Gerbes Columbia, MO

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Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by Bakeragr »

I thought about adding this to one of the recent topics, but figured I'd just split it out.
I had a meeting in Columbia, MO yesterday and stopped by one of the two remaining Gerbes locations there, on Paris Rd. It is an older location in a strip mall which originally housed a Walmart, then an Orschelns, and now some type of furniture store. I believe it was originally a Kroger Greenhouse store, but I don't know how and when it switched from a Kroger to a Gerbes, I'm assuming in the mid-80's when Dillon's was purchased? I know there used to be a separate Kroger in Jefferson City too.
Anyway, it has a fuel center, and was recently remodeled. In the front instead of the Greenhouse front, there's a big stucco tower-type thing. They pulled up the floor and have just polished concrete, but it looks pretty awful. It formerly had a separate entrance on one end for the liquor department, but beer, liquor and wine are all now in the center-store in two aisles. It's kind of a poor setup. They have converted the smaller second entrance for the pharmacy.
This store is in a marginal neighborhood, but no part of Columbia is really horrible. I am guessing though that they have worked to have one main entrance and moved the liquor to deter shoplifting. The store is very busy, but it was clean and there were plenty of employees. I had two check on me and I wasn't in there for long, mostly grabbing cereal and beer!
I am amazed at how much work Gerbes/Dillons has put into remodeling the two very much older stores it has in Columbia, which is one of the faster growing cities in the state, but won't open any new stores in the growth areas. Additionally, they closed their third store with a better location instead of expanding or remodeling it.
Schnucks is now constructing a new store on the northeast side of town, near the newest public high school and right off I-70. Schnucks is a Missouri chain, but their prices are no where near as good as Gerbes, and Gerbes would be a much better fit for that location. I am confused as to why Dillons/Gerbes won't expand. Kroger seems unwilling to open new stores currently. They keep letting Schnucks and Hy-Vee expand instead.
Finally, I found it amusing that my grocery bags that were used (they're plastic, we live in the Midwest and don't care about bag bans) said "Baker's". Maybe because Gerbes has so few locations (6 remain) that they often get sent other division's bags. We sometimes receive Baker's, Dillon's, Kroger's and I think maybe I've seen Smith's bags.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by buckguy »

I remember that store. When I lived in Columbia--for a year some time ago, it obviously was a former greenhouse, with Gerbes name where Kroger usually was. There was a former A&P Centennial nearby. I wouldn't be surprised if Kroger built here once A&P closed, because it was not a heavily populated area and probably could only support one store, which would have to have been novel enough to draw from the rural hinterland. Gerbes' other store (still there) was a huge new build not far from the former National they had taken over and rather close to a 1950/early 60s Kroger which had closed and been replaced by Michael's. Safeway exited the market around this time--they had been not far from the closed Kroger and also had a pylon store downtown. At that time, the area, West of town, with 2 malls and a large strip were the center for shopping and it was odd that Kroger had an ancient store there but had built a greenhouse in a nowhere location.

During and since that time, the center of gravity for development has been along I-70 and also to the South and Southwest from the center of Columbia. Schnuck's moved from near downtown (a nice, big for its time store up stairs from an obvious former Katz Drug) to an area that has evolved as the center for commercial development S of downtown. Columbia had its own, homegrown Newell's chain that was around for decades and went out of business about 10 years ago. Although Columbia is growing---the schools make it a regional suburb for people working at state offices/institutions in Jeff City and Fulton---it has had recurring periods of overstoring. Hy-Vee (which had been in Jeff City for a long time) entering the market created the most recent episode of overstoring along with Walmart. I'm surprised Schnucks is adding a second store--they've done well enough with just one for decades. When I lived there, Schnucks was the best for service departments, Gerbes for regular perishables, while Newell's was the choice for locals, although the stores were forgettable.

Columbia is more oriented to St Louis than Kansas City, which explains why Schnucks has done well and why National got that far West. Hy-Vee isn't really part of that equation (nor Gerbes when it arrived), so clearly they are open to something new. If they haven't done much with their old locations, then it's likely Kroger just hasn't done well here in the long run. Kroger does best with competition that is either undercapitalized or poorly run. They can rise to the occasion to some degree when a strong operator enters their territory but basically they're a defense player at best. All that leads to speculation that they will stick around as long as they can make money but they probably won't do much in Columbia or anywhere else in that region.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by storewanderer »

I am not surprised Schnucks is taking the opportunity to add a third store in Columbia given the growth there. I wonder how they are doing with the former Lucky's Market there with their new format for that location.

