Crucial times for Shoppers

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BatteryMill
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

storewanderer wrote: November 14th, 2021, 9:52 pm The nearby Safeway at 10350 Willard Way is quite aged. They probably need to consider a very major remodel to 10350 Willard Way, and I suspect could do a more cosmetic rearrange to the Shoppers. The other two locations they have nearby are first generation Lifestyle Stores- also due for a refresh.
Yes, that location even has a 1970s-era Safeway sign original to the store. I'm surprised that location wasn't replaced with this one in the first place. There were plans to redevelop once but those have not moved forward.

pseudo3d wrote: November 15th, 2021, 1:27 am When ACME took over the A&P/Pathmark stores, all of them kept their old décor and I believe layout too, with exceptions being some A&P concept where instead of traditional aisles, they had product clustered together in several short fixtures like a department store (I can't remember the exact store).

Speaking of ACME, I believe that Shoppers has the SuperValu version of Premium, Fresh, & Healthy, a slightly different version they used on the non-NAI stores (Shoppers, Cub, bigg's, Farm Fresh).
Good connection, since ACME and Safeway were already under the same ownership then. Though I'd certainly like to check out what that A&P concept was someday.

Correct about the decors, it features the same kind of signs but with a uniquely Shoppers color palette. I don't know if the prior package (large icons, Gotham font usage) was inspired by any other SuperValu PF&H schemes, though I do know that in the mid-2000s Shoppers was still using a format of their very own. What else... bigg's implemented such a decor scheme?
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by pseudo3d »

BatteryMill wrote: November 15th, 2021, 8:43 am
storewanderer wrote: November 14th, 2021, 9:52 pm The nearby Safeway at 10350 Willard Way is quite aged. They probably need to consider a very major remodel to 10350 Willard Way, and I suspect could do a more cosmetic rearrange to the Shoppers. The other two locations they have nearby are first generation Lifestyle Stores- also due for a refresh.
Yes, that location even has a 1970s-era Safeway sign original to the store. I'm surprised that location wasn't replaced with this one in the first place. There were plans to redevelop once but those have not moved forward.

pseudo3d wrote: November 15th, 2021, 1:27 am When ACME took over the A&P/Pathmark stores, all of them kept their old décor and I believe layout too, with exceptions being some A&P concept where instead of traditional aisles, they had product clustered together in several short fixtures like a department store (I can't remember the exact store).

Speaking of ACME, I believe that Shoppers has the SuperValu version of Premium, Fresh, & Healthy, a slightly different version they used on the non-NAI stores (Shoppers, Cub, bigg's, Farm Fresh).
Good connection, since ACME and Safeway were already under the same ownership then. Though I'd certainly like to check out what that A&P concept was someday.

Correct about the decors, it features the same kind of signs but with a uniquely Shoppers color palette. I don't know if the prior package (large icons, Gotham font usage) was inspired by any other SuperValu PF&H schemes, though I do know that in the mid-2000s Shoppers was still using a format of their very own. What else... bigg's implemented such a decor scheme?
The A&P concept can be seen here: https://acmestyleblog.blogspot.com/2015 ... ridge.html
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

pseudo3d wrote: November 15th, 2021, 1:27 am When ACME took over the A&P/Pathmark stores, all of them kept their old décor and I believe layout too, with exceptions being some A&P concept where instead of traditional aisles, they had product clustered together in several short fixtures like a department store (I can't remember the exact store).
My feeling from looking at the A&P to Acme conversion pictures on the AcmeStyle blog is that the existing A&P decor in most stores was at a similar "level" to what Acme was already using in its stores. Leaving that decor in place but adding Acme logos or covering up obvious A&P elements seemed compatible with the overall design style of Acme's other stores.

