Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

California. No non-grocery posts.
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by Romr123 »

Some provinces require pharmacy to be operated by a sole proprietor....not dissimilar to the situation in some parts of the US (North Dakota?). Shoppers; CVS; Walgreen; Rite Aid are relatively peas in a pod.
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by ClownLoach »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: February 10th, 2023, 12:31 pm
veteran+ wrote: February 10th, 2023, 9:16 am What do you think of Lidl? Unlike Aldi, there stores are larger.
Aldi and Lidl are not buying the stores, they are union shops, unless they are carved up for real estate in a Lampert-esque plan.
I've never been to Lidl. I'm not much of an Aldi fan.
storewanderer wrote: February 9th, 2023, 11:34 pm I am not clear what the pharmacy and real estate strategies of Ahold and Loblaw's are but these are two characteristics of the current Save Mart operation as it stands that cause me to pause and be unsure of Save Mart's value to a potential purchaser.
Both Ahold and Loblaw operate pharmacies. In fact, Loblaw bought Shoppers Drug Mart in 2014. Shoppers is the largest drug store chain in Canada- it's like their equivalent to CVS.
ClownLoach wrote: February 9th, 2023, 11:41 pm I had an unusual comparison made of two 100% brick by brick identical stores (both 1999 Era Albertsons builds where both still have lights that turn in different directions although aisles are all same now), the Stater Bros on Temecula Parkway and the Albertsons on California Oaks Rd Murrieta.
That's the Albertsons 1996 era model, with this layout, but flipped, in the case of this store in Omaha:
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148917 ... 0s-layout/
The Stater Bros. in Encinitas is a clone of those Temecula and Murrieta stores.
1999 model is the Grocery Palace:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tHTmaGSKsuU/U ... Layout.jpg
Thanks I must have misread that post. The Encinitas Stater got completely remodeled to their "2019" decor and looked great last time I was there. But I've been in 4 Stater Bros in the last couple of weeks and felt that their attention to detail is lacking, store traffic seemed softer than usual, and pricing is going the wrong way. Ralphs is playing some creative pricing games again where they have raised the regular price 50 cents but then put the item on sale, example the Western Hearth breads ($2.99 on sale, reg now $3.49 but has same "locked in low price" tag as before). Seems that many of their sales are the previous full price and the new full price is higher, not exactly sure if that sort of thing is legal in California.

Realistically it's a headache but I need to go stock up at Winco, nobody can beat their prices (I just wish they could improve their meat quality). They do appear to be more prone to passing the full amount of a supply chain price issue down to the customer, but then I'll just ignore that item (example when lettuce went crazy in price they went straight to $4.99 for romaine or red leaf while Ralphs stayed at $2.99 - as we know the big chains spread the increases out amongst all product while Winco just calls it what it is).
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 11:19 am
Thanks I must have misread that post. The Encinitas Stater got completely remodeled to their "2019" decor and looked great last time I was there. But I've been in 4 Stater Bros in the last couple of weeks and felt that their attention to detail is lacking, store traffic seemed softer than usual, and pricing is going the wrong way. Ralphs is playing some creative pricing games again where they have raised the regular price 50 cents but then put the item on sale, example the Western Hearth breads ($2.99 on sale, reg now $3.49 but has same "locked in low price" tag as before). Seems that many of their sales are the previous full price and the new full price is higher, not exactly sure if that sort of thing is legal in California.

Realistically it's a headache but I need to go stock up at Winco, nobody can beat their prices (I just wish they could improve their meat quality). They do appear to be more prone to passing the full amount of a supply chain price issue down to the customer, but then I'll just ignore that item (example when lettuce went crazy in price they went straight to $4.99 for romaine or red leaf while Ralphs stayed at $2.99 - as we know the big chains spread the increases out amongst all product while Winco just calls it what it is).
Your comment about Stater and lack of attention to detail, softer store traffic, and pricing going the wrong way is how I feel about Raleys for the past year or so; add to that dirtier stores, longer lines, and a serious decline in quality of fresh departments.

Stores do this all the time where they up the regular price then put it on sale back at what used to be the regular price. It is legal since technically the item is for sale at the new higher price (if no loyalty card is used). The "locked in low price" tag means nothing. Smiths had various "locked in low prices" back in November-December-January and one item I was buying, a 160ct Kroger Facial Tissue, was locked in at 1.59 regular/1.00 "locked in low price" with an expiration in January. Sometime in December they decided to change the "locked in low price" to 1.59 regular/1.25 "locked in low price" with the same end date. Then the item went off sale entirely and now is regular price 1.69.

