Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by CalItalian »

Locations from the same company within two miles of each other in an urban situation, such as Los Angeles, doesn't say much to me. Across the street or within blocks does.

I lived in Westwood near UCLA most of my life. It regularly takes 15 minutes or longer to drive a mile during afternoon & other peak travel times.

I could cite a number of Albertsons owned stores two miles or less from the next in L.A. (3 in Santa Monica, 2 in East Hollywood/Los Feliz) but Kroger operates a number of stores close to each other.

Ralphs has many situations of stores where another Ralphs is two miles away. Just to name a few. 5 between Venice, Marina del Rey (2 Ralphs Fresh Fare's 3 blocks apart), Playa del Rey/Westchester & Westchester/LAX (the last being the only one of those 5 built as a Ralphs). Hollywood La Brea & Rock & Roll Ralphs are just blocks from each other. Along Olympic Blvd. over 3.8 miles there are 3 Ralphs Fresh Fares from Century City to Santa Monica + another Ralphs (Westdale) on National Blvd & the original Ralphs Fresh Fare on Wilshire/Bundy just south & north of them. I could go on with many other examples.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by Romr123 »

Palm Springs has two Ralphs within about .9 (nine-tenths) of a mile apart.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by veteran+ »

Romr123 wrote: February 17th, 2022, 1:54 pm Palm Springs has two Ralphs within about .9 (nine-tenths) of a mile apart.
Yep, a Ralphs Fresh Fare and a sorta Ralphs Market Place.

Very seasonal type volumes.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by Romr123 »

Both of the Ralphs irritate me. Overcrowded and claustrophobic (low ceilings/tall shelves). Between those and Vons on 111, I pick Vons every day, but only because i work the deals there hard. My perception is that Vons has a steadier year-round volume (still seasonal, but not as bad as Ralphs).
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by veteran+ »

I think that is because they are in or near the Smoke Tree area which is concentrated with Snow Birds.

Vons and that former Pavilions are seasonal as well but not as intense as Ralphs.

The Fresh Fare is really congested and difficult to navigate. They did an awful job when they converted to Fresh Fare. The other Ralphs is much better and bigger but located at an intensely busy intersection.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by ClownLoach »

Bluelightspecial wrote: February 13th, 2022, 9:27 pm
steps wrote: February 13th, 2022, 10:50 am
Bluelightspecial wrote: February 12th, 2022, 12:17 am Not really surprising. I believe it's been on the "watch list" for years. The location was never great and the initial Pavilions leases were notorious for being to high. Westminster opened as a new Pavilions.....most of those have closed or changed to "Vons" branding. Most of the successful Pavilions that are still open came after the Safeway buyout of Vons. Many are previous Safeway locations.....West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Woodland Hills, South Pasadena......I think there are only a few left that opened as Pavilions that are still Pavilions...Other than the Orange County ones that opened as Pavilions I can think of only Long Beach, Burbank and maybe Thousand Oaks. I'm really surprised the Long Beach location is still a Pavilions, If I had to bet I'd say that was the next to go.
It's the other way around. The Vons buyout of Safeway locations in 1988 brought them prime locations that were converted into Pavilions. I did some reach and there are 7 stores that are original Vons built locations. There are a few I'm not sure about, specifically the ones in Laguna Hills and New Port Beach. The remaining open Pavilions are all former Safeway and Pantry stores.

Culver City
Long Beach
Mission Viejo
Thousand Oaks
Burbank
Rancho Santa Margarita
West Hills

