Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

Raleys is finally giving up on this store in Reno, NV at 4047 S. Virginia St.

This opened as Raleys in the late 70's and was their first "Superstore" in the Reno market. They converted it to Food Source around 2011 and opened it as a Hispanic focused Food Source concept; Raleys execution with the Hispanic concept was absolutely terrible and they scrapped the idea after a few years and just started to run it as a discount store. Eventually they closed all of the service counters then the pharmacy and the store has been a pretty understocked and dismal place to shop for a while now, but did okay with produce and basic meat, so I did go there at least once a week due to location reasons and felt it was the best option in the area for my needs. I hope they take care of the employees here and give them transfers to the normal Raleys (I think the ones who got booted when the service counters closed had to reapply at the normal Raleys as new hires), as there were some good ones. So while I am not surprised to see this store is closing I am still disappointed to see it.

Will be really interesting to see what happens with the Sak N Save in Reno (that is a Food Source but without the signs out front) they inherited from Scolaris in 2018... that store is in awful physical condition but stocked well and hundreds of new apartments are opening 2 blocks away soon.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

How many Food Sources are there left?
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

This leaves 2 stores under the Food Source banner: one in Stockton (converted Raleys) and one in Hayward (built as Food Source).

As I mentioned there is a 3rd store, the Sak N Save in Reno, which they bought from Scolaris in 2018 and they just kept it branded as Sak N Save rather than rebranding to Food Source, but it is a Food Source too.

It is interesting Raleys keeps screwing around with Food Source which has been a poorly performing concept forever. They had stores scattered around solid middle class parts of Sacramento in the 90's (Rocklin, Folsom, etc.) but those were near existing Raleys/Bel Air Stores and all of those closed by 2007 or so and they were just left with Hayward plus a few in some lower middle income type parts of Sacramento which were obviously not really near any existing Raleys or Bel Air so keeping those made sense to retain a presence in neighborhoods they otherwise would not be present in. They converted an Albertsons in Las Vegas to Food Source in 1999 and I don't think it even lasted six months. Then when the economy started going down back around 2008-2009 they got the bright idea to start converting underperforming Raleys (this one in Reno, one in Elk Grove, Pittsburg, that one in Stockton, one in North Highlands) into Food Source locations which appeared to sort of kind of work, and at one point they were up around 10-12 locations, but that didn't last long.

Given we are already well on our way into another economic downturn I am wondering if this Food Source banner will see growth again in the coming years as that seems to be the trend right when it appears Raleys is getting out of that business, the economy turns, and they attempt to expand it.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

This store will close 2/12, but a different grocer is taking it over and is expected to reopen it shortly. Not sure who that different grocer is, but they seem to not have any licenses or permits filed yet.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: February 2nd, 2021, 7:55 pm This store will close 2/12, but a different grocer is taking it over and is expected to reopen it shortly. Not sure who that different grocer is, but they seem to not have any licenses or permits filed yet.
There are a few candidates I can think of. FoodMaxx is one, however, I doubt it because it would be between the Kietzke Save Mart and the Plumb / Lakeside store, plus as you’ve mentioned on other boards, Sparks does pretty poorly. Another candidate is Kroger - perhaps a FoodsCo? (I’d put that pretty far down the list too considering the history of the former Smith’s nearby.) Candidate 3 is Marketon on Wells - I know they have a few stores in Vegas and only the one in Reno, so a second store would be a boost. Candidate 4 would be WinCo with the Waremart format they use in Oregon.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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bryceleinan wrote: February 6th, 2021, 12:12 am
There are a few candidates I can think of. FoodMaxx is one, however, I doubt it because it would be between the Kietzke Save Mart and the Plumb / Lakeside store, plus as you’ve mentioned on other boards, Sparks does pretty poorly. Another candidate is Kroger - perhaps a FoodsCo? (I’d put that pretty far down the list too considering the history of the former Smith’s nearby.) Candidate 3 is Marketon on Wells - I know they have a few stores in Vegas and only the one in Reno, so a second store would be a boost. Candidate 4 would be WinCo with the Waremart format they use in Oregon.
Supposedly it is a privately owned grocer and they are going to do some kind of format between Sprouts and Whole Foods focusing on local products. I don't want to call failure before I see the store, but, given Whole Foods is right down the street, and Sprouts will soon be a mile away at Plumb and Virginia... I don't know. Given nothing concrete has been announced yet that information may or may not be accurate. Who it is, continues to be some sort of a secret. I guess we will know soon. Whoever it is hasn't bothered to file any business licenses or permit applications yet which I find odd.

