Dahl's Foods bankruptcy

[pseudo3d]

OK, an update. The "Dahlbertsons" opened as Food Saver in 1990, which joined two other Food Saver stores at 100 Army Post and 3799 86th and owned by Scrivner (which was bought by Fleming). In 1995, they were bought by Miner's, which rebranded them as Super One (with some updates), and kept them all open. They continued to be supplied by Fleming.

100 Army Post- drove by that and was wondering what it was. This answers that question. If you look at a Google Map of that (which I didn't do until just now) you can see back a few years there was a blatant Albertsons 90's style roadside sign out front but that has been removed more recently.

3799 86th Street- I am thinking the problem there was the Hy-Vee across the street. I can't tell when exactly it opened. It wouldn't surprise me if it opened new when this Albertsons was there. Who knows, that opening may have been what chased Albertsons out of Des Moines. That would be similar to how a single Hy-Vee opening chased Kroger (Dillons) out of Springfield, MO.

All three Food Saver stores became Super One stores which in turn all became Albertsons stores. There were two big inherent problems with the Des Moines operations.

1) Harming the stores' customer base. By converting to a full Albertsons store people used to warehouse food prices were chased out by the inevitable higher prices (not as high as Albertsons later but enough of a problem) while not doing anything to recoup that shopper base.
2) A volatile and young market that was ignored for the bigger problems of the company, especially with American Stores. If the American Stores buyout didn't happen, Albertsons would've had more resources to focus on the new markets. Instead, the Des Moines market (and a bunch of others) went from struggling new markets to distractions that had to be extinguished.

Were they doomed either way? Probably...but we'll never really know for sure.

[storewanderer]

I think had they had the chance to buy Dahl's they may have had a shot, but even that may or may not have worked out.

We don't know how competitive those "Super One" Stores actually were. If they were supplied by Fleming at that point in time they were probably fairly competitive and probably had a pretty extensive private label program. But Albertsons could bring to the table expanded fresh departments, expanded drug/non food mix, and a nicer store atmosphere. It would be interesting to know how much they had to increase prices.

Hy-Vee throws a punch the same way HEB does. They do it somewhat differently but it is the same VERY TOUGH competition. I think those two chains are the toughest conventional supermarket competitors out there in terms of how they impact other conventional competition...

[pseudo3d]

I think had they had the chance to buy Dahl's they may have had a shot, but even that may or may not have worked out.

Dahl's was approached by Albertsons sometime in late 1997/early 1998 about purchasing the chain but Dahl's management refused.

Hy-Vee throws a punch the same way HEB does. They do it somewhat differently but it is the same VERY TOUGH competition. I think those two chains are the toughest conventional supermarket competitors out there in terms of how they impact other conventional competition...

Hy-Vee, from what I've seen, is a traditional supermarket operator. H-E-B is more of a warehouse operator in so many aspects.

[storewanderer]

I think had they had the chance to buy Dahl's they may have had a shot, but even that may or may not have worked out.

Dahl's was approached by Albertsons sometime in late 1997/early 1998 about purchasing the chain but Dahl's management refused.

Hy-Vee throws a punch the same way HEB does. They do it somewhat differently but it is the same VERY TOUGH competition. I think those two chains are the toughest conventional supermarket competitors out there in terms of how they impact other conventional competition...

Hy-Vee, from what I've seen, is a traditional supermarket operator. H-E-B is more of a warehouse operator in so many aspects.

Hy-Vee uses case ready meat and more and more of their bakery seems to be produced outside the store (the stores still produce quite a bit though). Hy-Vee deli is a lot of pre-sliced house brand lunchmeat, they will slice to order but it is not voluntarily offered. So they too do things that seem "warehouse" operator like.

HEB and Hy-Vee are very similar. I'd love to see them go head to head. I think HEB would probably win but it would be one heck of a fight.

I get the feeling Hy-Vee puts labor and resources into a number of product categories or department offerings that a lot of customers just aren't interested in- but doesn't want to stop due to concern that those departments or categories "draw in" customers and without them they'd lose the entire customer basket.

HEB on the other hand I feel like the whole store is effective on getting customers to buy... have you heard how their new store in Fort Worth is doing? They have to have police there directing traffic all day from what I've heard. Surrounding competitors are down double digit sales percentages within a 5 mile radius. Bloodbath.