Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by veteran+ »

Sprouts does that validate thing with their store in West Hollywood.

The really nice Ralphs Fresh Fare in Westwood does it as well.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: November 4th, 2022, 7:29 am Sprouts does that validate thing with their store in West Hollywood.

The really nice Ralphs Fresh Fare in Westwood does it as well.
I forget if the Ralphs in Downtown Los Angeles does it too or not.
The Ralphs in Downtown San Diego has a dedicated entry/garage space of its own and at wasn't validating at least not when I have been there (it appeared they may be set up to do it if they wanted).
Macys in downtown Sacramento has dedicated garage space/entry carved out for itself yet still does the validation thing as well.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by HCal »

Word is that this store will close in January, although I can't find any official source to confirm.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: December 8th, 2023, 8:27 pm Word is that this store will close in January, although I can't find any official source to confirm.
Looking around and can't find any indication of a closure but I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Hardly any foot traffic, bad access, bad parking, ridiculous prices, way too much fresh space for such a low traffic store, what could go wrong? They needed to do $1 million+ a week to make this work. I doubt they were doing 1/3 that amount.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: December 8th, 2023, 10:28 pm
HCal wrote: December 8th, 2023, 8:27 pm Word is that this store will close in January, although I can't find any official source to confirm.
Looking around and can't find any indication of a closure but I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Hardly any foot traffic, bad access, bad parking, ridiculous prices, way too much fresh space for such a low traffic store, what could go wrong? They needed to do $1 million+ a week to make this work. I doubt they were doing 1/3 that amount.
It seemed like it had finally been figured out with the dedicated parking lot and such, so I'm not exactly sure where that is coming from. It is also a site that Instacart has invested in as their technology exposition store, so again doesn't really add up since someone else is helping to pay the rent and I suspect they got a bargain lease (don't doubt me here when I tell you that IMC can and does issue these). Is there a WARN notice? I haven't seen one but it would already need to be filed for a January closure. Also doesn't align with the lease term and an IMC lease has huge penalties, I doubt highly that they're losing that much that the fee is worth paying... Otherwise the Whole Foods across the freeway would have already closed.

They were supposed to be redoing the pizza restaurant concept, and there is a comment on social media where a person in the restaurant told them they were closing at end of January which aligns with the restaurant piece. I suspect it is being extrapolated to the entire store but again the WARN act notice is missing and they didn't have any problems announcing and posting several months in advance when SF closed.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: December 9th, 2023, 11:55 am
storewanderer wrote: December 8th, 2023, 10:28 pm
HCal wrote: December 8th, 2023, 8:27 pm Word is that this store will close in January, although I can't find any official source to confirm.
Looking around and can't find any indication of a closure but I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Hardly any foot traffic, bad access, bad parking, ridiculous prices, way too much fresh space for such a low traffic store, what could go wrong? They needed to do $1 million+ a week to make this work. I doubt they were doing 1/3 that amount.
It seemed like it had finally been figured out with the dedicated parking lot and such, so I'm not exactly sure where that is coming from. It is also a site that Instacart has invested in as their technology exposition store, so again doesn't really add up since someone else is helping to pay the rent and I suspect they got a bargain lease (don't doubt me here when I tell you that IMC can and does issue these). Is there a WARN notice? I haven't seen one but it would already need to be filed for a January closure. Also doesn't align with the lease term and an IMC lease has huge penalties, I doubt highly that they're losing that much that the fee is worth paying... Otherwise the Whole Foods across the freeway would have already closed.

They were supposed to be redoing the pizza restaurant concept, and there is a comment on social media where a person in the restaurant told them they were closing at end of January which aligns with the restaurant piece. I suspect it is being extrapolated to the entire store but again the WARN act notice is missing and they didn't have any problems announcing and posting several months in advance when SF closed.
Maybe they don't have enough staff to need to file a WARN.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: December 9th, 2023, 5:57 pm
ClownLoach wrote: December 9th, 2023, 11:55 am
storewanderer wrote: December 8th, 2023, 10:28 pm

Looking around and can't find any indication of a closure but I'm surprised it lasted this long.

