Retail Watchers

storewanderer wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2020, 12:02 am All I ever see around NorCal are Safeway trucks- none of these other division trucks.

Maybe it is because NorCal Division is pretty well self-contained with its own dairy, soda plant, bread plant, the plant to process tomatoes into glass-jar products which I believe are distributed nationwide... I think the private label ice cream in NorCal is imported from somewhere else.

The Pacific Northwest has both Albertsons and Safeway stores so it makes some sense why you see both of those. That doesn't explain the occasional Vons trailers though.

In Northern California, you rarely see any out of area supermarket trucks. I have seen a Ralphs truck probably only once in the past 14 years. That sighting was in the past year. Ralphs left Northern California 14 years ago. Currently, the closest Ralphs is over 500 miles away from the San Francisco Bay Area. The only Kroger stores in the area are Foods Co. They consistently use Foods Co. trucks.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑November 4th, 2020, 12:30 am In Northern California, you rarely see any out of area supermarket trucks. I have seen a Ralphs truck probably only once in the past 14 years. That sighting was in the past year. Ralphs left Northern California 14 years ago. Currently, the closest Ralphs is over 500 miles away from the San Francisco Bay Area. The only Kroger stores in the area are Foods Co. They consistently use Foods Co. trucks.

I've still seen Ralphs trucks multiple times in NorCal delivering to the Foods Co locations. FoodsCo get some inventory from C&S and some inventory comes from SoCal Kroger warehouses. They get all bakery/deli/produce/meat, some dairy and some dry goods from Kroger warehouses. C&S is primarily "fast moving" center store stuff including some dairy and some frozen. San Luis Obispo (old Lucky basically rebuilt and expanded by Ralphs) and Los Osos (a Lucky/Sav-On combo that Lucky built up to the point refrigeration was installed then gave to Ralphs to finish off) are the northern-most Ralphs so 3.5 hours or so on a good day. Paso Robles is the northern-most store with the Albertsons banner.

storewanderer wrote: ↑November 4th, 2020, 1:28 am Paso Robles is the northern-most store with the Albertsons banner.

Actually, the northernmost SoCal Albertsons is Ridgecrest (the older store in Northern Ridgecrest). This store has a repaint of blue-gray with Jewel interior aisle hangers. This store is in dire need of a remodel, inside and out. I'm surprised they haven't gotten rid of this 70's Albertsons yet.

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑November 5th, 2020, 5:18 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑November 4th, 2020, 1:28 am Paso Robles is the northern-most store with the Albertsons banner.

Actually, the northernmost SoCal Albertsons is Ridgecrest (the older store in Northern Ridgecrest). This store has a repaint of blue-gray with Jewel interior aisle hangers. This store is in dire need of a remodel, inside and out. I'm surprised they haven't gotten rid of this 70's Albertsons yet.

I suppose the store in Ridgecrest is a mile or two more north than Paso Robles but they are pretty close...

Just got back from a trip up the CA coast...
Saw a Bashas trailer on Highway 101 near Camarillo.
Also saw a Ralphs trailer on I-580 in Oakland.
And believe it or not, I saw a President's Choice trailer on I-5 near Tracy- WOW.

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: ↑August 3rd, 2021, 1:04 pm Just got back from a trip up the CA coast...
Saw a Bashas trailer on Highway 101 near Camarillo.
Also saw a Ralphs trailer on I-580 in Oakland.
And believe it or not, I saw a President's Choice trailer on I-5 near Tracy- WOW.

Ralphs trailers are a common sight in NorCal as they supply dairy, bread, certain grocery, and certain other perishable to FoodsCo. C&S supplies frozen and certain grocery items.

I've seen a couple random PC trailers too- did you happen to notice who was pulling them? By the time I made the connection with what I was seeing it was already too far away for me to get a look at who was pulling the thing...

Basha was probably picking up produce.