storewanderer wrote: ↑October 11th, 2022, 10:55 pm
In the period before Tesco halted expansion they were still looking for sites. They had a land site in Reno and a partially finished store in Sparks which was being finished when they halted expansion.
I woud probably need what time period you speak of.
I was there from start to finish and deeply involved in openings and planned openings.
We had so many stores sites in different states of development and many built and never opened. Scouting was discontinued way before Yucaipa came to the table.
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 11th, 2022, 10:55 pm
In the period before Tesco halted expansion they were still looking for sites. They had a land site in Reno and a partially finished store in Sparks which was being finished when they halted expansion.
I woud probably need what time period you speak of.
I was there from start to finish and deeply involved in openings and planned openings.
We had so many stores sites in different states of development and many built and never opened. Scouting was discontinued way before Yucaipa came to the table.
In Phoenix, AZ it seems like 1/2 of the sites were built but never opened.
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 11th, 2022, 1:08 am
Big companies sort of tend to run like a truck with the brakes failing, so I wonder if the store development team is clueless as to the operational problems that seem to be occurring, and what appears to me to be profitability issues.
And until the store development team hears otherwise it is full speed ahead... for them.
Fresh & Easy was developing stores well after operations were clearly in the process of being shut down, until Tesco all of a sudden let the s--- hit the fan.
Good point, but articles written this week indicate Amazon is scouting stores in NYC and signed its first lease on Staten Island. Amazon is Amazon, and you'd assume that if they were considering on shelving the Fresh concept, they'd put a stay on scouting.
That said, a number of stores that have yet to open had positions removed from the careers page, so who knows what's going on.
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 11th, 2022, 10:55 pm
In the period before Tesco halted expansion they were still looking for sites. They had a land site in Reno and a partially finished store in Sparks which was being finished when they halted expansion.
I woud probably need what time period you speak of.
I was there from start to finish and deeply involved in openings and planned openings.
We had so many stores sites in different states of development and many built and never opened. Scouting was discontinued way before Yucaipa came to the table.
I think we had some hopeful commercial real estate agents in Nevada who may have missed the memo to stop scouting sites, this was within a few months of Tesco pulling the plug.
Bagels wrote: ↑October 12th, 2022, 5:41 pm
Good point, but articles written this week indicate Amazon is scouting stores in NYC and signed its first lease on Staten Island. Amazon is Amazon, and you'd assume that if they were considering on shelving the Fresh concept, they'd put a stay on scouting.
Amazon Fresh's other NYC area stores are in part acquisitions from Fairway (summer 2020) in Woodland Park and Paramus, NJ and Plainview, NY, and two former Waldbaum's that had been vacant since the chain's 2015-16 closure: https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... est-stores
Amazon Fresh had wanted to buy a few more Fairways, including if I'm not mistaken all three that were sold to Food Bazaar, a NYC chain (when Food Bazaar outbid them and Seven Seas, a local operator). They continue to develop stores in New Jersey, but few that I've seen have been announced in, say, the last six months. Most are stores announced a while ago (or at least which started construction a while ago, even if they were not named). Not sure how excited they are about the NYC-Philadelphia area given that the stores in those areas seem to have been rather poorly-received.
I suspect that the word of halted stores was probably related to the news of the proposed Kroger Albertsons merger (no way they didn't know, surely they had a chance at the altar too) as well as a strategic shift back to dash carts vs the ultra expensive and flaky just walk out. And that makes a lot of sense. Why spend the money and effort to keep building new boxes, convert difficult projects like old Kmart and Sears and Office Depot buildings etc. plus wire them with millions of dollars in cameras when there is most definitely going to be a wave of actual supermarket buildings that will become available with management that actually knows what they are doing?
Let's take this in a different direction: what if the majority of the SpinCo stores wind up being acquired by Amazon? This could be a brilliant experiment especially if SpinCo becomes like Alb LLC where they license the name. Imagine if for example one of the Arizona non union nameplates and brands goes to Amazon. They could leave the operation in place and implement their best working tech, which right now is dash cart. Now they have a real example of real conventional grocery stores "plussed" with Amazon tech, which could make licensing and selling such tech more attractive to other regional chains. They could even do something like a sub brand like Albertsons +Amazon so it would be identified as an Albertsons store (the way LLC did) but it has Amazon tech.
Another reason why dash cart is so important? Because it's about to have competition, along with ALL of Amazon's wacky tech. Instacart is basically making up their own version of the dash cart and Just Walk Out technologies with the intent that they would license and install for local and regional chains. This would put Amazon at a serious disadvantage as local/regional chains already do business with Instacart and are probably much more comfortable with buying their tech programs versus partnering with a potentially destructive competitor (after all, partnering with Amazon worked out great for Toys R Us, Borders and Circuit City). The Instacart tech is going to be added to the new Bristol Farms in Irvine as a technology showcase which is going to be interesting to see a brand new and fairly successful store make major changes after only a year. They're getting a Instacart version of the dash cart, shelf labels and other tech.
