Rays Food Place bankrupt, closing 16 stores
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storewanderer
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Re: Rays Food Place bankrupt, closing 16 stores
They are closing some stores and filing bankruptcy so that they can reorganize. This is probably better than a liquidation as they will still keep many of their stores open.
It will take a drastic change if this chain is to survive. They need to bring back the customers and regain profitability.
It will take a drastic change if this chain is to survive. They need to bring back the customers and regain profitability.
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storewanderer
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Re: Rays Food Place bankrupt, closing 16 stores
They have grown primarily by buying independent grocers, typically in towns that have no other store.
What is peculiar is they were still "adding stores" as recently as 2012. They bought a few indys (one of which, the store is closing now), and also bought a couple freestanding drug stores, "Tiffanys Drug" which have been or are about to be sold to Rite Aid.
Rays price scale has been messy for quite some time. Very, very high price scale. It is about on par with NorCal Safeway, but not with enough good specials to make up for the very high regular prices. Cross into Oregon where you have a Safeway on a significantly lower scale than NorCal and a lot of Fred Meyers, and their scale is beyond words high.
The only chain in OR that prices as high as Rays (actually, higher...) is Albertsons.
Operationally I've always felt they do a decent job. They seem professional and put together in their operation and merchandising. They seem much more put together on merchandising and store appearance/decor than, say, Save Mart is. They have a good meat program, and produce seems okay, and priced okay. The employees seem friendly enough, stores clean, maintained, well stocked, reasonably well merchandised, but fresh departments in some of the stores seem to suffer from the lack of volume, and the pricing is way off. I'd put them about on par with Save Mart on fresh bakery/deli: bad mix, higher prices than competition, and questionable freshness.
And the common trend? Both Rays and Albertsons are supplied by Supervalu. But Rays pricing problems were in place back when they used Unified, too.
What is peculiar is they were still "adding stores" as recently as 2012. They bought a few indys (one of which, the store is closing now), and also bought a couple freestanding drug stores, "Tiffanys Drug" which have been or are about to be sold to Rite Aid.
Rays price scale has been messy for quite some time. Very, very high price scale. It is about on par with NorCal Safeway, but not with enough good specials to make up for the very high regular prices. Cross into Oregon where you have a Safeway on a significantly lower scale than NorCal and a lot of Fred Meyers, and their scale is beyond words high.
The only chain in OR that prices as high as Rays (actually, higher...) is Albertsons.
Operationally I've always felt they do a decent job. They seem professional and put together in their operation and merchandising. They seem much more put together on merchandising and store appearance/decor than, say, Save Mart is. They have a good meat program, and produce seems okay, and priced okay. The employees seem friendly enough, stores clean, maintained, well stocked, reasonably well merchandised, but fresh departments in some of the stores seem to suffer from the lack of volume, and the pricing is way off. I'd put them about on par with Save Mart on fresh bakery/deli: bad mix, higher prices than competition, and questionable freshness.
And the common trend? Both Rays and Albertsons are supplied by Supervalu. But Rays pricing problems were in place back when they used Unified, too.
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kr.abs.swy
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Re: Rays Food Place bankrupt, closing 16 stores
Did anyone happen to save the PDF of stores that Ray's closed in 2013 with the bankruptcy? They don't have the press release on their Website any longer and I can't find the list online anywhere. Thanks everyone.
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pseudo3d
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Re: Rays Food Place bankrupt, closing 16 stores
Found it!kr.abs.swy wrote: ↑February 26th, 2020, 8:38 am Did anyone happen to save the PDF of stores that Ray's closed in 2013 with the bankruptcy? They don't have the press release on their Website any longer and I can't find the list online anywhere. Thanks everyone.
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kr.abs.swy
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