Addie's Drive Up Grocer

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arizonaguy
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Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by arizonaguy »

Looks like this is a new concept for a pickup only supermarket.

https://www.the-sun.com/money/7247631/b ... UvoXmrJZak

I read somewhere that they eventually want to scale this up to 2000 stores nationwide.

While I do think there is a market for this most conventional supermarkets, Walmart, Target, etc. already offer this service and I'm not sure that there is enough volume for a pickup only store (similarly to where I think that the Ocado warehouses will never do enough volume to do what they were originally intended to, which is why some in areas serviced by Kroger they are actually fulfilling store pickup orders at the Ocado warehouse).
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by storewanderer »

The size of 22k square feet is too small, I assume they will order from a wholesaler so how will pricing be? Private label? Fresh products? If they want to be "nationwide" they need a distribution network. Why shop them vs. a larger grocery chain with more SKUs?
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by ClownLoach »

First off, what a terrible article. Clearly the person writing hasn't set foot in a store in years either and has no clue how things work. A "massive" selection of 4500 SKUs? I'm pretty sure a RaceTrac or Wawa has 4500 SKUs and they don't rent a 22,000 square foot building for them. A CVS probably has 20,000 SKUs in a 15,000 Sq ft building. This store sounds like too small of a selection in too large of a building, and I do understand that there are no customers inside which should mean even more SKUs in less space.

This is someone who has more money than brains who thinks they can somehow solve the problem Amazon couldn't. They expect that will grow to 2000+ stores with a labor intensive model of 38 employees at a high wage will work? Maybe if they can get every conventional grocer and the town Walmart to close all at once.

This just doesn't add up well. Pun intended.
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by marketreportblog »

Well, sounds like this concept is done for:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/addies-gro ... s/44221728
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by storewanderer »

So much for the complete pipe dream of 2,000 stores nationwide.

There was nothing "unique" about this dark store concept. Various others have tried it. Wal Mart for one.

Also sounded/looked suspiciously similar to Sears/Kmart "My Gofer" thing where they did a dark store for pick up orders, canopy to drive under to pick it up, etc. Unique? Hardly. Maybe only to whoever was the salesperson who went around and found capital to fund this project.

The only thing "unique" about it was the lack of SKU assortment and that isn't unique, that is a competitive disadvantage when dozens of other grocers nearby are offering pick up and a larger SKU assortment.
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: June 17th, 2023, 12:39 pm So much for the complete pipe dream of 2,000 stores nationwide.

There was nothing "unique" about this dark store concept. Various others have tried it. Wal Mart for one.

Also sounded/looked suspiciously similar to Sears/Kmart "My Gofer" thing where they did a dark store for pick up orders, canopy to drive under to pick it up, etc. Unique? Hardly. Maybe only to whoever was the salesperson who went around and found capital to fund this project.

The only thing "unique" about it was the lack of SKU assortment and that isn't unique, that is a competitive disadvantage when dozens of other grocers nearby are offering pick up and a larger SKU assortment.
Interestingly enough I noticed that the Corona Albertsons that was recently remodeled has set up something like this in the former Bank space. They walled off the bank for online order storage space, but within that space is warehouse racking similar to the pictures of the Addie's concept, stocked with what I'm going to assume are the top selling center store SKUs. They put the large double doors like you'd see on a warehouse there, but they've had to add extra signage because customers apparently are walking in and shopping? I'm sure they could easily fit at least a few thousand SKUs in there, but it must complicate truck stocking and other inventory management programs to add these secondary locations...
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by storewanderer »

There is another Albertsons in Gardena. This is an old Lucky/Sav-On. They did a full remodel to the store and basically walled off the drug side of the store to do what you describe. The store lost drive through pharmacy since pharmacy had to be moved in the process of this and actually did reconfigure drive through pharmacy to be a drive through pick up area (what an idea.... since it had a covered canopy and everything). But there is no door or window at the drive through pharmacy so someone has to walk the orders out to the lane.

I recall you mentioned a low volume Pavilions being downsized, pharmacy moved, etc. I am wondering what ever came of that.
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Re: Addie's Drive Up Grocer

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2023, 11:04 pm There is another Albertsons in Gardena. This is an old Lucky/Sav-On. They did a full remodel to the store and basically walled off the drug side of the store to do what you describe. The store lost drive through pharmacy since pharmacy had to be moved in the process of this and actually did reconfigure drive through pharmacy to be a drive through pick up area (what an idea.... since it had a covered canopy and everything). But there is no door or window at the drive through pharmacy so someone has to walk the orders out to the lane.

I recall you mentioned a low volume Pavilions being downsized, pharmacy moved, etc. I am wondering what ever came of that.
This Corona Albertsons walled off space is small, maybe 1,000 Sq ft at the most. I'm guessing they can put the top 2000+ center store non perishables in there and reduce their time walking the aisles picking online orders. Smart idea because it fixes the obnoxious issues other chains have with order pickers in a big hurry blocking the aisles or running over shoppers with their big basket cart stack things.

I saw that Pavilions a few months ago and there was a leasing information sign on the subdivided-off side. Although it was initially reported somewhere that they were making a fulfillment center that was not the case. All they did was downsize and make about a 15K space with dedicated receiving dock available for lease. Something odd about that Pavilions and the Walmart next door. Walmart had fenced off a third of the parking lot for another major remodel, brought in construction trailers and about a hundred storage containers. The store was just fully remodeled a couple of years ago although it didn't get the full grocery department; that work coincided with the conversion from Vons to Pavilions.

Now Pavilions downsized; their back end had dock doors on both ends (I think it could have been a Home Depot long ago, like the similarly oversized North Long Beach Vons on Atlantic?) which made it easier for a subdivision. Walmart never did the full remodel and cleared out the construction equipment. The center is too sprawling and there is too much underutilized retail whitespace in the area. I wonder if the shopping center owner is considering converting to housing; they could build a thousand condos on this site and charge over a million each based on the neighborhood. When you have that kind of pricing power then who cares via much it would cost to pay the lease severance on a Walmart, Pavilions, Hobby Lobby and others?
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