Kroger has missed a lot of opportunities in a lot of growing markets in the past decade by not building enough stores. And as you point out they will just renovate older stores in a market, run them well and price aggressively, to push high volumes through those old (probably owned and long paid for) stores. That seems to work to a point but eventually if markets are growing either you add new stores to stay relevant or competitors will come in and add new stores in growing areas and overtake your market share.

Kroger has put quite a few resources in the past decade into building new stores in AZ, UT, some in CO, OH, TX, and some scattered new stores elsewhere but they have missed many so many opportunities.

I don't think we will see Schnucks do a significant amount of expansion but in the case of Hy-Vee they have demonstrated an ability to grow organically and relatively quickly at entering new markets and have a crippling effect on the competitors in the market.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by Bakeragr »

Storewanderer, you shared a lot of good historical information there! I know where most of the places are you're talking about, but I don't know where the former National was or the Safeway close to downtown. I do know that at the Parkade Plaza, an old mall, there was a former Kroger in the mall, and an outparcel was most likely a Safeway, because later it was a Food Barn. It is currently one of three locations in town for Moser's, which is an 8 location AWG-affiliated chain.
So Hy-Vee came into Columbia after Newell's closed, and Newell's closed after (if I remember) financial difficulties in part by the failure of Fleming, paired with some internal problems. They had three locations, plus a store called MegaMarket that was sort of like a Food 4 Less.
So currently in Columbia there are the following:
3 Walmart Supercenters, 2 Gerbes (Kroger), 3 Hy-Vee, 2 Schnucks (3rd under construction), 3 Mosers (AWG), 2 Aldi and 1 Natural Grocers. One of the Schnucks is a former Lucky's Market that is a new concept called EatWell by Schnucks. It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts as a standalone concept, because Schnucks has never managed a store like this, or any concept that wasn't a mainline Schnucks, really. I've not been into it yet, but I believe they kept a lot of the Lucky's layout and design, and the sale ad is smaller than a Schnucks ad but has a lot of the same items in it, just less of the conventional groceries (Campbells soup, Kraft Mac & Cheese, etc.). Same wine and liquor specials, same organic specials. No matter, I think the Lucky's/EatWell location is great, because it has a large parking lot but is very close to downtown and the Mizzou campus, which is very congested and populated.
When Kroger closed their Southside Gerbes, I am guessing they were getting their clocks cleaned by a combination of a large Hy-Vee, Walmart and new Aldi within 2 blocks, but seriously they should have (and still could) just replaced it with a new Kroger Marketplace. If they were to build one of those near Grindstone and Highway 63, they'd get a lot of traffic from both the affluent south side and the outlying areas. The store they closed they did not own the real estate.
Columbia is more influenced by St. Louis than Kansas City, but when Hy-Vee entered the market 10-15 years ago, it didn't take them long to really take over and stunt their competition. They can be price competitive when they want to, and their service is really what sets them apart. The Gerbes and Schnucks stores are union stores in town, but Hy-Vee never is, and that didn't seem to make any difference here. I don't think Hy-Vee entering St. Louis would go over quite as smoothly.

Lastly, one quirk to the Columbia grocery market should be pointed out- Nearly all of the major shopping centers are owned by the Walmart heirs who live in town. Sam Walton's two nieces live in town and their families have their hands in a lot of things. Stan Kroenke is a real estate mogul who is infamous for being a traitor who pulled the St. Louis Rams out of town and to LA. He is successful in his own right, but got his start by marrying into the Walton family! The Kroenkes own many of the shopping centers in town, which is kind of interesting.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by Romr123 »

Schnucks' actually has had several alternative concepts over the years with varying success...they have/had Culinaria, which seems like a modernized Straub's, TBH. Earlier, they had a warehouse concept (Rock Bottom) with several locations in the 80s (Sunset Hills at Lindbergh/66 at least, was formerly a Food Town), Food Town itself in the 70s, and they leased the grocery operations at Venture in the 70s.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by Bakeragr »

