Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

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Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by Romr123 »

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

Fun article on Kroger's multiple returns to Milwaukee
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by 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)
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by 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?
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by BatteryMill »

jamcool wrote: July 1st, 2022, 11:02 am 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.
storewanderer wrote: July 1st, 2022, 11:30 am 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.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: July 1st, 2022, 12:19 pm
jamcool wrote: July 1st, 2022, 11:02 am 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.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: July 20th, 2022, 2:45 pm
BatteryMill wrote: July 1st, 2022, 12:19 pm
jamcool wrote: July 1st, 2022, 11:02 am 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.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: July 20th, 2022, 2:48 pm
pseudo3d wrote: July 20th, 2022, 2:45 pm
BatteryMill wrote: July 1st, 2022, 12:19 pm

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.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by BatteryMill »

pseudo3d wrote: July 21st, 2022, 8:36 am
BatteryMill wrote: July 20th, 2022, 2:48 pm
pseudo3d wrote: July 20th, 2022, 2:45 pm

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.
Whoops, I mixed "descendands" and "ancestors" up.

This seems to be a rather confusing history of mergers and the like. First; how did Skaggs Albertsons become Skaggs Alpha Beta? Was there any transaction made, or was Alpha Beta another arm of Albertsons at the time? Then since the Jewel-Osco rebrand was completed before they were bought by Ralphs and intended to AB's eastern stores, I wonder if that would still count as Kroger lineage even though Jewel went a different route than the rest of Alpha Beta. They also seem to have left markets like Arkansas a little earlier than the rebranding to Jewel.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by Groceteria »

BatteryMill wrote: August 24th, 2022, 2:27 pmThis seems to be a rather confusing history of mergers and the like. First; how did Skaggs Albertsons become Skaggs Alpha Beta? Was there any transaction made, or was Alpha Beta another arm of Albertsons at the time? Then since the Jewel-Osco rebrand was completed before they were bought by Ralphs and intended to AB's eastern stores, I wonder if that would still count as Kroger lineage even though Jewel went a different route than the rest of Alpha Beta. They also seem to have left markets like Arkansas a little earlier than the rebranding to Jewel.
There are a few related threads on the Groceteria board. As I recall, the sequence was more or less:

1. Skaggs Albertsons partnership was established (two separate companies) to operate combination stores.
2. Partnership dissolved in the late 1970s. Albertsons retained some stores (these became just Albertsons) and ASC/Skaggs retained the bulk of them (these became Skaggs Alpha Beta).
3. The Skaggs Alpha Beta stores (briefly rebranded as Jewel Osco) were sold to Albertsons in the early 1990s.

So basically most of the Skaggs Albertsons stores that survived the whole period ended up as Albertsons, but through two different pathways. There may have been some stragglers, though.
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Re: Kroger in Milwaukee: 3rd time a charm?

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Groceteria wrote:
BatteryMill wrote: August 24th, 2022, 2:27 pmThis seems to be a rather confusing history of mergers and the like. First; how did Skaggs Albertsons become Skaggs Alpha Beta? Was there any transaction made, or was Alpha Beta another arm of Albertsons at the time? Then since the Jewel-Osco rebrand was completed before they were bought by Ralphs and intended to AB's eastern stores, I wonder if that would still count as Kroger lineage even though Jewel went a different route than the rest of Alpha Beta. They also seem to have left markets like Arkansas a little earlier than the rebranding to Jewel.
There are a few related threads on the Groceteria board. As I recall, the sequence was more or less:

1. Skaggs Albertsons partnership was established (two separate companies) to operate combination stores.
2. Partnership dissolved in the late 1970s. Albertsons retained some stores (these became just Albertsons) and ASC/Skaggs retained the bulk of them (these became Skaggs Alpha Beta).
3. The Skaggs Alpha Beta stores (briefly rebranded as Jewel Osco) were sold to Albertsons in the early 1990s.

So basically most of the Skaggs Albertsons stores that survived the whole period ended up as Albertsons, but through two different pathways. There may have been some stragglers, though.
In California prior to the merger and breakup of Alpha Beta,the skaggs Alpha Beta brand was used on the handful of locations with pharmacies (Encinitas and pinole being just a couple)as well as non-food private label sold at all Alpha Beta locations.

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