Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

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Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by storewanderer »

Store opened in 2005 but interior looks pretty dated for that era.

Hy Vee takes no prisoners. But the Hy Vee interior is very dated, looks like mid 90's at best.

Jewel also heavily present a couple miles down the road over the state line in IL with a couple stores that look like they last got capex under ASC in about 1997.

Looks like a kind of crowded market there without much capex taking place by any party. Oddly it appears the Schnucks is the most modern store there based on the calendar (would argue the Jewels look more modern based on appearances).
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: June 16th, 2020, 11:46 pm...Hy Vee takes no prisoners....
Nor does Jewel, despite their 2000's foray into Milwaukee not quite working out. That was more about a Milwaukee/Chicago rivalry than anything else.
storewanderer wrote: June 16th, 2020, 11:46 pm...Jewel also heavily present a couple miles down the road over the state line in IL...
Jewel opened in the late 1960's, FWIW.
storewanderer wrote: June 16th, 2020, 11:46 pm... with a couple stores that look like they last got capex under ASC in about 1997. ...
You have to look very hard, but it looks like at least two of the three stores have the current Jewel interior.

Silvishad the early 2000's Albertsons decor that was put into stores that still had the hideous early 1990's decor. (see the pics from 2018). The pics from 2020 show the current decor.

East Moline looks to have been a new or total rebuild from the late 1990's/early 2000's. It is almost identical to several suburban Chicago-area stores built around that time with the "Jewel Interior." You are right: looks very fresh. The original Jewel version must have used excellent materials because it held up way better than the Albertsons-era stores that received a dumbed-down version of that package.

Moline must be a recent remodel, because only a couple of pics have a new decor package and you really have to look hard to see it. If you check out this pic, you see the dumbed-down "Jewel Interior." But when you look very carefully at this pic you can see a different font is used for "Thank" and in the distance the produce sign has "Moline" in green script. The entire sign reads "Moline's freshest produce market" and is part if the current Jewel design package.
storewanderer wrote: June 16th, 2020, 11:46 pm...Looks like a kind of crowded market there without much capex taking place by any party. Oddly it appears the Schnucks is the most modern store there based on the calendar (would argue the Jewels look more modern based on appearances).
The Quad Cities are rather working-class, which makes me wonder whether the three chains were trying not to make them appear to be "fancy." "Fanciness" was one of the factors attributed to Jewel-Osco's demise in Milwaukee.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by pseudo3d »

Given Schnucks' recent activities (pharmacy outsourcing, "temporarily" closing stores--one of which did turn out to be permanent, severely restricting the Culinaria hours beyond what any grocery store would normally do) I think this is an issue more with Schnucks than it's competitors. But that's just me.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by Bakeragr »

Sometimes Schnucks makes weird development decisions. They invested a lot into the Memphis market ten years ago and then just bailed on it and likely sold everything to Kroger at a loss, but getting Kroger to leave the Rockford, IL market in trade. I’m thinking that they expected to have better success in the Quad Cities as they’ve done quite well in the medium-sized cities across IL (Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Peoria). But having one store in that market probably isn’t enough to gain a presence and build name recognition.
As for the CVS deal, all I can figure is CVS gave them an offer they couldn’t refuse. CVS has very little presence in most of the Schnucks territory, I think they opened their first store in St. Louis about 5-7 years ago.
Or, the purchase of all of the Shop ‘N Save stores has been a drag on profits. I think they bought them to prevent them from selling to a competitor, but I’d say most of them needed work and were in poor condition. It’s likely been a distraction and a money drain.
Schnucks opens a new-concept “EatWell” store in a former Lucky’s location in Columbia, MO next week. My guess is it won’t pan out and Schnucks will pull the plug in 18 months, turning it into a regular store.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by rwsandiego »

Bakeragr wrote: June 17th, 2020, 7:55 pm Sometimes Schnucks makes weird development decisions. They invested a lot into the Memphis market ten years ago and then just bailed on it and likely sold everything to Kroger at a loss, but getting Kroger to leave the Rockford, IL market in trade. I’m thinking that they expected to have better success in the Quad Cities as they’ve done quite well in the medium-sized cities across IL (Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, Peoria). But having one store in that market probably isn’t enough to gain a presence and build name recognition. ...
Can't speak for Champaign, Springfield, or Peoria, but in Rockford they acquired two well-established chains: Logli and Hilander.

As to @storewanderer's observation about the dated store interior, when I was a kid we visited their home turf of St Louis and stopped into what looked to be a new Schnuck's. I remember my mother being unimpressed.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by storewanderer »

Schnucks actually runs a decent store but I think their pricing is on the high side (it looked better last year, than the previous years I had visited them). They have an excellent heavily scratch bakery both in product mix and product quality (price is not so good) and excellent produce (especially for their region). I had limited experience with their deli but the chicken strips I purchased a couple times were well above average.

