NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

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BatteryMill
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NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by BatteryMill »

https://www.theburn.com/2019/08/18/loca ... -on-hours/
https://fcnp.com/2019/08/16/falls-churc ... next-week/

According to these two sources, Harris Teeter is discontinuing 24/7 operations across multiple area locations. While the latter states the reasons as being "community landscape, lease requirements, as well as other economic considerations”, it is unclear if these match up to every store they are cutting hours down on. The first article describes these changes in an area where HT is a dominant grocer, having over 10 locations in the county.

Overall, I'm not sure what effects this move will result in, seeing as 24-hour operations are a common feature for the Harris Teeter chain that not many other chains have. Their competitors, including Wegmans (which somewhat rivals them) have hours slightly shorter than these HT stores at this point. In all, this shift will leave Walmart and a slew of convenience stores as the only grocery options overnight.

What do you say this means for the chain? Will they still be able to compete well in these locales?
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by drpep »

Wegmans in that area are not 24 hour stores?
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by storewanderer »

This seems to be common with what has happened in other Kroger divisions. 24 hour stores have been declining in count over the years and I expect the trend to continue. It isn't easy to staff graveyard shifts either, the tight labor market may be having an impact on some of these decisions.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by BatteryMill »

drpep wrote: August 22nd, 2019, 6:23 pm Wegmans in that area are not 24 hour stores?
Not that I know of in this area. Most of the stores I know operate from 6 AM-midnight, 7 days a week. That's only one hour shy of Harris Teeter's new schedule.
storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2019, 8:00 pm This seems to be common with what has happened in other Kroger divisions. 24 hour stores have been declining in count over the years and I expect the trend to continue. It isn't easy to staff graveyard shifts either, the tight labor market may be having an impact on some of these decisions.
Did the other chains have 24/7 stores as Harris Teeter does? This might be true, though not on a standard scale as HT does across the chain. I would also like to know when 24 hour operations really were in prominence. While they will not need such employees, they will have a new closing/opening procedure to run through every night. On a side note, I wonder if things would be different had they stayed independent or went to a different buyer.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by cw06 »

storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2019, 8:00 pm This seems to be common with what has happened in other Kroger divisions. 24 hour stores have been declining in count over the years and I expect the trend to continue. It isn't easy to staff graveyard shifts either, the tight labor market may be having an impact on some of these decisions.
This is, along with LP and safety reasons, are the reason overnight checkout is getting discontinued. No one is going to work part time graveyard at the low wages HT pays, when others are offering better pay and scheduling. The HT I worked at lost all of it's overnight cashiers, so they just left the u-scans unattended in no-cash mode. I can only imagine the shoplifting that went on.

Honestly, this just makes the grocery managers' lives easier. They'd have to drop everything to do an override for the midnight customers. And god forbid it's double coupon weekend, they don't get any of their normal work done. The night crew as a whole is also less susceptible armed robbery with reduced hours.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by cw06 »

BatteryMill wrote: August 23rd, 2019, 2:03 pm
drpep wrote: August 22nd, 2019, 6:23 pm Wegmans in that area are not 24 hour stores?
Not that I know of in this area. Most of the stores I know operate from 6 AM-midnight, 7 days a week. That's only one hour shy of Harris Teeter's new schedule.
storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2019, 8:00 pm This seems to be common with what has happened in other Kroger divisions. 24 hour stores have been declining in count over the years and I expect the trend to continue. It isn't easy to staff graveyard shifts either, the tight labor market may be having an impact on some of these decisions.
Did the other chains have 24/7 stores as Harris Teeter does? This might be true, though not on a standard scale as HT does across the chain. I would also like to know when 24 hour operations really were in prominence. While they will not need such employees, they will have a new closing/opening procedure to run through every night. On a side note, I wonder if things would be different had they stayed independent or went to a different buyer.
Albertsons was the other bidder for Harris Teeter. They wouldn't guarantee the pension fund, and Kroger did so they sold to Kroger. Had they stayed independent, their debt load and buying power issues would have killed them.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by buckguy »