I expect that Instacart will use RFID type technology for their version of just walk out instead of the wacky camera stuff as it has become very reliable (Uniqlo and Adidas are ringing up nearly all transactions now with RFID instead of scanning barcodes for example) and it will be easy to train customers to weigh produce with a scale/label printer if the rest is frictionless. RFID would be able to generate a receipt instantly once a customer walks out the door; might require a slight change in the exit gate tech because if two people are in the exit lane simultaneously it won't know who has what products. RFID on this scale would still be much cheaper than running literally thousands of miles of cable for cameras through a building - Amazon is doubtless paying more to wire cameras than build out and fixture the entire grocery store right now, wireless tech can't deliver the reliability and bandwidth needed for that many cameras, and the cost of labor to wire plus components is going up not down due to supply chain, chip and metal shortages. Just Walk Out becomes more expensive to install every day, not less, and until such shortages are resolved it will not be a viable licensing option for remodeling existing supermarkets nor building more of them.
Amazon has not commented about future Fresh store technology changes, but has announced that the latest wave of Whole Foods stores opening after Fall will have Dash Carts - no mention of Just Walk Out which was part of the previous 2022 Whole Foods openings. Clearly the problems with accuracy of orders, video review causing receipts to take up to a day to show up, shrink and probably regulations about what foods must be sold by weight vs container size (I still think they operate in violation of California law as deli items must be sold by weight here but they're charging by size on the hot bar).
So Amazon is definitely forced to a crossroads with the Kroger Albertsons deal, and in light of that news plus the Instacart competition they definitely have to make changes or not only is the entire Fresh line of stores at risk but now so is the entire prospect of licensing this technology to others. Amazon is now in a very tough place because they already are not making any money with these grocery stores and now the speed must be turned up or they're going to get locked out of the market completely.
Just Walk Out... I won't even say it. I've said it. Enough.
As far as Whole Foods goes, I am not even sure the dash carts are a great idea at Whole Foods. Maybe. I guess we will see how they work.
I don't think Amazon will take over much of anything from Safeway/Albertsons due to the union situation. I guess they could close down and "remodel" and reopen as non-union but that is exactly the type of thing the FTC and certain politicians are currently at war about with regards to this merger and the FTC is either going to do better this time or this will be Haggen II.
I'll wait to see Instacart's technology before I comment.
Wal Mart's deli also sells side items by size (hot macaroni and cheese, etc.). Most grocers sell deli soup by the size too (not weight). My understanding is they are not in violation as long as each package shows its weight. I typically don't notice the weight listed but don't look for it. Also various hot chinese food (Safeway and Raleys) sell pails of rice/chow mein/chinese food by the size (Safeway sold it by the pound before they subleased the departments to the sushi vendor; Raleys always did it by size; Raleys and Safeway NorCal currently have identical hot chinese food programs due to subleasing the spaces to the same vendor; the vendor has a Raleys or Safeway scale, labels the product, then you go pay at regular checkout for the items with the rest of your groceries). Also for instance Safeway on the prepack 8pc chicken they sell in deli at a flat price, they are supposed to put a separate label on those with the weight for each individual package (doesn't always happen...).
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 19th, 2022, 9:47 pmI don't think Amazon will take over much of anything from Safeway/Albertsons due to the union situation. I guess they could close down and "remodel" and reopen as non-union but that is exactly the type of thing the FTC and certain politicians are currently at war about with regards to this merger and the FTC is either going to do better this time or this will be Haggen II.
Kroger's preference is to sell the stores they divest; SpinCo will be comprised of assets they are unable to sell. If Amazon intends on continuing to operate brick and motor grocery stores, this will give it an opportunity to acquire prime locations at under market leases. If Amazon buys select stores, and not most of the stores under a specific banner, it has no legal obligation to keep any ex-Albertsons-Kroger employees, let alone recognize the union. Reality is, those who are deeply attached to the union will stick with Kroger and "bump" into other locations.
storewanderer wrote: ↑October 19th, 2022, 9:47 pmI don't think Amazon will take over much of anything from Safeway/Albertsons due to the union situation. I guess they could close down and "remodel" and reopen as non-union but that is exactly the type of thing the FTC and certain politicians are currently at war about with regards to this merger and the FTC is either going to do better this time or this will be Haggen II.
Kroger's preference is to sell the stores they divest; SpinCo will be comprised of assets they are unable to sell. If Amazon intends on continuing to operate brick and motor grocery stores, this will give it an opportunity to acquire prime locations at under market leases. If Amazon buys select stores, and not most of the stores under a specific banner, it has no legal obligation to keep any ex-Albertsons-Kroger employees, let alone recognize the union. Reality is, those who are deeply attached to the union will stick with Kroger and "bump" into other locations.
SpinCo establishes a floor price for the stores being divested. The issue divesting stores in the past is in some cases the stores had to literally be given away, or even pay someone to take them (see Safeway when they took over Carr's and the Alaska Marketplace fiasco), or be fined to keep operating the store with no buyers coming forward... but no option to close it...
Trying to pass off any stores from Kroger/Safeway to Amazon will have the FTC declining this merger. The Union is going to ensure every store is sold to a union buyer and if not they will go cry to Warren and Bernie about it and the merger will get blocked. But nothing stops SpinCo from selling the real estate to Amazon if SpinCo elects to do that...