I cannot believe some of the pricing I've seen in my walks of Smiths, Raleys, and Save Mart the past two weeks. It is unreal pricing. Safeway pricing to me doesn't look much worse than it has in months (terrible) but these other 3 --- the amount of price increases very recently --- yikes. Especially Smiths.

I suggest visiting WinCo after 9 PM. Check out by 9:45 PM as self checkouts close at 10 PM (often close early).
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by veteran+ »

The Pavilions in my area has retagged the whole store with NEW "must buy........." to get the sales price.

Inflation aside..................this feels nefarious and I believe this strategy is connected to the merger.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 11:19 am Thanks I must have misread that post. The Encinitas Stater got completely remodeled to their "2019" decor and looked great last time I was there. But I've been in 4 Stater Bros in the last couple of weeks and felt that their attention to detail is lacking, store traffic seemed softer than usual, and pricing is going the wrong way.
I hope Stater Bros. corrects this, especially as I will be shopping there more often assuming Kroger and Albertsons complete their merger.
Stater Bros., from what I've experienced, still has better quality than the big guys.

I think Gelson's is as good as it gets here in North County, even though they have terrible pricing, but you get what you pay for.
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:33 am The Pavilions in my area has retagged the whole store with NEW "must buy........." to get the sales price.

Inflation aside..................this feels nefarious and I believe this strategy is connected to the merger.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Isn't that just the weekly sale that is run most weeks with pick 4 or pick 5 or whatever? All Albertsons divisions and Safeway have been running those kind of sales since before Albertsons and Safeway even merged. Kroger has a buy 5 save $5 promotion, same items for the past 3-4 weeks (usually these items rotate off every 2 weeks).

Given Target, Whole Foods, Smart & Final, and all of the drugstore chains do these sales of "must buy x" too, what does that leave? If you don't want to shop at a store with these "must buy x" to get sale price things? That basically leaves WinCo, Wal Mart, Trader Joe's, some of the upscale chains, Sprouts... what is funny is many of those chains who do not have that thing going on with "must buy x" for sale prices, also tend to have much better pricing...
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:25 pm
veteran+ wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:33 am The Pavilions in my area has retagged the whole store with NEW "must buy........." to get the sales price.

Inflation aside..................this feels nefarious and I believe this strategy is connected to the merger.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Isn't that just the weekly sale that is run most weeks with pick 4 or pick 5 or whatever? All Albertsons divisions and Safeway have been running those kind of sales since before Albertsons and Safeway even merged. Kroger has a buy 5 save $5 promotion, same items for the past 3-4 weeks (usually these items rotate off every 2 weeks).

Given Target, Whole Foods, Smart & Final, and all of the drugstore chains do these sales of "must buy x" too, what does that leave? If you don't want to shop at a store with these "must buy x" to get sale price things? That basically leaves WinCo, Wal Mart, Trader Joe's, some of the upscale chains, Sprouts... what is funny is many of those chains who do not have that thing going on with "must buy x" for sale prices, also tend to have much better pricing...
Well, I shop at this location every week and I have never seen so many "must buy............" before. Since 2020 to now, nothing I ever purchased was priced like that. The tags are also a NEW design!

As far as Target, I do not buy food items there. I have never seen "must buy....." in the non foods area (which is what I go there for).
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Re: Save Mart adds Bob Miller to Board

Post by BillyGr »

veteran+ wrote: February 13th, 2023, 4:45 am
storewanderer wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:25 pm
veteran+ wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:33 am The Pavilions in my area has retagged the whole store with NEW "must buy........." to get the sales price.

Inflation aside..................this feels nefarious and I believe this strategy is connected to the merger.

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Isn't that just the weekly sale that is run most weeks with pick 4 or pick 5 or whatever? All Albertsons divisions and Safeway have been running those kind of sales since before Albertsons and Safeway even merged. Kroger has a buy 5 save $5 promotion, same items for the past 3-4 weeks (usually these items rotate off every 2 weeks).

Given Target, Whole Foods, Smart & Final, and all of the drugstore chains do these sales of "must buy x" too, what does that leave? If you don't want to shop at a store with these "must buy x" to get sale price things? That basically leaves WinCo, Wal Mart, Trader Joe's, some of the upscale chains, Sprouts... what is funny is many of those chains who do not have that thing going on with "must buy x" for sale prices, also tend to have much better pricing...
Well, I shop at this location every week and I have never seen so many "must buy............" before. Since 2020 to now, nothing I ever purchased was priced like that. The tags are also a NEW design!

As far as Target, I do not buy food items there. I have never seen "must buy....." in the non foods area (which is what I go there for).
Seems that the ones I did spot at Target tended to be very small differences (like $2.19 or 2/$4), unlike some of the other stores (for instance Walgreens this week with soda 12 Packs that are $8.99 or 3/$12.99!).
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