Marketon would be wise to pick this store up. I wish it would be them. Also there is an operator called KP who has a store in Rancho Cordova which is Korean-rooted but actually caters to all ethnic food types. It is a wonderful store and this would be just the right location for such a format in Reno. They basically took over a shopping center that had its access from Folsom Blvd. cut off by light rail tracks which killed traffic, which had long closed Longs (it was gone by the 90's) and a former Albertsons that was in rough shape (Lucky hadn't updated it from the 80's), but did limp into the 00's, connected the two, to form this very large store.

Also if Save Mart were to pick this store up and rebrand it to Food Maxx, adding in the 2 nearby Save Mart locations, it would sure give them a nice lock on that center part of Reno that the other conventional grocers have all abandoned.

Food Source has been running an "up to" 50% off clearance on liquor the past few days. Not sure what the "up to" is as everything I asked about, I was quoted at 50% off and the way the cash register did it, it appeared to just be a department-wide discount on liquor. I think they returned a lot of it to vendor (or the shelves just got wiped out really fast). I am surprised they are doing that and not moving the liquor to a different location.

Will be interesting to see what the future is for the Sak N Save under Raleys. The store looks better than ever lately (meaning it looked terrible before and now it just looks not great), the shelves are neat and orderly, faced, etc., and they even filled in all the holes all over the floor from broken tiles (they put cement into the holes so it is a smooth level between the existing non cracked tiles and the cement filling in the holes, so the tiles are still there surrounding it- looks really weird, have never seen anything like this before, but surprised to see this upkeep taking place). Actually I'm not sure what kind of upkeep that is because if they were to replace the tiles now they have to jackhammer out this new cement and if they were to rip out the rest of the tiles and convert to cement, then they would have this oddly placed cement that is at a level up to be level with the tiles. So who knows what they are doing. Maybe this was the cheapest way to prevent slip and falls. Also find it odd Sak N Save (along with the Mira Loma Raleys) still uses Scolaris POS equipment (lots of malfunctioning, pinpad at Sak N Save wouldn't even take Apple Pay, was told it was broken and has been for months) but the Food Source they are now closing got all new POS equipment about a year ago.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

I saw "Sierra Foods Market" filed a business license app on Accela... and lo and behold, if you go to https://www.buynevadafirst.com/ it shows that Sierra Foods Market is connected to the Nevada Marketplace in Reno Town Mall.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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bryceleinan wrote: February 17th, 2021, 6:36 pm I saw "Sierra Foods Market" filed a business license app on Accela... and lo and behold, if you go to https://www.buynevadafirst.com/ it shows that Sierra Foods Market is connected to the Nevada Marketplace in Reno Town Mall.
Very interesting. That Nevada Marketplace is like a consignment store where there are various "exhibitors" set up within the store who lease (or receive?) their little space, put whatever they want into the space (a good portion of which is used merchandise/antiques), then everything is run through the centralized checkout at the front...

It will be interesting to see what kind of final product they come up with for the former Raleys Food Source store. Raleys must have wanted out bad. I hope they come up with something good here as I would like to support a local store to at least some extent.

The ultimate best use of the Food Source would be as a well run Hispanic, International Marketplace, or Asian format. Not sure how well that format would fit the "buy local" concept as much of the product would have to be trucked in from CA.

Maybe Scolari's can find another unrestricted gaming license, take the Food Source building, and convert half of it into a slot hall/bar/sports book and run a throwback grocery store in the other half like they do over on Pyramid in Sparks. Would count as "local."
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

Looks like the replacement store will sign up with IGA. It will be interesting to see if they are supplied by C&S or supplied by Supervalu/UNFI. Not even open yet and already this is their first mistake- they should pick up a supply arrangement with Associated Utah as it would get them way better pricing and promotions. Would probably help justify Associated's loads up to this market for the 2 small stores it currently supplies.