So my guess is they were too high priced for too long and operating in working class communities this model simply did not work. What is odd is their overall territory is not an affluent territory so why they did not address their pricing is a mystery. Maybe due to how many other chains left St. Louis over the years and them basically being the last chain standing they never felt the need, but in these little medium sized markets they expanded out to it clearly is a problem.

I don't think they have done great in Rockford with the Hilander purchase but Hilanders were mostly small dog stores (one Kroger built and another that was a former Eagle were pretty legitimate stores) and obviously low volume and not the model Kroger seems to go for; they did end up with a lot of stores there in Rockford after that transaction and the much larger Loglis so maybe the closures made sense.

It will be interesting to see how much remodeling Schnuck does to that Lucky's in Columbia. My understanding is, that was a good performing Lucky's. But who knows. That was the first Lucky's I went to, definitely had a mixed experience with it, as I had with future visits to Lucky's elsewhere. I am guessing part of the motivation for the new format/banner is so they do not need to do much remodeling. They can morph the thing into a conventional store over time if they want to.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

rwsandiego wrote: June 17th, 2020, 5:44 pm Silvishad the early 2000's Albertsons decor that was put into stores that still had the hideous early 1990's decor. (see the pics from 2018). The pics from 2020 show the current decor.

East Moline looks to have been a new or total rebuild from the late 1990's/early 2000's. It is almost identical to several suburban Chicago-area stores built around that time with the "Jewel Interior." You are right: looks very fresh. The original Jewel version must have used excellent materials because it held up way better than the Albertsons-era stores that received a dumbed-down version of that package.

Moline must be a recent remodel, because only a couple of pics have a new decor package and you really have to look hard to see it. If you check out this pic, you see the dumbed-down "Jewel Interior." But when you look very carefully at this pic you can see a different font is used for "Thank" and in the distance the produce sign has "Moline" in green script. The entire sign reads "Moline's freshest produce market" and is part if the current Jewel design package.
The Quad Cities are rather working-class, which makes me wonder whether the three chains were trying not to make them appear to be "fancy." "Fanciness" was one of the factors attributed to Jewel-Osco's demise in Milwaukee.
The store in East Moline with the Jewel Marketplace interior is a 2005 model store.
The "dumbed-down" Jewel interior is probably from ASC. There is a Jewel up the road in Clinton, IA with this interior (the only Jewel in IA).
This store still has a Jewel Express gas station in the parking lot. With the exception of this Moline store, SVU sold the Jewel gas stations to Circle K. SVU also kept an Albertsons Express in Hillsboro, OR.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by rwsandiego »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: June 18th, 2020, 10:56 am
rwsandiego wrote: June 17th, 2020, 5:44 pm Silvishad the early 2000's Albertsons decor that was put into stores that still had the hideous early 1990's decor. (see the pics from 2018). The pics from 2020 show the current decor.

East Moline looks to have been a new or total rebuild from the late 1990's/early 2000's. It is almost identical to several suburban Chicago-area stores built around that time with the "Jewel Interior." You are right: looks very fresh. The original Jewel version must have used excellent materials because it held up way better than the Albertsons-era stores that received a dumbed-down version of that package.

Moline must be a recent remodel, because only a couple of pics have a new decor package and you really have to look hard to see it. If you check out this pic, you see the dumbed-down "Jewel Interior." But when you look very carefully at this pic you can see a different font is used for "Thank" and in the distance the produce sign has "Moline" in green script. The entire sign reads "Moline's freshest produce market" and is part if the current Jewel design package.
The Quad Cities are rather working-class, which makes me wonder whether the three chains were trying not to make them appear to be "fancy." "Fanciness" was one of the factors attributed to Jewel-Osco's demise in Milwaukee.
The store in East Moline with the Jewel Marketplace interior is a 2005 model store.
The "dumbed-down" Jewel interior is probably from ASC. There is a Jewel up the road in Clinton, IA with this interior (the only Jewel in IA)...
You are right. It isn't the decor package I was thinking about. The aisle markets threw me off.
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by storewanderer »

Where else does Albertsons go against Hy Vee than in this market, anyway?
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Re: Schnucks Bettendorf IA closing

Post by Bakeragr »

storewanderer wrote: June 18th, 2020, 11:33 pm Where else does Albertsons go against Hy Vee than in this market, anyway?
Sycamore, Peoria and Bloomington, IL. Schnucks is in all three, too.
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