Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

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Alpha8472
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by Alpha8472 »

The theory is that Christmas Eve is the time when you are desperate for last minute food items for get-togethers. Also since Walmart and other big box stores are closed on Christmas Day, Safeway wanted to take all of that business too by opening 24 hours.

New Year's Eve is different. Most people buy alcohol and food before 11 PM to prepare for celebrations at Midnight. The sales after 11 PM would be dismal as people will be celebrating. The late night hours after midnight are when people would be partying or driving home. The customer count would not be enough to justify keeping the store open 24 hours.
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by SamSpade »

Interesting discussion -

For the record:
Albertsons Companies Intermountain division was closed Christmas Day and closed at 4 pm on Eve. They are also closing early on New Year's Eve.
Closing at 9 pm NYE
Closing at 8 pm NYD

Locally, I don't believe a grocer has been open on Christmas Day since "LLC" took over the SuperValu stores. Previously the largest one of the local locations was open 9 am to 6 pm, though others in the area were closed.
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: December 30th, 2021, 10:50 am Interesting discussion -

For the record:
Albertsons Companies Intermountain division was closed Christmas Day and closed at 4 pm on Eve. They are also closing early on New Year's Eve.
Closing at 9 pm NYE
Closing at 8 pm NYD

Locally, I don't believe a grocer has been open on Christmas Day since "LLC" took over the SuperValu stores. Previously the largest one of the local locations was open 9 am to 6 pm, though others in the area were closed.
Hard to know the motive of NorCal Safeway for having such extensive Christmas hours and opening the majority of their stores. Save Mart made the decision to quit opening on Christmas a number of years ago; opening on Christmas was an idea they inherited and adopted from Albertsons and at that time most of NorCal Safeway closed on Christmas and Raleys has never opened on Christmas.

It doesn't seem to me like NorCal Safeway should be hurting for sales and needing to do this. The labor costs are some of the highest in the US. No competitors are open. Neighboring divisions of Albertsons were not open (the OR Stores were closed too). Why be open?
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by Super S »

The Safeway near my house in Longview, WA was closed on Christmas Day. However, for the last 3 or 4 years it has been open. I am not sure about any other Safeway (or Albertsons) locations in WA though.

An observation I made is that there seemed to be far fewer stores in general actually open on Christmas this year, the same can be said about Thanksgiving.
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: December 30th, 2021, 8:09 pm The Safeway near my house in Longview, WA was closed on Christmas Day. However, for the last 3 or 4 years it has been open. I am not sure about any other Safeway (or Albertsons) locations in WA though.

An observation I made is that there seemed to be far fewer stores in general actually open on Christmas this year, the same can be said about Thanksgiving.
I think the online shopping made it so opening on Thanksgiving Day for many stores this year was simply something that did not make sense. Between unpredictable traffic flows on Thanksgiving Day, staffing challenges, and all the other background noises the decision many retailers made to close on Thanksgiving Day this year was a smart, prudent decision. I expect most retailers will be pleased with their results from online sales on Thanksgiving Day and realize the physical stores do not need to be open.
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by Bluelightspecial »

While it might make sense for the Intermountain division stores to be closed on Thanksgiving or Christmas, the demographics aren't the same for all divisions. I'm not sure about the SF Safeway store's, but I can't imagine they would be closed on a holiday. Same applies for the Socal Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions. Some of the highest volume days at the Mammoth Vons and Palm Springs Vons and Rancho Mirage Albertsons are the days between Thanksgiving and New Years.
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Re: Safeway-Christmas Day 24 Hours?

Post by storewanderer »

Bluelightspecial wrote: January 1st, 2022, 11:01 pm While it might make sense for the Intermountain division stores to be closed on Thanksgiving or Christmas, the demographics aren't the same for all divisions. I'm not sure about the SF Safeway store's, but I can't imagine they would be closed on a holiday. Same applies for the Socal Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions. Some of the highest volume days at the Mammoth Vons and Palm Springs Vons and Rancho Mirage Albertsons are the days between Thanksgiving and New Years.
Well, Whole Foods wasn't open on Christmas Day. Raley's wasn't open and has never been open. Save Mart quit opening on Christmas Day. Wal Mart also.. never open on Christmas Day.

There is a reason we saw retailers draw a line in the sand this year and close again on Thanksgiving, too. It isn't all about demographics or sales volume. It is also about doing something for your employees.

Maybe if you have a store sitting in a neighborhood where a large fraction of the employees and customers don't celebrate Christmas, it makes sense to go ahead and be open. But in that case there may be an alternate holiday it would make sense to close on. I would expect there are some examples of that in SoCal.
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