Retail Watchers

Grocery Outlet replaced Lady Lee with Crystal Milk. I found one last bottle. It was probably the last Lady Lee bottle of milk ever to be found at Grocery Outlet!

Perhaps Grocery Outlet lost the rights to the Lady Lee brand?

They have been rotating stock up here in Nevada. Sometimes it is Lady Lee, other times it is Crystal.

They still have a bunch of bagged nuts in the Harvest Day brand on the nut/candy wall.

I was not impressed with Grocery Outlet's use attempts of Lady Lee or Harvest Day and I never even saw them use Key Buy. They should have just given all those trademarks to Save Mart in good faith, maybe Save Mart would have made some use of them... couldn't have been any worse than Grocery Outlet's attempt.

Not really on this topic, but, I'm not sure I've ever seen a Sunny Select or Market Essentials item in Grocery Outlet... I don't see much Kroger stuff either (once in a while...).

Right now Grocery Outlet is blowing out a bunch of Pillsbury Canned Refrigerated Dough at 2 for .99 (must buy 2). They have stuff that is only worth $1 but they also have some stuff I've never seen before (canned cornbread) as well as some higher cost items like "Grands" Cinnamon Rolls included in this promotion. I find this interesting Grocery Outlet is doing a blowout like this, as it seems Smiths just price increased their not very good bakery cinnamon rolls (which are a Pillsbury frozen bake off item) to 4.49 (used to be 2.99 and 3.99). Perhaps a downsize is coming? That is why Grocery Outlet seems to have an endless supply of 1.75qt Tillamook Ice Creams at 2.99- those all got pulled and replaced with downsized 1.5qt size at the regular grocers.

I saw some of the old Albertsons brands yesterday. It was Essential Everyday for 1 item. I also saw CVS branded items. Perhaps they were closeouts.

Yes I see lots of Essential Everyday at Grocery Outlet. That would be through Supervalu/UNFI.

I'm on the other side of the coast so merchandising seems a bit different. In PA (the only state where they currently have locations on the east coast), milk comes from Lancaster county based Turkey Hill. I've never noticed any 'Harvest Day' items either. Selection of course changes every week but as of late, I've noticed a lot of products from Hy-Vee's budget store brand (That's Smart? I believe) and an occasional overstock Publix store branded item. The stores around here have packaged deli meat and cheeses that seem to be packaged in their central warehouse in Lancaster County (see below).

(As a side note, they are rapidly growing in my area. It was originally just a cluster of stores and a warehouse/offices in the Lancaster County region (formerly went by the name 'Amelia's Grocery Outlet' until they were acquired by the CA Grocery Outlet several years ago). In the last couple years they have been popping up in the suburbs outside of Philly and I believe a store or two is opening up in the city itself later this year.

mbz321 wrote: ↑June 13th, 2021, 6:02 pm I'm on the other side of the coast so merchandising seems a bit different. In PA (the only state where they currently have locations on the east coast), milk comes from Lancaster county based Turkey Hill. I've never noticed any 'Harvest Day' items either. Selection of course changes every week but as of late, I've noticed a lot of products from Hy-Vee's budget store brand (That's Smart? I believe) and an occasional overstock Publix store branded item. The stores around here have packaged deli meat and cheeses that seem to be packaged in their central warehouse in Lancaster County (see below).

(As a side note, they are rapidly growing in my area. It was originally just a cluster of stores and a warehouse/offices in the Lancaster County region (formerly went by the name 'Amelia's Grocery Outlet' until they were acquired by the CA Grocery Outlet several years ago). In the last couple years they have been popping up in the suburbs outside of Philly and I believe a store or two is opening up in the city itself later this year.

That's Smart is a stock Topco generic brand; I have seen it at various other stores including Save Mart and Associated Utah. It was meant to replace Valu Time (which I think may still exist in some form somewhere).

It looks like these Amelia's Stores are not really any different from the CA Stores. Were they affiliated somehow before they bought them out?

Also the former owner of Amelia's has reopened a similar format in Lancaster called Treasures.

storewanderer wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 12:15 am

It looks like these Amelia's Stores are not really any different from the CA Stores. Were they affiliated somehow before they bought them out?

Also the former owner of Amelia's has reopened a similar format in Lancaster called Treasures.

They were a little 'less polished' before being bought out by Grocery Outlet and adopting their standard format and branding, but that is about it.

Interesting about 'Treasures'...I'll have to check that out if I'm ever out that way. The pictures make it look like a weird mashup of an outlet grocery store and a thrift store.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑June 10th, 2021, 1:44 pm Grocery Outlet replaced Lady Lee with Crystal Milk. I found one last bottle. It was probably the last Lady Lee bottle of milk ever to be found at Grocery Outlet!

Perhaps Grocery Outlet lost the rights to the Lady Lee brand?

Mine still has Lady Lee. I don't think anyone is attempting to question their rights to the brand at this stage. Albertsons did sue them over the Lucky brand but I don't think the private label brands were part of that.

My guess is that Crystal Creamery (which bottles the Lady Lee milk) sent them some under their own brand, either due to a larger than expected order or a labeling error.

On a related note, I saw some HEB brand stuff at Grocery Outlet (in California!) last week. In the past I've also seen east coast brands like Publix and Ahold. Seems rather inefficient, so I have to wonder, are there no closeout stores on the east coast that will buy them? Maybe Big Lots?

All that really means for this type grocer is that the production facility is close...not that the stores are close. Besides, it's not cool to have your private label available somewhere close to your market area. Grocers these days are pretty "just in time" and that HEB product is as likely a deprecated/superseded label being put on current production as anything. You're seeing that now at Target, where they're clearancing their old Market Pantry cereals at 50% off in the stores rather than diverting them to outlets.

During the Fresh & Easy days I often came across F&E products at Grocery Outlet and other discount stores, including tiny ONE store independents.

With the one store independents I suspected ORC activity, since stealing at F&E was so eezy peezy!