Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. No non-grocery posts.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by storewanderer »

Looks like Safeway Eastern Division is consolidating into Acme's PA HQ and the warehouse will consolidate into Acme's PA Warehouse (didn't they already close the MD Safeway Warehouse or try to once...?). There will be a single mid-Atlantic division using the Acme HQ and Acme Distribution.

As the Safeway banner continues to shrink and flounder in Eastern Division (though they have a replacement store opening soon and a few remodels going on) this probably makes sense but seems like an interesting move as PA and DC are two rather distinct markets.

Is Albertsons re-centralizing again after de-centralizing under Bob Miller?
mjhale
Shift Manager
Shift Manager
Posts: 429
Joined: October 2nd, 2016, 4:02 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 47 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by mjhale »

Albertsons closed the Safeway Upper Marlboro, MD DC earlier this year:
https://www.foodtradenews.com/2020/01/2 ... -business/

I wonder if Safeway will become more like or just a clone of Acme or Albertsons in the way that Giant-MD became a clone of Stop and Shop as Ahold integrated Giant-MD into their management and distribution systems. Safeway has been stagnant in the DC market since the big run of Lifestyle remodels in the early 2000s. Other than a new store near the Twinbrook Metro I can't think of any stores that have had any infrastructure work done to them except the brighter lighting that Albertsons installed. Thankfully the Safeway near me remains a good, solid store despite being the only grocery store in the immediate area. Beyond that I often wonder what the strategy is for Safeway in the DC area. The stores are wildly inconsistent and Safeway still has some old dogs of stores out there. For instance the Leesburg store is a 30+ year old building with an island deli, Lifestyle interior but all original equipment. Safeway even has a store in Alexandria on Van Dorn Street that still has the Marketplace interior. 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....
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by pseudo3d »

There are a few markets where both Safeway and ACME still co-exist to my knowledge, so it makes sense on that standpoint, and the combined stores are still less than 300 stores, less than SoCal's numbers (and probably even Southwest, too) and definitely less than the Stop & Shop/Giant Landover company (~600 stores, 400 of which were Stop & Shop).
Furthermore, there are "subdivisions" within a division, including specialty stores (Haggen for Seattle's division, for instance, and the Southern division has the Louisiana markets, Houston, and Dallas)...and Eastern did keep (briefly) the Florida subdivision.

What really matters, overall, is not how much each division covers but where the power lies...as a point of example, A&P's Detroit division (Farmer Jack) had all of the marketing, advertising, and merchandising (not sure about buying) run out of New Jersey instead of Michigan...and Safeway (pre-Albertsons) did a similar stunt, even in separate "divisions" like their now-defunct Chicago operation.
TW-Upstate NY
Shift Manager
Shift Manager
Posts: 421
Joined: May 11th, 2009, 6:09 pm
Been thanked: 4 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

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?
buckguy
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1003
Joined: January 31st, 2017, 10:54 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 61 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by buckguy »

Safeway was the dominant chain in DC for decades. Acme left here in the early 80s and despite having been in the DC ares since the 20s, they never had much of a footprint---there would be no legacy value to the name. Baltimore, which is a rather different market was a place where both Safeway and Acme had footprints and Acme still had stores in the Eastern exurbs of Baltimore until 10-15 years ago--Baltimore has enough overlap with DC as a media market that they would keep the Safeway name in Baltimore. Acme has considerable history in Philadelphia and it's doubtful that the name would change there.

Safeway has shown interest in its stores in DC proper. They have been unsuccessful in redeveloping a couple locations, but have opened new stores every few years over the last 15 years including the new store in Capitol Hill. They updated one near me store a few months ago, with new lighting a reorganization of the pharmacy aisles. The Soviet Safeway near Dupont Circle has gotten some updates mostly to expand the liquor sales and new shelving for produce.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by storewanderer »

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?
I wouldn't expect banner changes, they can just run the ads with both banners as they do in the west.

Given it appears Acme will be in charge and Acme's warehouse will be the point of supply, it will be interesting to see if they improve the center store and drug mix/merchandising in the Safeway locations to match the larger Acme center store and drug mix.
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by pseudo3d »

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.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: August 5th, 2020, 5:51 pm

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.
I don't know if that has been successful or not. If it was successful, you'd think the banner Albertsons would be completely out of OR/WA, the last few CO Albertsons would have rebranded to Safeway, and Albertsons would likely be out of SoCal/AZ too.

Safeway doesn't have a great reputation or a very good go to market strategy; it is arguably better than Albertsons historically (however I think the small Albertsons LLC had a better go to market strategy than Safeway; the Supervalu Albertsons absolutely did not).
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: August 5th, 2020, 6:00 pm
pseudo3d wrote: August 5th, 2020, 5:51 pm

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.
I don't know if that has been successful or not. If it was successful, you'd think the banner Albertsons would be completely out of OR/WA, the last few CO Albertsons would have rebranded to Safeway, and Albertsons would likely be out of SoCal/AZ too.

Safeway doesn't have a great reputation or a very good go to market strategy; it is arguably better than Albertsons historically (however I think the small Albertsons LLC had a better go to market strategy than Safeway; the Supervalu Albertsons absolutely did not).
Albertsons certainly is suspicious of mass rebrandings, but they do seem to be on their way to getting rid of Albertsons in western Washington, not to mention what happened in Colorado...and as far as I know, no Safeway store has been rebranded as Albertsons.

The new division is named Mid-Atlantic, which is the same as Kroger's division in the general area, though Kroger's stores tend to be a bit more geographically south (no more north than Virginia, goes down to NC) with relatively little overlap.
klkla
Posts: 1614
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 3:26 pm
Been thanked: 2 times
Status: Offline

Re: Safeway East Consolidating into Acme

Post by klkla »

pseudo3d wrote: August 5th, 2020, 7:24 pmand as far as I know, no Safeway store has been rebranded as Albertsons.
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.
Post Reply