Safeway Northern Virginia Changes

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storewanderer
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Re: Safeway Northern Virginia Changes

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: April 18th, 2021, 1:34 pm It seems like, with few exceptions, unless it's Starbucks, kiosks in general fail. About a decade ago, Kroger committed to adding Tim Hortons kiosks at its stores in Michigan -> only a handful were built out, and they were pulled within weeks. Sad.
Tim Horton's cannot seem to make it work in the US. With the Burger King/Popeyes affiliation now you'd think they may have a better chance but for whatever reason this is a concept that seems to show promise yet when it comes into the US it just does not catch on.

Part of the problem may be the name. It is unfortunate. I find their product to be better than Dunkin, but it may just be they execute better.
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Re: Safeway Northern Virginia Changes

Post by mjhale »

BatteryMill wrote: April 18th, 2021, 11:33 am I do agree that investment has gone down since Safeway was bought out. There's far less expansion going on and a steady amount of store closings.

To be honest I much prefer Safeway pre-Albertsons. On top of the lighting changes that diminished the aesthetic, the marketing seems a bit more cluttered and the stores are a little less well-kept. If such characteristics are a net benefit, I'd rather Safeway just remodel to something more accommodating of these traits.

It is also a shame they're ditching the self-serve bars.
After Albertsons bought Safeway it seemed there was some improvement in the stores. More consistent presentation, somewhat lower prices (but not where they really should be) and in my view brighter stores with the new lighting. Lifestyle was just too dark for my tastes. However over the past couple of years pricing has really increased, deals via Just4U are out the window and the stores are cluttered. The random displays in the aisles are distracting and block access to goods on the shelves. Also the renovated stores while brighter are really just decor swaps with changes in the deli and bakery display units. The Herndon, VA store actually looks more cavernous now than it did before and it really isn't that big of a store. For all the hate Ahold gets for its sameness they have done a good job with adapting their decor to the Giant-MD stores. Many Giant-MD stores have had no substantial layout changes since pre-Ahold Giant built them. But they still feel fresh and function well. Safeway just seems like it is in this weird place of kind of Lifestyle and kind of not. I'm not sure that is a good place to be for an already weak operator going forward.
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Re: Safeway Northern Virginia Changes

Post by mjhale »

storewanderer wrote: April 18th, 2021, 1:21 pm
Albertsons has added additional staffing to the stores and is running much better ads than Safeway used to run. Certain regions/districts have also gotten price cut programs which was an initiative the old Safeway simply refused to seriously implement for enough of a time period for it to make a difference in customer behavior. Albertsons has also significantly expanded service deli programs with either Boar's Head, Dietz & Watson, or other brands where Safeway ran very limited assortment in service deli.

Many Safeway Stores pre-Albertsons were complete wrecks inside due to the lack of staffing, or in the case of lower volume stores, freshness issues due to pricing being too high to move a lot of their products.

On it's face the old Safeway had a better quality private label program, nicer store environment (if the store was maintained properly with enough labor which was a big problem), and the ability to execute better... but there were a lot of issues. I thin what you may be seeing there in Eastern Division is this was a division that the old Safeway seemed to pay some degree of attention to, but under the Albertsons group this division seems to be sort of forgotten.

The old Safeway if you go back to before the merger it seems to me prioritized the divisions in this order in terms of quality of operation/investment in staffing stores and driving sales:
1. NorCal
2. Vons
3. Seattle
4. East
5. Portland
6. Phoenix
7. Denver
8. Texas
As a long time Washingtonian my feeling is that Safeway has had the reputation of being a legacy, old school type grocery store. Growing up in the late 70s and into the 80s, Giant was the innovator, Shoppers was the discounter and Safeway was just there. Giant really hit the developing suburbs in the 70s and 80s while Safeway seemed wedded to its city locations and their locations in older suburbs. Until I moved to where I am now in the late 2000s I have always had a Giant within a short drive of my house. For whatever reason where I live now the traditional grocery store has always been Safeway. The closest Giant is a few miles away. You are correct that since the Albertsons buyout they have improved the Safeway stores in terms of looks and staffing. However pricing is still high considering the amount of competition and while the ads are better they have a lot of sales that look great until you realize you have to purchase 2, 3 or 4 of a product to get the sale price. What Albertsons needs to deal with now is the fact that most of the DC area Safeway stores have had no significant capital investment in them since the Lifestyle remodels. Lifestyle has held up well but with all the competition Albertsons needs to do something to really shake up the look of the stores and the presentation of the product. It shouldn't be "Colorful Lifestyle" which is "oh here's more of the same with different pictures". It needs to be something to get people to take a look at Safeway. If they don't I think Safeway in the DC area will continue to wither down to just their strong (ie- no competition) suburban locations and the urban locations where other grocers don't seem to be willing to go.
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