Yeah, I forgot about Culinaria. I'd like to go see how that looks now. Sounds like they have rebranded it Schnucks Downtown or something like that. I was painting with a broad brush. In my opinion, I don't feel like Schnucks is too willing to deviate from their typical format, as compared to some other operators. I am honestly surprised they didn't/haven't experimented more with the stores they purchased from Shop 'N Save. It seems like many of these they are slowly winding down as they have other locations nearby. A no-frills format (never knew about Rock Bottom) would be an interesting experiment for them. I could see it being a good opportunity to unload some overstock items in STL.
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by buckguy »

The National/Gerbes was in Broadway Plaza----a stone's throw from the Broadway store (it was actually closer to Broadway than Gerbes).

I remember the outparcel Food Barn, but not a Kroger at Parkade--probably longgone even by then. The other Kroger was an outparcel of Biscayne Mall (with the Woolco turned Walmart) which has been redeveloped as a strip Crossroads Plaza (almost behind it) had one of the Safeways, The pylon Safeway was not far from the downtown Schnucks.

Interesting about the Waltons--it may explain why they had 3 stores there even ages ago. KMart recognized the threat (with Target also on its way) and did one of its early new concepts in Columbia---redoing a 1960s store with concepts they never eventually used (like department store style apparel areas).
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by Romr123 »

I'd bet that they used Rock Bottom to keep National out of locations back in the '80s...the location I was familiar with at 66/Lindbergh was in the Korvette's shopping center. It was originally when it opened a Food Town (not sure if at opening that was a Schnucks brand, as they had a fully modern location only 3/4 mile in at 66/Sappington next to Crestwood Plaza). It was Food Town approximately until Korvette closed in about '79. I just think I remembered, as well, that Schnucks operated a catalogue showroom store called ShowCase next to that FoodTown (they essentially had both the single-level Korvette's space plus the supermarket. ShowCase became a Marshall's in roughly 1983...

Just 3/4 mile up Lindbergh (past I-44) was a Venture store, with an attached Venture Foods which was (logically, as Venture was operated by May Department Stores and was based locally) operated by Schnucks as well. I don't recall when that store closed, but recall it was ALSO in the very late '70s or early '80s.

Essentially, there were 3 Schnucks within only about a mile radius (one of which was full service in about 30k sqft, Food Town had at least a deli and was similar sized, and the Venture Foods was a little smaller and didn't have a deli and definitely didn't have a bakery (the main Venture store had the bakery, actually).

Even two reasonably roomy brand stores within a mile of each other was excessive--so they gave up the Venture Foods, switched Food Town to Rock Bottom, and kept the original 1964-vintage Schnucks in Crestwood. I believe they converted some of the other Venture Foods into Rock Bottom as well around the metro. In roughly 1984 they opened ANOTHER Schnucks about 2 miles south on Lindbergh (this one probably 45k sqft).
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by storewanderer »

I completely forgot about Moser's in Columbia. Yes one of those seemed like a former Safeway to me. However it had a sign out by the road that looked like a Gerbes sign so I did get sort of confused also as I recall that one had an exposed ceiling inside so I was not quite positive it was a Safeway for those reasons. I think they were previously an IGA affiliate judging by the decor some of the stores had when I was there (a few years ago).
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Re: Gerbes Columbia, MO

Post by pseudo3d »

Bakeragr wrote: March 3rd, 2021, 1:54 pm Yeah, I forgot about Culinaria. I'd like to go see how that looks now. Sounds like they have rebranded it Schnucks Downtown or something like that. I was painting with a broad brush. In my opinion, I don't feel like Schnucks is too willing to deviate from their typical format, as compared to some other operators. I am honestly surprised they didn't/haven't experimented more with the stores they purchased from Shop 'N Save. It seems like many of these they are slowly winding down as they have other locations nearby. A no-frills format (never knew about Rock Bottom) would be an interesting experiment for them. I could see it being a good opportunity to unload some overstock items in STL.
They did rebrand it as Schnucks Downtown. I think the idea was originally more of a specialized grocery store with a bit of an upscale bent but downtown STL looks like it hasn't gone as well as Schnucks had hoped, and during the pandemic it had some limited hours (basically M-F bankers' hours) and even now closes at 7pm whereas some stores remain open until 10pm (if not later).
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