Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

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storewanderer
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Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by storewanderer »

https://progressivegrocer.com/kroger-di ... kys-market

I wonder if they will keep selling Simple Truth products...

Lucky's struck me as weaker than Sprouts or Fresh Thyme in terms of its store volumes. The format was a little different but sort of seemed the same type of idea. (Sprouts and Fresh Thyme are so similar I could confuse the two, but Fresh Thyme seems to execute better based on my limited experience with them). Lucky's definitely came off as a little more distinct.

Will be interesting to see what happens next. I still think this type of store format is one Kroger needs to be involved in. Customers love this format.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by pseudo3d »

Seems like they've only been distributing Simple Truth products for less than six months, according to Wikipedia. In any case, there needs to be more independent supermarkets, too many have gone under or been folded into large empires, and hopefully Kroger's investment during this time will help Lucky's Market continue to expand.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: December 6th, 2019, 6:15 am Seems like they've only been distributing Simple Truth products for less than six months, according to Wikipedia. In any case, there needs to be more independent supermarkets, too many have gone under or been folded into large empires, and hopefully Kroger's investment during this time will help Lucky's Market continue to expand.
It is odd they just got them distributing Simple Truth items and now they are divesting them off. Who knows what is going on behind the scenes. Maybe they will keep offering Simple Truth even after they get divested from Kroger.

I think at this point Kroger has gone in way too deep on technology initiatives. In a few years it may work out very well for them, or it may not. That remains to be seen.

All I know is, as a customer, I am continually more and more disappointed with Kroger. The stores do not offer the same level of service they offered 5 years ago; front ends are less staffed and they have some pretty major problems keeping center store stocked properly. Prices are less and less competitive and I buy many items elsewhere for price reasons (also finding better quality elsewhere). The only bright spot that remains which they have not screwed up yet, is their private label program. Their fresh product (bakery, deli) is terrible, and meat is marginal at best. Produce is okay at Smiths, when they are in stock. They frequently run out of stock on basic produce items. Store blames warehouse. Who knows what the real blame should go to.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by rwsandiego »

The divestiture (at a substantial loss toward the end of the year) sounds a lot like Safeway closing Dominick's (at a substantial loss toward the end of the year) after its gain on the sale of Canadian Safeway. "Hurry up, Fred, we gotta take the loss to offset the gain." Just wondering what gain Kroger might be offsetting.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: December 7th, 2019, 12:44 am
pseudo3d wrote: December 6th, 2019, 6:15 am Seems like they've only been distributing Simple Truth products for less than six months, according to Wikipedia. In any case, there needs to be more independent supermarkets, too many have gone under or been folded into large empires, and hopefully Kroger's investment during this time will help Lucky's Market continue to expand.
It is odd they just got them distributing Simple Truth items and now they are divesting them off. Who knows what is going on behind the scenes. Maybe they will keep offering Simple Truth even after they get divested from Kroger.

I think at this point Kroger has gone in way too deep on technology initiatives. In a few years it may work out very well for them, or it may not. That remains to be seen.

All I know is, as a customer, I am continually more and more disappointed with Kroger. The stores do not offer the same level of service they offered 5 years ago; front ends are less staffed and they have some pretty major problems keeping center store stocked properly. Prices are less and less competitive and I buy many items elsewhere for price reasons (also finding better quality elsewhere). The only bright spot that remains which they have not screwed up yet, is their private label program. Their fresh product (bakery, deli) is terrible, and meat is marginal at best. Produce is okay at Smiths, when they are in stock. They frequently run out of stock on basic produce items. Store blames warehouse. Who knows what the real blame should go to.
Their produce was never excellent (in my opinion) and has probably gotten worse, routinely I've been at Kroger in the evening (after work, several hours before closing service departments) and things like green peppers would be gone or left with a few disgusting-looking specimens. Even Randalls' stuff looked better and overall better stocked, even if they were slightly pricier (with worse numbers).