Hardly any foot traffic, bad access, bad parking, ridiculous prices, way too much fresh space for such a low traffic store, what could go wrong? They needed to do $1 million+ a week to make this work. I doubt they were doing 1/3 that amount.
It seemed like it had finally been figured out with the dedicated parking lot and such, so I'm not exactly sure where that is coming from. It is also a site that Instacart has invested in as their technology exposition store, so again doesn't really add up since someone else is helping to pay the rent and I suspect they got a bargain lease (don't doubt me here when I tell you that IMC can and does issue these). Is there a WARN notice? I haven't seen one but it would already need to be filed for a January closure. Also doesn't align with the lease term and an IMC lease has huge penalties, I doubt highly that they're losing that much that the fee is worth paying... Otherwise the Whole Foods across the freeway would have already closed.

They were supposed to be redoing the pizza restaurant concept, and there is a comment on social media where a person in the restaurant told them they were closing at end of January which aligns with the restaurant piece. I suspect it is being extrapolated to the entire store but again the WARN act notice is missing and they didn't have any problems announcing and posting several months in advance when SF closed.
Maybe they don't have enough staff to need to file a WARN.
They have at least a couple hundred people and it is consistently busy these days. I honestly don't see this rumor panning out. They have a much less successful store in Yorba Linda that predates this one and is still holding on, and I guarantee that it has higher rent than this location (their IMC lease will be low monthly rent plus a percentage of sales, while leasing elsewhere is just a flat amount). If they're close to closing Irvine then Yorba would be going too; they've already cut down all the fresh product and closed down several of the prepared foods counters at Yorba Linda while everything in Irvine is fully operational. Yorba Linda is totally scaled back like a closing store. Something just doesn't add up on this rumor. Unless... and this could be very likely... They are going to convert it to an Asian format store. Since it's already owned by a Korean company I could see that happening, the Newfound Market format is based on their high end stores in Seoul.
Last edited by ClownLoach on December 9th, 2023, 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: December 9th, 2023, 7:08 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 9th, 2023, 5:57 pm
ClownLoach wrote: December 9th, 2023, 11:55 am

It seemed like it had finally been figured out with the dedicated parking lot and such, so I'm not exactly sure where that is coming from. It is also a site that Instacart has invested in as their technology exposition store, so again doesn't really add up since someone else is helping to pay the rent and I suspect they got a bargain lease (don't doubt me here when I tell you that IMC can and does issue these). Is there a WARN notice? I haven't seen one but it would already need to be filed for a January closure. Also doesn't align with the lease term and an IMC lease has huge penalties, I doubt highly that they're losing that much that the fee is worth paying... Otherwise the Whole Foods across the freeway would have already closed.

They were supposed to be redoing the pizza restaurant concept, and there is a comment on social media where a person in the restaurant told them they were closing at end of January which aligns with the restaurant piece. I suspect it is being extrapolated to the entire store but again the WARN act notice is missing and they didn't have any problems announcing and posting several months in advance when SF closed.
Maybe they don't have enough staff to need to file a WARN.
They have at least a couple hundred people. I honestly don't see this rumor panning out. They have a much less successful store in Yorba Linda that predates this one and is still holding on, and I guarantee that it has higher rent than this location (their IMC lease will be low monthly rent plus a percentage of sales, while leasing elsewhere is just a flat amount). If they're close to closing Irvine then Yorba would be going too; unlike Irvine they've already scaled back all the fresh product and closed down several of the prepared foods counters. Yorba Linda is totally scaled back. Something doesn't add up on this rumor. Unless... and this could be very likely... They are going to convert it to an Asian format store. Since it's already owned by a Korean company I could see that happening, the Newfound Market format is based on their high end stores in Seoul.
Can they scale the store back? Maybe they have to operate it on its current form due to some agreement with IMC.

Maybe they are trying to get even more rent concessions.

Do you think this is a viable space for another grocer? I am not really sure it is.

