Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

[Romr123]

https://www.mpl.org/blog/now/kroger-ret ... ze=regfont

Fun article on Kroger's multiple returns to Milwaukee

[jamcool]

And in Southern Cal, it is Round 2 for Kroger with ownership of Ralphs’/Food 4 Less, they owned the Market Basket chain in LA until the mid 80s. Even offered Tenderay brand beef and a few Kroger branded products. (But no Top Value stamps-they offered Blue Chips like almost every other LA chain)

[storewanderer]

Kroger bought what was basically a distressed asset with good large size stores in Milwaukee, Pick N Save, and got what was a jewel of a format but not necessarily one that made much money, Mariano's in Chicago. From the best I can tell, Kroger has marginalized Mariano's (but is it more profitably this way...?) but has improved performance at Pick N Save. I think it is working. With as far as Pick N Save had already fallen, there wasn't much of a spot to go but "up" for Kroger. Not sure about what is going on in Madison.

Has Kroger opened any new build stores under the Pick N Save banner?

[BatteryMill]

And in Southern Cal, it is Round 2 for Kroger with ownership of Ralphs’/Food 4 Less, they owned the Market Basket chain in LA until the mid 80s. Even offered Tenderay brand beef and a few Kroger branded products. (But no Top Value stamps-they offered Blue Chips like almost every other LA chain)

Interestingly Hughes and Boys Markets, acquired by QFC also factored into Kroger's presence in SoCal. I believe even Alpha Beta had been indirectly subsumed into Kroger through Ralphs.

Kroger bought what was basically a distressed asset with good large size stores in Milwaukee, Pick N Save, and got what was a jewel of a format but not necessarily one that made much money, Mariano's in Chicago. From the best I can tell, Kroger has marginalized Mariano's (but is it more profitably this way...?) but has improved performance at Pick N Save. I think it is working. With as far as Pick N Save had already fallen, there wasn't much of a spot to go but "up" for Kroger. Not sure about what is going on in Madison.

Has Kroger opened any new build stores under the Pick N Save banner?

One new location in Pewaukee, but I think the most Kroger has done is phase out the Copps banner.

[pseudo3d]

And in Southern Cal, it is Round 2 for Kroger with ownership of Ralphs’/Food 4 Less, they owned the Market Basket chain in LA until the mid 80s. Even offered Tenderay brand beef and a few Kroger branded products. (But no Top Value stamps-they offered Blue Chips like almost every other LA chain)

Interestingly Hughes and Boys Markets, acquired by QFC also factored into Kroger's presence in SoCal. I believe even Alpha Beta had been indirectly subsumed into Kroger through Ralphs.

That's correct. From what I read, American Stores was ruled to have an unfair advantage with both Alpha Beta and Lucky in California, so they converted a handful to Lucky (probably already having unified systems, so the transition was presumably easy and seamless) but divested the rest, and eventually Yucaipa consolidated Alpha Beta under the Ralphs name.

[BatteryMill]

And in Southern Cal, it is Round 2 for Kroger with ownership of Ralphs’/Food 4 Less, they owned the Market Basket chain in LA until the mid 80s. Even offered Tenderay brand beef and a few Kroger branded products. (But no Top Value stamps-they offered Blue Chips like almost every other LA chain)

Interestingly Hughes and Boys Markets, acquired by QFC also factored into Kroger's presence in SoCal. I believe even Alpha Beta had been indirectly subsumed into Kroger through Ralphs.

That's correct. From what I read, American Stores was ruled to have an unfair advantage with both Alpha Beta and Lucky in California, so they converted a handful to Lucky (probably already having unified systems, so the transition was presumably easy and seamless) but divested the rest, and eventually Yucaipa consolidated Alpha Beta under the Ralphs name.

Would the Skaggs Alpha Beta stores out east count as descendants of Kroger too? I'm not sure what's the scoop with that since those were converted from Skaggs Albertsons.

[pseudo3d]

Interestingly Hughes and Boys Markets, acquired by QFC also factored into Kroger's presence in SoCal. I believe even Alpha Beta had been indirectly subsumed into Kroger through Ralphs.

That's correct. From what I read, American Stores was ruled to have an unfair advantage with both Alpha Beta and Lucky in California, so they converted a handful to Lucky (probably already having unified systems, so the transition was presumably easy and seamless) but divested the rest, and eventually Yucaipa consolidated Alpha Beta under the Ralphs name.

Would the Skaggs Alpha Beta stores out east count as descendants of Kroger too? I'm not sure what's the scoop with that since those were converted from Skaggs Albertsons.

Those would be ancestors of Kroger, not descendants. In 1991, the remaining Skaggs Albertsons were rebranded as Jewel-Osco (even in Texas) and sold to Albertsons in 1992, whereupon they reopened as Albertsons stores. The exception to this was the stores in New Mexico, which were kept by ASC, rebranded again in 1998 as Lucky, then reflagged as Albertsons in 1999 when the company had merged. Some still operate as Albertsons Market under United.