retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑February 25th, 2023, 2:32 pm
veteran+ wrote: ↑February 25th, 2023, 7:03 am
Hmmmmmm, the store looks old and small with narrow aisles and short front end. Produce does not look big enough (going by the perspective of the photos).
Not a fan for that foot print to be a Fresh Fare.
Ralphs has plenty of small stores that are Fresh Fares. The demographics in Olde Carlsbad (educated, upper middle class) makes sense for a Fresh Fare.
And that's how Ralphs has diluted the Fresh Fare mark so it's meaningless. They are ruining it like Safeway did with Pavilions. There are too many that are also in name only.
At this point Fresh Fare can be one of many different and completely different concepts: a very large, full line Ralphs with upscale decor and premium/specialty foods (the original and best "Fresh Fare" concept); a very large, full line Ralphs with rustic decor and expanded organics and nutrition (sometimes without any exterior Fresh Fare signage, only branded FF on the interior); a small format Ralphs with upscale decor but the same old merchandise as any other Ralphs; a mid size Ralphs with specialty foods but 100% regular standard cheap Kroger decor and fixtures. It's really worse than Pavilions was under Safeway as Fresh Fare today means absolutely nothing whatsoever. There are no customer expectations at all. It was mentioned in another thread that a customer thought "Fresh Fare" was Ralphs new slogan.
At least Albertsons is making an attempt to revive the Pavilions name and make it stand for something in SoCal, as well as expanding the "World Decor" and premium liquor concept to the Safeway and Albertsons banners outside of the market.
Also its interesting to see the negative reactions to the Long Beach Pavilions conversion in reviews. The Pavilions name still means something upscale to these customers and they seem to expect that quality in all departments will be lowered when the sign changes. Customers are threatening to shop elsewhere if the store is actually downgraded (it won't be, it's basically just getting paint and a sign from what I saw).
I know that if they even thought about rebranding the Pavilions units in Newport Beach, Malibu or other wealthy areas they would lose half their business overnight. These very rich, image conscious customers wouldn't be caught dead in an "ordinary" grocer like Ralphs or Vons. If they were to seriously consider eliminating Pavilions they would need to find a buyer for those stores such as Bristol Farms or Gelsons as those customers demand to be able to shop at what they feel is an exclusive, upscale brand.