Actually Cala/Bell and Ralphs NorCal were not really run by Kroger. Yes Kroger owned them but back then Kroger was much more decentralized. Those stores were barely even converted over to Kroger's private label program when they closed. When those stores were around, they were still run by Ralphs. Ralphs was doing its own thing. The Ralphs format back then was MUCH different than the present day Ralphs format is. Ralphs ran a cleaner, more upscale, shiny, well organized store with higher quality perishables and zero clutter. But prices were a lot higher and promotion strategy was different. The Cala/Bell Stores were undersized, extremely high priced (had higher prices than the normal Ralphs did, and there was no reason for this pricing), ran small weak ads (higher ad retails than a normal Ralphs too), and didn't have the best service.HCal wrote: ↑January 10th, 2024, 1:44 amCala/Bell failed, Ralphs Norcal expansion failed. Foodsco is okay but too small to matter. Kroger has simply never had any luck in Norcal.storewanderer wrote: ↑January 9th, 2024, 11:16 pm It seems like Kroger is really running Ralphs at a level below the other divisions for some reason. This really makes me wonder why they want Safeway, and more California Stores, given how they have their California Stores Ralphs running poorly compared to the rest of Kroger, higher price scale, etc.
Acquiring the dominant grocer is probably the only way they can get into the market.
Kroger didn't put much money into Cala/Bell at all. They did some major remodels in San Francisco. Cala/Bell was actually highly profitable in San Francisco, the Marin County Stores were breaking even or marginally profitable. Kroger did not spend one dime on Cala/Bell outside San Francisco.
I actually think the current Kroger Ralphs format probably would have survived in NorCal, because it is more price competitive, and tighter on labor/expenses than the old Ralphs was. There is a place in NorCal for a competitively priced conventional supermarket. It should be Save Mart but their pricing is terrible- I think it is worse than Safeway or Raleys at this point. That doesn't really exist in NorCal. You have to downgrade to a Food Maxx, WinCo, Wal Mart, or Target for competitive prices in NorCal.
The bigger question is why does Kroger want to get into NorCal? It is not a growing market for a conventional unless some competitor in the market goes under. The ethnic make up of the market and wealth of the market has fueled alternative formats; primarily of the Asian and Whole Foods/Trader Joe's variety. But the discount operators while they are few and far between are also extremely productive in NorCal.