New Temecula Smart & Final

[CalItalian]

So I said this and then walked into my usual perfect Aldi store today in the afternoon. First time I've been there in a month. I am pretty sure the manager was moved and replaced. Might as well be a different store and it reveals some of @storewanderer concerns. First off, whoever the new manager is has no clue what they're doing. The store was a disaster area with out of stock everywhere and every department. Second, the routines and processes clearly collapsed. Floor was filthy and sticky like it hadn't been cleaned in a week. Date rotation issues galore with cheeses and others dated a month apart all mixed together and usually newest in front. And the other issue is that the store had to have been slammed busy like most grocery stores were Saturday, but the limited staffing and scheduling model has put this store behind the 8 ball. I saw two employees working. One cashier, and one person trying to make sense of whatever happened to the produce area. That store needed half a dozen more workers immediately to straighten, recover, rotate dates, cull bad perishables and clean. But the Aldi staffing levels don't call for it so they're just watching the store burn. I wound up visiting Ralphs who obviously is practicing to be priced as the Neiman Marcus of grocery stores and they were rough from all the business but still presentable and clean even if not necessarily stocked. I'm not sure the usual Aldi staff, led by a new manager that is clearly in over their head, could fix that store in a week.

At least it has self checkout? I have yet to encounter a SoCal unit with self checkout... only seen that in the midwest so far. And where I saw it there was obviously older/mature locations. I find it interesting they are adding self checkout to established locations in the midwest, but not quickly getting it added into the earlier CA openings that don't have it.

Kroger pricing is getting worse every week. I am shocked at the increases I see mid week every week at Smiths when I walk their center store. I've been wondering if they are trying to move Reno closer to CA style pricing but then I will pull a Smiths in Utah on the app and start checking items/prices there and see the same prices. Meat also has had pretty big increases recently. Produce is still mostly priced okay. Bakery looks priced similar to how it has been but noticed the cookie package got smaller, however also noticed all cake slices back down to 2.50 (Smiths has large square ones that are done in store and are actually quite good) after seeing some flavors as high as 3.99 for a while and then some down to 2.29 for some reason, then others at 2.99 or 2.50. They seem to have cleaned that up and gotten all flavors back down to 2.50. They are still way cheaper than Safeway/Raleys/Save Mart storewide, but that isn't saying much.

You basically have to play around using the app with Kroger now to get what were previously the old walk in sale prices. I use the app and most items I buy have some kind of app discount/offer attaching. Interesting on the larger weekend visit there this weekend 3 of the probably 15 app offers I redeemed were manufacturer coupons... rather than store coupons. That was interesting to me. They have a 4x fuel point promotion going. I spent around $40 and earned 244 fuel points, so not quite sure how they compute things. The value of the manufacturer coupons (which get included toward fuel points earning) was nowhere near $20. It seems it may have awarded me points before the "buy 5 save $5" offers.

Some updates. First off, Ralphs is running noticeably lower prices on many items in Temecula versus Murrieta. I think they possibly were allowed to skip the last batch of price increases. Or they are very behind in applying them.

The Ralphs in Temecula is a much busier store than Murrieta. I asked. Second to Menifee in the market. Solves the "slow" question. Does a ton of Pickup orders apparently. Much better executed store overall, more professional staff. Still don't understand how changing the floor warranted a grand reopening although deli got new cases that are different from what I've seen at other Ralphs.

The Smart and Final is dead and struggling. Last week it was a cesspool of rotting produce. It has been cleaned up today, apparently they needed outside help from other stores to fix it.

And Stater Bros is finally celebrating their grand opening. I'll go there next time, it was nice but felt like it was missing something last time I was in. Similar feeling to the Oceanside one when it appeared "done" but also went a month plus before grand reopening. I think they reduce assortment in perimeters during remodels and do not restore until grand reopening which might contribute to the feeling of emptiness especially produce.

This street still pulls customers from a far distance out CA-79 to the hills in Anza and elsewhere.

