Crucial times for Shoppers

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BatteryMill
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

mjhale wrote: November 9th, 2021, 4:03 pm Safeway is coming almost full circle taking over the Shoppers. Safeway had a store where the Total Wine and Staples are located across Pickett Road. Closed in the late 70s-early 80s maybe when the Pan Am Shopping Center location opened perhaps. I have to wonder if Safeway is opening here to preserve some presence in Fairfax City. Their store in the middle of town is still in its 1990s form last I was in there. The center was supposed to be redeveloped and Safeway renovated in the early 2000s but nothing ever happened. The east side of Fairfax City doesn't have many grocery choices anyway. You have to go to Pan Am, the new Giant at Scout on the Circle or go to Annandale. Safeway presumably should do well here but they skew pricey and higher end so you have to wonder if they will get the same cross section of people that Shoppers attracted.
Could this mean that the extant Fairfax City store closes down?
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by buckguy »

Safeway got itself involved in numerous redevelopment projects in the '00s in DC. Several happened: Petworth and Waterfront Metro developments (which were replacement stores) and City View in Mt Vernon Square (which was new), but several just blew-up and they never built anything: Palisades and Davenport (not quite Friendship Heights)---both were replacement stores. These projects run into more local opposition than in the past, esp. in established well-off neighborhoods.

Safeway long seemed more active in this sort of thing than Giant. They opened stores in high rise redevelopments in Bethesda (now closed) and Rosslyn (recently redone from what I understand) in the past and were part of the Watergate complex, although these all were relatively small stores. The Waterside Mall store that Waterfront Metro replaced was probably the only full sized store like this. Giant's Van Ness store that seems to have been part of a major project for them, although the Wisconsin Avenue store turned into a fairly large project, having begun as a simple replacement for a 1950s store---Giant had bought the former GC Murphy next door to have a larger footprint.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by storewanderer »

Safeway may be a good replacement for Shoppers. It will certainly help the employees since both are under the same union.

We will see how Safeway does, based on their tract record as of late back there. But if they are adding stores I expect they will throw a lot of resources at them to make them good. If they can keep them good will be the question. And then there is the pricing issue... but Shoppers prices weren't exactly great. Certainly better than Safeway though. If Safeway was smart they'd try to use the current Shoppers price feed but run the Safeway promotions. Probably not real feasible.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

Based on my observations of the old Shoppers it attracted a broad spectrum of customers from solidly blue collar up to higher middle class folks. Shoppers had an extensive ethnic foods section which attracted folks looking for that sort of thing too. My feeling is that Safeway is looking to attract the middle and upper middle type folks but in reality Safeway has stores throughout the socioeconomic spectrum in the DC area. I too will be interested to see how Safeway does with this store. As storewanderer said if they temper their usual pricing structure but still run Safeway promotions they could attract a good cross section of the area.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

mjhale wrote: November 11th, 2021, 7:51 pm Based on my observations of the old Shoppers it attracted a broad spectrum of customers from solidly blue collar up to higher middle class folks. Shoppers had an extensive ethnic foods section which attracted folks looking for that sort of thing too. My feeling is that Safeway is looking to attract the middle and upper middle type folks but in reality Safeway has stores throughout the socioeconomic spectrum in the DC area. I too will be interested to see how Safeway does with this store. As storewanderer said if they temper their usual pricing structure but still run Safeway promotions they could attract a good cross section of the area.
I can see, since I've found that Safeway has no overlap within at least several existing Shoppers stores, including all three in VA. The one great thing about Shoppers is that, it's sad there's nothing like it.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

