Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: April 25th, 2021, 11:13 pm
Actually in Chicago at Jewel at present they are selling various dairy items under the Jewel label. The Lucerne items are there on the lower moving SKUs, but on the high movement SKUs like gallon milk, dozen eggs- it is being run with Jewel brand and not Lucerne. And I am quite sure the Dominick's fiasco is why.

Also I am sure the folks in Chicago remember Safeway and how it destroyed Dominick's very well. It was less than 10 years ago...

Cheap but not fancy describes Kroger's successful private label program.

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. 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.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by Romr123 »

Very early on, Jewel had a huge private label collection with many, many SKUs with both premium (Jane Dunbar) mid-level and generic. 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. They went away from private label dairy thereafter, using Dean's production/brands, as I recall. With Dean's imploding, they probably are consolidating around a Jewel brand for fluid dairy and Lucerne for shipped dairy.

Kroger has maintained their manufacturing capability for private label (believe they have one of only about three peanut butter manufacturing plants in the US) to a greater extent than Albertsons; they not only do dairy and bakery across the footprint they do bottled water/soda in some areas and have actual manufacturing in several locations including CIncinnati. Albertsons has sold off some of their capability (the cracker plant in Joplin most recently).
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: April 25th, 2021, 9:26 pm
veteran+ wrote: April 25th, 2021, 6:24 am Actually Kroger's Simple Truth organics line is typically less expensive than O Organics. And, Kroger has increased their skus way past O Organics.

I have complained to Albertsons corporate about this. Shamed them and reminded them that they are the grand daddy of big chain store organics and they let late comer Kroger surpass them.
Yes, the private label program is the one thing at Kroger that has kept humming along and continued to built stronger and stronger in the past five years and Simple Truth is a big part of that (along with the standard Kroger label).

However remember the Fred Meyer had Naturally Preferred/Naturally Preferred Organics private label from the 80's or 90's and that was what built the foundation for Simple Truth/Simple Truth Organic. I would argue Fred Meyer pioneered the concept of the natural/Organic private label but Safeway made a lot of noise about O Organics and then did a significant label expansion past the Naturally Preferred line, in conjunction with the Lifestyle Store program.

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.
True................and Safeway achieved critical mass with O Organics and even distributed it nationally to other retailers.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by pseudo3d »

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) mid-level and generic. 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. They went away from private label dairy thereafter, using Dean's production/brands, as I recall. With Dean's imploding, they probably are consolidating around a Jewel brand for fluid dairy and Lucerne for shipped dairy.

Kroger has maintained their manufacturing capability for private label (believe they have one of only about three peanut butter manufacturing plants in the US) to a greater extent than Albertsons; they not only do dairy and bakery across the footprint they do bottled water/soda in some areas and have actual manufacturing in several locations including CIncinnati. Albertsons has sold off some of their capability (the cracker plant in Joplin most recently).
The Joplin plant has been gone for years, they sold it off in 2014 (pre-merger, though they probably had it marked for death before Albertsons) to Annie's, which only lasted a year before it was closed again (Annie's was bought by General Mills). HS Baking Enterprises operates the plant today. I know that Albertsons did open a plant since in California (for soups, I think?), but most of their facilities are in the west coast, with the dairies and bakeries only for legacy Safeway operations that they managed to hold onto over the years (they definitely didn't open bakeries and dairy plants for their acquired operations).
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by HCal »

storewanderer wrote: April 25th, 2021, 11:13 pm Actually in Chicago at Jewel at present they are selling various dairy items under the Jewel label. The Lucerne items are there on the lower moving SKUs, but on the high movement SKUs like gallon milk, dozen eggs- it is being run with Jewel brand and not Lucerne. And I am quite sure the Dominick's fiasco is why.

Also I am sure the folks in Chicago remember Safeway and how it destroyed Dominick's very well. It was less than 10 years ago...

Cheap but not fancy describes Kroger's successful private label program.
Oh wow, I didn't realize that. I kind of just assumed they were using the same private label brands nationwide.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by rwsandiego »

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.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by Romr123 »

(I grew up with both grandmothers in Chicago; one shopped at Jewel, the other at National/A&P). The one who shopped at Jewel shopped at the small in-line store in downtown Hinsdale until it closed and moved to the Clarendon Hills location on 55th street and 83. It was terribly exotic to walk to the downtown Hinsdale store with her for a fill-in when I was 8 or 9 and walk home carrying a wicker basket of groceries.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by rwsandiego »