Being one of my personal friends is a Ralphs store manager whoever told you Temecula is busier than Murrieta is 100% incorrect.

[CalItalian]

I wonder if the gas station in Murrieta makes them any money. When Kroger watches sales for stores they exclude fuel and pharmacy since those areas aren't considered "controllable" by store management in driving sales. So the gas station may help the overall picture in Murrieta.

Do any of these Ralphs have a 6.99 sandwich? A Ralphs around Marina Del Rey had this- you go to pick from I think it was 4 pre-determined options- using Boar's Head meats. This wasn't like the old Ralphs sandwich program but people were lined up. Also forget getting other deli product because the employee was completely trapped making sandwiches. Kind of felt like how Sprouts does its program and neglects the rest of deli. The biggest problem with this 6.99 sandwich was it used a Ralphs bakery "bolillo" roll - this roll is trash, poor quality... if it is an hour or two old it is okay but after that it is no good. The old Ralphs sandwich program took finished/fully baked "Maple Leaf" baguettes (bakery also sold them par baked as a take and bake baguette), baked them the rest of the way, and used those for the custom sandwich bread; I really liked those.

No surprise on Smart & Final. Let's see if they even survive there. But they always seem to survive. I've wanted to buy items in the Reno one three times in the past month- walked out two of those three times due to excessive line lengths at 1-2 open registers. On the other visit I was about to walk out but the Store Director noticed the lines and opened a register. If the other cashiers were as fast as he was, they wouldn't have lines.

All of Ralphs sandwiches - even the one's that aren't Boar's Head - are $6.99 (appx. 7 to 11 oz.).
They have some vendor supplied sandwich which I tried about 2 weeks ago in Menifee, sorry forgot the name, which was better than Boar's Head.

[ClownLoach]

At least it has self checkout? I have yet to encounter a SoCal unit with self checkout... only seen that in the midwest so far. And where I saw it there was obviously older/mature locations. I find it interesting they are adding self checkout to established locations in the midwest, but not quickly getting it added into the earlier CA openings that don't have it.

Kroger pricing is getting worse every week. I am shocked at the increases I see mid week every week at Smiths when I walk their center store. I've been wondering if they are trying to move Reno closer to CA style pricing but then I will pull a Smiths in Utah on the app and start checking items/prices there and see the same prices. Meat also has had pretty big increases recently. Produce is still mostly priced okay. Bakery looks priced similar to how it has been but noticed the cookie package got smaller, however also noticed all cake slices back down to 2.50 (Smiths has large square ones that are done in store and are actually quite good) after seeing some flavors as high as 3.99 for a while and then some down to 2.29 for some reason, then others at 2.99 or 2.50. They seem to have cleaned that up and gotten all flavors back down to 2.50. They are still way cheaper than Safeway/Raleys/Save Mart storewide, but that isn't saying much.

You basically have to play around using the app with Kroger now to get what were previously the old walk in sale prices. I use the app and most items I buy have some kind of app discount/offer attaching. Interesting on the larger weekend visit there this weekend 3 of the probably 15 app offers I redeemed were manufacturer coupons... rather than store coupons. That was interesting to me. They have a 4x fuel point promotion going. I spent around $40 and earned 244 fuel points, so not quite sure how they compute things. The value of the manufacturer coupons (which get included toward fuel points earning) was nowhere near $20. It seems it may have awarded me points before the "buy 5 save $5" offers.

Some updates. First off, Ralphs is running noticeably lower prices on many items in Temecula versus Murrieta. I think they possibly were allowed to skip the last batch of price increases. Or they are very behind in applying them.

The Ralphs in Temecula is a much busier store than Murrieta. I asked. Second to Menifee in the market. Solves the "slow" question. Does a ton of Pickup orders apparently. Much better executed store overall, more professional staff. Still don't understand how changing the floor warranted a grand reopening although deli got new cases that are different from what I've seen at other Ralphs.