Pretty sure Yorba Linda is doing even less volume than this Irvine thing but if they have the cost structure down on it maybe they can limp it along if that is how they want to do things. I think they need to identify they've made a couple of bad real estate mistakes here and try to regroup before these two stores bring their entire chain down.
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: December 9th, 2023, 7:30 pm
ClownLoach wrote: December 9th, 2023, 7:08 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 9th, 2023, 5:57 pm

Maybe they don't have enough staff to need to file a WARN.
They have at least a couple hundred people. I honestly don't see this rumor panning out. They have a much less successful store in Yorba Linda that predates this one and is still holding on, and I guarantee that it has higher rent than this location (their IMC lease will be low monthly rent plus a percentage of sales, while leasing elsewhere is just a flat amount). If they're close to closing Irvine then Yorba would be going too; unlike Irvine they've already scaled back all the fresh product and closed down several of the prepared foods counters. Yorba Linda is totally scaled back. Something doesn't add up on this rumor. Unless... and this could be very likely... They are going to convert it to an Asian format store. Since it's already owned by a Korean company I could see that happening, the Newfound Market format is based on their high end stores in Seoul.
Can they scale the store back? Maybe they have to operate it on its current form due to some agreement with IMC.

Maybe they are trying to get even more rent concessions.

Do you think this is a viable space for another grocer? I am not really sure it is.

Pretty sure Yorba Linda is doing even less volume than this Irvine thing but if they have the cost structure down on it maybe they can limp it along if that is how they want to do things. I think they need to identify they've made a couple of bad real estate mistakes here and try to regroup before these two stores bring their entire chain down.
It's a reduced size store compared to the standard Bristol Farms. Substantially smaller grocery store in every way, perimeter departments half the size. The grocery store component is Aldi size. The rest is restaurants and a food hall. The restaurant is definitely a problem space but supposedly they were going to change the concept out from gourmet pizza to something else, and that space could easily be leased out.

Yorba Linda is a ghost town, last time I was there I was the only customer at 4pm on a Friday.

I highly doubt there is a rent issue. IMC strategy is very interesting and favorable to big boxes... Horrible for smaller boxes and restaurants. They want you to open multiple locations and make a profit on your big box. Then their center is more attractive to the restaurants and smaller shops who sometimes pay as much or more for a much smaller space (but no percentage rent). They bend over backwards for box tenants like this. They are very misunderstood.

The parking is fine. The visibility is good. I don't see the criticism. Irvine Spectrum hasn't had a parking problem for many years now, it has 3 parking structures now that are never more than half filled plus 2 mega structures across the street after 5pm daily that service the main restaurant and theater area. This center has too much parking, they could move Costco over without adding a space. It has been nearly 30 years since Spectrum opened and wound up needing Disneyland parking lot trams to shuttle people from distant areas, it has probably the best parking of any major center in Orange County with only one remaining congested corner that frankly makes no sense (back of Nordstrom along I-405 surface lot which is next to a massive garage). I can always park in this center quickly without searching for a space. There are entire generations of renters and homeowners across/down the street that were children or not even living in the US when parking was a problem at this center. Any day of the week 24/7 I guarantee you can get a good parking place at the Spectrum faster than at the other major OC centers (South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island, Market Place, Bella Terra, Brea Mall).
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Re: Bristol Farms "Newfound Market"

Post by ClownLoach »

I do have a thought here...

The Lazy Acres brand is far more fitting for this store and center than Bristol Farms. The product that sells best skews healthy vs luxury.

I wonder if they're going to change the banner like they did in Long Beach from Bristol to Lazy Acres. They recently remodeled Long Beach in a complete to the bare walls and rafters gut and rebuild, 2nd time in less than a decade and a totally different format for Lazy Acres that has a strong resemblance to this Bristol Farms new concept. It's a big hit.

The incredible amounts of money this chain spends on these remodels and such already make me doubt closure rumors.

It would make a lot of sense to close the Bristol Farms branded grocery store, redo it in the more health conscious Lazy Acres format, and reopen with the same food court concept in place and a healthier (read: non pizza) restaurant.
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