Safeway in Colorado

[retailfanmitchell019]

Now as for how the Albertsons name has done in Colorado, I’ve done my research, and talked to relatives out in Denver.
Although the Albertsons banner largely failed in Colorado, the remaining Albertsons stores by 2012/2013, after 2/3 of them were closed (during the LLC era), were modern stores with interiors dating back to 2000 at the oldest. Those stores left actually did very strong business as Albertsons.

What doomed Albertsons in Colorado was lack of investment: Albertsons Rocky Mountain Division (CO; Wyoming excluding Rock Springs/Jackson; Scottsbluff, NE; Rapid City, SD) had stores ranging in age from the late 60's Skaggs combos to mid 2000's stores. A majority of them had blue/gray. 3 or 4 stores had Awnings interior, quite a few had the Grocery Warehouse "Fiesta" interior, a handful of stores got Grocery Palace. A few stores also had the "Larry" (Broadway) interior, mostly remodel jobs. I don't think any CO stores got the Jewel interior. This division may have included the Omaha stores at one time.

This was likely the weakest division under Old Albertsons. They didn't invest in this divsion as much compared to SoCal, Jewel, or Acme, judging by the amount of stores that still had blue/gray in the late 2000's, and the amount of closures LLC did. They were #4 in share, behind King Soopers, Safeway, and Walmart in CO by 2004, with Albertsons actually rumored to exit the Denver market by then: https://www.5280.com/albertsons-may-clo ... do-stores/

In 2006, Albertsons Rocky Mountain Division was sold to Cerberus, who slowly closed stores within the division. No grocers bought any Albertsons stores in Colorado (although Supervalu bought the Wyoming stores from LLC in 2007, and Nash Finch bought the Rapid City, SD and Scottsbluff, NE stores in 2008). I suspect Nash Finch made a bid for the entire Albertsons Denver division at one point.

[storewanderer]

What was left of Albertsons in Colorado was good under LLC. As you point out there wasn't much left and it was nice stores, well positioned, in good neighborhoods. LLC supplied them from Phoenix which was... quite a trek. They closed the very poor condition type of stores quickly (these were a lot of former Skaggs Albertsons and were running as Grocery Warehouse).

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

[ClownLoach]

What was left of Albertsons in Colorado was good under LLC. As you point out there wasn't much left and it was nice stores, well positioned, in good neighborhoods. LLC supplied them from Phoenix which was... quite a trek. They closed the very poor condition type of stores quickly (these were a lot of former Skaggs Albertsons and were running as Grocery Warehouse).

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

Slightly off topic but I do remember there was a Grocery Warehouse that became Max Foods for many years in Garden Grove, south of Disneyland. It is now El Super. I don't recall seeing that format elsewhere in SoCal. Wonder how they got a single unit of that out here? It definitely was plain and existed in the 80s. I think it became El Super about 15 years ago.

[veteran+]

What was left of Albertsons in Colorado was good under LLC. As you point out there wasn't much left and it was nice stores, well positioned, in good neighborhoods. LLC supplied them from Phoenix which was... quite a trek. They closed the very poor condition type of stores quickly (these were a lot of former Skaggs Albertsons and were running as Grocery Warehouse).

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

Slightly off topic but I do remember there was a Grocery Warehouse that became Max Foods for many years in Garden Grove, south of Disneyland. It is now El Super. I don't recall seeing that format elsewhere in SoCal. Wonder how they got a single unit of that out here? It definitely was plain and existed in the 80s. I think it became El Super about 15 years ago.

There was a MAX Foods or Maxx at the Dadeland shopping district at Dixie Hwy and Kendall Dr in Miami. Publix took it over and it's still one of the highest volume stores in the chain. I wonder if that was owned by Albertsons.

[pseudo3d]

This division may have included the Omaha stores at one time.

Omaha was Great Plains. The 2004 sale to Nash Finch sealed Great Plains' fate, the only thing that was left afterwards was Oklahoma and that went to Dallas-Ft. Worth.

This was likely the weakest division under Old Albertsons.

NorCal got a good portion of the 2006 closures (the Dallas-Ft. Worth Division mostly closed the Super Saver stores, though NorCal likely had a good number of Super Saver stores too) and was the only division to be fully disposed of. IIRC by the end of 2007, Northern California had been disposed of entirely (I believe I read somewhere Albertsons' NorCal stores were very spotty until Lucky); the only other market Albertsons left was Austin when they closed half the stores and sold the other half to H-E-B.

I suspect Nash Finch made a bid for the entire Albertsons Denver division at one point.

I think if Nash Finch was really interested in it (at least LLC) it would've been sold, like Publix and most of the Florida Division.

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

There was one store in Pueblo that was Grocery Warehouse (up until Albertsons LLC, when it was converted), it got the "fiesta" decor you speak of. I know I saw some design website on it; it was basically a variant of one of the other packages floating around.

Slightly off topic but I do remember there was a Grocery Warehouse that became Max Foods for many years in Garden Grove, south of Disneyland. It is now El Super. I don't recall seeing that format elsewhere in SoCal. Wonder how they got a single unit of that out here? It definitely was plain and existed in the 80s. I think it became El Super about 15 years ago.

I'll need to dig into it more but I think that was last remnants of Monte Mart, a discount store Albertsons bought into the 1960s (they more-or-less with a grocery warehouse format in the 1980s when they separated from the company that did the hard goods there like automotive and electronics; soft goods appear to have disappeared even earlier). There are some "Monte Mart Grocery Warehouse" ads...