The Smart and Final is dead and struggling. Last week it was a cesspool of rotting produce. It has been cleaned up today, apparently they needed outside help from other stores to fix it.

And Stater Bros is finally celebrating their grand opening. I'll go there next time, it was nice but felt like it was missing something last time I was in. Similar feeling to the Oceanside one when it appeared "done" but also went a month plus before grand reopening. I think they reduce assortment in perimeters during remodels and do not restore until grand reopening which might contribute to the feeling of emptiness especially produce.

This street still pulls customers from a far distance out CA-79 to the hills in Anza and elsewhere.

Being one of my personal friends is a Ralphs store manager whoever told you Temecula is busier than Murrieta is 100% incorrect.

I trust you over the deli people. Long story short Murrieta deli has reduced ordering of many Boars Head meats and cheeses which irritated me greatly since I live just a few minutes from the store. Heck the proximity of the store was one of the reasons I chose the house. Asked why they're missing so many items now and they said they aren't busy enough to warrant ordering the full assortment. Suggested I look at the prepackaged product. They also magically didn't have the Private Selection turkey that is $5/lb Tuesdays, for that low price I would have ordered a bit to see if it's any good.

Later needed to go to Home Depot in Temecula because local store didn't have what I needed so I went to these stores after. Deli had full selection including the cheeses I like from Boars Head. I asked if they would continue to order all varieties because Murrieta has cut back ordering because they are slow. They said they were much busier. Asked if Menifee was busiest and they said yes. And the pickup parking is all full with people waiting for orders, shopped, was all changed out to different cars waiting for orders, very very busy pickup with big loads going out and many employees pulling orders inside. Murrieta doesn't have much if any pickup business.

So they could have meant Deli departments and not whole store. They had four people working in the deli area while Murrieta has two (that I can see, one might be hiding in the back).

Also for reasons I don't understand all the Boars Head product is $1 to $2 less per pound in Temecula vs Murrieta.

Having said that, Murrieta seems to be incredibly slow as a store lately but that could also be due to some unfortunate road construction that is reducing Washington/Palomar to one lane all day long just North of the store. That is probably cutting off all of their business from Wildomar area and funneling those shoppers to Stater or Albertsons on Clinton Keith. Because the area South of the store is sparsely populated and mostly rural I would not be surprised if the Murrieta store has lost half its daytime sales due to the construction mess which is going to last all summer. The construction is to enable a couple of large new housing tracts.

[storewanderer]

I trust you over the deli people. Long story short Murrieta deli has reduced ordering of many Boars Head meats and cheeses which irritated me greatly since I live just a few minutes from the store. Heck the proximity of the store was one of the reasons I chose the house. Asked why they're missing so many items now and they said they aren't busy enough to warrant ordering the full assortment. Suggested I look at the prepackaged product. They also magically didn't have the Private Selection turkey that is $5/lb Tuesdays, for that low price I would have ordered a bit to see if it's any good.

Later needed to go to Home Depot in Temecula because local store didn't have what I needed so I went to these stores after. Deli had full selection including the cheeses I like from Boars Head. I asked if they would continue to order all varieties because Murrieta has cut back ordering because they are slow. They said they were much busier. Asked if Menifee was busiest and they said yes. And the pickup parking is all full with people waiting for orders, shopped, was all changed out to different cars waiting for orders, very very busy pickup with big loads going out and many employees pulling orders inside. Murrieta doesn't have much if any pickup business.

So they could have meant Deli departments and not whole store. They had four people working in the deli area while Murrieta has two (that I can see, one might be hiding in the back).

Also for reasons I don't understand all the Boars Head product is $1 to $2 less per pound in Temecula vs Murrieta.

Having said that, Murrieta seems to be incredibly slow as a store lately but that could also be due to some unfortunate road construction that is reducing Washington/Palomar to one lane all day long just North of the store. That is probably cutting off all of their business from Wildomar area and funneling those shoppers to Stater or Albertsons on Clinton Keith. Because the area South of the store is sparsely populated and mostly rural I would not be surprised if the Murrieta store has lost half its daytime sales due to the construction mess which is going to last all summer. The construction is to enable a couple of large new housing tracts.

