Albertsons closing Irvine, CA

[storewanderer]

Regarding Quail Hill - we shop there pretty regularly. It’s obvious business is poor; the store doesn’t even carry the full-line deli and bakery product. The Alton store that’s closing featured pallets of sale items, whereas this location maintains regular stock. The saving grace may be that if it were to shutter, it’d be difficult to find a replacement tenant at the moment.

Quail Hill looks like a brand new store as far as its physical condition goes. Clearly a combination of a low volume store and a well built store.

But with the other two stores closing who knows what will happen. May have been worth it to operate 4 stores, may not be as worth it to operate 2. Plus that Pavilions they tried to offload on Haggen that seems to be a total dog that they put a lot of money into renovating. Still that Campus location got a colorful lifestyle remodel so it must be pretty safe.

[Bagels]

Quail Hill looks like a brand new store as far as its physical condition goes. Clearly a combination of a low volume store and a well built store.

But with the other two stores closing who knows what will happen. May have been worth it to operate 4 stores, may not be as worth it to operate 2. Plus that Pavilions they tried to offload on Haggen that seems to be a total dog that they put a lot of money into renovating. Still that Campus location got a colorful lifestyle remodel so it must be pretty safe.

The Colorful Lifestyles remodels are low cost. The Albertsons off 5/Jeffrey had several huge CRT monitors near the checkout, that at one point acted as CCTV (but had been inactive for many years). Rather than remove & dispose of them, Albertsons simply covered them up. Meanwhile, U.S. Bank continues to divest in-store bank branches; Ralphs immediately re-purposes the space, or drywall over and repaints it. Probably costs Kroger more money to do that, then Albertsons spends on a typical Colorful Lifestyles remodel.

[storewanderer]

Yeah I noticed with the bank closure Safeway lost one US Bank in Sparks and US Bank moved out all of its equipment, etc. and Safeway kept the alcove open but within a couple weeks did move forward by putting down a lifestyle color floor (US Bank had a different floor) and painted the walls within the alcove and then filled it with random overstock (so basically dead space).

Smiths lost a US Bank in Carson City and immediately walled it off. Not sure what they are doing with the space behind the wall, if anything.

Not sure how those bank leases are written up but some of them may be written up that the bank pays to clean up the space when they leave.

[Bagels]

I stopped at both stores Saturday night. 50% off perishables, 10% off dairy, 25% off everything else. Discounts were off the shelf price. Boy, people love the perception of a bargain - nearly all the perishables were gone, as was most of the meat and dairy. There was a limited selection of everything else - the stores say they’ll be open until Feb. 18th but there’s no much inventory left.

It was amusing. The shelf price for milk is about $4.50, but it’s been perpetually on sale for about $3. At 10% off, it’s $4... but people were stuffing their carts with it. Quite honestly, the only thing that’s a deal is some of the perishables....

[storewanderer]

I stopped at both stores Saturday night. 50% off perishables, 10% off dairy, 25% off everything else. Discounts were off the shelf price. Boy, people love the perception of a bargain - nearly all the perishables were gone, as was most of the meat and dairy. There was a limited selection of everything else - the stores say they’ll be open until Feb. 18th but there’s no much inventory left.

It was amusing. The shelf price for milk is about $4.50, but it’s been perpetually on sale for about $3. At 10% off, it’s $4... but people were stuffing their carts with it. Quite honestly, the only thing that’s a deal is some of the perishables....

Did sale prices still apply or were the percentages all off regular price?

I haven't been to an Albertsons closing sale in a while but in the past they froze pricing (including whatever sale pricing was in place) on the date the closing sale started and whatever was on sale at that point stayed on sale through the closing sale. Similar experience with a Holiday closing sale in NorCal last summer- sale prices froze on closing date and remained in effect for the duration of their sale which was only 3-4 days (they built a new store, but kept the old store open for 3-4 days after the new store opened and did a liquidation, 25% off everything one day, 50% off everything one day, something like that).