In my current market now, Kroger is expanding one of its two stores, though that store pulls in good numbers because its the only conventional grocery store in a two mile radius and exists in a part of town that's still growing. The other Kroger survives because of a similar reason (despite two strong, large H-E-B stores on the perimeter of that).
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: December 7th, 2019, 1:49 pm
Their produce was never excellent (in my opinion) and has probably gotten worse, routinely I've been at Kroger in the evening (after work, several hours before closing service departments) and things like green peppers would be gone or left with a few disgusting-looking specimens. Even Randalls' stuff looked better and overall better stocked, even if they were slightly pricier (with worse numbers).

In my current market now, Kroger is expanding one of its two stores, though that store pulls in good numbers because its the only conventional grocery store in a two mile radius and exists in a part of town that's still growing. The other Kroger survives because of a similar reason (despite two strong, large H-E-B stores on the perimeter of that).
Never excellent produce (though I think Fred Meyer and QFC have in the past had excellent produce and oddly so has Dillons) and the main reason their produce program got as good as it did was because they cut prices so freshness standard was very strong.

I am glad to hear a store expansion is happening. They aren't spending much money on stores here and I have observed some similar conditions traveling to other Kroger divisions the past year as well. Locally here at Smiths, even some routine maintenance type stuff does not seem to be happening like it once did. Frequently seeing U Scans broken now and they seem to stay broken for days. Also frequently seeing multiple gas pumps broken which again are staying broken for days. I am seeing some broken pergo like flooring being held together by duct tape in one location.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by SamSpade »

Sorry to be off Lucky's topic,
But visiting a friend and just shopped Fry's on Friday. Really delicious produce product compared to Fred Meyer/ QFC. (Vine on tomato, avocado, green onion... All conventional)
Fry's and Smith's really are similar. And not really like Fred Meyer (except in Utah 😉).
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: December 7th, 2019, 11:18 pm
pseudo3d wrote: December 7th, 2019, 1:49 pm
Their produce was never excellent (in my opinion) and has probably gotten worse, routinely I've been at Kroger in the evening (after work, several hours before closing service departments) and things like green peppers would be gone or left with a few disgusting-looking specimens. Even Randalls' stuff looked better and overall better stocked, even if they were slightly pricier (with worse numbers).

In my current market now, Kroger is expanding one of its two stores, though that store pulls in good numbers because its the only conventional grocery store in a two mile radius and exists in a part of town that's still growing. The other Kroger survives because of a similar reason (despite two strong, large H-E-B stores on the perimeter of that).
Never excellent produce (though I think Fred Meyer and QFC have in the past had excellent produce and oddly so has Dillons) and the main reason their produce program got as good as it did was because they cut prices so freshness standard was very strong.

I am glad to hear a store expansion is happening. They aren't spending much money on stores here and I have observed some similar conditions traveling to other Kroger divisions the past year as well. Locally here at Smiths, even some routine maintenance type stuff does not seem to be happening like it once did. Frequently seeing U Scans broken now and they seem to stay broken for days. Also frequently seeing multiple gas pumps broken which again are staying broken for days. I am seeing some broken pergo like flooring being held together by duct tape in one location.
What you're describing at Smith's is how many Fry's stores looked about 10-12 years ago. Since that time they really spent a lot of time and money cleaning the stores up. I have noticed that the store conditions are slipping. However, as long as they are wasting money on technology that most of their customer base will never use, I guess the investors are happy.
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by klkla »

It's now becoming clear why Kroger divested their interest in Lucky's Market.

The headline says it all, "Lucky’s Market reportedly closing most of its stores"

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... its-stores
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Re: Kroger divests interest in Lucky's Market

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote: January 21st, 2020, 2:58 pm It's now becoming clear why Kroger divested their interest in Lucky's Market.

The headline says it all, "Lucky’s Market reportedly closing most of its stores"

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... its-stores
Investments are supposed to pump money into the system to create a self-sustaining company (think McDonald's buying into Chipotle). If Lucky's Market is all but going out of business it means that the stores were absolute money-losers and Kroger finally wanted to cut off Lucky's trust fund. But as an investor in Lucky, Kroger must have had some input in the operation of the stores. Maybe Kroger even made Lucky unprofitable to the point where all the stores couldn't turn a profit.
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