The PS Turkey is pretty terrible in my opinion, but the PS Cheese is okay. I used to think the turkey was okay, the peppered one, but not anymore. Maybe some other flavors are better. The PS Ham isn't bad either. The price difference between PS and Boar's Head at Smiths is like $1/lb so it isn't really worth it anymore; they don't do a $5/lb deal at Smiths ever. Raleys/Safeway NorCal both do $5/lb deals on the cheaper lunchmeats many weeks (Friday at Safeway, Monday at Raleys).

Boar's Head comes into the store and writes the orders, but there should be a required set of items for the store to carry. I'd talk to the deli manager if there are specific items you're interested in and have them tell their rep to keep bringing those items in.

What is their Boar's Head pricing? Safeway NorCal is 14.99/lb for the Salami products, and ham/turkey are $15.99/lb or $16.99/lb depending on the type- I can't figure out why there is a price difference on the different types of ham/turkey there but I've noticed the same thing at Smiths. Smiths is 12.49/lb for the Salami products, 11.99lb for the Boar's Head ham products (all of them), and 14.49 for the Boar's Head Turkey products. These are all recent increases at Smiths. Sprouts is somewhere in the middle of Smiths and Safeway on its now very limited mix of Boar's Head.

[ClownLoach]

I trust you over the deli people. Long story short Murrieta deli has reduced ordering of many Boars Head meats and cheeses which irritated me greatly since I live just a few minutes from the store. Heck the proximity of the store was one of the reasons I chose the house. Asked why they're missing so many items now and they said they aren't busy enough to warrant ordering the full assortment. Suggested I look at the prepackaged product. They also magically didn't have the Private Selection turkey that is $5/lb Tuesdays, for that low price I would have ordered a bit to see if it's any good.

Later needed to go to Home Depot in Temecula because local store didn't have what I needed so I went to these stores after. Deli had full selection including the cheeses I like from Boars Head. I asked if they would continue to order all varieties because Murrieta has cut back ordering because they are slow. They said they were much busier. Asked if Menifee was busiest and they said yes. And the pickup parking is all full with people waiting for orders, shopped, was all changed out to different cars waiting for orders, very very busy pickup with big loads going out and many employees pulling orders inside. Murrieta doesn't have much if any pickup business.

So they could have meant Deli departments and not whole store. They had four people working in the deli area while Murrieta has two (that I can see, one might be hiding in the back).

Also for reasons I don't understand all the Boars Head product is $1 to $2 less per pound in Temecula vs Murrieta.

Having said that, Murrieta seems to be incredibly slow as a store lately but that could also be due to some unfortunate road construction that is reducing Washington/Palomar to one lane all day long just North of the store. That is probably cutting off all of their business from Wildomar area and funneling those shoppers to Stater or Albertsons on Clinton Keith. Because the area South of the store is sparsely populated and mostly rural I would not be surprised if the Murrieta store has lost half its daytime sales due to the construction mess which is going to last all summer. The construction is to enable a couple of large new housing tracts.

The PS Turkey is pretty terrible in my opinion, but the PS Cheese is okay. I used to think the turkey was okay, the peppered one, but not anymore. Maybe some other flavors are better. The PS Ham isn't bad either. The price difference between PS and Boar's Head at Smiths is like $1/lb so it isn't really worth it anymore; they don't do a $5/lb deal at Smiths ever. Raleys/Safeway NorCal both do $5/lb deals on the cheaper lunchmeats many weeks (Friday at Safeway, Monday at Raleys).

Boar's Head comes into the store and writes the orders, but there should be a required set of items for the store to carry. I'd talk to the deli manager if there are specific items you're interested in and have them tell their rep to keep bringing those items in.

