Crazy about retail.
https://www.retailwatchers.com/
Kroger just has to look at Macy's to see how well a national rebranding worked out. While there are some locations that do OK, store counts have overall gone down under the Macy's banner. Another example is Rite Aid's acquisition of PayLess Drug. Rite Aid immediately required a loyalty card for all sale items (even before Safeway and other grocery stores) and started doing things their way which alienated a lot of people at first. Stores were closed for a few years, and in a few cases, plans for Rite Aid to build new stores to replace some of the older PayLess stores were cancelled because business fell off after the acquisition. It's only recently that Rite Aid seems to be doing well in the Northwest, but as a company they have struggled. Then look at other brands that have merged: Sears/Kmart, Office Depot/OfficeMax, Safeway/Albertsons, and you find that stores that were hit-or-miss are still that way, and pricing has not gotten any better. Although I do think that a national rebranding could work out better for Kroger as they have gradually phased in the Kroger brand, a few items at a time, into stores such as Fred Meyer so people are at least already familiar with the name. Store designs have become more consistent, but certain elements such as polished concrete do not work everywhere. And Kroger is starting to use more uniform advertising across their banners.Bagels wrote: ↑December 12th, 2019, 6:12 am There was an article in one of the Cincinnati business journals not that long ago in which Kroger confirmed that it had intended on re-branding its network of stores to the Kroger banner (obviously, I would assume wouldn't have included F4L, Ruler Foods, Harris Teeter, etc). They thought the re brand was necessary because more Americans are traveling more frequently than ever, they would be more willing to visit familiar stores but don't recognize Kroger's various banners. They thought that the re-brand would generate cost savings within a short time period.
However, they didn't move forward with it because no matter how uniform the stores appear and no matter how careful they executed a name change, focus groups concluded that some people would stop shopping at their local Ralph's (for example) because they don't identify with Kroger. Ultimately, they deemed the move too risky. The article did note that going forward, everything will be marked as Kroger (e.g. products, internal items, etc.) except as necessary (store names, delivery trailers, ads, etc.) I assume that's why, in the past year or so at Ralph's, the butter, eggs, and Van de Kamp products have received Kroger-branded packaging. Only the milk and bottled water bears Ralph's name (and much of the bottled water has Kroger's).
The irony is... Kroger said in the article that its biggest initiative going forward is to add more local products and tastes to its stores!
I saw it yesterday at a Ralphs which had about half of its paper aisle (!) filled with Kroger-brand toilet paper. They definitely flushed the old stock out, one of the first private label items I've seen with the new logostorewanderer wrote: ↑April 13th, 2020, 10:52 pm The new logo is appearing on certain private label products now. They are putting the new logo font into a flatter oval (not quite as flat as a Ralphs oval, but closer).
Business at the former PayLess stores fell off after Rite Aid acquisition because they pulled a ton of skus out and they jacked up prices. They fired all the PayLess buyers and Rite Aid did not have a buying team that could replace them. They cut the sku count down so that all Rite Aids regardless of store size had the same stuff. PayLess stores got the short end of the stick and sales dropped as customer could no longer find what they used to. That's what led to the accounting scandal leading to the CEO Martin Grass heading to prison. The sales drop off had little to nothing to do with the name change.Super S wrote: ↑December 12th, 2019, 9:42 amKroger just has to look at Macy's to see how well a national rebranding worked out. While there are some locations that do OK, store counts have overall gone down under the Macy's banner. Another example is Rite Aid's acquisition of PayLess Drug. Rite Aid immediately required a loyalty card for all sale items (even before Safeway and other grocery stores) and started doing things their way which alienated a lot of people at first. Stores were closed for a few years, and in a few cases, plans for Rite Aid to build new stores to replace some of the older PayLess stores were cancelled because business fell off after the acquisition. It's only recently that Rite Aid seems to be doing well in the Northwest, but as a company they have struggled. Then look at other brands that have merged: Sears/Kmart, Office Depot/OfficeMax, Safeway/Albertsons, and you find that stores that were hit-or-miss are still that way, and pricing has not gotten any better. Although I do think that a national rebranding could work out better for Kroger as they have gradually phased in the Kroger brand, a few items at a time, into stores such as Fred Meyer so people are at least already familiar with the name. Store designs have become more consistent, but certain elements such as polished concrete do not work everywhere. And Kroger is starting to use more uniform advertising across their banners.Bagels wrote: ↑December 12th, 2019, 6:12 am There was an article in one of the Cincinnati business journals not that long ago in which Kroger confirmed that it had intended on re-branding its network of stores to the Kroger banner (obviously, I would assume wouldn't have included F4L, Ruler Foods, Harris Teeter, etc). They thought the re brand was necessary because more Americans are traveling more frequently than ever, they would be more willing to visit familiar stores but don't recognize Kroger's various banners. They thought that the re-brand would generate cost savings within a short time period.
However, they didn't move forward with it because no matter how uniform the stores appear and no matter how careful they executed a name change, focus groups concluded that some people would stop shopping at their local Ralph's (for example) because they don't identify with Kroger. Ultimately, they deemed the move too risky. The article did note that going forward, everything will be marked as Kroger (e.g. products, internal items, etc.) except as necessary (store names, delivery trailers, ads, etc.) I assume that's why, in the past year or so at Ralph's, the butter, eggs, and Van de Kamp products have received Kroger-branded packaging. Only the milk and bottled water bears Ralph's name (and much of the bottled water has Kroger's).
The irony is... Kroger said in the article that its biggest initiative going forward is to add more local products and tastes to its stores!
Also on a select few flavors of ice cream.submariner wrote: ↑April 17th, 2020, 8:04 pmI saw it yesterday at a Ralphs which had about half of its paper aisle (!) filled with Kroger-brand toilet paper. They definitely flushed the old stock out, one of the first private label items I've seen with the new logostorewanderer wrote: ↑April 13th, 2020, 10:52 pm The new logo is appearing on certain private label products now. They are putting the new logo font into a flatter oval (not quite as flat as a Ralphs oval, but closer).
Looks like it would be a great ad campaign - for a fitness equipment seller.SamSpade wrote: ↑July 14th, 2020, 5:28 pm So the latest Kroger "family of stores" campaign appears to have picked up on the nostalgia factor for the late 1980s and early 1990s. How does anyone feel about it?
It also appears they've realized they have to "give in" and offer free pickup to be more competitive with others.