Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: April 25th, 2021, 10:51 am What a mess. I wonder if there was a legal reason they had to open by a certain date?
All I can say is Raley's must have really, really wanted this store gone but must have been being forced to keep it operating for some reason so they found this arrangement to get it transferred to another operator...

I probably said above thread within a mile radius of this store you previously had a 1996 65,000 square foot Safeway, a 70,000 square foot late 80's Smiths, a 35,000 square foot 70's Scolaris... all closed up. Also in this radius was a late 80's Pak N Save that was open less than two years before closing way back then. Still open within a mile: 1996 built then 2003 or so expanded Wal Mart Supercenter, 2008 Whole Foods, mid 90's Trader Joe's, 1992 Save Mart (funny how they survived- crummy store but best location), late 90's Target with a very large dry grocery arrangement, mid 00's Grocery Outlet. I guess this is one of those examples where the conventional format grocers just lost the customer. Oh there is also a Natural Grocers in this radius, I always forget that place.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

storewanderer wrote: April 25th, 2021, 12:21 pm
klkla wrote: April 25th, 2021, 10:51 am What a mess. I wonder if there was a legal reason they had to open by a certain date?
All I can say is Raley's must have really, really wanted this store gone but must have been being forced to keep it operating for some reason so they found this arrangement to get it transferred to another operator...

I probably said above thread within a mile radius of this store you previously had a 1996 65,000 square foot Safeway, a 70,000 square foot late 80's Smiths, a 35,000 square foot 70's Scolaris... all closed up. Also in this radius was a late 80's Pak N Save that was open less than two years before closing way back then. Still open within a mile: 1996 built then 2003 or so expanded Wal Mart Supercenter, 2008 Whole Foods, mid 90's Trader Joe's, 1992 Save Mart (funny how they survived- crummy store but best location), late 90's Target with a very large dry grocery arrangement, mid 00's Grocery Outlet. I guess this is one of those examples where the conventional format grocers just lost the customer. Oh there is also a Natural Grocers in this radius, I always forget that place.
About the only time I am in that part of town is to go to Sam's Club, which is a once a month thing. I'm not going to be shocked if this place closes fairly expediciously, unless Dave Asher really wants to make a go of it. Too much competition for a lackluster product!
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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I went back to the store this afternoon, late afternoon. Again only two employees present. At first I was the only customer in the entire 60,000 square foot store but within the next 5-15 minutes 4 different families entered the store. The two employees greet every customer as they enter the store and approach them and ask if they need help with anything. Then one of them was coming out into the sales floor periodically checking on all of us asking if we needed any help or had any questions. This is a good level of service but is a little odd for a 60,000 square foot grocery store.

The meat department has some meat out now. There were quite a few packages of various parts of no-name bone in chicken (legs 2.49/lb) and Tyson Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (3.99/lb). The beef was rather limited with 2 packages of 93/7 Grind (4.79/lb) and 1 package of 80/20 grind (4.29/lb) all 3 packages under a pound. They also had perhaps 20 packages of 2-3 pound London broils and other beef roasts all in the 4.50/lb range. No NY Steak, T-Bone Steak, etc. Pork had an assortment of pork trim cuts at various prices, a good number of Pork Shoulders (2.49/lb), and some boneless pork loin chops at either 1.49/lb in a large pack (still below 3 pounds) or 1.99/lb in a smaller pack. All of the meat looked fresh.

Dairy also has more out than before but is still mostly empty- more SKUs of yogurt and juice, some refrigerated biscuit/cookie (all Best Yet brand), bacon, lunchmeat. Still only milk is Model Dairy 4.99/gallon or 2.99/half gallon. Bread now has one SKU of Bimbo Bread and a few types of Franco (local DSD) bread which are priced now at least, including some hamburger buns now. No other bread present. Also the soda aisle now has Pepsi products (7.99/12 pk...) to go with the Coke that was there last week (4.99/12 pk).

Produce has some empty spaces now and freshness is still an issue but some items had been replenished from last week and I saw some new items present as well. They put up some displays of produce near the entrance with a few good deals like oranges 2 lb $1 (they got a pallet of oranges for their opening), within produce itself there are also hidden good deals like .88/lb broccoli, a big display of avocado that are extremely ripe 5 for $1, and a big display of roma tomato that are extremely ripe for 0.69/lb.

They also have close to an aisle of Full Circle products on the last aisle of the store. These weren't priced too badly. I was really disappointed to approach the preserves and see they did not get the Full Circle Cherry Preserves which are excellent and I've bought at Holiday (even the tiny Holiday up at South Lake Tahoe) but they did get the standard flavors like strawberry, blueberry, etc. Too bad. Lots of "too bads" for this store.