What is their Boar's Head pricing? Safeway NorCal is 14.99/lb for the Salami products, and ham/turkey are $15.99/lb or $16.99/lb depending on the type- I can't figure out why there is a price difference on the different types of ham/turkey there but I've noticed the same thing at Smiths. Smiths is 12.49/lb for the Salami products, 11.99lb for the Boar's Head ham products (all of them), and 14.49 for the Boar's Head Turkey products. These are all recent increases at Smiths. Sprouts is somewhere in the middle of Smiths and Safeway on its now very limited mix of Boar's Head.

It was odd to see the difference between the two Ralphs stores. Murrieta was charging $14.99/lb for the BH turkeys and $17.99 for the BH Roast Beef. The cheese I wanted that they stopped ordering at that store was $12.99.

Temecula was $13.99 for the turkey but BH oven gold was on sale there for $9.99, the sharp cheddar cheese was $10.99, and the BH Roast Beef was $15.99. So $1-$2 cheaper per pound.

The traffic issue getting in and out of the area by that Murrieta Ralphs has been going on for about three months and is not going to stop. I think they've lost all their Wildomar customers. During the day they reduce Washington to one lane and use flaggers to stop the cars. Odds are if you go on that road you will sit for 10 minutes or more before the lane clears and they reverse direction. Stater Bros and Albertsons in Wildomar must be loving it.

They're building a tract of new homes and have to connect power, water, sewer, gas. These homes are going to be complete garbage. Last week Friday I drove by and the first area was still flat. Three days ago what I am assuming will be the model homes were up and fully framed. Yesterday they were fully wrapped and ready for stucco, and roofs applied and ready for tile/solar. A one day roof? One day wrap? 3 day build? Yeah, I don't think so. At the rate they're going on that garbage project I would not be surprised if the entire 120 home tract is fully built before the utilities are done and they just let them wait to be connected to power, water etc. Terrible. DR Horton is the builder.

[J-Man]

They're building a tract of new homes and have to connect power, water, sewer, gas. These homes are going to be complete garbage. Last week Friday I drove by and the first area was still flat. Three days ago what I am assuming will be the model homes were up and fully framed. Yesterday they were fully wrapped and ready for stucco, and roofs applied and ready for tile/solar. A one day roof? One day wrap? 3 day build? Yeah, I don't think so. At the rate they're going on that garbage project I would not be surprised if the entire 120 home tract is fully built before the utilities are done and they just let them wait to be connected to power, water etc. Terrible. DR Horton is the builder.

See what your comment did? D.R. Horton Dies Suddenly At Age 74

[storewanderer]

It was odd to see the difference between the two Ralphs stores. Murrieta was charging $14.99/lb for the BH turkeys and $17.99 for the BH Roast Beef. The cheese I wanted that they stopped ordering at that store was $12.99.

Temecula was $13.99 for the turkey but BH oven gold was on sale there for $9.99, the sharp cheddar cheese was $10.99, and the BH Roast Beef was $15.99. So $1-$2 cheaper per pound.

The traffic issue getting in and out of the area by that Murrieta Ralphs has been going on for about three months and is not going to stop. I think they've lost all their Wildomar customers. During the day they reduce Washington to one lane and use flaggers to stop the cars. Odds are if you go on that road you will sit for 10 minutes or more before the lane clears and they reverse direction. Stater Bros and Albertsons in Wildomar must be loving it.

They're building a tract of new homes and have to connect power, water, sewer, gas. These homes are going to be complete garbage. Last week Friday I drove by and the first area was still flat. Three days ago what I am assuming will be the model homes were up and fully framed. Yesterday they were fully wrapped and ready for stucco, and roofs applied and ready for tile/solar. A one day roof? One day wrap? 3 day build? Yeah, I don't think so. At the rate they're going on that garbage project I would not be surprised if the entire 120 home tract is fully built before the utilities are done and they just let them wait to be connected to power, water etc. Terrible. DR Horton is the builder.

That is odd to see that pricing difference. I have noticed all stores with Boar's Head are poor at posting what is on sale but typically all stores in a given chain's region run the same sales on Boar's Head products.



