pseudo3d wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:07 am
I seem to recall reading that it wasn't so much the name on the brands that Safeway completely destroyed the merchandise mix of Dominick's, and never really fixed it. ...
It was a little bit of both. The main product mix issue was the replacement of Dominick's specialty products (mainly, its Italian Classics line) and locally-sourced ethnic foods with Safeway Select products. The Safeway products were, frankly, a SF/SoCal interpretation of Italian, Mexican, and other ethnic groups' food that was made acceptable to generic, upper-middle class, coastal white people. In a market like Chicago, that simply does not work because 1) there is quite a bit of ethnic pride among all socio-economic groups, 2) a plethora of family-owned ethnic food producers, and 3) even the generic, upper middle-class white people have an appreciation and taste for authentic ethnic foods, especially Italian and Mexican. Another issue was the change in store design. Dominick's layouts were very similar to Jewel's and that was deliberate - Chicagoans shop the "fresh foods" first. Safeway killed that and installed the typical Safeway layout and decor. In a nuitshell, Safeway didn't "get" Chicago nor did they have the desire/make an effort to do so. Albertson's, on the other hand, did.
pseudo3d wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:07 am...
I'm sure that there was plenty of Albertsons-branded products at Jewel after 1999, but because Jewel was much closer to Albertsons merchandise mix-wise it wasn't as big of a shock.
Actually, there was very little in the way of Albertson's branded product at Jewel. The "Jewel" name was used up until SVU changed to "Essential Everyday." Jewel did, however, carry the private labels products that were not called "Albertsons" such as Culinary Circle and its predecessor (Esentia, I think), Osco/SavOn, and Equaline.
Romr123 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:49 am
Very early on, Jewel had a huge private label collection with many, many SKUs with both premium (Jane Dunbar)...
Actually, it was called "Mary Dunbar." You're thinking of their Home Economist, Jane Armstrong.
Romr123 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:49 am mid-level and generic.
Prior to switching to the "Jewel" label, mid-level was called "Cherry Valley" and there was a brand just above generic called "Bluebrook." They also used "Jewel Maid" (household products), "Launder Maid" (laundry - eventually folder into "Jewel Maid), "Royal Jewel" (coffee and tea), "Yummy" (ice cream and other frozen desserts and soda), and in some product lines "Jewel." The "Maid" brands were eventually called "Jewel" in the late 1970's as "maid" was seen as a pejorative term.
Romr123 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:49 am...They had a big manufacturing operation out in Barrington (long since shuttered). They consolidated to the Jewel brand in the 80s (using Presidents Choice for premium private label) with the orange bar on dark colored backgrounds. They also had a private label trauma in the mid 80s, where their Hillfarm dairy killed a bunch of people with a salmonella (?) outbreak from leaks in the heat exchangers between the pasteurized milk and the unpasteurized....
The salmonella outbreak was a huge black eye and, as you stated, the end of "Hillfarm" as a brand.
Romr123 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 4:49 am...They went away from private label dairy thereafter, using Dean's production/brands, as I recall....
Dean's was the fluid dairy brand. Eggs, cheese, and ice cream were branded "Jewel."
BTW: Although I now live in Phoenix, I grew up shopping at Jewel. Had ASC not acquired them when they did (two years before graduating college) I would have worked there. The acquisition killed the college training program.
veteran+ wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 5:56 am...True................and Safeway achieved critical mass with O Organics and even distributed it nationally to other retailers.
You will notice that the "Safeway" name is not and never was printed on the "O Organics" labels. The brand was listed as being distributed by Lucerne Foods and then by Better Living Brands (or vice-versa). Same for Open Nature and Bright Green.
storewanderer wrote: ↑April 25th, 2021, 9:26 pm...Using Safeway brand nationally definitely would not be a good move and I'm not sure using Albertsons brand nationally would be either. The problem with both brands is NorCal has a bad image of Albertsons and Chicago has a bad image of Safeway and those are two of the merged chain's highest profit markets.
Exactly. If the merged company pisses off NorCal and Chicago again they can kiss the company goodbye unless they have the skill and lack of hubris to undo any damage they will have done. Personally, I think Albertsons is smart enough not to do something like that. They learned their lesson from the Lucky fiasco. Safeway, on the other hand, never learned any lessons from the numerous mistakes (Dominick's, Genuardi's, Randall's, Tom Thumb...) they made because they never recognized they made mistakes. Instead, they blamed others.