the Pacific Northwest in 1998 which excluded the Hughes. Not sure where 64 comes from. 64 seems more like current store count. https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive ... ralph-buys
QFC has closed a lot of stores- many around Portland but also quite a few around Seattle. Some of the stores they closed, probably should have worked, because Safeway and/or Albertsons remained open nearby.

So if we are looking at what became the CA Kroger Operation in 1998 and that article then we have:
And keep in mind this was before Ralphs bought the NorCal Albertsons 1999 divests, so that 40ish stores is not even part of this count.
Hughes 56
F4L 80
Ralphs 264
Cala/Bell/FoodsCo 65??

I am a little curious about the Cala/Bell/FoodsCo count at 65 stores though. I thought that group was around 35 stores at its top store count. Maybe they are including the Falley's stores Ralphs had in Kansas, in that count.
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 6:59 pm
klkla wrote: February 20th, 2021, 5:26 pm
storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 4:32 pm Not really. QFC has been closing stores for years. QFC had 89 stores back when it was merged into Fred Meyer in 1998.
Was that including the 56 Hughes Markets in SoCal they bought in 1997?

At the time of the merger there were 64 QFC's plus 56 Hughes stores.
89 QFCs in the Pacific Northwest in 1998 which excluded the Hughes. Not sure where 64 comes from. 64 seems more like current store count.
The 64 number comes from this LA Times article. I didn’t read the entire article earlier, though. Evidently they had also announced a week earlier that they were planning to buy a Seattle chain with 25 stores. 64+25 = 89.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html
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Re: Kroger closing 2 QFC stores due to $4 Hazard pay

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: February 20th, 2021, 4:32 pm
babs wrote: February 20th, 2021, 11:33 am Albertsons/Safeway got rid of their marginal stores during the merger and subsequent Haggens drama. I think they have a cleaner store base than Kroger. Since Kroger doesn't have a merger to fall back on, they are using the pay increase as their justification.
Not really. QFC has been closing stores for years. QFC had 89 stores back when it was merged into Fred Meyer in 1998. At one brief point their store count was closer to 100 (probably when they had the most stores in Portland open). But still Portland metro at the most they had was what 10 stores open at a single point in time? So forgetting the near-exit from Portland, it has still had considerable store closure activity. Now QFC has- 60 stores?

I think store closure activity at QFC has been pretty close to Albertsons banner, and significantly more than Safeway banner.

If this keeps up with QFC, Kroger is going to have another Cala/Bell on its hands in another decade- a chain store closures drove into being shut down. A banner that closed so many stores it became irrelevant, despite being in a low competition area. The Cala/Bell Stores were very, very similar to QFC Stores in size, merchandising, pricing, and positioning.
I am not really sure why QFC still exists in the Portland market. QFC is more established in the Seattle area, but has never really gained much traction in Portland. I have a feeling we will eventually see either QFC exiting Portland or rebranding as some version of Fred Meyer.
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