It sounds like with the speed at which those "average-low" quality residential units are going up, the road issue may not be an issue for long, and then they'll bring extra customers to the store?

Road issues can really impact a store. But they bounce back if the traffic flow returns to how it was before the road issues occurred. A Raleys in Sparks at Pyramid/McCarran one of the busiest intersections in the region was impacted by roadwork for many years. It was like the project just never stopped. The store seemed like it was going to die. No traffic, ton of unused perishable cases; it is a giant store. They put it on lower pricing scale but ultimately made a lot of cuts; cut store hours, cut labor to the bone, and a lot of other adverse changes. The road work finally finished- as major as the work was basically all it was, was to add lanes and reconfigure how some right turns flowed- and customers started to trickle back; now it is a semi-busy store again. Still not as good as it was before the road work, but there is also more competition now.

[ClownLoach]

It was odd to see the difference between the two Ralphs stores. Murrieta was charging $14.99/lb for the BH turkeys and $17.99 for the BH Roast Beef. The cheese I wanted that they stopped ordering at that store was $12.99.

Temecula was $13.99 for the turkey but BH oven gold was on sale there for $9.99, the sharp cheddar cheese was $10.99, and the BH Roast Beef was $15.99. So $1-$2 cheaper per pound.

The traffic issue getting in and out of the area by that Murrieta Ralphs has been going on for about three months and is not going to stop. I think they've lost all their Wildomar customers. During the day they reduce Washington to one lane and use flaggers to stop the cars. Odds are if you go on that road you will sit for 10 minutes or more before the lane clears and they reverse direction. Stater Bros and Albertsons in Wildomar must be loving it.

They're building a tract of new homes and have to connect power, water, sewer, gas. These homes are going to be complete garbage. Last week Friday I drove by and the first area was still flat. Three days ago what I am assuming will be the model homes were up and fully framed. Yesterday they were fully wrapped and ready for stucco, and roofs applied and ready for tile/solar. A one day roof? One day wrap? 3 day build? Yeah, I don't think so. At the rate they're going on that garbage project I would not be surprised if the entire 120 home tract is fully built before the utilities are done and they just let them wait to be connected to power, water etc. Terrible. DR Horton is the builder.

That is odd to see that pricing difference. I have noticed all stores with Boar's Head are poor at posting what is on sale but typically all stores in a given chain's region run the same sales on Boar's Head products.



It sounds like with the speed at which those "average-low" quality residential units are going up, the road issue may not be an issue for long, and then they'll bring extra customers to the store?

Road issues can really impact a store. But they bounce back if the traffic flow returns to how it was before the road issues occurred. A Raleys in Sparks at Pyramid/McCarran one of the busiest intersections in the region was impacted by roadwork for many years. It was like the project just never stopped. The store seemed like it was going to die. No traffic, ton of unused perishable cases; it is a giant store. They put it on lower pricing scale but ultimately made a lot of cuts; cut store hours, cut labor to the bone, and a lot of other adverse changes. The road work finally finished- as major as the work was basically all it was, was to add lanes and reconfigure how some right turns flowed- and customers started to trickle back; now it is a semi-busy store again. Still not as good as it was before the road work, but there is also more competition now.

The home construction seems to be happening faster than the utilities and I expect the homes will sit a few months. This project which is all pipeline work, appears to be running water, sewer and gas which weren't on the property. Nearby homes are on septic and propane. The first units are the models and I have seen such situations before where the models are fully built but no running water or gas. The builders actually like that because they have less risk of damage when visitors tour unsupervised. The entire roof was tiled by next morning by the way, I stand by my comment that these are total garbage builds and yet they'll try to get the same prices per square foot as the much higher quality built homes a block away. The mid to late 2000s built homes in SoCal are generally outstanding because the entire building code had just been thoroughly overhauled and the builders hadn't figured out how to cut corners on the new standards.