Romr123 wrote: April 27th, 2021, 5:03 am (I grew up with both grandmothers in Chicago; one shopped at Jewel, the other at National/A&P). The one who shopped at Jewel shopped at the small in-line store in downtown Hinsdale until it closed and moved to the Clarendon Hills location on 55th street and 83. It was terribly exotic to walk to the downtown Hinsdale store with her for a fill-in when I was 8 or 9 and walk home carrying a wicker basket of groceries.
I bet it was! I grew up shopping at the Harlem-Foster Turnstyle/Jewel in Chicago which became a Jewel-Osco after Turnstyle's demise. When it opened it was considered massive and is still larger-than-average. We would sometimes shop at the small Austin and Lawrence Jewel, which co-existed with the larger Central and Lawrence Jewel a mere half mile away. Sometimes we would shop at the Norwood Park Jewel on Northwest Highway, which closed in the early 70's, and the Gladstone Park Jewel on Milwaukee Avenue. You're right - shopping at those small stores was exotic, much like our occasional visits to the Jewel Grand Bazaar.

The funny thing is despite the various changes in ownership, there is still a loyalty to Jewel among Chicagoans. I think that's because Albertson's has pretty much left it alone, save for some moderate tinkering which would have occurred were Jewel to have remained an independent company. Replicating Jewel (or Albertsons) across all of Albertsons banners will not resolve its issues. It would simply create new issues, as what works in Chicago won't necessarily work in Portland.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: April 27th, 2021, 9:38 pm Replicating Jewel (or Albertsons) across all of Albertsons banners will not resolve its issues. It would simply create new issues, as what works in Chicago won't necessarily work in Portland.
Replicating the core of how Jewel does business would strengthen the competitive advantage of Albertsons: having larger than average stores, with a deep drug mix, with large fresh departments that keep items quite fresh and have a large selection of fresh items due to the high volume the stores do, strong promotions, with strong regional merchandising. They may be getting there but with the Safeway mentality rather entrenched, it is a real uphill climb to be anything but rather boring.

Jewel was lucky- it was the profit center for ASC. It was probably slated to get destroyed by Albertsons in 2000 but after the Lucky fiasco they stepped back and really left it alone, so it was a profit center for Albertsons too. Very late in the game, Larry Johnson started to try to run the rest of Albertsons like Jewel focusing more on fresh products, perimeter quality, better promotions, and cleaning up the stores, but the company was such a screwed up mess it wasn't executed very well in most stores and I don't think anyone noticed.
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Re: Albertsons Cos adding another house brand (wine)

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: April 27th, 2021, 11:02 pm
rwsandiego wrote: April 27th, 2021, 9:38 pm Replicating Jewel (or Albertsons) across all of Albertsons banners will not resolve its issues. It would simply create new issues, as what works in Chicago won't necessarily work in Portland.
Replicating the core of how Jewel does business would strengthen the competitive advantage of Albertsons: having larger than average stores, with a deep drug mix, with large fresh departments that keep items quite fresh and have a large selection of fresh items due to the high volume the stores do, strong promotions, with strong regional merchandising. They may be getting there but with the Safeway mentality rather entrenched, it is a real uphill climb to be anything but rather boring.
Funny you should mention that because the two new Safeways in metro Phoenix are essentially Jewel-Oscos with a Safeway sign out front and the Modern decor package inside. If they weren't so far from me I'd do my regular shopping there, but driving 30 miles for groceries is a little crazy.
rwsandiego wrote: April 27th, 2021, 9:38 pm...Jewel was lucky- it was the profit center for ASC. It was probably slated to get destroyed by Albertsons in 2000 but after the Lucky fiasco they stepped back and really left it alone, so it was a profit center for Albertsons too. Very late in the game, Larry Johnson started to try to run the rest of Albertsons like Jewel focusing more on fresh products, perimeter quality, better promotions, and cleaning up the stores, but the company was such a screwed up mess it wasn't executed very well in most stores and I don't think anyone noticed.
When I first moved to San Diego (late 2000) Albertsons opened a store in Mira Mesa near my office and in Carmel Mountain (a few freeway exits away). If they had the Jewel decor instead of that bizarre circus-like dreck of a package I would have sworn they were both Jewel stores. The store they opened in City Heights (it had the awning decor) looked even more like a Jewel. The differences between those stores and the ones inherited from the Lucky "marriage" were stark. Albertsons should have kept the Lucky name for its rougher, discount-looking stores and converted the better stores (Oceanside/Vista comes to mind) to Albertsons.

My guess is they would have changed the Jewel name but left the store operations alone, as they were already adapting Jewel concepts in Albertsons stores. While it would have been a PR disaster along the lines of the Marshall Fields/Macy's re-brand, it would not have been as bad as the Dominick's fiasco.

Maybe they should use "Skiff and Ross, est 1899" for premium, "Mugar's Dairy" for milk, "Crawford's Bread Company" for bakery, "Randall Farms" for pre-packaged produce, "Brockton Public Market" for seafood and meat, "Joe's Choice" for mid-range, and "Skaggs Saves" for low-end value-oriented products. :lol:
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