Albertsons Exiting Utah

[Brian Lutz]

The Word of Wisdom (the dietary law that members of the LDS church follow) doesn't actually prohibit caffeine specifically, but it does prohibit tea and coffee specifically, although there has been counsel that strongly recommends avoiding caffeine as well, it still remains a bit of a grey area. You'd have little trouble finding Mormons that drink caffeinated soda if you looked hard enough (I happen to not drink it myself, but that's mostly because even the slightest bit of caffeine makes it difficult for me to sleep.)

Alcohol sales in the state of Utah are fairly restricted, and although I haven't read up much on it, it sounds like grocery stores are generally limited to 3.2% beer, with the rest sold in state-run liquor stores. I am not familiar with Utah Albertsons stores, but I'm guessing they probably sell the 3.2 beer as well. I don't believe the Macey's stores I visited sold it though. A lot of stores just don't carry tobacco either.

[krogerclerk]

All this is happening at the same time Supermarket News publishes an article profiling SVU/Albertson's future in the Southern California market.

http://subscribers.supermarketnews.com/ ... aming-0727

Sorry the link only gives partial as the full article is subscriber only.

Nonetheless, it raises points that for SVU to remain competitive in SoCal, some serious cash infusion is needed. While Safeway and Kroger have invested in Ralphs and Von's respectively as well as having lower prices than ABS, SVU has done little consistently with the SoCal operation. Perhaps the sale of the Utah stores is for the cash infusion needed to invest in other operations, as ABS Utah presence is strong enough to bring a decent price for the stores.

I see the sale being good for Smith's as they are open on Sunday's and sale items that Macey's eschews. KR likely won't sit in the sidelines with Smith's falling into 2nd place from this sale and remodels, expansions and increasing the pace of new store construction in the Utah market place will be one of the first signs of KR not taking this lightly.

If ABS dissapears from the Pacific Northwest and SoCal, then this begins to make more sense, as it eliminates competition with KR and SWY from SVU, regions were ABS has long been the 3rd place player when all three are present and runner up with only one of the other big three is present. One of the pitfalls the old ABS corp fell into was that the company was comfortable with letting KR and SWY maintain status quo in markets in which they competed with ABS.

[tesg]

Were Albertsons stores in the state actually doing much business on Sundays?

It depends on what town you're in. You should see the Orem Costco on a Sunday. Total ghost town. Salt Lake City or Ogden...more 'normal'.

An aside about Macey's...The Macey family is not LDS, and the stores used to be open on Sundays. They made the change at some point out of consideration to their LDS employees. In the end, they found it was actually beneficial. There was verbage in the sale contract to Associated that covered keeping the stores closed on Sundays.

[Brian Lutz]

It's also interesting to note that one of the busiest times I've seen in a supermarket was when I went to the Provo Macey's store at 11:30pm on a Saturday night...

[kr.abs.swy]

Is anyone just a little surprised that Safeway didn't end up with these stores?

It would fill a major geographic gap for Safeway, which has stores across most of the West except in Idaho and Utah. Granted, Safeway divested Utah in the 1980s, but that was a different time.

The grocery market in Utah is comprised of a lot of Associated stores, a lot of Smith's stores, a lot of Wal-Marts, and a lot of Costcos. I think there are a few Whole Foods type stores, but not many. It seems like there might be a niche for a store like Safeway, especially since Smith's seems more interested in competing with Wal-Mart on price.

This also creates an issue where Associated Foods-owned stores are now competing with independently owned Associated-supplied stores. There was an article about one independent store who now has to compete with the mother ship directly across the street. Given that Associated already owned stores in Utah, this isn't a new issue, but with the addition of the former Albertsons stores, it's now more than twice as big of an issue.

Just a few thoughts.

As an Idaho native, it's sad to see the world of Albertsons slowly self destruct. They closed the store in Blackfoot and sold it to an independent after having a store in Blackfoot for many, many years. They haven't built a new store in southern Idaho in years.

[Super S]

It is kinda surprising that Safeway has stayed out of those areas. I woudn't be surprised though if Albertsons eventually retracts from what they are to concentrate on the pacific northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho) But then again with stores closing even in Washington and Oregon I wouldn't be surprised to see them retract into Idaho only.

[storewanderer]

All of that competition is probably why Safeway wants nothing to do with Utah. Why shop at Safeway and pay far higher prices when Smiths (or the Associated Stores) offer equal to better quality product? Especially with WinCo entering Utah now.

I don't think it would have been too difficult for Safeway to pick up the Utah and Idaho Stores along with the Salt Lake City Albertsons warehouse and have a go at re-entering those territories. They could have bulked things up in Montana too where Albertsons has more stores than they do.

They had their chance...

I still think we may see some interesting moves from the LLC side. That may be the only hope for Albertsons remaining in ID, OR, WA, etc.

[kr.abs.swy]

That SuperValu was willing to sell the Utah market, where Albertsons has a long history, shows that nothing is sacred. Pocatello only has one Albertsons now. The Blackfoot store has been sold. The Burley store is in sorry shape. There is certainly no Albertsons stranglehold on southern Idaho outside of the Treasure Valley, although some of the stores do well.

However, the fact that SuperValu has yet to close a single Boise Albertsons store, when there are so many to choose from, shows that they are trying to avoid rocking the boat too much too soon near the former headquarters. Some of those stores will have to close eventually. They are just too many stores with the new Fred Meyers, Wal-Marts and WinCos that have been built over the past 10 years.

[Super S]

That SuperValu was willing to sell the Utah market, where Albertsons has a long history, shows that nothing is sacred. Pocatello only has one Albertsons now. The Blackfoot store has been sold. The Burley store is in sorry shape. There is certainly no Albertsons stranglehold on southern Idaho outside of the Treasure Valley, although some of the stores do well.

However, the fact that SuperValu has yet to close a single Boise Albertsons store, when there are so many to choose from, shows that they are trying to avoid rocking the boat too much too soon near the former headquarters. Some of those stores will have to close eventually. They are just too many stores with the new Fred Meyers, Wal-Marts and WinCos that have been built over the past 10 years.

Tha could also have to do with the fact that Albertsons is pretty much the only "traditional" type of grocery store with any major presence in Boise. A lot of people avoid Fred Meyer and Wal-Mart that don't like to deal with crowds, and like it or not, WinCo has a stigma which makes some people not want to shop there. The fact that many WinCo stores do not have express checkout lanes keeps many away who want something like a gallon of milk, there are times you can wait in line a half hour or more depending how busy they get.
I think Albertsons will survive in Boise for those reasons, although I have to agree some stores could fall by the wayside as Fred Meyer, WinCo and Wal-Mart open new stores. Don't count out Target yet either, although I don't believe there are any SuperTarget stores in the northwest yet.

[Alpha8472]

Associated Food Stores said it plans to convert the Albertsons stores it is acquiring to a new banner called Fresh Market. The stores will be taken over within the next couple of weeks.

The FTC blocked the sale of one of the stores. Another store is not being sold because it needs substantial repairs.

http://supermarketnews.com/retail_finan ... rket_1023/