Crucial times for Shoppers

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BatteryMill
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

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.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

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.
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