Albertsons Exiting Utah

[storewanderer]

Well, the stores are now sold off to Associated and Associated has made immediate changes. This is sure different than when Save Mart took Albertsons stores over. The marketing materials in their videos look a lot better than anything I've ever seen at Save Mart, and the website they have set up for these 34 stores is also far more professional looking.

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-alber ... 9590.story

http://www.freshmarketstores.com/Page.aspx

[krogerclerk]

The Fresh Market website was up and running quickly. It is an attractive design and user friendly. But there was a glitch in the pharmacy conversion from Sav-on to Smart Med that kept them from opening until today in the former Albertson's. This was evidently a problem in software compatibility.

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13705267?source=rss

I went to Albertson's(SuperValu) website and all stores are still on the store locator and showing 36 stores within 50 miles of SLC.

[tesg]

I was in an "a Fresh Market" today. As expected..."Not much to see here".

Albertson's signage, Albertson's decor still prominent. Western Family products abound and some grocery bags are marked with the new logo (they're still using the Albertson's bags too as long as they have supply, I guess.)

The "a Fresh Market" banner on the store exterior does nothing to cover the Albertson's logo. For those not knowing better, it would almost look like an Albertson's advertising slogan ("Albertsons...a Fresh Market").

Almost nobody was shopping here at 12:00pm on a Saturday.

[Alpha8472]

That is a terrible first impression. The new management really is not doing enough to present a new and positive image. These Albertsons stores were probably not doing very much business under Supervalu's ownership. That is why they sold them.

These stores really need to change the signs and present a brand new image.

[storewanderer]

This really does not sound good. The feedback I received from some people who were in Utah a couple weeks ago and went into one of these stores was indifferent at best. However I asked them to go to the Kearns Albertsons and was told it looked really good inside but was empty of customers (this seems to be a trend). The lack of customers is particularly alarming. There is no reason to still be using Albertsons bags a month after the changeover.

How did the perimeter look? Was there much product on display and did it look fresh?

Isn't this business of putting a banner up similar to how Farmer Jack handled its Utah Safeway purchase in the 80s?

I wonder if the plan is to run these as Fresh Market for a time only to sell them off piece by piece to various Associated customers. That may explain why they are not changing signs.

Looking at the ads Fresh Market is doing, they may just be a bit too similar to the ads that other Associated supplied and owned Stores are running. While to me these ads are better ads than an Albertsons ad, they are quite similar to other Associated customers with a few perimeter items on the front page and a lot of Western Family items selling at very good prices. Albertsons ads seemed to focus more on national brand goods usually not at very good prices and maybe they need to try that approach with these stores to try to differentiate.

Save Mart did pretty well after the conversion from Albertsons here but things have really died off since then as they ran the stores into the ground and various other issues have come up. They seem to be trying to fix the permeters. It is my understanding there have been some complaints to Save Mart upper management about these stores.

[tesg]

The store merchandise was all neatly organized and the place was clean. I didn't pay attention to the produce. Certainly no reason for people to not shop here.

I went by another one today (an old Provo Albertson's) and looked more closely at the banner, and it does say "Coming Soon" on it. That's an older store that appears to have REALLY old aisle signs...I didn't go in...and its parking lot gave the appearance of a busy store.

As for the rest of the competition...Smith's, Harmon's, and Macey's all seem to be doing fine. Maybe the Albertson's business had already dropped off, and Associated hasn't done enough yet to inspire people to give them a try again.

I also checked out one of the new SLC WinCo stores, and was amused to see they're STILL using the old Cub Foods decor. Not even Cub Foods still uses that decor. But it's nice to not have to drive to Pocatello to get Tillamook Ice Cream anymore.

[storewanderer]

I was in the Reno WinCo this week and noticed all of the Cub Wall Letters missing from the wall, except above the egg case there were still "EGGS" letters up since above that is a walk in cooler with a different "wall material" (plastic) than the walls that go around the rest of the store. In looking around, there were some sign-scars on certain walls but other walls appeared to have been freshly painted (into the usual white/green/orange colors). It appears they are repainting the walls and will just put the old letters back up.

I guess if it isn't broken...

I'd change the aisle hangers though.

[storewanderer]

I went into a number of the Fresh Markets and was overall pleased with what I saw. The first location I visited seemed to be a bit rough... no signs on the building at all, c-store style beer promo signs attached to the light posts in the parking lot, police car out front, security guard in the store who followed me around a bit, and overall not very good conditions. The other locations I visited were universally clean, neat, stocked very well, and perimeters looked good. The product assortment appears to be improved in a lot of categories compared to Albertsons offering and pricing is mostly (not entirely...) improved especially around the perimeter.

I also went into the 3 Albertsons Stores in Taylorsville (Kerns) and West Jordan that Supervalu is still running. The inventory level in these stores was so low I can't imagine how long they will continue operations. Supervalu also appears to be in the process of phasing out many Albertsons private label items. I saw some Flavorite items available.

[kr.abs.swy]

I haven't noticed Flavorite here in Jackson, Wyoming, but there are many Shoppers Value products around the store. I'll keep watching though ...

They did change computer systems earlier this year.

[storewanderer]

I don't see much of a future for these Albertsons Stores being run by Supervalu. What I keep seeing in these SuperValu run stores in market after market just keeps me shaking my head. The lack of customers is most telling, along with the lack of perishable product on displays within the stores around the perimeter. This company is beyond lost on merchandising, pricing, promotion mix, and staffing levels. They seem to be able to run a clean store, but that's easy when you have as few customers as they have. I cannot believe SuperValu has run these stores into the ground worse than they already had been run into the ground by Albertsons.

As far as the stores sold to Associated, and I was in a lot of them, all I can say is good luck. Too many of these stores seem positioned too close to Wal Mart Supercenters or other competition and while the Albertsons or Fresh Market was nearly empty of customers, whatever form of competition that was nearby had a full parking lot. I cannot understand what happened to these stores to drive the customers away. I saw some Fresh Market Stores that looked to be doing okay (not great, but okay) business, but these were stores with no competition for at least a mile. I almost think Associated may have been better off letting Albertsons continue to flounder then eventually pick off some of the okay performers. I'm not entirely sure who else was involved with bidding for these stores but an outside operation like Safeway would have floundered in the same manner Albertsons did (if not even worse with their pricing). Utah is a strange market with a lot of competition and a lot of grocery operators who really know what they are doing and are able to provide a quality product to the customer at very low prices.

I did go into the two Super Savers in Salt Lake City and West Valley City that are run by Albertsons LLC. The Salt Lake City Store still has the Fleming F4L Interior (completely yellow walls) while the store in West Valley City received a repaint but still has a yellow/black/white theme. Both stores have some new signs hanging around the store. These stores were fully stocked, perimeters looked great considering the overall condition of the stores, and the pricing was the strongest I saw at any operator I visited in Salt Lake City, and I visited everyone but WinCo and Wal Mart Supercenter.