It's been a while since I've been in NoVa after midnight but I doubt that they are losing many customers. The other DC area chains have cut back on 24 hour stores over the past several years and there have never been that many and often they closed at midnight on weekends. I'm not a big fan of H-T, but occasionally go to their stores in DC and MD, as well as the closer-in NoVa stores and they never seem very busy during normal hours. Now that Wegman's is coming into the District they will have much more difficulty competing in the market.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: August 25th, 2019, 10:25 am It's been a while since I've been in NoVa after midnight but I doubt that they are losing many customers. The other DC area chains have cut back on 24 hour stores over the past several years and there have never been that many and often they closed at midnight on weekends. I'm not a big fan of H-T, but occasionally go to their stores in DC and MD, as well as the closer-in NoVa stores and they never seem very busy during normal hours. Now that Wegman's is coming into the District they will have much more difficulty competing in the market.
The one in the Ballston area of Arlington was still open 24 hours a few months ago... I wasn't out past midnight though so cannot comment on traffic.

I don't think Wegmans will hurt HT much in DC unless they are in very close proximity. The HT operation in DC is already pretty unimpressive (straight up lousy compared to the operations in NC/SC) and I doubt anyone is making a special trip to go shop there; more like a big convenience store. But HT has some pretty good close in type locations that will not be so easy for competition to come in on. Wegman's is such a hassle to park, even drive into the parking lot for that matter, not to mention how long it takes to get in and out of the store itself, you really have to devote a couple hours to shopping there unless you are literally going in for one thing and know exactly where to get it (such as for some fresh food). I suspect the typical HT trip is much shorter; the 10-15 minute sort of shopping trip.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by BatteryMill »

storewanderer wrote: August 25th, 2019, 6:04 pm The one in the Ballston area of Arlington was still open 24 hours a few months ago... I wasn't out past midnight though so cannot comment on traffic.

I don't think Wegmans will hurt HT much in DC unless they are in very close proximity. The HT operation in DC is already pretty unimpressive (straight up lousy compared to the operations in NC/SC) and I doubt anyone is making a special trip to go shop there; more like a big convenience store. But HT has some pretty good close in type locations that will not be so easy for competition to come in on. Wegman's is such a hassle to park, even drive into the parking lot for that matter, not to mention how long it takes to get in and out of the store itself, you really have to devote a couple hours to shopping there unless you are literally going in for one thing and know exactly where to get it (such as for some fresh food). I suspect the typical HT trip is much shorter; the 10-15 minute sort of shopping trip.
As news outlets have been reporting, most of the changes in store hours have happened within the past week or two. That store in particular is said to cut down on hours, somewhat surprising for an urban location. I can't tell its volume at those hours either.

There are also a few places where Wegmans and Harris Teeter are within a mile from one another in the suburbs. Those were built before Wegmans came to town. Despite this competition, HT still manages to keep these stores running likely on the fact they are located within walkable developments.

That being said, I'm not too sure how Harris Teeter is doing here. For instance, they seem to be the preferred grocer in newer and wealthier communities all over. In contrast, Giant-MD, Shoppers and Safeway have not expanded in these areas since the 2000s. Perhaps HT might be more attractive considering it is regarded as an upscale grocer versus the rest? Or were these chains putting off openings before HT seized the chance? It somewhat makes me question Harris Teeter's recent ubiquity vs the quality of their stores. I haven't been down there, so I can't really tell.
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Re: NoVA Harris Teeters reducing hours

Post by 1111072036 »

It’s not just the Northern Virginia and Maryland stores that are cutting their operating hours; most of the NC stores I’ve seen have cut their operating hours as well. This strikes me more as a a Kroger corporate move since Kroger has been shedding 24 hour stores themselves.
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