Albertsons Signature...outdoor furniture?

[pseudo3d]

Apologies for not getting a picture of it (my phone lost it...), but at a Randalls today, I saw an outdoor furniture kit (a small table and four fabric-based chairs). Seeing such "junk" at supermarkets isn't uncommon but what was surprising it was branded under the familiar Signature Home name. I've seen similar items at Kroger sold through Fred Meyer (which does the merchandising for that sort of thing), but Safeway/Albertsons doesn't have any sort of equivalent division. Has anyone else seen this at any Safeway/Albertsons store? Did Safeway do this prior to the Albertsons merger?

[SamSpade]

I don't understand Albertsons merchandising sometimes. Is someone really going to buy a propane gas patio heater at the downtown Portland Safeway store, for example? I don't think so. They still squeeze seasonal items of smaller varieties near the Starbucks and self checkout kiosks.

[pseudo3d]

I don't understand Albertsons merchandising sometimes. Is someone really going to buy a propane gas patio heater at the downtown Portland Safeway store, for example? I don't think so. They still squeeze seasonal items of smaller varieties near the Starbucks and self checkout kiosks.

It's not so much the merchandising...like I said, most grocers do something like that, stocking stores with the most random things. Pre-Albertsons ACME, according to Acme Style, had "merchandise placed on top of cases... something Acme was notorious for especially in their smaller stores back in the 80's and 90's. You could find park benches, bicycles, TV's, VCR's, beach chairs, microwaves, coolers, garbage cans, ferns, barbecues, air conditioners...", and even H-E-B has had odd things, like a really chintzy metal thing that said "BEER" that looked like some guy welded some thin pieces of metal and spray painted it red (and was far more expensive than you'd expect it to be).

The big surprise was that it was actually branded with the Signature name.

[architect]

Apologies for not getting a picture of it (my phone lost it...), but at a Randalls today, I saw an outdoor furniture kit (a small table and four fabric-based chairs). Seeing such "junk" at supermarkets isn't uncommon but what was surprising it was branded under the familiar Signature Home name. I've seen similar items at Kroger sold through Fred Meyer (which does the merchandising for that sort of thing), but Safeway/Albertsons doesn't have any sort of equivalent division. Has anyone else seen this at any Safeway/Albertsons store? Did Safeway do this prior to the Albertsons merger?

I actually saw this same furniture set at the (now closed) Albertsons at Custer/15th a few weeks ago. Overall, it looked like junk.

[kr.abs.swy]

I have seen these at Albertsons and Vons stores in Las Vegas / Henderson.

[storewanderer]

None of these items are visible in NorCal yet. Albertsons has always sold some cheap outdoor furniture type items, a holdover from Osco/Sav-On. The Signature label seems to be pretty meaningless but it is their brand so why not put it on the items?

[pseudo3d]

None of these items are visible in NorCal yet. Albertsons has always sold some cheap outdoor furniture type items, a holdover from Osco/Sav-On. The Signature label seems to be pretty meaningless but it is their brand so why not put it on the items?

Like I said, such "junk" (I call it "junk" not necessarily because of quality issues but random in-fill items) is common to supermarkets both seasonal and year-round, but seeing the supermarket's brand on it indicates that they want to sell a significant volume of it in that category. Despite somewhat dubious selection and quality, a wide range of supermarkets are trying to get in on large-format and GM-focused stores, from the top dog in the category (Fred Meyer and other Kroger Marketplace stores) to lesser names (H-E-B Plus, Wegmans, Giant Eagle Market District...even Hy-Vee are building 80k+ square feet stores). Problem is, Albertsons/Safeway is not one of them and has no current interest in larger-format stores with expanded GM sections, hence the reason why it was odd to see their name on such a thing.

[Super S]

Stock Market Foods, during the first few months they were open (early 1990s) in Longview-Kelso, had some random new items scattered around the store for sale. Everything from appliances to furniture, and sometimes things like small mopeds. Not sure if they did that in their stores up north, but this stopped after a few months as the concept of the whole store did not do well here.

[Super S]

None of these items are visible in NorCal yet. Albertsons has always sold some cheap outdoor furniture type items, a holdover from Osco/Sav-On. The Signature label seems to be pretty meaningless but it is their brand so why not put it on the items?

Like I said, such "junk" (I call it "junk" not necessarily because of quality issues but random in-fill items) is common to supermarkets both seasonal and year-round, but seeing the supermarket's brand on it indicates that they want to sell a significant volume of it in that category. Despite somewhat dubious selection and quality, a wide range of supermarkets are trying to get in on large-format and GM-focused stores, from the top dog in the category (Fred Meyer and other Kroger Marketplace stores) to lesser names (H-E-B Plus, Wegmans, Giant Eagle Market District...even Hy-Vee are building 80k+ square feet stores). Problem is, Albertsons/Safeway is not one of them and has no current interest in larger-format stores with expanded GM sections, hence the reason why it was odd to see their name on such a thing.

I sometimes wonder if the general merchandise is some sort of a "test" for what people would buy if Albertsons were to roll out a "supercenter" format. Keep in mind Albertsons did experiment with standalone Sav-On stores. And Albertsons certainly has space for this in some stores with the demise of video rentals. But I think it's simply more of an attempt to keep the space full.

[pseudo3d]

None of these items are visible in NorCal yet. Albertsons has always sold some cheap outdoor furniture type items, a holdover from Osco/Sav-On. The Signature label seems to be pretty meaningless but it is their brand so why not put it on the items?

Like I said, such "junk" (I call it "junk" not necessarily because of quality issues but random in-fill items) is common to supermarkets both seasonal and year-round, but seeing the supermarket's brand on it indicates that they want to sell a significant volume of it in that category. Despite somewhat dubious selection and quality, a wide range of supermarkets are trying to get in on large-format and GM-focused stores, from the top dog in the category (Fred Meyer and other Kroger Marketplace stores) to lesser names (H-E-B Plus, Wegmans, Giant Eagle Market District...even Hy-Vee are building 80k+ square feet stores). Problem is, Albertsons/Safeway is not one of them and has no current interest in larger-format stores with expanded GM sections, hence the reason why it was odd to see their name on such a thing.

I sometimes wonder if the general merchandise is some sort of a "test" for what people would buy if Albertsons were to roll out a "supercenter" format. Keep in mind Albertsons did experiment with standalone Sav-On stores. And Albertsons certainly has space for this in some stores with the demise of video rentals. But I think it's simply more of an attempt to keep the space full.

The stand-alone Sav-On stores were drug stores, and those were sold to CVS. Albertsons even had a 75k Osco Drug in Springfield, MO (now a CVS, which keeps the space open), that they never even converted to Albertsons (as Albertsons did briefly operate stores there). Albertsons did open a new Sav-On in a hospital a few years back, though.

The space wasn't even in a dead video or bank space, it was near the entrance breezeway. Remember, this was a new store (2011). I know that Albertsons has kept a few programs, like bringing back the demonstration cooking kiosk when it first bought back one of the A&P stores, and I've heard that they kept the expanded clothing department at the McCall, ID Paul's. They need to expand the mix offered at the drug departments (especially at former Safeway stores, which are missing it) and build larger footprints before that sort of thing, though.