There is the C&S IGA in Susanville that has won many IGA awards (that is also a former Raleys) but that store remains a UFCW Store from its Raleys days, and has generally been extremely well run. It also helps Wal Mart was never allowed to expand into a Supercenter in Susanville and a too high priced for Susanville Safeway is the only other competition. SPD IGA in Grass Valley area does well but they have a Stater-like meat program which is the high point, center store is quite weak (thanks again to C&S) and again I think it also helps that the town is under-stored with an extremely crowded Raleys, two Safeways that are overcrowded, and a somewhat busy Save Mart.

The group who is opening this store needs to take a drive out to Winnemucca and look at the 3 Associated-supplied independents there, the 2 Associated-supplied independents in Battle Mountain, and the 3 around Elko all of which run many of Associated's promotional/IT programs and compare that to the IGA Stores in rural NorCal. The 2 Associated independents in Reno/Carson City are hispanic formats and don't run any of Associated's programs... so no use looking at those.

I guess C&S could be okay though... awful shelf pricing on the C&S items at the two Scolaris that are still open, but some okay ad prices sometimes. Produce, meat, and some DSD items none of which come from C&S are a good deal, again no thanks to C&S. I don't understand these grocery wholesalers who push such high cost to the independents and provide limited promotional support at all. The model Associated Utah uses that enables its independents to actually compete is just so much better.

Most of the groups who have tried to run independent formats from these CA based wholesalers up here have failed.
Gorman's IGA in Gardnerville Ranchos opened in the early-mid 90's and didn't last a decade (Fleming supplied)
Reno IGA Wells Ave. which was a Raleys before lasted above a decade before selling to King Ranch/Marketon (was also Fleming supplied, store had slow steady business with limited labor, owner was in there every day who managed it)
Sierra Nevada/Lira's in Minden which was supplied by Unified and actually put out a pretty good store lasted less than 5 years before closing, got off to a bad start as it was opened by a really rude retired Vons manager who was unbelievably rude to me when I asked him to carry a DSD beverage item carried by Raleys, Scolaris, etc.
Village Market in Incline Village is still going (now Supervalu/UNFI supplied) but focus there is more on meat/liquor/produce none of which come from Supervalu

Conversely the group of Associated Independents out in rural Nevada shows great growth:
Winnemucca-Albertsons sold to AFS Khourys
Winnemucca-Raleys taken over by AFS Ridleys after Raleys announced closure
Spring Creek and Carlin- Khourys built two new (small) stores
All perfectly acceptable stores. Nothing exactly outstanding about them, but no strong reasons to go out of your way to avoid them either (can't say that for the C&S/UNFI independents). Good basic product mix, good weekly ads done by Associated, competitive pricing, acceptable quality perimeter. Some even have online ordering through some Associated software.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: March 9th, 2021, 11:25 pm Looks like the replacement store will sign up with IGA. It will be interesting to see if they are supplied by C&S or supplied by Supervalu/UNFI. Not even open yet and already this is their first mistake- they should pick up a supply arrangement with Associated Utah as it would get them way better pricing and promotions. Would probably help justify Associated's loads up to this market for the 2 small stores it currently supplies.

There is the C&S IGA in Susanville that has won many IGA awards (that is also a former Raleys) but that store remains a UFCW Store from its Raleys days, and has generally been extremely well run. It also helps Wal Mart was never allowed to expand into a Supercenter in Susanville and a too high priced for Susanville Safeway is the only other competition. SPD IGA in Grass Valley area does well but they have a Stater-like meat program which is the high point, center store is quite weak (thanks again to C&S) and again I think it also helps that the town is under-stored with an extremely crowded Raleys, two Safeways that are overcrowded, and a somewhat busy Save Mart.
I really like the Susanville IGA and stop there when going through town - I also like Young's Payless off of 88 in Pioneer. I forgot that C&S was an IGA supplier - I do agree with you that Associated is a much better deal. I have been in a few of the locations they supply, and am always surprised at the variety. Hopefully IGA can make a go of it here.
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