mjhale wrote: ↑May 28th, 2023, 6:58 am
UNFI sold Smith Avenue in Baltimore and the Fairfax, VA location to Safeway in 2021. At that time they also closed the Crofton, MD location. Shoppers closed Manassas in 2021 which became Giant. And now the Perring Plaza store. Landlords aren't looking at some far off potential openings in Southern Maryland to guide them to keeping a stable tenant in their space. Shoppers is on rocky ground right now in my opinion. One moment they are selling off locations and closing stores. Then the next moment they are opening stores. No consistency. Why would a landlord stay with Shoppers in this state when they could have a strong grocer like Giant or Safeway in their space. Even if Safeway is divested in the Albertsons-Kroger merger, you are more likely to have an ongoing store than with Shoppers where the parent company seems to have no long term strategy to keep and grow the company.
As a correction the Manassas location closed in the late 2019 wave, when it was expected that Shoppers would be no more. The Lorton store also closed late 2020, but at the time Shoppers was still scheduled to be sold, just after an 18-month delay as a temporary move during the pandemic.
What metric do you define the "far-off potential openings" by, time or location? The Leonardtown and California stores are now open, and Charlotte Hall/Waldorf should come online in June. It is a bit far off from the heart of D.C. and Baltimore, but these openings do bridge well between there and St. Mary's, and it provides a decent case for any other expansion endeavors UNFI may engage in. The rest of Shoppers' reopenings and remodels have been in their core markets of Prince George's and Baltimore. Other than that, besides a few remodels here and there there hadn't been any new openings since 2015, and those had gotten quite sparse since 2006 or so.
BatteryMill wrote: ↑May 28th, 2023, 10:44 am
As a correction the Manassas location closed in the late 2019 wave, when it was expected that Shoppers would be no more. The Lorton store also closed late 2020, but at the time Shoppers was still scheduled to be sold, just after an 18-month delay as a temporary move during the pandemic.
What metric do you define the "far-off potential openings" by, time or location? The Leonardtown and California stores are now open, and Charlotte Hall/Waldorf should come online in June. It is a bit far off from the heart of D.C. and Baltimore, but these openings do bridge well between there and St. Mary's, and it provides a decent case for any other expansion endeavors UNFI may engage in. The rest of Shoppers' reopenings and remodels have been in their core markets of Prince George's and Baltimore. Other than that, besides a few remodels here and there there hadn't been any new openings since 2015, and those had gotten quite sparse since 2006 or so.
Southern Maryland is a completely different market than Baltimore. Just because UNFI is opening Shoppers locations in Southern Maryland doesn't mean they will do so in any other area. The landlord is looking out for their for their center in their area with their tenant mix. Perring Plaza has Home Depot which is a good draw. They also have Microcenter which has less than 30 stores nationwide. The last thing the landlord needs is to risk a huge hole in their center causing other tenants to question the general viability of the center. Hence the landlord sees a stable grocer wanting to come in and signs them up. Having three strong large scale tenants will make it easier to fill the smaller spaces that are currently vacant or may come up in the future. If I was a landlord the second that a retailer starts to make moves that they want out of a market, an area or retailing altogether I'm going to have my antennas up looking for stable tenants to move in so I'm not relying on what might be now, then or in the future.
BatteryMill wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2024, 7:50 pm
Looks like three out of the four Shoppers opened within the past year are already closing; all within St. Mary's County.
I wonder what is happening here. Is the local McKay's chain Shoppers superseded returning? Too much investment and too little profit in return?
storewanderer wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2024, 9:25 pm
What a joke...
I wonder if they found a way out of the leases.
From the online reviews I saw, these locations were frequently criticized for their high prices. Perhaps geography may also be a challenge, or the renovations were more than what they could bite off.
I don't know this area at all. Is this an area Safeway would want these stores in? Looks like they're not in that area, and they bought two Shoppers stores a couple years ago. But those were both in the Baltimore/DC area and that's quite a distance away, and I don't know that Safeway would want more mid-Atlantic locations right now. They look like pretty nice stores that another operator might be able to take on, but it looks like Food Lion, Giant and Harris Teeter already have stores in that immediate area. Or possibly Weis? They have a few acquired Food Lions in that region.
BatteryMill wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2024, 7:50 pm
Looks like three out of the four Shoppers opened within the past year are already closing; all within St. Mary's County.
I wonder what is happening here. Is the local McKay's chain Shoppers superseded returning? Too much investment and too little profit in return?
