Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: November 17th, 2022, 10:50 pm It is strange they did not open in time for the holidays.

Perhaps it will just open as a Smiths. Not clear if this is even a good fit for Kroger.
Extremely unlikely that they'd keep it closed for another year. Still, if they wanted it open before the holiday season, they could still open it the week after Thanksgiving and still catch the Christmas wave.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: November 18th, 2022, 3:18 pm
storewanderer wrote: November 17th, 2022, 10:50 pm It is strange they did not open in time for the holidays.

Perhaps it will just open as a Smiths. Not clear if this is even a good fit for Kroger.
Extremely unlikely that they'd keep it closed for another year. Still, if they wanted it open before the holiday season, they could still open it the week after Thanksgiving and still catch the Christmas wave.
Have they done any work? They auctioned off all of the equipment like a going out of business store would do. I don't know if Albertsons did the auction or the IGA operator did.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

Albertsons typically doesn't squat on sites except in cases where they can pick up multiple sites (Dominick's). I doubt this is altruism on the company's part, and rather just trying to save a bit of money.

If they wanted to, they could've easily reopened within a month, and if they really didn't want the store they could probably flip it to a different operator.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

This one makes no sense since the town needs a store... there is the Wal Mart Supercenter there but no other conventional store in town.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-news/al ... ings-store
https://archive.is/wpkBD

They mention in this article that the Laurel store (the former IGA) will "break ground" soon and open in October.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: January 26th, 2023, 6:57 am https://www.ktvq.com/news/local-news/al ... ings-store
https://archive.is/wpkBD

They mention in this article that the Laurel store (the former IGA) will "break ground" soon and open in October.
I'm confused about the break ground part. I wonder if there was an issue with the old building in Laurel and they are having to do a brand new store there.

Entry on this new Billings Store with two doors not far apart is not consistent with their other new builds the past couple years (which put two doors each on opposite ends). I will be interested to see the layout of this store.

This is a market where the Albertsons brand has no Kroger overlap and seems pretty strong. Similar to El Paso, not many other spots like that...
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: January 27th, 2023, 12:14 am Entry on this new Billings Store with two doors not far apart is not consistent with their other new builds the past couple years (which put two doors each on opposite ends). I will be interested to see the layout of this store.

This is a market where the Albertsons brand has no Kroger overlap and seems pretty strong. Similar to El Paso, not many other spots like that...
There could be a separate entrance for the pharmacy...
A lot of mid-2000s Albertsons stores have an entrance setup where two sets of doors are on one side of the exterior, with separate doors on the other side for the pharmacy. The Albertsons in Murrieta, CA on Winchester is like this. It is a 2004 build.

I bet this store will have a Jewel-Osco style layout, which Albertsons has been using lately.

In the 20% chance this merger goes through, I doubt Kroger will want to keep Albertsons brand stores. I still think the Albertsons brand will be property of SpinCo
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 27th, 2023, 9:49 pm
There could be a separate entrance for the pharmacy...
A lot of mid-2000s Albertsons stores have an entrance setup where two sets of doors are on one side of the exterior, with separate doors on the other side for the pharmacy. The Albertsons in Murrieta, CA on Winchester is like this. It is a 2004 build.

I bet this store will have a Jewel-Osco style layout, which Albertsons has been using lately.

In the 20% chance this merger goes through, I doubt Kroger will want to keep Albertsons brand stores. I still think the Albertsons brand will be property of SpinCo
It seems like the MT batch of Albertsons should largely be stores that Kroger would retain. I guess we will see what happens. Smiths flopped so so badly in Montana; I know it still has 4 open stores, and the stores they closed were terrible small outdated stores, which at the time they failed were still using the Fred Meyer-Smiths program and had basically no Kroger programs of any kind in place it was so long ago, but I am just not sure about the prospect of using Smiths banner on a larger basis in MT if they for some reason need to or decide to rebrand Albertsons Stores.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: January 28th, 2023, 11:46 pm It seems like the MT batch of Albertsons should largely be stores that Kroger would retain. I guess we will see what happens. Smiths flopped so so badly in Montana; I know it still has 4 open stores, and the stores they closed were terrible small outdated stores, which at the time they failed were still using the Fred Meyer-Smiths program and had basically no Kroger programs of any kind in place it was so long ago, but I am just not sure about the prospect of using Smiths banner on a larger basis in MT if they for some reason need to or decide to rebrand Albertsons Stores.
Albertsons in Montana (and 1 store in oil town Williston, ND) has a handful of rural monopoly stores, one of them in a town with only 800 people (Harlem, MT). All of the rural stores are from Buttrey. Williston is the only Albertsons in North Dakota.
These are the most far-flung Albertsons stores, Williston being a 14 hour drive from SLC.
If Kroger axes the Albertsons banner, who knows what banner they'll use in eastern MT/ND. Using Smith's would work fine in western MT. Starting in Miles City, eastern Montana is pretty much the Upper Midwest. I don't know if Smith's would work well out there. Maybe resurrect the Buttrey name?
And considering the fact that Albertsons in MT is a lot of rural stores, I doubt Kroger wants to keep those, as you have mentioned before that Kroger wouldn't have space to add programs like Pickup. And I'm skeptical that Kroger wants to supply long-distance stores.
I wonder if UNFI could start supplying these eastern MT Albertsons stores.
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Re: Laurel, MT IGA transferred to Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 29th, 2023, 1:46 pm
Albertsons in Montana (and 1 store in oil town Williston, ND) has a handful of rural monopoly stores, one of them in a town with only 800 people (Harlem, MT). All of the rural stores are from Buttrey. Williston is the only Albertsons in North Dakota.
These are the most far-flung Albertsons stores, Williston being a 14 hour drive from SLC.
If Kroger axes the Albertsons banner, who knows what banner they'll use in eastern MT/ND. Using Smith's would work fine in western MT. Starting in Miles City, eastern Montana is pretty much the Upper Midwest. I don't know if Smith's would work well out there. Maybe resurrect the Buttrey name?
And considering the fact that Albertsons in MT is a lot of rural stores, I doubt Kroger wants to keep those, as you have mentioned before that Kroger wouldn't have space to add programs like Pickup. And I'm skeptical that Kroger wants to supply long-distance stores.
I wonder if UNFI could start supplying these eastern MT Albertsons stores.
Some Kroger divisions supply long-distance stores. Smiths supplies a lot of long-distance Stores: the MT Smiths, Gillette WY Smiths, Reno Smiths, Albuquerque Smiths, all qualify as "long distance stores." Ralphs on the other hand- Paso Robles and Fresno were too far for them to keep operating... really depends on the division.

Where was the distribution center for Buttrey?
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