Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by Brian Lutz »

The "Redmond" store isn't really in Redmond, it's well outside the city on Highway 202 in a fairly rural area, but still with a Redmond address. I believe it was opened during the Supervalu era (one of very few, Supervalu closed a lot more stores than they opened), and seems to survive mostly on being the only store within convenient driving distance for a lot of people in the Union Hill / North Sammamish areas, although it probably helps that those areas are pretty affluent as well.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by HCal »

storewanderer wrote: January 18th, 2022, 7:05 pm If converting Albertsons banner stores to Safeway was such a slam dunk move as they thought it would be in CO, they'd have already done the conversions in CA, AZ, OR, WA, WY, and MT... actions speak louder than words. At this point they are basically the same store...

https://local.albertsons.com/wa.html
In large markets like CA, where each banner has hundreds of stores, it makes sense to keep both. It's amazing how many people I know who still haven't realized they are the same company, despite getting a combined circular in the mail every week.

I imagine that in smaller markets it might make more sense to standardize. And I'm still surprised that they decided to call the combined company Albertsons when Safeway stores are far more numerous.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by SamSpade »

Never a big fan of resurrecting old threads, but much like how "Fox 12 Oregon" partners with Fred Meyer,
KGW (8) is partnering for their 'Great Food Drive' with Albertsons companies. Much like the Waterfront Blues Festival (except for year 1 post merger), the grocery partner is Safeway, with no note of the remaining local Albertsons.

This page is the only place I have seen Albertsons mentioned.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by babs »

SamSpade wrote: March 10th, 2023, 3:22 pm Never a big fan of resurrecting old threads, but much like how "Fox 12 Oregon" partners with Fred Meyer,
KGW (8) is partnering for their 'Great Food Drive' with Albertsons companies. Much like the Waterfront Blues Festival (except for year 1 post merger), the grocery partner is Safeway, with no note of the remaining local Albertsons.

This page is the only place I have seen Albertsons mentioned.
There is a Safeway sign at Providence Park for the Timbers. No mention of Albertson's at all. I know the Albertson's on Barrow's Road is turning into a Safeway. Rumors of same thing happening with Shattuck Road as well. Makes little to no sense to keep the Albertson brand alive in the Portland market.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: March 10th, 2023, 3:26 pm
SamSpade wrote: March 10th, 2023, 3:22 pm Never a big fan of resurrecting old threads, but much like how "Fox 12 Oregon" partners with Fred Meyer,
KGW (8) is partnering for their 'Great Food Drive' with Albertsons companies. Much like the Waterfront Blues Festival (except for year 1 post merger), the grocery partner is Safeway, with no note of the remaining local Albertsons.

This page is the only place I have seen Albertsons mentioned.
There is a Safeway sign at Providence Park for the Timbers. No mention of Albertson's at all. I know the Albertson's on Barrow's Road is turning into a Safeway. Rumors of same thing happening with Shattuck Road as well. Makes little to no sense to keep the Albertson brand alive in the Portland market.
It looks to me like one store at a time they are converting Portland metro to the Albertsons banner.

With how Supervalu ran the Pacific Northwest this is unfortunately probably the best move. Southern Oregon is a different situation and Albertsons has nicer larger stores that are better positioned, but even there we are talking what about 6 stores; if they convert to Safeway customers will deal with it.

I don't know why they are wasting money on any of this given the pending store divests. There must be some kind of ROI they are seeing from these conversions like maybe it actually increases sales to convert to Safeway... not sure why that would increase sales but whatever floats the boat of the customers in OR/WA who seem to love Safeway and its terrible prices.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by SamSpade »

Hillsboro, one of the strongholds for the Albertsons brand in the Portland area, is losing its Albertsons Express and Albertsons store near the airport off Cornell Rd. It is now bannered a Safeway on the building and a 'coming soon' sign on the corner. The gas station (express) has also been rebranded with Safeway livery.

This will leave:
219th & Baseline in Hillsboro
West Union & 185th in "Bethany" (Hillsboro area)
Barrows Rd in Tigard - I believe Babs has reported this store is rebranding to Safeway at this time
Shattuck and Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy in Portland Note: this store's interior decor is Safeway, the exterior signs could be changed and it would be a one day rebrand
Cully in Portland
181st & Glisan in Portland
Boones in Lake Oswego
Baker & Keck in McMinnville
Beavercreek Rd in Oregon City
Battle Ground, WA
Salmon Creek (Vancouver), WA

Eleven Portland media market stores left as Albertsons
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

SamSpade wrote: April 17th, 2023, 9:32 am Hillsboro, one of the strongholds for the Albertsons brand in the Portland area, is losing its Albertsons Express and Albertsons store near the airport off Cornell Rd. It is now bannered a Safeway on the building and a 'coming soon' sign on the corner. The gas station (express) has also been rebranded with Safeway livery.