Still did not see any beer/liquor.

I really want to see this store make a go of it but the pricing on center store is largely just awful (why many center store items are close to $1 above Scolaris who is absolutely not the best priced store by any stretch and also uses C&S is beyond me), produce needs better rotation, and the atmosphere of the store is... just odd. I have never seen anything quite like this store before, I will say that.

They had a built in customer from Food Source- a good number of hispanics who went after low cost produce/meat/dairy/liquor and some center store items combined with some middle income white customers who live near the store. Food Source may not have done well but it did run 2-3 checkouts most of the day with moderate food traffic even if transaction sizes were all on the small side. So far I am not seeing any effort to keep this customer beyond some low priced produce, the meat looks like it may be promising but they need to get a full case of cuts in there. Center store is a disaster on price and mix and needs SERIOUS work, same with dairy, and liquor- isn't even there yet.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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Went back to this IGA again today. Pretty similar to previous visits. No more than about 5 customers in the store in the afternoon. 2 cashiers and a couple other employees. Produce area is no longer fully stocked and continues to have stuff there that is rotting. Meat area is still no more than 20% stocked and about half of the meat that was there had markdown stickers- they are using what are supposed to be "temporary price reduction" shelf tags and writing a new price on the meat packages with those stickers. Signs still say bakery is coming "next week" - it has been two weeks now, still "next week."

Dairy now has some gallons of "Creamland" Milk (3.59). Bread same as before (only Franco and one SKU of Bimbo), still no beer, and did not notice any other new DSD items. There was an aisle with what looked like about 10 bottles of wine on it so they must be licensed to sell alcohol so where is the rest of the alcohol?

It would be nice if they would use those "temporary price reduction" tags they are using to reduce meat as intended to have actual sale items in center store (none are present anywhere)...

Honestly with the condition of the produce department today and complete lack of promotion on center store items I am probably going to only return to this place one or two more times before I give up on it. I am really disappointed with how this has gone only about two weeks into opening, but this is just not working out. And I'll continue going over to Scolaris once a week as a "local owned" option. At least Scolaris runs a neat, stocked, clean store that has music playing, a few promotions and a maintained produce and meat department with employees who seem to be trained relatively well even if the place hasn't seen a capex other than to downsize it in 35 years. This place- huge missed opportunities in every element here.

Frankly walking through this store and seeing it in this state is very depressing for me. I have seen few stores in as dire of a condition of this store in my years of visiting hundreds of stores. I thought Food Source was rather dismal (but at least it had foot traffic, reasonable prices, and semi-functioning fresh departments) but this is just outright depressing. I still remember going to this store as a kid sitting in the shopping cart when it was Raleys and it was a very alive store (I never liked it much but it was a very alive store I was taken to often) and was considered the highest end store in Reno into the 90's.

Also paid for items and they have new bags- again the super thick CA style plastic bags. This bag which is made in Malaysia just has generic "thank you" text and even has a big graphic on it with an image of the state of California icon and saying it is California Compliant. Funny, for a store in Nevada that has a stated goal of focusing on local products, to be using this. Sam's Club is a block away- go buy some plain white thin bags there (which are at least made in the USA) and use them.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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Update: the store now has some brands of beer. Not all, but certainly a decent selection.

No other changes.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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More updates:

They had endcaps now on quite a few aisles, everything seems to be regular price, though signs say IGA SPECIAL. Also noticed large display of local honey in a corner of the drug department.

They seem to be painting the walls inside the store different colors. Also they have installed those non-food "clipstrips" throughout the store of random impulse buy items.

There may be a little more DSD but still no chips other than Best Yet and Pringles, still no bread other than Franco and Bimbo.

Store now has a small assortment of items baked in store: french bread 1.48, bolillos 3 for $1, hispanic pastry 2 for .98. Most seemed to be marked down already. Also some thaw and serve items; usual suspects like mini cupcakes, etc.

Meat department was almost empty, much of what was there was marked down. Produce has product spread throughout the displays but very limited number of items in most cases. Most of the refrigerated vegetables present are rotten. They seem to have given up on most bagged salads already (must have spoiled and not reordered). Blackberries (only berries present) mostly moldy. I am not sure how long it has been since this produce area was restocked but it has definitely been days. This store has the worst meat and produce freshness I've ever seen. Literally nobody is shopping in the store which is the problem and frankly nobody will with meat and produce looking like this.

Store had 2 other customers inside this afternoon and 3 employees. I was there as usual for about 15 minutes.

Looking back, they probably should not have opened this store until it was ready for business with expected DSD items present, a promotional program on center store (and dump C&S/IGA and bring in Associated Utah if C&S/IGA can't make this happen), and proper operational structure including labor and promotions that allows for rotation in fresh departments.