The Shoppers interior is very basic, bright, loud music and none of the lower key, more upscale elements that Safeway uses in its natively built stores. It won't alienate existing Shoppers customers. But at the same time I'm not sure that the current store state will attract and retain people who are used to other Safeway stores around the area that have the Lifestyle interior.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

Alpha8472 wrote: November 14th, 2021, 11:01 pm Safeway has been so slow to do remodels to their Lifestyle decor stores. Even the Safeway Flagship in Dublin, California kept the Lifestyle decor unchanged for years until a remodel that finished just weeks ago. Just a few cities over from Dublin, there are Safeway stores that still have the ancient 1980s Safeway logos on the front of the stores. Even a remodeled Safeway in Walnut Creek, California still has a vintage 1980s Safeway lightbox sign on the side of the building. It is a hidden gem, but still very old.
Safeway has been very consistent in the DC area with most stores on some version of the Lifestyle interior. The latest remodels use the same interior as the 1800 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD store that opened a few years ago. (Ironically this store is supposedly closing due to a Wegmans that will be built almost next door to this store.) There were three "outlier" Safeway stores that I knew of in terms of decor prior to the acquisition of the Shoppers locations:
  • The aforementioned Fairfax City store that still has some sort of late 80s/early 90s interior.
  • Thackett's Mill In Woodbridge, VA which has the decor used just before the Lifestyle interior.
  • Van Dorn Street in Alexandria, VA. This store was using the Marketplace interior. But this store just got a remodel to the same interior as 1800 Rockville Pike.
Now Safeway is adding to its "outliers" the two Shoppers locations. We will have to see if Safeway decides to include all of these stores in its current remodel program. Fairfax City essentially has no nearby competition which may be why it is still open in its current state. Thackett's Mill was pretty much all on its own until a Lidl opened across the street. The Lidl seems very popular so it may be influencing Safeway one way or another in terms of what to do with this particular store.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by storewanderer »

mjhale wrote: November 17th, 2021, 5:45 pm


Safeway has been very consistent in the DC area with most stores on some version of the Lifestyle interior. The latest remodels use the same interior as the 1800 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD store that opened a few years ago. (Ironically this store is supposedly closing due to a Wegmans that will be built almost next door to this store.) There were three "outlier" Safeway stores that I knew of in terms of decor prior to the acquisition of the Shoppers locations:
  • The aforementioned Fairfax City store that still has some sort of late 80s/early 90s interior.
  • Thackett's Mill In Woodbridge, VA which has the decor used just before the Lifestyle interior.
  • Van Dorn Street in Alexandria, VA. This store was using the Marketplace interior. But this store just got a remodel to the same interior as 1800 Rockville Pike.
Now Safeway is adding to its "outliers" the two Shoppers locations. We will have to see if Safeway decides to include all of these stores in its current remodel program. Fairfax City essentially has no nearby competition which may be why it is still open in its current state. Thackett's Mill was pretty much all on its own until a Lidl opened across the street. The Lidl seems very popular so it may be influencing Safeway one way or another in terms of what to do with this particular store.
This is pretty consistent with where Safeway sat by about 2012. There were a few stores in every division that still had non-Lifestyle interiors for one reason or another. Often for performance or planned redevelopment reasons.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by Romr123 »

Seems pretty consistent with what Schnucks did with Shop and Save in St. Louis...generally Schnucks is pretty comparable to Safeway (upscale stores, service departments, etc) and SnS was relatively downmarket (brightly lit, glaring, etc). They reopened and are sorting through the stores for performance etc before commencing remodeling.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