This will leave:
219th & Baseline in Hillsboro
West Union & 185th in "Bethany" (Hillsboro area)
Barrows Rd in Tigard - I believe Babs has reported this store is rebranding to Safeway at this time
Shattuck and Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy in Portland Note: this store's interior decor is Safeway, the exterior signs could be changed and it would be a one day rebrand
Cully in Portland
181st & Glisan in Portland
Boones in Lake Oswego
Baker & Keck in McMinnville
Beavercreek Rd in Oregon City
Battle Ground, WA
Salmon Creek (Vancouver), WA

Eleven Portland media market stores left as Albertsons
SAD!
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by Super S »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: April 17th, 2023, 2:09 pm
SamSpade wrote: April 17th, 2023, 9:32 am Hillsboro, one of the strongholds for the Albertsons brand in the Portland area, is losing its Albertsons Express and Albertsons store near the airport off Cornell Rd. It is now bannered a Safeway on the building and a 'coming soon' sign on the corner. The gas station (express) has also been rebranded with Safeway livery.

This will leave:
219th & Baseline in Hillsboro
West Union & 185th in "Bethany" (Hillsboro area)
Barrows Rd in Tigard - I believe Babs has reported this store is rebranding to Safeway at this time
Shattuck and Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy in Portland Note: this store's interior decor is Safeway, the exterior signs could be changed and it would be a one day rebrand
Cully in Portland
181st & Glisan in Portland
Boones in Lake Oswego
Baker & Keck in McMinnville
Beavercreek Rd in Oregon City
Battle Ground, WA
Salmon Creek (Vancouver), WA

Eleven Portland media market stores left as Albertsons
SAD!
The interesting part is the fact that both Salmon Creek and Battle Ground are each about a mile from a Safeway, and none of the four stores were ever divested during the Albertsons-Safeway merger. Both Battle Ground and Salmon Creek also have a Fred Meyer in between the Albertsons and Safeway locations. These locations will be ones to watch if the merger with Kroger actually happens.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by storewanderer »

They seem dead set in moving things closer and closer to the Safeway way of doing things lately. I don't really understand what they are doing. There must be some Safeway people in middle management who are really driving things. Or maybe the outside hires in upper management have subscribed fully to the Safeway ways of doing things since it is the largest banner/formula.

The Las Vegas Stores feel noticeably more "Safeway" like than they did even six months ago. The bakery program has shifted to more Safeway items, notably cakes and muffins are now Safeway stuff instead of the better stuff they had before. They do still have some different/better cookies. The deli has lacked D&W for a while now but they have rather limited mixes of the Kretsmer or whatever it is in many of the stores and clearly aren't doing much lunchmeat business. Pricing across the board has shot up drastically, much more so than Smiths, in the past six months. Execution was really mixed between stores. I saw some stores that looked very good but others with pretty poor looking perimeters and it appears they have cut labor on the perimeters recently.
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Re: Albertsons continues to disappear from WA

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: April 18th, 2023, 12:23 am They seem dead set in moving things closer and closer to the Safeway way of doing things lately. I don't really understand what they are doing. There must be some Safeway people in middle management who are really driving things. Or maybe the outside hires in upper management have subscribed fully to the Safeway ways of doing things since it is the largest banner/formula.

The Las Vegas Stores feel noticeably more "Safeway" like than they did even six months ago. The bakery program has shifted to more Safeway items, notably cakes and muffins are now Safeway stuff instead of the better stuff they had before. They do still have some different/better cookies. The deli has lacked D&W for a while now but they have rather limited mixes of the Kretsmer or whatever it is in many of the stores and clearly aren't doing much lunchmeat business. Pricing across the board has shot up drastically, much more so than Smiths, in the past six months. Execution was really mixed between stores. I saw some stores that looked very good but others with pretty poor looking perimeters and it appears they have cut labor on the perimeters recently.
Even in Boise, with the exception of the newer stores such as the Broadway location, the Albertsons stores I visited in Boise last summer had a different vibe to them. Yes, there was a bit of Safeway influence present, but it was a little less noticeable. Albertsons wasn't pushing a Club Card, but they were heavily pushing the apps on sale signage throughout the store.
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