Albertsons buys Kings

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. No non-grocery posts.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: December 5th, 2020, 11:55 am
Yeah, my math is wrong, it should be only one Balducci's closing. If one closes, they have 8 Balducci's stores (with at least one airport store) and coming out to 27 between Kings and Balducci's.
The airport stores are run by HMS Host but get some products from Balducci's. So these are more of a licensing/supply arrangement vs. actual operated stores.
marshd1000
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 587
Joined: March 2nd, 2009, 1:46 pm
Been thanked: 12 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by marshd1000 »

Looks like the sale of Kings and Balducci's to Albertsons closed in January:

https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/new ... uccis.html

Looking at the King's website, they have quite a few of their own "King's" branded private label products. I wonder how many will be replaced by Signature or Lucerne? It seems to me that here in Washington State, the Haggen stores mostly have the standard Albertsons/Safeway private label. The only thing I really see branded as Haggen are service bakery items, some but not all private label ice cream and gallon milk. Haggen does have Lucerne in other sizes of milk.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by storewanderer »

marshd1000 wrote: March 16th, 2021, 8:13 am Looks like the sale of Kings and Balducci's to Albertsons closed in January:

https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/new ... uccis.html

Looking at the King's website, they have quite a few of their own "King's" branded private label products. I wonder how many will be replaced by Signature or Lucerne? It seems to me that here in Washington State, the Haggen stores mostly have the standard Albertsons/Safeway private label. The only thing I really see branded as Haggen are service bakery items, some but not all private label ice cream and gallon milk. Haggen does have Lucerne in other sizes of milk.
They may have been more comfortable putting Safeway private label programs into Haggen given Safeway is dominant and appears to have a pretty good reputation in Washington.

In the case of Acme's reputation back there where this King's chain operates... not sure about that. They may just need a little more time to streamline the distribution. It looks like they need to drive traffic into these King's Stores, big opportunity there.
Bagels
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 823
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 11:54 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 12 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by Bagels »

marshd1000 wrote: March 16th, 2021, 8:13 am Looks like the sale of Kings and Balducci's to Albertsons closed in January:

https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/new ... uccis.html

Looking at the King's website, they have quite a few of their own "King's" branded private label products. I wonder how many will be replaced by Signature or Lucerne? It seems to me that here in Washington State, the Haggen stores mostly have the standard Albertsons/Safeway private label. The only thing I really see branded as Haggen are service bakery items, some but not all private label ice cream and gallon milk. Haggen does have Lucerne in other sizes of milk.
Private label products are generally the most profitable in any given supermarket. I would be surprise if Albertsons' private label program DIDN'T quickly replace Kings/Balducci's. And it'll go beyond that -- product selection, layout and presentation is generally similar across Albertsons' banners. Eventually, they'll converge.
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: March 16th, 2021, 4:05 pm
marshd1000 wrote: March 16th, 2021, 8:13 am Looks like the sale of Kings and Balducci's to Albertsons closed in January:

https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/new ... uccis.html

Looking at the King's website, they have quite a few of their own "King's" branded private label products. I wonder how many will be replaced by Signature or Lucerne? It seems to me that here in Washington State, the Haggen stores mostly have the standard Albertsons/Safeway private label. The only thing I really see branded as Haggen are service bakery items, some but not all private label ice cream and gallon milk. Haggen does have Lucerne in other sizes of milk.
They may have been more comfortable putting Safeway private label programs into Haggen given Safeway is dominant and appears to have a pretty good reputation in Washington.

In the case of Acme's reputation back there where this King's chain operates... not sure about that. They may just need a little more time to streamline the distribution. It looks like they need to drive traffic into these King's Stores, big opportunity there.
What I see happening is that Kings' former upscale cachet has declined in the recent past, leaving it something to be desired but still overpriced for the market, hence its vulnerability in the market. The new blue logo seems to be less "upscale" than the old logo (no more "Where Inspiration Strikes" tagline, either) and I think that Albertsons will start re-positioning Kings to be middle market (and not as overpriced). Longer range, they might rebrand the NYC-area ACME stores as Kings, but that won't happen until they get a handle on Kings.
klkla
Posts: 1614
Joined: February 24th, 2009, 3:26 pm
Been thanked: 2 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by klkla »

The majority of King's stores are too small to transition from 'upscale' to 'mainstream'. I don't think they will succeed if they are not able to distinguish themselves by having better product quality and service compared to chains with bigger stores.
rwsandiego
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1242
Joined: April 3rd, 2016, 10:57 pm
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 55 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by rwsandiego »

While I am not a fan of the new logo's blue color, the old logo looked dated and needed to change if King's wanted to convey a current image.
Bagels
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 823
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 11:54 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 12 times
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by Bagels »

klkla wrote: March 17th, 2021, 11:29 am The majority of King's stores are too small to transition from 'upscale' to 'mainstream'. I don't think they will succeed if they are not able to distinguish themselves by having better product quality and service compared to chains with bigger stores.
IIRC, Albertsons did not purchase the "mini" locations. The locations they did acquire are (generally) slightly smaller than the industry average, but King's stocked them pretty tight.

Debt aside, the chains had been struggling for quite some time, and Albertsons did initially suggest that they would covert them to the ACME banner before relenting and saying the stores would keep their identity. Again, I would be surprised if they ultimately DIDN'T converge to a fork of the Albertsons format. These were never high-grossing/high-volume stores, so it isn't like Albertsons has much to lose.
marketreportblog
Receiving Clerk
Receiving Clerk
Posts: 147
Joined: July 9th, 2021, 7:40 pm
Location: New Jersey / New York
Has thanked: 87 times
Been thanked: 50 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by marketreportblog »

Hi folks, Zachary here from The Market Report at marketreportblog.com. I've been keeping track of the changes at the New Jersey Kings locations here at this Twitter thread, which I'll update as I see more (click on the comment icon for all the updates):
cw06
Produce Clerk
Produce Clerk
Posts: 53
Joined: August 16th, 2019, 10:15 am
Status: Offline

Re: Albertsons buys Kings

Post by cw06 »

Bagels wrote: March 18th, 2021, 10:58 am
klkla wrote: March 17th, 2021, 11:29 am The majority of King's stores are too small to transition from 'upscale' to 'mainstream'. I don't think they will succeed if they are not able to distinguish themselves by having better product quality and service compared to chains with bigger stores.
IIRC, Albertsons did not purchase the "mini" locations. The locations they did acquire are (generally) slightly smaller than the industry average, but King's stocked them pretty tight.

Debt aside, the chains had been struggling for quite some time, and Albertsons did initially suggest that they would covert them to the ACME banner before relenting and saying the stores would keep their identity. Again, I would be surprised if they ultimately DIDN'T converge to a fork of the Albertsons format. These were never high-grossing/high-volume stores, so it isn't like Albertsons has much to lose.
Looking at the Albertson's job board, the mini/deli locations come up with postings open, so I guess they did.
Post Reply