Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

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marshd1000
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Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by marshd1000 »

Good Food Holding, the parent of Metropolitan Market, Lazy Acres & Bristol Farms was acquired a few months ago by a Korean retailer!

https://m.andnowuknow.com/bloom/emart-a ... llen/60991

http://m.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20181210000523

https://www.google.com/amp/m.koreaheral ... 1207000519
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by storewanderer »

marshd1000 wrote: August 25th, 2019, 1:36 pm Good Food Holding, the parent of Metropolitan Market, Lazy Acres & Bristol Farms was acquired a few months ago by a Korean retailer!

https://m.andnowuknow.com/bloom/emart-a ... llen/60991

http://m.theinvestor.co.kr/view.php?ud=20181210000523

https://www.google.com/amp/m.koreaheral ... 1207000519
I don't see much of a synergy between these formats and an Asian format if that is where they may be planning to go with this...
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by Alpha8472 »

Bristol Farms was so absurdly high, I am surprised they did not go bankrupt. This is a rip off chain.

Will these stores be totally transformed into cheap rundown Asian markets, or will they be kept the same?
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by Brian Lutz »

Metropolitan Market seems to be a fairly high-end operator, but their stores I've been in tend to be on the small side. Asian ethnic grocers here seem to favor larger stores with things like food courts and large non-food item selections. For example, the Uwajimaya store in Seattle has its own a food court, a couple of sit-down restaurants in the building, a Kinokuniya Bookstore, Chase bank branch and a hair salon, all this in a dense urban area where space is fairly limited. Similarly, the Seafood City store in Southcenter brought a number of related Fillipino restaurants along with it when it opened (such as Jollibee and Red Ribbon) and took over the lower floor of the former Mervyn's in the mall (the upper floor sat vacant for several years before eventually becoming a Round 1 amusement center.) I'm not as familiar with HMart and 99 Ranch but their stores tend to be rather large as well, There are some smaller ethnic stores out there (some of the Indian stores here are in relatively small spaces, and there's a smaller HMart location in Bellevue), but it seems like most Asian store operators are interested in building stores more like mini-malls than anything.
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by Alpha8472 »

Seafood City seems like a more of a mini-mall with a supermarket and restaurants. Ranch 99 is a supermarket with a few seats for those who wish to eat. The entire look and feel of Ranch 99 is rundown and messy. Very few non-Asian people would shop there. The things that they sell are totally different than Bristol Farms. This is quite a mismatch.
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by SamSpade »

Alpha, that is not true of newer 99 Ranch locations. There's an entire video of a woman from Epicurious eating at the NJ 99 Ranch. The one in Beaverton, Ore. is virtually identical, although a bit smaller.

I'm not really sure how this Korean company plays into running these three grocery brands, but maybe they just wanted to get a feel for the U.S. regulation, a few key real estate pieces, and see what they get.

Remember, Albertsons Cos. owned Bristol Farms for a while before realizing that wasn't part of their "core business" and unloading it. Kroger owns a stake in "Lucky's Market," etc.

99 Ranch is trying some different formats, such as their food hall that is attached to a "warehouse style" format in Cravings by 99 Ranch.
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Re: Bristol Farms, Metropolitan Market & Lazy Acres Acquired!

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: September 12th, 2019, 9:10 pm Alpha, that is not true of newer 99 Ranch locations. There's an entire video of a woman from Epicurious eating at the NJ 99 Ranch. The one in Beaverton, Ore. is virtually identical, although a bit smaller.

I'm not really sure how this Korean company plays into running these three grocery brands, but maybe they just wanted to get a feel for the U.S. regulation, a few key real estate pieces, and see what they get.

Remember, Albertsons Cos. owned Bristol Farms for a while before realizing that wasn't part of their "core business" and unloading it. Kroger owns a stake in "Lucky's Market," etc.

99 Ranch is trying some different formats, such as their food hall that is attached to a "warehouse style" format in Cravings by 99 Ranch.
The newer 99 Ranch in Folsom, CA is basically a dump as far as appearances go. It filled up about 1/2 of an old Ralphs which sat in the shell of an early 90's Albertsons. The space 99 Ranch took was never occupied after Ralphs closed. The other 1/2 (which was Fresh & Easy) became a Dollar Tree. The store is crammed, has narrow aisles, is always uncomfortably cold inside (and I like cold), and is less than attractive in appearance. It is packed full of merchandise, has good prices, pretty good quality produce, and is well staffed with efficient employees. The hot to go food they sell is terrible.

All of the Seafood City and H Mart Stores I've been into have been very clean and well kept with the exception of the H Mart in downtown Vancouver which is not so good in cleanliness or upkeep. I've never tried any prepared food at H Mart but the Grill City option at Seafood City can be quite good. Jollibee, Red Ribbon, and Chow King in some Seafood City locations are separate businesses owned by a different company, they just lease space inside the store.
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