Long Beach is a massive store in a nice area but the Grocery Outlet near by throws me off. The Ralphs near by closed recently so maybe that will help with business.
Actually this is not correct. Culver City (in it's current location) opened as a Pavilions. Long Beach, Mission Viejo, Thousand Oaks & Rancho Santa Margarita opened as Pavilions, never Safeways. Burbank replaced a Vons across the street with a Pavilions. West Hills was a Safeway (originally a Thriftymart) The only Pavilions left that used to be a Pantry is in Pasadena. In Long Beach there has been a lot of high end competition near that Pavilions that has opened, including Whole Foods and Gelsons. Because the Long Beach store is in the 80K range, this is why If I had to guess it doesn't have much longer.
That Long Beach Pavilions store is a survivor in a very solid upper middle class neighborhood - within two blocks at one point were Ralphs, Albertsons, Lucky, and Food4Less. Albertsons was a new build (site was a National Lumber torn down many years ago) and divested just after opening to Stater Bros in the Lucky merger (still there). About the same time the Ralphs was doubled in size leaving almost no parking (closed a year ago claiming COVID pay made store unprofitable). Lucky famously was nearly destroyed by a freak tornado (I believe it was 1999), became Albertsons, was completely rebuilt inside and out a few years later including new entrance area and facade with a Premium Fresh and Healthy format, divested to Haggen, and is now an Amazon Fresh. The fact they divested this store and not the Pavilions indicates it's performance. Food4Less may have been an Alpha-Beta at one point, when Ralphs nearby was expanded it was sold and became an independent (Spring Farms), then closed and subdivided. Half became Fresh and Easy. That is now Grocery Outlet. There was also a early 2000's new build Kmart a couple of blocks west that might have been their last store built in California. That is becoming another AtHome. The Gelsons mentioned is in Belmont Shore several miles South and quite a haul to get there. That was a gorgeous Albertsons with the same ultra deluxe "Wegmans style" interior as the now closed Corona Del Mar store - but they were out of lease term and got booted by the landlord who got more from Gelsons. I actually think this one Albertsons was more upscale than the Gelsons is now - and it definitely would have been a strong candidate to convert to Pavilions nameplate if it was still there.

The only survivors in that neighborhood now are Pavilions and Stater Bros. The Pavilions building has an unusual architecture with a tunnel entrance and is likely much less than 80K Sq ft because the rest of the strip mall is built into the front wall of the store causing limited delivery access to those smaller shops. It also has had a home delivery warehouse in the northeast corner for a long time. I believe it was built as a Zody's. The tunnel entrance strongly resembles a Smith's but I know for sure it never was one of their stores. Last I checked it still had Vons Lifestyle interior as their last remodel was during that "Pavilions in name only" era where Safeway built new stores like Lido and Seal Beach with regular lifestyle interior and no gourmet features. I suspect the store isn't going anywhere anytime soon as it has been gifted so much business in recent years and is always busy when I shop there with at least four or five registers open. If they left this area it would leave only one remaining Albertsons owned store in East Long Beach (Traffic Circle on Ximeno). Closing would be a massive giveaway to Stater Bros. (and Amazon Fresh if they can survive).
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by ClownLoach »

ClownLoach wrote: February 21st, 2022, 9:43 pm
Bluelightspecial wrote: February 13th, 2022, 9:27 pm
steps wrote: February 13th, 2022, 10:50 am

It's the other way around. The Vons buyout of Safeway locations in 1988 brought them prime locations that were converted into Pavilions. I did some reach and there are 7 stores that are original Vons built locations. There are a few I'm not sure about, specifically the ones in Laguna Hills and New Port Beach. The remaining open Pavilions are all former Safeway and Pantry stores.

Culver City
Long Beach
Mission Viejo
Thousand Oaks
Burbank
Rancho Santa Margarita
West Hills

Long Beach is a massive store in a nice area but the Grocery Outlet near by throws me off. The Ralphs near by closed recently so maybe that will help with business.
Actually this is not correct. Culver City (in it's current location) opened as a Pavilions. Long Beach, Mission Viejo, Thousand Oaks & Rancho Santa Margarita opened as Pavilions, never Safeways. Burbank replaced a Vons across the street with a Pavilions. West Hills was a Safeway (originally a Thriftymart) The only Pavilions left that used to be a Pantry is in Pasadena. In Long Beach there has been a lot of high end competition near that Pavilions that has opened, including Whole Foods and Gelsons. Because the Long Beach store is in the 80K range, this is why If I had to guess it doesn't have much longer.
That Long Beach Pavilions store is a survivor in a very solid upper middle class neighborhood - within two blocks at one point were Ralphs, Albertsons, Lucky, and Food4Less. Albertsons was a new build (site was a National Lumber torn down many years ago) and divested just after opening to Stater Bros in the Lucky merger (still there). About the same time the Ralphs was doubled in size leaving almost no parking (closed a year ago claiming COVID pay made store unprofitable). Lucky famously was nearly destroyed by a freak tornado (I believe it was 1999), became Albertsons, was completely rebuilt inside and out a few years later including new entrance area and facade with a Premium Fresh and Healthy format, divested to Haggen, and is now an Amazon Fresh. The fact they divested this store and not the Pavilions indicates it's performance. Food4Less may have been an Alpha-Beta at one point, when Ralphs nearby was expanded it was sold and became an independent (Spring Farms), then closed and subdivided. Half became Fresh and Easy. That is now Grocery Outlet. There was also a early 2000's new build Kmart a couple of blocks west that might have been their last store built in California. That is becoming another AtHome. The Gelsons mentioned is in Belmont Shore several miles South and quite a haul to get there. That was a gorgeous Albertsons with the same ultra deluxe "Wegmans style" interior as the now closed Corona Del Mar store - but they were out of lease term and got booted by the landlord who got more from Gelsons. I actually think this one Albertsons was more upscale than the Gelsons is now - and it definitely would have been a strong candidate to convert to Pavilions nameplate if it was still there.

