Pak N Save Madera closing 1/14

[storewanderer]

Anyway, what's the over/under on Albertsons buying Gongco out of their Food 4 Less store and opening a store there? They have done things like bought other grocers' spaces when they got kicked out...but that would probably still hurt the employees of either store.

Gong has a chain of F4L units that span a few hours radius down there along Highway 99 and I doubt they will be selling their stores to Albertsons or Kroger. Gong actually took over a Ralphs Kroger closed in Fresno, threw yellow paint all over what was a very nice interior, and is running a F4L out of that building to this day. Gong has also been spending money on upgrades like self checkouts so I think they are fairly successful. They staff their stores relatively well and run a clean and orderly operation. I am not a fan of these F4L Stores, I do not think their pricing is great, and I do not like the atmosphere.

[retailfanmitchell019]

(they'd be better off just going with Wild Harvest from UNFI, which is popping up in quite a few places; noticed Natural Grocers has some Wild Harvest items now too). When Kroger started to roll its own brands products into Harris Teeter and Mariano's/Pick N Save, the very first thing they did getting their items into those stores, was get the Simple Truth products into those stores. This is a high priority because this is a really, really strong product line.

Would make sense, Albertsons carried Wild Harvest long ago (I still think the Albertsons brand will go to SpinCo). A few Albertsons stores had Wild Harvest aisles. They got that brand from Shaw's long ago.
Even Market Basket in New England carries Wild Harvest by now.

[storewanderer]

(they'd be better off just going with Wild Harvest from UNFI, which is popping up in quite a few places; noticed Natural Grocers has some Wild Harvest items now too). When Kroger started to roll its own brands products into Harris Teeter and Mariano's/Pick N Save, the very first thing they did getting their items into those stores, was get the Simple Truth products into those stores. This is a high priority because this is a really, really strong product line.

Would make sense, Albertsons carried Wild Harvest long ago (I still think the Albertsons brand will go to SpinCo). A few Albertsons stores had Wild Harvest aisles. They got that brand from Shaw's long ago.
Even Market Basket in New England carries Wild Harvest by now.

Wild Harvest lost thousands of stores when Rite Aid discontinued it (I thought it was selling sort of okay there, certainly better than the weird mix of low cost Hispanic food they put in its place appears to be selling). But as UNFI has integrated Supervalu, Wild Harvest distribution has expanded throughout UNFI's client base. There are some independents in NorCal who pull primary grocery supply from C&S but specialty/Organic from UNFI; those stores now sell Wild Harvest by way of UNFI. Then of course the stores that use Supervalu as primary supplier have access to the full host of Wild Harvest items that way.

Albertsons didn't have much time to do much with Wild Harvest since it came so late before Larry threw in the towel of the company.

[Bluelightspecial]

The Safeway's in Fresno were sold prior to the sale of the southern California Safeways to Vons in 1988. This averted any FTC issues as there were already Vons in Fresno at that date and the Safeway's that were in Fresno were substandard as you point out.

[storewanderer]

The Safeway's in Fresno were sold prior to the sale of the southern California Safeways to Vons in 1988. This averted any FTC issues as there were already Vons in Fresno at that date and the Safeway's that were in Fresno were substandard as you point out.

Safeway still had 3 stores in Fresno in approximately 1995 and traded them to Save Mart in 1996 or 1997 in exchange for some Vallejo Save Marts. I don't know why Safeway kept those stores- they were likely not high performers. Fruit was a total outdated dive and 4040 N. West was a medium size store and had a bakery only (no deli, no seafood, no pharmacy) but perhaps it was a good one as Save Mart rebuilt a new store on the next lot over pretty quickly.

The stores were at 4040 N. West (now DD's- Save Mart rebuilt on the next lot over), 1625 N.Fruit, and the Pak N Save at Blackstone (now Food Maxx).

I think Safeway may have also had a store in Visalia but am not sure of its whereabouts, which division it was in, or when it was closed/sold.

Safeway also had a store in Selma, this store was a NorCal Safeway and transferred to Selma Cost Less (not related to the Cost Less chain referred to below) in 1996.

Safeway also had stores in Cocoran and Hanford which I believe were SoCal Safeways, those are now Cost Less from 1998-present (they were Scolaris from 1988-1998 after Safeway sold them).

[Alpha8472]

The Pleasant Hill, California Save Mart which was a former Fry's was one of the stores traded to Safeway around 1996. That was a huge store and was one of the busiest supermarkets in Contra Costa County for many years. It is still a busy store.

[storewanderer]

The Pleasant Hill, California Save Mart which was a former Fry's was one of the stores traded to Safeway around 1996. That was a huge store and was one of the busiest supermarkets in Contra Costa County for many years. It is still a busy store.

There was another transaction involving the Stockton Pak N Save (which was built as a standard Safeway) going to Save Mart in exchange for other store somewhere as well. I don't think it took place at the same time as Fresno. That Food Maxx ultimately went out of business.

That was another instance where Safeway kept one odd random store in Stockton (at the time an old gable on Country Club).

[Bluelightspecial]

The Safeway's in Fresno were sold prior to the sale of the southern California Safeways to Vons in 1988. This averted any FTC issues as there were already Vons in Fresno at that date and the Safeway's that were in Fresno were substandard as you point out.

