New build Vons coming to Valley Center (near Escondido)

[storewanderer]

I don't think Vons really built new stores as San Diego grew. The only ones that come to mind are Solana Beach, which was a replacement, Mission Hills, also a replacement, and maybe one in Scripps Ranch. The brand didn't grow much. Frankly, Vons improved after Albertsons took it over. (Yeah, I know - scary thought)

If the merger doesn't go through, I can see Albertsons re-branding Vons to Albertsons.

I think south of the 8 is where Albertsons didn't have the best reputation in San Diego, yes. North of there, Albertsons had/has mostly higher-end stores. Albertsons aggressively remodeled and built new stores up here from 1999-2006. Perhaps the nicest (I wouldn't be surprised it it weren't the most profitable) Albertsons in the county was Del Mar, which had an upscale version of the Jewel interior. I have friends living near that store that still refer to it as Albertsons, even though Haggen and Gelson's bought the store. The Albertsons stores in Carlsbad (La Costa) and Torrey Highlands were as gorgeous as that store (they also had the Jewel interior).

The Albertsons in City Heights was a relocation of an old Lucky. It opened in mid-2001, with the Awnings interior, yet a Grocery Palace layout. Who knows why it closed in 2014. Was a nice store though.
In California, San Diego (outside of North County) was the last frontier for Albertsons. They got south of Highway 52 via buying Lucky (with the exception of the San Ysidro store, a former Big Bear supermarket that they bought in 1994).
My parents moved to San Diego in 1995, a few years before they started having children. They came from Minneapolis, a totally different grocery market dominated by Supervalu-related chains. My parents first lived in Hillcrest, before moving to Rolando (near SDSU). They did their shopping mostly based on proximity (Ralphs and Vons, they never really shopped at Lucky).


Yet I can't figure out what interiors the Encinitas Albertsons stores had... they closed those ones during the recession.
Albertsons didn't close much stores in the county during the Supervalu era.

Albertsons also has stores they either built or inherited from Lucky in spots like Chula Vista that seem to do very well. I guess there is a Vons somewhere near San Ysidro that I've never been to that must do pretty well but that is probably a fluke. For whatever reasons, I have noticed this Albertsons SoCal Division even under Supervalu seemed to do a better job than other conventional American grocery chains in ethnic neighborhoods if they had a complete store in the neighborhood (with pharmacy and large assortment of items), while many other chains like Vons/Ralphs typically operated outdated poorly maintained stores in ethnic neighborhoods that slowly close over time. Of course Ralphs had quite a few F4L Stores in ethnic neighborhoods which are obviously not great but at least they didn't keep Ralphs around and they didn't just run a priced for La Jolla style trash operation like Vons tends to in such areas or just exit the neighborhoods entirely like Vons.

Albertsons spent a lot of money on new stores in San Diego in the early 2000's to defend their position after all those Lucky merger divests they did. They also spent a lot of money in Bakersfield, Central Coast, Las Vegas, and that Murrieta/Temecula area in the same time period. Central Coast hasn't quite panned out in my opinion after various store divests occurred and Smart & Final claimed stores I'm sure Albertsons would have loved to get back, but the Albertsons banner is still stronger there than the Vons banner. And those investments really paid off because if you look today, those are broadly speaking growing areas, and Albertsons has a strong position in every one.

I also agree that the Albertsons/Safeway operations are much better now than they were when Safeway was an independent publicly traded company under Steve Burd. There is no question they have improved everything - service, assortment, pricing. I think quality and store appearance are not the best but the old Safeway wasn't as great on quality or store appearance as they liked to think they were either.

[rwsandiego]

The farther away you go from San Diego the more Albertsons and fewer Vons you see. Albertsons had a bad reputation in San Diego proper and in the South Bay because most of their stores down there were nasty former Lucky stores that they should have remodeled but didn't. Ralphs also had some nasty stores, which they mostly closed, so Vons became the dominant grocer in the city. When I lived in Normal Heights and Albertsons opened the new store in City Heights (about 3 miles away) I did a lot of my shopping there. Likewise, when I lived in downtown San Diego, the new Albertsons in East village was my go-to instead of Ralphs.

I don't think Vons really built new stores as San Diego grew. The only ones that come to mind are Solana Beach, which was a replacement, Mission Hills, also a replacement, and maybe one in Scripps Ranch. The brand didn't grow much. Frankly, Vons improved after Albertsons took it over. (Yeah, I know - scary thought)

If the merger doesn't go through, I can see Albertsons re-branding Vons to Albertsons.

I think south of the 8 is where Albertsons didn't have the best reputation in San Diego, yes. North of there, Albertsons had/has mostly higher-end stores. Albertsons aggressively remodeled and built new stores up here from 1999-2006. Perhaps the nicest (I wouldn't be surprised it it weren't the most profitable) Albertsons in the county was Del Mar, which had an upscale version of the Jewel interior. I have friends living near that store that still refer to it as Albertsons, even though Haggen and Gelson's bought the store. The Albertsons stores in Carlsbad (La Costa) and Torrey Highlands were as gorgeous as that store (they also had the Jewel interior).

The Albertsons in City Heights was a relocation of an old Lucky. It opened in mid-2001, with the Awnings interior, yet a Grocery Palace layout. Who knows why it closed in 2014. Was a nice store though.
In California, San Diego (outside of North County) was the last frontier for Albertsons. They got south of Highway 52 via buying Lucky (with the exception of the San Ysidro store, a former Big Bear supermarket that they bought in 1994).
My parents moved to San Diego in 1995, a few years before they started having children. They came from Minneapolis, a totally different grocery market dominated by Supervalu-related chains. My parents first lived in Hillcrest, before moving to Rolando (near SDSU). They did their shopping mostly based on proximity (Ralphs and Vons, they never really shopped at Lucky).


Yet I can't figure out what interiors the Encinitas Albertsons stores had... they closed those ones during the recession.
Albertsons didn't close much stores in the county during the Supervalu era.

The Del Mar Albertsons had the Blue and Grey interior until sometime after 2001. I was shocked when I first stopped into the store in 2000. They did a nice job when they remodeled it into the Jewel interior.

In Encinitas, the former Lucky on Encinitas Blvd (now a Smart and Final Extra) had the old Lucky interior for years after becoming Albertsons. It might have been remodeled into Premium Fresh and Healthy 2.0, like its siblings in North Park and Mission Hills. The one on Leucadia Blvd and El Camino real (in the Target shopping center, which was divested to Stater Bros) had the Blue and Grey interior and Stater kept that for several years. I can't remember what the Albertsons on El Camino Real north of Encinitas Blvd had.

From what I understand, Albertsons wanted to expand the North Park and Mission Hills stores, but the local residents opposed the idea.

Like your parents, I shopped on proximity. My places in Normal Heights were two blocks from the Adams Ave Vons, so I did a lot of shopping there. Before the Vons was remodeled into the Lifestyle interior it was pretty cruddy, which was when I started shopping at the City Hts Albertsons. Once Vons figured out that Kensington is an upscale neighborhood and Normal Heights had become hipster central, they upgraded that Vons.

[veteran+]

University and Washington, west of Hillcrest in San Diego is a very nice Vons.

[rwsandiego]

University and Washington, west of Hillcrest in San Diego is a very nice Vons.

It is. That store replaced a very old, small Vons that was previously a Safeway. They tore down the old building and built the current store. I think it opened sometime in 2012 or 2013.