And I don't know what this IGA Network even does for its stores. It appears to be little more than a sign and some private label products. They don't even have any plastic bags they can send the store that say IGA. Is it even worth the $500 a month it costs?
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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The IGA Store seemed to make some fairly large steps in the past couple weeks.

First, they knocked the wall out from when Raleys closed service deli and are trying to install a food court. They appear to have gotten a bunch of used equipment from a closed or remodeled Subway (there are 2 of them within a 2 mile radius of the store that closed and also 1 within a 2 mile radius of the store that recently remodeled and replaced everything the customer could see). This really seems like a curious idea- I think they'd be better off getting the store straightened out first. Or they need to drop IGA and C&S and call Associated Utah to come set the store up and get them on a promotion program. Let a supplier who can actually support a store with a mix/promotion program handle that part and they can focus on the food court and trying to showcase/focus on local products.

Next, they have a greeting cards aisle now.

Produce is very interesting. I am not sure how they source it. Only bagged salad was spinach. Looking at vegetables they have out for instance 5 bunches of cilantro, 5 bunches of parsley. Quite a few other items present in extremely small supply. But at least present. Broccoli .59/lb- unreal price, and was fresh enough. Just a few varieties of apples available but those were in refrigeration and had a decent quantity (10+ pounds available to purchase). Over in the tomato table they have a row of full boxes of tomatoes selling at a case price. They had no summer fruit (peaches/nectarines) but did have some rainier cherries at 2.29/lb and an assortment of various berries mostly at full retail $3-$5. Not sure how they come up with these prices.

Still missing many DSD items. Lays items were not stocked well already. Bread is still just "Franco" or "Bimbo" and mostly empty. Bakery is producing a limited number of items. Meat area had a "special" all steaks (NY, Ribeye, T-Bone) 8.76/lb which is an odd price; perhaps it is their cost or something. Still 1.49/lb on boneless center cut pork loin chop value pack and ground beef at just over $3/lb - again don't know how they come up with these prices or how they make any money at these prices.

I was in the store in the middle of the day yesterday and saw 3 employees present (manager, a cashier, and a floor employee who was cleaning). Perhaps a steady flow of about 4 customers in the store; nobody buying much.

Looking at center store I did notice a small handfull of items with price decreases but the prices are still too high and they don't have specials running in center store. I guess C&S has no promotion program. I don't know- Holiday in NorCal is C&S and has some decent center store promotions. Really really need to just get Associated Utah as a supplier and get someone in there who has programs to do things to drive volume.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by bryceleinan »

I talked to my friends that are supposed to be opening the commercial kitchen in there - apparently, plans keep changing for that building, so no idea if / when they will open.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

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bryceleinan wrote: June 15th, 2021, 9:07 pm I talked to my friends that are supposed to be opening the commercial kitchen in there - apparently, plans keep changing for that building, so no idea if / when they will open.
Sometime in the past week they fired up the roaster and started to make a few roasted chickens to sell as hot food. They also re-opened the donut case and have a few loose donuts. Then back in the meat department they have some plastic pre-packs that are store packed (handwritten labels) of potato salad, macaroni salad, and chicken salad.

Also there is now music playing in the store.

Also they added a new DSD for bread- they have some Wonder and Nature's Own breads now. So they have that and Franco (and one SKU of Bimbo).

The owner is in the store constantly and seems to be trying to put it together.

There are some good deals on meat and produce (I haven't tried the meat yet) and they now move meat that is about to expire into a freezer endcap and sell it frozen/reduced. There doesn't seem to be any promotion on center store - and pricing is all over the place, it has improved since they first opened, but still needs a lot of work.

The one thing that is consistent is the place has almost no customers and only a few employees at any given time. And the customers present are not buying much. Last time I went in, which was during late afternoon/peak hours, there were only 2 employees and 2 other customers one of whom bought one item and the other who did appear to be buying a few items (was walking around the middle of the store and had a few items). Really, I have no idea how they even keep the lights on. I'd be surprised if they are doing $25k a week (yes, week) in sales. I've never seen anything quite like this before... Food Source was not a high volume operation but it probably did more than 10 times the business this place is doing.

It isn't easy to start a store from scratch with no help and no programs (could have gotten lots of help and great programs from Associated Food Stores Utah) to speak of... so I certainly understand this is not easy to put together. But in the end you need foot traffic to make a grocery store work. Being "new" or being "under construction" is one thing but at some point you have got to get customers in. I am concerned many people tried this store once already and wrote it off. It is unfortunate how this seems to be going, but they did not pick the correct supplier for this store and the IGA affiliation is basically useless- not getting them the merchandising, promotional, perimeter department, and systems help that they need to get this store up and running.