mjhale wrote: November 17th, 2021, 5:45 pm Safeway has been very consistent in the DC area with most stores on some version of the Lifestyle interior. The latest remodels use the same interior as the 1800 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD store that opened a few years ago. (Ironically this store is supposedly closing due to a Wegmans that will be built almost next door to this store.) There were three "outlier" Safeway stores that I knew of in terms of decor prior to the acquisition of the Shoppers locations:
  • The aforementioned Fairfax City store that still has some sort of late 80s/early 90s interior.
  • Thackett's Mill In Woodbridge, VA which has the decor used just before the Lifestyle interior.
  • Van Dorn Street in Alexandria, VA. This store was using the Marketplace interior. But this store just got a remodel to the same interior as 1800 Rockville Pike.
Now Safeway is adding to its "outliers" the two Shoppers locations. We will have to see if Safeway decides to include all of these stores in its current remodel program. Fairfax City essentially has no nearby competition which may be why it is still open in its current state. Thackett's Mill was pretty much all on its own until a Lidl opened across the street. The Lidl seems very popular so it may be influencing Safeway one way or another in terms of what to do with this particular store.
So there are plans to close the Safeway in Rockville? Strange considering Wegmans is not opening up shop for a little while longer, usually they'd leave it open and try the best they can for a while.

The Fairfax City store's decor package is actually from around the mid-late 1990s, being the second iteration of the Marketplace decor after what was in the Van Dorn store.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by buckguy »

I've been to the Rockville store several times. It's very nice but has no customers. It's in a "new urbanism" type development where parking isn't obvious from Rockville Pike. It's a design that works in Bethesda and Silver Spring, but not there. It nominally replaced a 1980s store on the other side of the Metro/rail tracks in the Twinbrook area that was successful and long running (it's now an Asian market). The Twinbrook store had replaced an older store. It had no real competition, except for an A&P once was a cross the street but had been was converted into a post office decades ago. This store also may been meant to replace the Loehmann's Plaza store a couple miles away.

The Rockville store has no immediate competition right now--Congressional Plaza, a large 50s strip, across the street once had A&P and Giant, but both are gone. A high volume Giant is about a mile away and another is a couple miles in the other direction. Whole Foods used to be nearby but moved 1 1/2 miles away--they've had at least 4 different locations in the area for their Rockville Pike store. A poorly located, low volume Harris Teeter is not far from the high volume Giant.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by BatteryMill »

buckguy wrote: November 18th, 2021, 2:14 pm I've been to the Rockville store several times. It's very nice but has no customers. It's in a "new urbanism" type development where parking isn't obvious from Rockville Pike. It's a design that works in Bethesda and Silver Spring, but not there. It nominally replaced a 1980s store on the other side of the Metro/rail tracks in the Twinbrook area that was successful and long running (it's now an Asian market). The Twinbrook store had replaced an older store. It had no real competition, except for an A&P once was a cross the street but had been was converted into a post office decades ago. This store also may been meant to replace the Loehmann's Plaza store a couple miles away.

The Rockville store has no immediate competition right now--Congressional Plaza, a large 50s strip, across the street once had A&P and Giant, but both are gone. A high volume Giant is about a mile away and another is a couple miles in the other direction. Whole Foods used to be nearby but moved 1 1/2 miles away--they've had at least 4 different locations in the area for their Rockville Pike store. A poorly located, low volume Harris Teeter is not far from the high volume Giant.
Quite the interesting history there. The Veirs Mill/Twinbrook store actually closed several months after the new Rockville Pike location opened, although I don't know if said store opening was the chief factor in Safeway leaving the other one behind. The Loehmann Plaza store, meanwhile was indeed closed beforehand - surprising since it looked like a Lifestyle-era location.

It's also great to know how bizarre the Rockville grocery market is. It's an oddity for WFM to have relocated so much here, let alone the others in the area that generally haven't. Harris Teeter is surprising, but it is somewhat of a consequence of their rapid 2000s expansion in the area. It only seems Giant gets North Bethesda right.

How this Safeway is to perform certainly affects their performance in Greater Washington/Baltimore just as the two new Shoppers acquisitions do.
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Re: Crucial times for Shoppers

Post by mjhale »

BatteryMill wrote: November 18th, 2021, 11:05 am So there are plans to close the Safeway in Rockville? Strange considering Wegmans is not opening up shop for a little while longer, usually they'd leave it open and try the best they can for a while.
http://www.rockvillenights.com/2021/06/ ... gmans.html

Assuming of course that the blog post above has good sources.
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