Retail Watchers

I was on a highway in Idaho yesterday and an Albertsons rig was pulling two ACME trailers. Those babies went on a long journey.

SamSpade wrote: ↑November 1st, 2020, 8:02 am I was on a highway in Idaho yesterday and an Albertsons rig was pulling two ACME trailers. Those babies went on a long journey.

Upcoming potato sale, perhaps?

Given the consolidation they are doing back east with the Safeway East and Acme maybe they had a surplus of trailers back east, but I thought the distribution consolidation happened a couple years ago when they took over the PA Acme Warehouse from Supervalu. Or was that the one that they didn't consolidate after the Union agreed to concessions back then, then announced they would close the Safeway East Warehouse more recently?

On the roads in College Station (non-highway), I still see Southern division trailers (Tom Thumb, Randalls, Albertsons) but they're all part of that division. Why exactly I see them on the roads I do is unknown, before the Houston DC's closure, they might have been driving on Highway 6/FM 2818 (then presumably Highway 21) to go to Austin, which would almost double the mileage instead of just taking 290 (which the DC was off of) straight to Austin...but with the Houston DC gone, it makes even less sense.

SamSpade wrote: ↑November 1st, 2020, 8:02 am I was on a highway in Idaho yesterday and an Albertsons rig was pulling two ACME trailers. Those babies went on a long journey.

I've seen Vons trailers in AZ for the Southwest division.
Speaking of Vons, they still display the "Ingredients for Life" slogan on their trailers. Canadian Safeway (owned by Sobeys) now uses that slogan.
I saw an abandoned 70's Safeway trailer near my house a few years ago. Safeway left San Diego in 1988, so who knows why that trailer was there.

I see Vons trailers in the Pacific Northwest from time to time. A common sight is an Albertsons truck pulling Safeway trailers.

The craziest find I have seen in DFW was a Dominick's truck a couple of years ago (long after the division shutdown). additionally, a friend reported seeing a United-branded truck driving into the Houston area around early 2017.

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.

Although not as dramatic as that, I recall one time many years ago seeing a Big-Bear (Ohio) trailer on the NYS Thruway just outside of Utica but the reason for that is because they were owned by Penn Traffic (P+C Foods) which had their headquarters and distribution center in the Syracuse area. Big-Bear was long gone by then and P+C eventually met their demise as well. Now here's one I can't explain-one time on either the New Jersey Turnpike or I-80 (not sure which but it was in the Teaneck area) I saw a Safeway trailer headed out of NYC. This was maybe around 2002 or so. I know they owned Genuardi's at the time but that's not the way to get to the Phila. area and besides they would've supplied those stores out of Md. Never figured it out and hadn't thought about it until I saw this post.

Couple of times now here in SoCal I've seen an Acme tractor pulling an Albertsons or Vons trailer. They must have moved some equipment over.