They have extended the road construction and it now states it will run through the end of August. But they are also doing an apartment complex closer to the store which will probably require the same work and that hasn't even started yet so I expect they have up to a year of construction hell.

Ralphs has a really weird location far from the freeway and major arterials adjacent to the most rural areas with horse ranches and such. It is a quiet and peaceful, slow area which is why I like it. I am still puzzled by statements that it is a busy store. I suspect that it is a 50/50 split store. Half the transactions are little convenience ones, the other half are full baskets with little regard to pricing. That makes for a store that is very Gelsons like-- on paper when looking only at revenue it looks busy but walk in and you find a dead store. So maybe the situation is that revenues are higher in Murrieta due to the relative lack of competition for rich shoppers in La Cresta ($$$$ estates that look like Beverly Hills on massive lots for equestrian purposes). But then Temecula has more transactions but lower total revenue. Especially now there is no possibility that Murrieta is busier from a transaction count perspective. I also believe their customers are more than half from outside of Murrieta, coming from Wildomar where they have newer nicer Stater Bros and Albertsons, plus Barons, easily accessible.

There is less choice on the Murrieta side of the construction mess, primarily an Albertsons on California Oaks from the mid 90s that is divestiture bait and a non Pfresh Target as the closest stores. The Albertsons has LLC decor done on the cheap and still has mismatched direction lights leftover from the angled aisles on the GM side. All maintenance on the Albertsons has ceased including roof repair, I have to think if the merger doesn't dump it then it closes at the 30 year mark or Target makes an offer to buy out the lease just so they can kill the non compete clause. Even if they turn around and sublease it to another grocery store they would still be better off than they were before as it is one of the few remaining Targets without PFresh. The Ralphs is a palace compared to that Albertsons.

[storewanderer]

Ralphs has a really weird location far from the freeway and major arterials adjacent to the most rural areas with horse ranches and such. It is a quiet and peaceful, slow area which is why I like it. I am still puzzled by statements that it is a busy store. I suspect that it is a 50/50 split store. Half the transactions are little convenience ones, the other half are full baskets with little regard to pricing. That makes for a store that is very Gelsons like-- on paper when looking only at revenue it looks busy but walk in and you find a dead store. So maybe the situation is that revenues are higher in Murrieta due to the relative lack of competition for rich shoppers in La Cresta ($$$$ estates that look like Beverly Hills on massive lots for equestrian purposes). But then Temecula has more transactions but lower total revenue. Especially now there is no possibility that Murrieta is busier from a transaction count perspective. I also believe their customers are more than half from outside of Murrieta, coming from Wildomar where they have newer nicer Stater Bros and Albertsons, plus Barons, easily accessible.

There is less choice on the Murrieta side of the construction mess, primarily an Albertsons on California Oaks from the mid 90s that is divestiture bait and a non Pfresh Target as the closest stores. The Albertsons has LLC decor done on the cheap and still has mismatched direction lights leftover from the angled aisles on the GM side. All maintenance on the Albertsons has ceased including roof repair, I have to think if the merger doesn't dump it then it closes at the 30 year mark or Target makes an offer to buy out the lease just so they can kill the non compete clause. Even if they turn around and sublease it to another grocery store they would still be better off than they were before as it is one of the few remaining Targets without PFresh. The Ralphs is a palace compared to that Albertsons.

My observation of that Murrieta Store is that it isn't "crowded busy" but it seems busy enough to work. Looking at things like staffing and perimeter it just obviously isn't a high traffic store but it looks to have enough traffic. Given that it has physical condition issues that need to be addressed it appears it isn't a priority store getting constant visits from division management. This puts it into that spot of management - does well enough to get mostly left alone, not well enough to get a high amount of attention/visits/walks from division, and not poorly enough to close. That Murrieta is a clone of the new build stores Ralphs built in NorCal. Except how it got a gas station somehow. I figure the store must do pretty well given that it got remodeled some years back. Even if I think the remodel does not look good; that package applies very poorly on Ralphs walls. It looks better on a Smiths in Reno that has it but I'd rather see that decor retired.