There was a MAX Foods or Maxx at the Dadeland shopping district at Dixie Hwy and Kendall Dr in Miami. Publix took it over and it's still one of the highest volume stores in the chain. I wonder if that was owned by Albertsons.

Publix opened in 1999 in a new-build store there but it replaced a larger building. I think you're thinking of Xtra Super Food Center, which closed in 1996 and had locations mostly in and around Miami. (Coincidentally, Albertsons had little to do with even picking up the pieces--it only entered Miami-Dade Co. in 1996 and in a new-build location).

[storewanderer]

What was left of Albertsons in Colorado was good under LLC. As you point out there wasn't much left and it was nice stores, well positioned, in good neighborhoods. LLC supplied them from Phoenix which was... quite a trek. They closed the very poor condition type of stores quickly (these were a lot of former Skaggs Albertsons and were running as Grocery Warehouse).

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

Slightly off topic but I do remember there was a Grocery Warehouse that became Max Foods for many years in Garden Grove, south of Disneyland. It is now El Super. I don't recall seeing that format elsewhere in SoCal. Wonder how they got a single unit of that out here? It definitely was plain and existed in the 80s. I think it became El Super about 15 years ago.

It wasn't just a single unit.

There was a base of Max Foods in Southern California and a base of Monte Marts in Central California. Albertsons ran those for decades and used them to cater to Hispanic customers. Before the ASC merger, there were about 15 stores in this group in CA. The ASC Super Savers in SoCal got rolled into this group but also some of the group was divested so it sort of shrunk after 1999.

The Supervalu "Lucky" program was just a rebranding of this program with a little expansion (Las Vegas and a couple other conventional conversions).

This program officially ended in SoCal when the El Centro Lucky, a former Max Foods in a Warehouse format, closed a few years ago.

The program remains on those Utah Lucky Stores..

[storewanderer]

The final Monte Mart closed by Supervalu in Hanford; it opened in the early 90s and was a Warehouse format. The exterior sign read Monte Mart Grocery Warehouse.

Two Monte Marts which were huge stores got divested to Ralphs in 1999: Del Rey Oaks (was remodeled to a really nice large Ralphs, now Safeway) and Salinas (converted to FoodsCo and still FoodsCo).

I found evidence of Monte Mart existing in West Sacramento in the 60s or 70s but not sure if that pre-dates Albertsons involvement.

[veteran+]

This division may have included the Omaha stores at one time.

Omaha was Great Plains. The 2004 sale to Nash Finch sealed Great Plains' fate, the only thing that was left afterwards was Oklahoma and that went to Dallas-Ft. Worth.

This was likely the weakest division under Old Albertsons.

NorCal got a good portion of the 2006 closures (the Dallas-Ft. Worth Division mostly closed the Super Saver stores, though NorCal likely had a good number of Super Saver stores too) and was the only division to be fully disposed of. IIRC by the end of 2007, Northern California had been disposed of entirely (I believe I read somewhere Albertsons' NorCal stores were very spotty until Lucky); the only other market Albertsons left was Austin when they closed half the stores and sold the other half to H-E-B.

I suspect Nash Finch made a bid for the entire Albertsons Denver division at one point.

I think if Nash Finch was really interested in it (at least LLC) it would've been sold, like Publix and most of the Florida Division.

The other weird thing with Albertsons in Colorado was in the late 90's they bought a Cub franchisee in Colorado Springs which caused further expansion of Grocery Warehouse. Someone in that division liked the Grocery Warehouse format. That type of format is very vulnerable to Wal Mart so that obviously did not go well. They tried to sort of tool Grocery Warehouse to cater to Hispanic customers but that had mixed results (only a few of them had that fiesta interior; most of the Grocery Warehouses had "no" interior or they had plain yellowing-white walls with old 80s Albertsons style wall lettering. There was one with the MAX FOODS sign in some Denver suburb that was a true warehouse (cement floors, F4L style maze layout), lot of red and gray in there.

There was one store in Pueblo that was Grocery Warehouse (up until Albertsons LLC, when it was converted), it got the "fiesta" decor you speak of. I know I saw some design website on it; it was basically a variant of one of the other packages floating around.

Slightly off topic but I do remember there was a Grocery Warehouse that became Max Foods for many years in Garden Grove, south of Disneyland. It is now El Super. I don't recall seeing that format elsewhere in SoCal. Wonder how they got a single unit of that out here? It definitely was plain and existed in the 80s. I think it became El Super about 15 years ago.

I'll need to dig into it more but I think that was last remnants of Monte Mart, a discount store Albertsons bought into the 1960s (they more-or-less with a grocery warehouse format in the 1980s when they separated from the company that did the hard goods there like automotive and electronics; soft goods appear to have disappeared even earlier). There are some "Monte Mart Grocery Warehouse" ads...

There was a MAX Foods or Maxx at the Dadeland shopping district at Dixie Hwy and Kendall Dr in Miami. Publix took it over and it's still one of the highest volume stores in the chain. I wonder if that was owned by Albertsons.

Publix opened in 1999 in a new-build store there but it replaced a larger building. I think you're thinking of Xtra Super Food Center, which closed in 1996 and had locations mostly in and around Miami. (Coincidentally, Albertsons had little to do with even picking up the pieces--it only entered Miami-Dade Co. in 1996 and in a new-build location).

YESSSSSS!

Thank you, it was XTRA!

After Dade County, Albertsons entered Broward County very quickly.