That is interesting because it might signal what direction UNFI wants to go in. For a while UNFI was full speed ahead on disposing of its retail operations, threatening to strip the real estate from Cub Foods, and successfully getting rid of Farm Fresh, Shop 'n Save, and Hornbacher's. We also know that they weren't interested in buying divested Safeway/Harris Teeter stores. If they want to sell Cub Foods, though, they'll need to figure out how to deal with the franchised operations of Cub, either by having them sell out to UNFI or to force them to convert to County Market or other brands.
marketreportblog wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2024, 8:50 am
I don't know this area at all. Is this an area Safeway would want these stores in? Looks like they're not in that area, and they bought two Shoppers stores a couple years ago. But those were both in the Baltimore/DC area and that's quite a distance away, and I don't know that Safeway would want more mid-Atlantic locations right now. They look like pretty nice stores that another operator might be able to take on, but it looks like Food Lion, Giant and Harris Teeter already have stores in that immediate area. Or possibly Weis? They have a few acquired Food Lions in that region.
These wouldn't be bad pickups for Safeway. Safeway is already in surrounding towns such as Waldorf, La Plata, and Prince Frederick. The only question remains if the Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through.
Weis would also not be an unrealistic choice, if they want to upgrade from Food Lion buildings or simply expand in the area. Matter of fact, they are to construct a store in Waldorf.
pseudo3d wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2024, 9:27 am
That is interesting because it might signal what direction UNFI wants to go in. For a while UNFI was full speed ahead on disposing of its retail operations, threatening to strip the real estate from Cub Foods, and successfully getting rid of Farm Fresh, Shop 'n Save, and Hornbacher's. We also know that they weren't interested in buying divested Safeway/Harris Teeter stores. If they want to sell Cub Foods, though, they'll need to figure out how to deal with the franchised operations of Cub, either by having them sell out to UNFI or to force them to convert to County Market or other brands.
At least signficance it might just be a failure in St. Mary's, at most a company-wide shift affecting Shoppers could be true. As of last fall I had heard rumblings UNFI wanted to shift focus to wholesale once again, and they had layoffs and executive shifts at Shoppers after this expansion wave was announced.
My impression of St. Mary's is that it's growing but that the incomes are pretty disparate, depending on the town. The economy depends a lot on a Navy base and regional tourism, as well as retirees. Retired people, even if they're well-off, tend to be price conscious and if you add-in people in seasonal work like tourism and maritime work, there probably are a lot of price sensitive customers. People with PX privileges on base would make the price sensitive group even larger and there probably few opportunities for a store that seems "expensive". Giant has several stores in that area and might be the store for people who are "better off". The population isn't large enough for a true high end store. Weis might have the same struggles with people who shop based largely on price, but they are used to operating in small markets with Walmart.
UNFI has sent such mixed signals with these stores--perhaps it was landlords who couldn't land Giant or Safeway and UNFI saw population growth, relatively low rents for the region without really spending time in the communities.
marketreportblog wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2024, 8:50 am
I don't know this area at all. Is this an area Safeway would want these stores in? Looks like they're not in that area, and they bought two Shoppers stores a couple years ago. But those were both in the Baltimore/DC area and that's quite a distance away, and I don't know that Safeway would want more mid-Atlantic locations right now. They look like pretty nice stores that another operator might be able to take on, but it looks like Food Lion, Giant and Harris Teeter already have stores in that immediate area. Or possibly Weis? They have a few acquired Food Lions in that region.
These wouldn't be bad pickups for Safeway. Safeway is already in surrounding towns such as Waldorf, La Plata, and Prince Frederick. The only question remains if the Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through.
Weis would also not be an unrealistic choice, if they want to upgrade from Food Lion buildings or simply expand in the area. Matter of fact, they are to construct a store in Waldorf.
pseudo3d wrote: ↑April 3rd, 2024, 9:27 am
That is interesting because it might signal what direction UNFI wants to go in. For a while UNFI was full speed ahead on disposing of its retail operations, threatening to strip the real estate from Cub Foods, and successfully getting rid of Farm Fresh, Shop 'n Save, and Hornbacher's. We also know that they weren't interested in buying divested Safeway/Harris Teeter stores. If they want to sell Cub Foods, though, they'll need to figure out how to deal with the franchised operations of Cub, either by having them sell out to UNFI or to force them to convert to County Market or other brands.
At least signficance it might just be a failure in St. Mary's, at most a company-wide shift affecting Shoppers could be true. As of last fall I had heard rumblings UNFI wanted to shift focus to wholesale once again, and they had layoffs and executive shifts at Shoppers after this expansion wave was announced.
Looking at Shoppers (short of them announcing that they'd sell off large chunks of the remaining chain) would not be a good way to judge UNFI's plans. It would be Cub Foods. If they suddenly announced that they'd do away with the Cub Foods franchise program that'd be a sign that they're going to make a move on selling it (and if they were thinking that Albertsons and Kroger would not merge and instead one of them to pounce on it, the time to start working on Cub would be now). At that point, it would be time to start worrying about Shoppers again.
