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Knight wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 2:51 pm
Publix opened its first store in Kentucky in Louisville on Wednesday, 10 January.
Is this their first meeting with Meijer?
Wasn't Hy Vee going to open in Louisville too?
There is going to be fallout in Louisville... and it won't be the entrenched Kroger.
Hy Vee vs. Meijer will be interesting in that market. From what I saw in IL, Hy Vee slaughters Meijer. I probably prefer Meijer due to lower pricing but Hy Vee's mix... is so good...
Yes, Louisville will be Publix's first competition against hypermarket Meijer.
Yes, Hy-Vee has plans to enter Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Louisville will have interesting competition over five years, Fallout could happen. Kroger and Publix are large enough and have intelligence not to be adversely affected.
Knight wrote: ↑January 16th, 2024, 2:51 pm
Publix opened its first store in Kentucky in Louisville on Wednesday, 10 January.
Is this their first meeting with Meijer?
Wasn't Hy Vee going to open in Louisville too?
There is going to be fallout in Louisville... and it won't be the entrenched Kroger.
Hy Vee vs. Meijer will be interesting in that market. From what I saw in IL, Hy Vee slaughters Meijer. I probably prefer Meijer due to lower pricing but Hy Vee's mix... is so good...
Yes, Louisville will be Publix's first competition against hypermarket Meijer.
Yes, Hy-Vee has plans to enter Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Louisville will have interesting competition over five years, Fallout could happen. Kroger and Publix are large enough and have intelligence not to be adversely affected.
Publix given the small store size they go with might be safe. But I just don't see much opportunity for Publix in Louisville. It doesn't feel like a market that Publix will do well in. There is too much better competition on the way or already there. But maybe there is space for them as a "neighborhood store" since the better competition is so focused on giant stores. Especially going against oversized Hy-Vee and Meijer units.
I also don't see Kroger losing much business to Publix in a market like Louisville. Kroger knows the market too much better.
My knowledge of Louisville is a bit dated, but I recall that the Winn-Dixie division had some pretty strong east side neighborhood-type stores (smallish but modern stores, affluent area) which would be the model (brought up to modern standards) where Publix might do reasonably well. Schnucks didn't make it past Evansville along I-64, and I don't think there was ever anything substantial upscale of Meijer/Kroger (perhaps a WFM, Sprouts, Fresh Market)
storewanderer wrote: ↑January 17th, 2024, 11:42 pm
Publix given the small store size they go with might be safe. But I just don't see much opportunity for Publix in Louisville. It doesn't feel like a market that Publix will do well in. There is too much better competition on the way or already there. But maybe there is space for them as a "neighborhood store" since the better competition is so focused on giant stores. Especially going against oversized Hy-Vee and Meijer units.
I also don't see Kroger losing much business to Publix in a market like Louisville. Kroger knows the market too much better.
Atlanta, Georgia, was thought to be a market Publix would not do well in against Kroger. How has that worked out?
Romr123 wrote: ↑January 18th, 2024, 10:18 am
My knowledge of Louisville is a bit dated, but I recall that the Winn-Dixie division had some pretty strong east side neighborhood-type stores (smallish but modern stores, affluent area) which would be the model (brought up to modern standards) where Publix might do reasonably well. Schnucks didn't make it past Evansville along I-64, and I don't think there was ever anything substantial upscale of Meijer/Kroger (perhaps a WFM, Sprouts, Fresh Market)
WInn-Dixie's Louisville Division had a quantity of good stores in good areas across Kentucky. The acquisition of Thriftway allowed Winn-Dixie to enter Ohio and Indiana.
Publix could find a way to develop store count in Kentucky and make entries into Ohio and Indiana.
Romr123 wrote: ↑January 18th, 2024, 10:18 am
My knowledge of Louisville is a bit dated, but I recall that the Winn-Dixie division had some pretty strong east side neighborhood-type stores (smallish but modern stores, affluent area) which would be the model (brought up to modern standards) where Publix might do reasonably well. Schnucks didn't make it past Evansville along I-64, and I don't think there was ever anything substantial upscale of Meijer/Kroger (perhaps a WFM, Sprouts, Fresh Market)
WInn-Dixie's Louisville Division had a quantity of good stores in good areas across Kentucky. The acquisition of Thriftway allowed Winn-Dixie to enter Ohio and Indiana.
Publix could find a way to develop store count in Kentucky and make entries into Ohio and Indiana.
Winn Dixie never had stores in Indiana outside of the Louisville suburbs--not many towns close by to justify it. Thriftway was in decline and just got worse under W-D. I'm not sure W-D is a great model, anyway, given the kind of stores they ran.
Publix doesn't seem to need a high density of stores in a market. The Knoxville area (roughly the same size as the Louisville area) only has a handful. Contrary to upthread, they don't restrict themselves to well-off areas and seem to look for strategic locations within a metro area. Some of the appeal of Louisville may be that there are other markets in that general area like Frankfort (state capitol) and Lexington (rapidly growing, has the flagship state university; they've already announced plans for a store there). They have stores in Clarksville (on the interstate from Nashville to Louisville) and probably could have at least one store in Bowling Green (the next town of any size up I-65 from Clarksville).
Hy-Vee has gone slow with its expansion--one store in the Indianapolis area, three in the Nashville area---all relatively far from Nashville itself (Murfreesboro and Spring Hill). Publix probably doesn't see them as a short-term threat and their opening near Nashville provides an opportunity to see what it's like to compete with them.
storewanderer wrote: ↑January 17th, 2024, 11:42 pm
Publix given the small store size they go with might be safe. But I just don't see much opportunity for Publix in Louisville. It doesn't feel like a market that Publix will do well in. There is too much better competition on the way or already there. But maybe there is space for them as a "neighborhood store" since the better competition is so focused on giant stores. Especially going against oversized Hy-Vee and Meijer units.
I also don't see Kroger losing much business to Publix in a market like Louisville. Kroger knows the market too much better.
Atlanta, Georgia, was thought to be a market Publix would not do well in against Kroger. How has that worked out?
The competition in Atlanta at the time Publix entered the market, was nothing close to what is in Louisville. Atlanta is also a much different market than Louisville. Kroger is also a much stronger competitor today than it was at the time Publix entered Atlanta.
Knight wrote: ↑January 18th, 2024, 7:19 pm
Atlanta, Georgia, was thought to be a market Publix would not do well in against Kroger. How has that worked out?
Kroger has held its own when it comes to market share Publix has mostly gotten share from the other players. Kroger is still #1 in market share with over 30%. However, given that Publix can be significantly higher than Kroger in price depending on the item, I bet Kroger does far more volume in terms of the actual number of items going out the door.
Knight wrote: ↑January 18th, 2024, 7:19 pm
Atlanta, Georgia, was thought to be a market Publix would not do well in against Kroger. How has that worked out?
Kroger has held its own when it comes to market share Publix has mostly gotten share from the other players. Kroger is still #1 in market share with over 30%. However, given that Publix can be significantly higher than Kroger in price depending on the item, I bet Kroger does far more volume in terms of the actual number of items going out the door.
In Atlanta, Publix absolutely took share from Kroger when they entered the market...
Kroger's per store volumes are obviously significantly higher than Publix in most cases. Kroger has larger stores, more SKUs, more staffing, basically more of everything...
However with those lower prices Kroger also draws in a more price conscious customer so those large baskets don't always come out to a very high total. With a store like Publix who caters to upper middle class customers it is not unusual to see carts go out with 2-3 bags that total out in the $125-$200 range. I see this out at Raleys in CA/NV all the time. At Smiths when an order has that total it is a cartfull.