And a time bomb as the months roll by if volumes do not increase is the duplication of private label where both IGA and Best Yet items are carried in the exact same item (at the exact same price). This may have been great for C&S to stuff the place with so much duplicate private label product from two different private labels but there is not any store that needs multiple private labels of everything... let alone one not doing much volume.

The IGA name badges, signs in the pet food aisle, and sale signs mean nothing to the customer. IGA can't even get them any plastic bags to give to customers (they use thin plastic bags that say Thank You with flowers on them and paper bags say Best Yet). They could have generic name badges, skip the "pets are family" sign in the not well priced and not well stocked pet food aisle (Associated Utah could get them a nicely stocked and well priced pet food aisle), and use plain white paper for sale signs and it would have the same effect on the customer.

I shopped in IGA from time to time when there was one in Reno on Wells Ave. from about 1992-2002 (now Marketon) and that store had an IGA decor package inside, ran an IGA weekly ad/monthly coupon book with the rest of the NorCal IGAs that had some good price points, had plastic bags that said IGA, and had some kind of IGA radio program playing over the PA where promotions, etc. were announced. Calendars showed up in December for free that said IGA and had some pictures and coupons, etc. That place presented sort of like a chain store. It felt as if the IGA affiliation was getting them better ads and some customer perks. They also had a stamp program to collect stamps for purchases and redeem for discounts or something. I don't notice any of this anymore when I go into the IGAs in NorCal- IGA just doesn't seem to bring much to the table that makes any difference to the customer at this point.

I've actually been into a number of NorCal IGAs in the past few weeks-
Susanville IGA, Lockeford IGA, Pioneer IGA (C&S supplied-these stores have been IGAs for decades) - these 3 stores had some okay to pretty good sale items going but again did not see anything going on that IGA appeared to be bringing to the table. Similar to this new Reno IGA they have some uniforms and signs in the store that say IGA and the duplicate private label of both IGA and Best Yet throughout the place...
Portola IGA, Greenville IGA (Supervalu/UNFI supplied)- these stores aside from a sign out front that says IGA that is about it, they don't even have IGA private label items or IGA sale signs/uniforms.
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Re: Food Source (Raleys) closing Reno, NV

Post by storewanderer »

This store is doing a grand opening and "car show" on July 24.

The store slowly has gotten stocked and has most DSDs now (still missing some bread and probably some other items). Nabisco and 7-Up/Dr. Pepper were two big DSD holes that got filled in the past month.

The bakery/deli is reopened but no service counter, all prepackaged items, and doesn't have a whole lot. Tags for things packed in the store like hot food, salads, are being handwritten (no scale/bar code). Refrigerated prepack cold deli is back at the meat department (not up front in the deli). Prices are very very low. 2 donuts for 75 cents, chicken for 5.98, thaw and sell muffins/turnovers/etc. at 2.50-2.98 (typically see these at 3.99-4.99 at other stores with the same items).

They have installed some used Subway equipment where the old service deli case was (before Raleys walled it off for Food Source and put prepack refrigerated cases out in that space) but not clear what they are doing with that yet, also they seem to have bought a bunch of used tables/booths from Subway and have put those around the deli area.

They have the entryway of the store looking fairly nice. They have a produce display, bakery display, then to the side of that is a drug aisle type display of various "Made in Nevada" food items and wine.

Center store continues to have no promotions at all (except for some 99 cent Best Yet Tortilla Chips that expired July 5). This week they finally got some music piped into the store- a local 80's radio station. They also built quite a few endcaps with IGA brand items (look to have pulled off the aisles).

Meat continues to be extremely cheap- $8/lb steaks, all ground beef under $5/lb. Not much meat out and sales look slow. Produce is not stocked very well, oddly assorted, and is a complete let down for me.

We will see how this goes. The people working here (never more than a few employees at a time even in the middle of the day) are extremely friendly and I feel bad for the situation I am seeing in this store (almost nobody is shopping here- I'm not sure they even see 15 transactions an hour during the day and a lot of the transactions look to be under $10).

This store seems to be pushing hard that it is an IGA but frankly IGA brings nothing to the table here (other than a bunch of redundant private label SKUs that are also present in Best Yet) from the best I can tell. They could have been a lot more put together had they gone with Associated Utah. C&S and IGA supplying this place and no promotional program, no bakery/deli program (handwritten labels?), no music to pipe into the store with in-store announcements, can't even get normal plastic bags... so many things that just show up at the stores Associated Utah supplies.

I miss Food Source actually and I spent quite a bit more money in Food Source than I spend in this store. Food Source had better produce selection/pricing/freshness, larger meat selection, better bakery/deli, and lower priced center store. This place does have a better center store selection than Food Source however.
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