Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by jamcool »

Safeway operated as far to the East as NYC until the early 60s, when they sold out to First National Stores
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by jamcool »

Safeway operated as far to the East as NYC until the early 60s, when they sold out to First National Stores in that area and retrenched to DC/Baltimore
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by pseudo3d »

jamcool wrote: August 6th, 2020, 12:18 am Safeway operated as far to the East as NYC until the early 60s, when they sold out to First National Stores in that area and retrenched to DC/Baltimore
Safeway's New York division was never contiguous with Washington DC's division. Safeway was absent in most of Maryland, Delaware, and most of southern New Jersey. The fact that Safeway sold it off while they were still expanding organically and over two decades before they started their big retractions in the 1980s really says volumes about how successful (or lack thereof) the New York division was.
klkla wrote: August 5th, 2020, 8:53 pm The only one I can think of had to do with the Haggen fiasco. The Vons at 1940 Village Center Circle in Las Vegas reopened as an Albertson's. This store had the 1990's Pavilions layout.
Well, I meant actual Safeway-branded stores in Arizona, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, etc....and on the topic of Vons, while they did open an unfinished Vons (started construction in the late 2000s and abandoned as a shell) as an Albertsons, they haven't done any other changes to the existing Vons in Las Vegas.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by buckguy »

pseudo3d wrote: August 5th, 2020, 5:51 pm
TW-Upstate NY wrote: August 5th, 2020, 8:46 am Thought question-Is it possible they convert some of the Safeways to Acme and to carry it further would Safeway be bold enough to venture into the Phila. area again after the Genuardi's disaster by perhaps rebranding some of the Acmes to Safeway?
Probably the other way around. Albertsons has seen some success(?) flipping some Albertsons into Safeway in a few markets, but I don't think it would work in the East Coast. The Albertsons in Florida got converted into Safeway probably more on the basis that Safeway was just a new name that hadn't been tried yet (even Jewel-Osco came and went) without investing in an entirely new name for the Florida stores, and if they bought a regional Southeastern grocer with better name recognition than Safeway (though due to most of them being Publix or locked up by larger companies, that may not have been possible) they would've rebranded.

Besides, Safeway in Washington DC is a historically odd operation...it was always an isolated division ever since Safeway bought a local store (Purity Food Stores?) back in the 1930s, and Safeway never was able to expand far enough east to incorporate it.

Safeway bought Sanitary in DC during the 30s, and at their peak Safeway once extended through much of Virginia and down to the Outer Banks in NC---they slowly scaled back starting toward DC in the 80s. The Baltimore-DC division also expanded into S Central Pennsylvania, with York as a the major market. They also had a NYC Division which I think went back to the 20s or 30s and lasted until the early 60s, when it was sold to First National. More recently, they also had the short lived Genardi's operation they bought in Philly.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: August 7th, 2020, 8:33 am
Safeway bought Sanitary in DC during the 30s, and at their peak Safeway once extended through much of Virginia and down to the Outer Banks in NC---they slowly scaled back starting toward DC in the 80s. The Baltimore-DC division also expanded into S Central Pennsylvania, with York as a the major market. They also had a NYC Division which I think went back to the 20s or 30s and lasted until the early 60s, when it was sold to First National. More recently, they also had the short lived Genardi's operation they bought in Philly.
I think NC/part of VA was part of that Richmond division that was divested off in the late 80's or early 90's. That was one of the last divisions they sold off as they were selling divisions, so it is questionable if it was a poorly performing unit or just sold because someone wanted to buy it.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by mbz321 »

mjhale wrote: August 4th, 2020, 8:21 pm Safeway is beginning to feel old fashioned in a sense. Their most direct competition Giant (despite Ahold doing its best to destroy them) has consistent stores that seem reasonably modern in their design even if the general layout of a lot of them are from the 80s/90s neon interior stores. Beyond Giant you have Wergmans, Harris Teeter, Walmart, Alsi, Lidl, Asian groceries. Lots of competiton. meanwhile Safeway just kind of sits there....

Acme in the Philly suburbs (the bulk of their locations) is pretty much in the same boat. Stores are from a Hodge podge of different eras and remodels and all that jazz. Some stores are incredibly tiny while others just feel oversized for the amount of products and services they are offering. Acme's latest 'remodels' (nicknamed the 'quality built' decor) just feel cheap and unexciting (I would have much rather seen them go with the Safeway 'Colorful Lifestyle'? decor') Giant (and Wegmans) has pretty much eaten their lunch, and has been moving more and more into the city in recent years as there no longer seems to be huge opposition from the Union chains as they become fewer and fewer (Giant PA is non-union for those unfamiliar). Their decor also isn't much of anything, but Giant has been rapidly replacing 'old' locations (even many ex-Genuardi's that they acquired which certainly weren't in by any means, horrible shape), and when pared with new buildings with open ceilings and polished concrete, it feels fresh and modern. Not to mention Acme's atrocious pricing...Giant beats them on pretty much everything, sometimes by very significant amounts. I have no clue what their strategy is for the future, but they don't seem to have much of a plan besides adding in beer/wine to some stores in hope to bring people in.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: August 9th, 2020, 8:28 pm