The only survivors in that neighborhood now are Pavilions and Stater Bros. The Pavilions building has an unusual architecture with a tunnel entrance and is likely much less than 80K Sq ft because the rest of the strip mall is built into the front wall of the store causing limited delivery access to those smaller shops. It also has had a home delivery warehouse in the northeast corner for a long time. I believe it was built as a Zody's. The tunnel entrance strongly resembles a Smith's but I know for sure it never was one of their stores. Last I checked it still had Vons Lifestyle interior as their last remodel was during that "Pavilions in name only" era where Safeway built new stores like Lido and Seal Beach with regular lifestyle interior and no gourmet features. I suspect the store isn't going anywhere anytime soon as it has been gifted so much business in recent years and is always busy when I shop there with at least four or five registers open. If they left this area it would leave only one remaining Albertsons owned store in East Long Beach (Traffic Circle on Ximeno). Closing would be a massive giveaway to Stater Bros. (and Amazon Fresh if they can survive).
I checked and the tornado was January 9, 1998. It was actually a F-1 rated tornado (lowest of the scale but still dangerous) and tore off the front third of the roof also causing the ceiling to rain down inside the store. If the tornado was just a block south it would have plowed through Millikan High School right as classes ended for the day and could have been a catastrophic loss of life. I do not believe anyone was injured in the Lucky store and it was closed for weeks. The McDonald's in front of Albertsons across the street (now Stater Bros) was also damaged.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by ClownLoach »

And it's supposedly going to be another H-Mart.

https://www.costar.com/article/92603613 ... estminster

Considering they haven't been able to open the two new stores they signed up for in Irvine quite a while back I will be shocked if this opens up anytime soon. They seem to be really good at signing up for new stores lately but then prove incapable of actually opening them... And when they do either they're luxurious, lavishly decorated and fixtured stores or literal junk piles with pallet rack warehouses on the floor. Real roll of the dice here with H-Mart.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: May 13th, 2022, 9:12 am And it's supposedly going to be another H-Mart.

https://www.costar.com/article/92603613 ... estminster

Considering they haven't been able to open the two new stores they signed up for in Irvine quite a while back I will be shocked if this opens up anytime soon. They seem to be really good at signing up for new stores lately but then prove incapable of actually opening them... And when they do either they're luxurious, lavishly decorated and fixtured stores or literal junk piles with pallet rack warehouses on the floor. Real roll of the dice here with H-Mart.
I don't know what H-Mart is doing. But to be fair this location probably survived as a conventional "American" grocer much longer than it should have.

But as the saying goes, remember, it could be worse. If you think the inconsistencies of H-Mart are bad, you should see Shun Fat (who also oddly is able to keep expanding). Beyond how awful the stores are executed, how awful they look, and how sloppy they run, the operation is so poor words cannot describe. Shun Fat is so backwards their credit card terminals aren't even integrated into the POS system. They are those awful First Data 150 terminals on a swivel and the cashier takes your card from you then if it needs PIN entry they swivel it around in a circle for you to enter your PIN. Forget trying to use Apple Pay or any Contactless card because the way the FD150 works the cashier can insert your card at any time then it will automatically go to the "enter amount" screen. But in order to "tap" your card the cashier has to touch the screen on the FD150 and hit debit or credit then hit sale then a screen will come up that allows tap/insert/swipe then has to enter the amount after that.
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Re: Vons Westminster, CA 16450 Beach Blvd

Post by veteran+ »

Don't know how anyone can trust buying food at these stores.

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