[CalItalian]

Some updates. First off, Ralphs is running noticeably lower prices on many items in Temecula versus Murrieta. I think they possibly were allowed to skip the last batch of price increases. Or they are very behind in applying them.

The Ralphs in Temecula is a much busier store than Murrieta. I asked. Second to Menifee in the market. Solves the "slow" question. Does a ton of Pickup orders apparently. Much better executed store overall, more professional staff. Still don't understand how changing the floor warranted a grand reopening although deli got new cases that are different from what I've seen at other Ralphs.

The Smart and Final is dead and struggling. Last week it was a cesspool of rotting produce. It has been cleaned up today, apparently they needed outside help from other stores to fix it.

And Stater Bros is finally celebrating their grand opening. I'll go there next time, it was nice but felt like it was missing something last time I was in. Similar feeling to the Oceanside one when it appeared "done" but also went a month plus before grand reopening. I think they reduce assortment in perimeters during remodels and do not restore until grand reopening which might contribute to the feeling of emptiness especially produce.

This street still pulls customers from a far distance out CA-79 to the hills in Anza and elsewhere.

Being one of my personal friends is a Ralphs store manager whoever told you Temecula is busier than Murrieta is 100% incorrect.

I trust you over the deli people. Long story short Murrieta deli has reduced ordering of many Boars Head meats and cheeses which irritated me greatly since I live just a few minutes from the store. Heck the proximity of the store was one of the reasons I chose the house. Asked why they're missing so many items now and they said they aren't busy enough to warrant ordering the full assortment. Suggested I look at the prepackaged product. They also magically didn't have the Private Selection turkey that is $5/lb Tuesdays, for that low price I would have ordered a bit to see if it's any good.

Later needed to go to Home Depot in Temecula because local store didn't have what I needed so I went to these stores after. Deli had full selection including the cheeses I like from Boars Head. I asked if they would continue to order all varieties because Murrieta has cut back ordering because they are slow. They said they were much busier. Asked if Menifee was busiest and they said yes. And the pickup parking is all full with people waiting for orders, shopped, was all changed out to different cars waiting for orders, very very busy pickup with big loads going out and many employees pulling orders inside. Murrieta doesn't have much if any pickup business.

So they could have meant Deli departments and not whole store. They had four people working in the deli area while Murrieta has two (that I can see, one might be hiding in the back).

Also for reasons I don't understand all the Boars Head product is $1 to $2 less per pound in Temecula vs Murrieta.

Having said that, Murrieta seems to be incredibly slow as a store lately but that could also be due to some unfortunate road construction that is reducing Washington/Palomar to one lane all day long just North of the store. That is probably cutting off all of their business from Wildomar area and funneling those shoppers to Stater or Albertsons on Clinton Keith. Because the area South of the store is sparsely populated and mostly rural I would not be surprised if the Murrieta store has lost half its daytime sales due to the construction mess which is going to last all summer. The construction is to enable a couple of large new housing tracts.

Between the under construction Wildomar new homes and new apartments caddy corner to the Ralphs Murrieta Matketplace property, there's going to a lot of new residents within blocks of this store.

I was at the Temecula Ralphs the day before (Thursday) the start of Memorial Day weekend in the noon hour. That store was completely dead. Just two of us at self-checkout that I saw when I came in to pick up one item. One self-checkout cashier bouncing from one side to the other of self-checkout areas which I've never seen before. I took photos of their self-checkout areas and posted them today to Yelp! https://www.yelp.com/biz/ralphs-temecula Smart & Final had about as many customers as Ralphs - both of which were very few. The store in that center that is busy is the 24-hour CVS.

My friend (Ralphs store manager) told me Murrieta is also going to get a second self-checkout area like Menifee and Temecula before the end of the year.

Quite frankly, I find Ralphs in Menifee, Murrieta and Temecula all difficult to get out of their parking lots for slightly different reasons. If you've been to all three, it's easy to understand.