[ClownLoach]

Regarding Quail Hill - we shop there pretty regularly. It’s obvious business is poor; the store doesn’t even carry the full-line deli and bakery product. The Alton store that’s closing featured pallets of sale items, whereas this location maintains regular stock. The saving grace may be that if it were to shutter, it’d be difficult to find a replacement tenant at the moment.

Quail Hill looks like a brand new store as far as its physical condition goes. Clearly a combination of a low volume store and a well built store.

But with the other two stores closing who knows what will happen. May have been worth it to operate 4 stores, may not be as worth it to operate 2. Plus that Pavilions they tried to offload on Haggen that seems to be a total dog that they put a lot of money into renovating. Still that Campus location got a colorful lifestyle remodel so it must be pretty safe.

For what it's worth I spoke to the Manager at that Quail Hill store before the pandemic and they were looking at converting it to a Pavilions... But cutting down the size at the same time. Less square footage would have likely made it more profitable, but I don't know who they would rent the rest of the space to. Not the kind of neighborhood they could sublease to Dollar Tree. Would have been a good spot for a Petco? I'm guessing they decided to leave it alone for now because of the COVID situation. That would be a large scale remodel as they would have to move so much refrigeration to reduce the space; the kind of remodel that takes 6 months or more and disrupts sales dramatically. That Manager is no longer there.

What might be the saving grace for that store is the surprise announcement that Walmart is closing on Alton Pkwy on March 5th. So now if you live in the Quail Hill or Spectrum area your choices are Target which now has an inconvenient new parking garage, Whole Foods at Los Olivos (which clearly is underperforming drastically) or this Albertsons. With another 1900 apartments going up across from Los Olivos I don't see this Albertsons ever closing. It may be low volume but it is guaranteed to have comp sales increases every year for many years.

[storewanderer]

What might be the saving grace for that store is the surprise announcement that Walmart is closing on Alton Pkwy on March 5th. So now if you live in the Quail Hill or Spectrum area your choices are Target which now has an inconvenient new parking garage, Whole Foods at Los Olivos (which clearly is underperforming drastically) or this Albertsons. With another 1900 apartments going up across from Los Olivos I don't see this Albertsons ever closing. It may be low volume but it is guaranteed to have comp sales increases every year for many years.

This is a somewhat curious thing right now in this Irvine you have 2 Albertsons closing (but already spoken for- H Mart) and now a Wal Mart Supercenter closing?

What is the reason for the Wal Mart Supercenter closing? I don't think a 136k square foot store with 250 employees was "underperforming" in terms of sales volume. It would have a lower employee count if that was the case. So there must be some other reason. Maybe someone else wants this space too?

[Bagels]

Did sale prices still apply or were the percentages all off regular price?

I haven't been to an Albertsons closing sale in a while but in the past they froze pricing (including whatever sale pricing was in place) on the date the closing sale started and whatever was on sale at that point stayed on sale through the closing sale. Similar experience with a Holiday closing sale in NorCal last summer- sale prices froze on closing date and remained in effect for the duration of their sale which was only 3-4 days (they built a new store, but kept the old store open for 3-4 days after the new store opened and did a liquidation, 25% off everything one day, 50% off everything one day, something like that).

All pricing is shelf pricing. Given Albertson's pricing, even with a 25% discount, most everything will still cost more than it would at Ralph's or especially Walmart. The 50% discount on perishables yields some nice deals, but there's virtually no selection left. However, they continue to replenish the baked goods -- my guess is that they're coming from the nearby distribution center.

It appears Albertsons itself is handling the liquidation sale, and everything is up for grabs. E.g. 12-packs of Coca Cola are $6.99 - 25% off. Typically during liquidations, items that can be returned to the vendor for credit -- soda, chips, etc. -- are not including in the sale.

This is a somewhat curious thing right now in this Irvine you have 2 Albertsons closing (but already spoken for- H Mart) and now a Wal Mart Supercenter closing?

What is the reason for the Wal Mart Supercenter closing? I don't think a 136k square foot store with 250 employees was "underperforming" in terms of sales volume. It would have a lower employee count if that was the case. So there must be some other reason. Maybe someone else wants this space too?