Acme in the Philly suburbs (the bulk of their locations) is pretty much in the same boat. Stores are from a Hodge podge of different eras and remodels and all that jazz. Some stores are incredibly tiny while others just feel oversized for the amount of products and services they are offering. Acme's latest 'remodels' (nicknamed the 'quality built' decor) just feel cheap and unexciting (I would have much rather seen them go with the Safeway 'Colorful Lifestyle'? decor') Giant (and Wegmans) has pretty much eaten their lunch, and has been moving more and more into the city in recent years as there no longer seems to be huge opposition from the Union chains as they become fewer and fewer (Giant PA is non-union for those unfamiliar). Their decor also isn't much of anything, but Giant has been rapidly replacing 'old' locations (even many ex-Genuardi's that they acquired which certainly weren't in by any means, horrible shape), and when pared with new buildings with open ceilings and polished concrete, it feels fresh and modern. Not to mention Acme's atrocious pricing...Giant beats them on pretty much everything, sometimes by very significant amounts. I have no clue what their strategy is for the future, but they don't seem to have much of a plan besides adding in beer/wine to some stores in hope to bring people in.
Safeway DC and Safeway Denver are the two Safeway Divisions I've gone to with the worst stores. They seem to do the least business, so their stores have a dead vibe and their product freshness and assortment seems to suffer as a result. Safeway NorCal may have understaffed stores but they have high volume stores and this really helps with product quality.

Albertsons needs to seriously address its pricing in a lot of markets. It operates stores in many places that are inferior to the competition. Not every market is Boise or Chicago where they have first class stores and enjoy a leadership position and strong customer loyalty. Pricing needs to be decreased to counter this. Kroger figured that out 20 years ago and made serious cuts to its pricing and it really helped their position today.

For instance the past few weeks in my area Safeway kept having ads with items I was interested in. I went quite a bit. Due to the price cut program, I picked up some non-ad items as well that were priced equal to Smiths prices and was generally happy with what I purchased. This week, nothing in the ad I am interested in. Despite a price cut program in this market, that in itself isn't enough to bring me to Safeway this week so I am unlikely to go there again until next time they run ads I am interested in. Their service is terrible, their meat department has a lousy selection of cuts and packages are too big for my interest, and there is nothing special to draw me in beyond the ad.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: August 9th, 2020, 8:51 pm
For instance the past few weeks in my area Safeway kept having ads with items I was interested in. I went quite a bit. Due to the price cut program, I picked up some non-ad items as well that were priced equal to Smiths prices and was generally happy with what I purchased. This week, nothing in the ad I am interested in. Despite a price cut program in this market, that in itself isn't enough to bring me to Safeway this week so I am unlikely to go there again until next time they run ads I am interested in. Their service is terrible, their meat department has a lousy selection of cuts and packages are too big for my interest, and there is nothing special to draw me in beyond the ad.
Same here. Once in a while, Acme will have a week with several worthwhile ad deals (or Just4You coupons), then there will be weeks of absolutely nothing exciting. I thought my local Acme was pretty much a goner (it really only seems to be treated as a giant convenience store as it is surrounded by a lot of apartments and other lower-middle income housing), but to my surprise, they were actually in the middle of remodeling it on my last visit to the Quality Built decor'. (This store hasn't really been touched since the late 90's) I haven't back since as of yet (they certainly haven't promoted the remodel in any way) but I highly doubt they made any dramatic changes.
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by pseudo3d »

They recently opened a store in Capitol Hill (Washington DC, not Seattle...) that looks great and has the Albertsons Market Street decor (with many of its style of amenities). Only 60k sq. ft., though, likely due to space concerns. It's up to the new Mid-Atlantic division now to see if it can hold up...

https://www.grocerydive.com/news/inside ... dc/583361/
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Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by marshd1000 »

I hope that Albertsons keeps rolling out the “Market Street” type of stores. I have been in a United Market Street store in the Dallas area and the Broadway Albertsons in Boise. The Boise store is basically modeled after United Market Street and is very nice. The also remodeled the Auburn, WA (Lake Tapps) Haggen to this same model. So it is nice to see this kind of store being adopted by Safeway/Acme! Are there any Pavilions stores being remodeled like this? I am wondering if the Safeway Community Markets or Andrinco’s will be remodeled this way? Here is the Seattle area, while there are existing Haggen stores that do well, because of the Haggen fiasco, I can’t see expansion closer to Seattle. But I think it would make sense to have some Safeway bannered stores opened or converted to this kind of format in the more urban areas of Seattle!
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