Bread in rural Safeway Stores - and Signature private label

[storewanderer]

I was in the Lovelock, NV Safeway today and noticed the only bread they sell is either Safeway brand bread (baked in a Safeway plant) or various thaw and serve organics (distributed on the Safeway trucks).

No Oroweat, no DSD Sara Lee breads, no Wonder.

The DSD bread vendors drive right through Lovelock to get to Winnemucca to supply various stores there, so I find this a bit curious that the Safeway is not selling any of the DSD bread. I wonder if Safeway is doing this in more rural stores or if this store in Lovelock was just not selling enough bread to make it worth the DSD bread vendor's while to service it anymore.

Also, the new Signature private label has an Albertsons clover like logo on the packages now... just about where the old Safeway S logo was on the old packages...

[Super S]

I am curious to know if this store has an in-store bakery. This could be a factor. However, given that Safeway is known to not add service departments in older, rural and small town stores (particularly where they are the only major supermarket), it almost makes me wonder if there are plans to close and/or rebuild that store.

[storewanderer]

No bakery, this store only has 9 aisles and 4 checkouts. Rarely more than 5 customers inside at once and Lovelock's population has been declining for a while. I think Family Dollar hurt Safeway (it usually has 3-4 customers inside and is the only other place in town selling consumables besides the 5 gas stations).

I'm pretty sure they had DSD bread in this store before. Milk is also all from the Safeway plants but that is not unusual.