All three stores have something in common: they're leased from The Irvine Company.

The Walmart opened in 2012, in a space formerly occupied by Sear's Great Indoors. The site had been vacant for about a year; a Register article mentioned that several retailers, including Safeway, had been in advanced negotiations to lease the site, but Walmart swooped in at the last minute and agreed to take on Sear's existing lease. Given that The Great Indoors opened in 2001, I think it's reasonable to conclude that the lease was up. This certainly wasn't an "underperforming" Walmart -- the store had a solid business, although grocery was clearly much stronger than general merchandise. The Register quotes The Irvine Company as saying it's in advanced negotiations with multiple retailers -- most likely, it was asking for a rent payment that Walmart wasn't comfortable with. During the pandemic, there have been multiple long-time businesses that have closed, citing significant rent hikes. And even with the pandemic, The Irvine Company has no problem finding replacing tenants, The Walmart will probably flip to Don Quijote, 99 SuperRanch or something like that...

The irony is, circa 2010, Walmart had expressed interest in acquiring SuperValu's lease on the (60K sq. ft.) Albertsons off of Alton and had submitted plans for a site evaluation. Instead of building a Neighborhood Market, they choose to convert the nearby Sam's Club (and later this location) into a SuperCenter.

Walmart has been mentioned as having interest in building a full-size SuperCenter at the former Laguna Hills Mall, as well as the former Lowe’s in Aliso (replacing the existing Laguna Niguel location). I’d bet that many of the Irvine shoppers drove from Lake Forest and the Lagunas, so this may be part of a long-term strategy.

Irvine Co. still mentions the shopping center Walmart anchors as being its home design center (as it was originally tagged when it was built). If I had to bet, I’d say that at home - which has its only SoCal location not far away and has said it’d like to open additional outlets - will move in.

[Bagels]

For what it's worth I spoke to the Manager at that Quail Hill store before the pandemic and they were looking at converting it to a Pavilions... But cutting down the size at the same time. Less square footage would have likely made it more profitable, but I don't know who they would rent the rest of the space to. Not the kind of neighborhood they could sublease to Dollar Tree. Would have been a good spot for a Petco? I'm guessing they decided to leave it alone for now because of the COVID situation. That would be a large scale remodel as they would have to move so much refrigeration to reduce the space; the kind of remodel that takes 6 months or more and disrupts sales dramatically. That Manager is no longer there.

What might be the saving grace for that store is the surprise announcement that Walmart is closing on Alton Pkwy on March 5th. So now if you live in the Quail Hill or Spectrum area your choices are Target which now has an inconvenient new parking garage, Whole Foods at Los Olivos (which clearly is underperforming drastically) or this Albertsons. With another 1900 apartments going up across from Los Olivos I don't see this Albertsons ever closing. It may be low volume but it is guaranteed to have comp sales increases every year for many years.

I think you have the Quail Hill location mixed up with Jeffrey/5 -- prior to its renovation, the Jeffrey/5 location carried much of the same product assortment as Pavilions. Quail Hill is considerably smaller (I'd guess it's less than 40K sq. ft.) and uses every inch of space fairly efficiently. Downsizing the store wouldn't make any sense -- the buildout to replace the lost infrastructure (e.g. refrigeration, etc.) would be in the millions. As it is, the store lacks sufficient space for bulk display of sale items (present in most other locations) and a pharmacy.

But I agree, Walmart's closure will have a material impact within the Spectrum area. I do disagree with you on Whole Foods -- while I don't shop there, it's challenging to find a parking spot to the point that some employees (within the shopping center) are required to park elsewhere and take a shuttle to the site.

That said, I don't think it'll have much of a positive impact on the Quail Hill location. Unless you live within Quail Hill, the parking lot makes it incredibly inconvenient to get into and out of. The whole shopping center seems to struggle -- most everything in there frequently flips. Even what was once a dentist office became a vet, then a real estate agency office, and now something else -- and the shopping center opened up only 15 years ago!

Time will tell!

[Bagels]

Wow, that was fast. I tried stopping at Walmart but it’s closed in preparation of liquidation.