Safeway still had 3 stores in Fresno in approximately 1995 and traded them to Save Mart in 1996 or 1997 in exchange for some Vallejo Save Marts. I don't know why Safeway kept those stores- they were likely not high performers. Fruit was a total outdated dive and 4040 N. West was a medium size store and had a bakery only (no deli, no seafood, no pharmacy) but perhaps it was a good one as Save Mart rebuilt a new store on the next lot over pretty quickly.

The stores were at 4040 N. West (now DD's- Save Mart rebuilt on the next lot over), 1625 N.Fruit, and the Pak N Save at Blackstone (now Food Maxx).

1625 fruit.jpg

I think Safeway may have also had a store in Visalia but am not sure of its whereabouts, which division it was in, or when it was closed/sold.



Safeway also had a store in Selma, this store was a NorCal Safeway and transferred to Selma Cost Less (not related to the Cost Less chain referred to below) in 1996.

Safeway also had stores in Cocoran and Hanford which I believe were SoCal Safeways, those are now Cost Less from 1998-present (they were Scolaris from 1988-1998 after Safeway sold them).

With all due respect, this is not correct. When Vons bought the Safeway SoCal division (with Safeway maintaining 30% interest) they bought the rights to all areas up through Fresno. Vons had a number of stores in Fresno before the buyout so Safeway the 3 stores they had in Fresno prior to the buyout. Most of those earlier Vons stores have closed. There was not a Cocoran or Hanford Safeway in SoCal Safeway division that ever became Vons. There was Safeways that became Vons in Shafter, Delano & Arvin as well as a number in Bakersfield/Oildale....all sold off because Von's couldn't market to the Hispanic market. There were also existing Vons stores in Tulare and Visalia that eventually closed and I think became Vallartas.

[storewanderer]

With all due respect, this is not correct. When Vons bought the Safeway SoCal division (with Safeway maintaining 30% interest) they bought the rights to all areas up through Fresno. Vons had a number of stores in Fresno before the buyout so Safeway the 3 stores they had in Fresno prior to the buyout. Most of those earlier Vons stores have closed. There was not a Cocoran or Hanford Safeway in SoCal Safeway division that ever became Vons. There was Safeways that became Vons in Shafter, Delano & Arvin as well as a number in Bakersfield/Oildale....all sold off because Von's couldn't market to the Hispanic market. There were also existing Vons stores in Tulare and Visalia that eventually closed and I think became Vallartas.

I can report to you with 100% certainty that the two Safeways in Fresno (Fruit and N. West) and the Blackstone Pak N Save were NorCal Safeway Stores through 1996 then traded to Save Mart in exchange for some Vallejo Save Marts. I was in Fresno during that time period multiple times, in those stores, and they were NorCal Safeways (same for Selma). They had certain upgrades that most/all NorCal Safeways received in the early-ish 90's including some point of sale system upgrades, self serve bakery department at the one with a bakery, and those checkstand lights with ads on half of the light. I don't know what exactly happened but those last 2 Fresno Safeways (and that store in Selma) were part of NorCal division going way back. Pak N Save was a NorCal only thing in the 80's and 90's (save for one Vons tried to open in Moreno Valley for a couple years in the 00's that didn't last). The Fresno Safeways were in the Sacramento division in the 80's before that was merged to turn into NorCal Division, Pak N Save was separately run at the time. Also you may go check the CA ABC website for the information on those Fresno licenses to see the path.

Vons intial entry to Fresno was in 1981 via the Kings Canyon store.

Vons in Visalia operated at 4207 W. Noble from 1982-2011 and was closed. It was an original Vons, never a Safeway. I am not clear when Safeway left Visalia or which division it was in when it left but I know Safeway was in Visalia at some point.

I'm not sure about Tulare or Vons. The Vallarta in Tulare is actually a former SoCal Lucky, then SoCal Albertsons; it was closed around 2008 by Supervalu. That was a strange situation because not far away in Visalia was a very old Albertsons that Albertsons rebuilt right before selling to Save Mart (Jewel interior store) but Visalia was always a NorCal Albertsons.



One story I heard with regard to the Vons merger and those Fresno Safeways was when they were working on the merger, Fresno came up as a potential area with store overlap that may need to have stores divested. Vons supposedly took a look at those 2 Safeways and obviously didn't want them so Safeway worked on the deal with Save Mart to do that store swap to have NorCal Safeway leave Fresno in exchange for the Vallejo Save Marts (which at that time in 1996 were a bit of a geographic island for Save Mart, and not performing well as Vallejo was very depressed in that era).

Cocoran and Hanford Safeways never became Vons because they were sold to Scolaris (may have operated as Farm Boy initially). Vons did not want those two stores so they did not take them. Take one good look at the stores (which still have the Safeway interior today) to see why. But they have worked out for Cost Less (a chain Scolaris previously owned part of up until a couple years ago).
Safeway let the liquor licenses on those two die, so I am not really sure what the arrangement there was.
What is interesting is that license number series there 194xxx was also the license number series every former SoCal Safeway acquired by Vons had. I am suspicious Corcoran was briefly transferred to NorCal Safeway but they quickly realized they didn't want it so that is why Scolaris assumed the operation in 1988.
https://www.abc.ca.gov/licensing/licens ... NSE=194091

[Groceteria]

I am not clear when Safeway left Visalia or which division it was in when it left but I know Safeway was in Visalia at some point.

Safeway closed Porterville, Visalia, and Tulare in 1984 citing "high labor costs" per the Tulare Advance-Regster.