I took a drive over to the Shoppers turned Safeway in Fairfax on Friday evening, 11/12. Safeway has done very little to the store. Other than their own island fixtures in produce and bakery as well as new front end check stands including self-checkouts the store is still vintage Shoppers from the last decor swap. Layout is still all Shoppers too. It does look like the pharmacy is in the process of being reopened. They are promoting Flu and Covid shots so there must be someone pharmacy related on duty even if the pharmacy is not fully operational. I wasn't expecting a blow out renovation in a five day closure to switch over ownership. However this store is sort of like the anti-Safeway. Even Safeway's outdated stores feel a bit more upscale than this one does. I guess Safeway will do a remodel if the store brings in good numbers. Until then if you want to shop at a Safeway that really looks like a Shoppers but with Safeway product this is your place.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

mjhale wrote: November 13th, 2021, 7:04 pm I took a drive over to the Shoppers turned Safeway in Fairfax on Friday evening, 11/12. Safeway has done very little to the store. Other than their own island fixtures in produce and bakery as well as new front end check stands including self-checkouts the store is still vintage Shoppers from the last decor swap. Layout is still all Shoppers too. It does look like the pharmacy is in the process of being reopened. They are promoting Flu and Covid shots so there must be someone pharmacy related on duty even if the pharmacy is not fully operational. I wasn't expecting a blow out renovation in a five day closure to switch over ownership. However this store is sort of like the anti-Safeway. Even Safeway's outdated stores feel a bit more upscale than this one does. I guess Safeway will do a remodel if the store brings in good numbers. Until then if you want to shop at a Safeway that really looks like a Shoppers but with Safeway product this is your place.
An anomaly for sure in the present day, unless Safeway wishes to finish out a lease or is solely experimenting with the site given the proximity to other locations.

The fastest such remodel that I remember off the top of my head was the conversion of the Salisbury Giant to ACME over a 7-day period in 2016.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by storewanderer »

BatteryMill wrote: November 14th, 2021, 7:55 pm

An anomaly for sure in the present day, unless Safeway wishes to finish out a lease or is solely experimenting with the site given the proximity to other locations.

The fastest such remodel that I remember off the top of my head was the conversion of the Salisbury Giant to ACME over a 7-day period in 2016.
The nearby Safeway at 10350 Willard Way is quite aged. They probably need to consider a very major remodel to 10350 Willard Way, and I suspect could do a more cosmetic rearrange to the Shoppers. The other two locations they have nearby are first generation Lifestyle Stores- also due for a refresh.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by Alpha8472 »

Safeway has been so slow to do remodels to their Lifestyle decor stores. Even the Safeway Flagship in Dublin, California kept the Lifestyle decor unchanged for years until a remodel that finished just weeks ago. Just a few cities over from Dublin, there are Safeway stores that still have the ancient 1980s Safeway logos on the front of the stores. Even a remodeled Safeway in Walnut Creek, California still has a vintage 1980s Safeway lightbox sign on the side of the building. It is a hidden gem, but still very old.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by pseudo3d »

mjhale wrote: November 13th, 2021, 7:04 pm I took a drive over to the Shoppers turned Safeway in Fairfax on Friday evening, 11/12. Safeway has done very little to the store. Other than their own island fixtures in produce and bakery as well as new front end check stands including self-checkouts the store is still vintage Shoppers from the last decor swap. Layout is still all Shoppers too. It does look like the pharmacy is in the process of being reopened. They are promoting Flu and Covid shots so there must be someone pharmacy related on duty even if the pharmacy is not fully operational. I wasn't expecting a blow out renovation in a five day closure to switch over ownership. However this store is sort of like the anti-Safeway. Even Safeway's outdated stores feel a bit more upscale than this one does. I guess Safeway will do a remodel if the store brings in good numbers. Until then if you want to shop at a Safeway that really looks like a Shoppers but with Safeway product this is your place.
When ACME took over the A&P/Pathmark stores, all of them kept their old décor and I believe layout too, with exceptions being some A&P concept where instead of traditional aisles, they had product clustered together in several short fixtures like a department store (I can't remember the exact store).

Speaking of ACME, I believe that Shoppers has the SuperValu version of Premium, Fresh, & Healthy, a slightly different version they used on the non-NAI stores (Shoppers, Cub, bigg's, Farm Fresh).
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