Albertsons announces strategic review of company

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storewanderer
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by storewanderer »

I am also not sure if there are tax reasons for having the HQ in Boise as compared to some other surrounding states.

When they merged they could have kept the HQ in Pleasanton. They didn't. Safeway had also moved a considerable number of positions away from Pleasanton to a facility in Arizona over the years. Safeway has a good facility connected to mass transit BART in a safe area adjacant to a mall in Pleasanton and it still houses the division office for NorCal division in one of the HQ buildings.

With all of its growth, Boise has more talent now than it once did. Having the fast growing and now fully self distributing WinCo also with HQ there also makes the city more relevant for major vendors/CPGs. If anything having the HQ in Boise today makes more sense than it did in 1999 (when it could have been moved to that brand new money pit ego trip ASC skyscraper in downtown Salt Lake City). WinCo (Waremart) HQ was once in Tigard, OR. At least that is what the labels said when they first opened in Reno in the mid 90's.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by Super S »

norcalriteaidclerk wrote: August 16th, 2022, 3:28 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote:
storewanderer wrote: August 14th, 2022, 11:08 am

Over the years a lot of negative points came up about having the headquarters in Boise. There isn't much of a vendor presence there, to get vendors there who have to fly on the airlines almost always meant a connecting flight (not a non-stop), and historically the market didn't have much grocery competition so it seems the eyes of the management who spent most of their time in Boise saw one thing when they looked at/shopped at their stores, but what was happening in reality in other places was much different (the chain was getting kicked). Boise was a small store count and in no way indicative of the rest of the chain or enough stores to carry so many other struggling regions.
A more strategic place for Albertsons headquarters would've been Portland or Salt Lake City in retrospect, as those cities are larger and close enough to Albertsons home territory (Albertsons also had good market share and an established presence in those places).
Portland maybe but don't know about SLC: Safeway left Utah in the great retrenchment of the mid-1980's while Albertsons did likewise 10-15 years ago.Utah nowadays is dominated by Smith's and various independents supplied by Associated.

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Boise has seen a lot of population growth, and the Boise Airport actually has some future plans in place to accommodate more traffic. There is also room to even add another runway as there is a third runway of sorts (used for military and training) to the south, although some reconfiguration of the airport grounds would be necessary, a satellite view hints at this potential.

Don't forget that Jacksons is headquartered in Boise and could also be classified as a grocery store.

I do agree that the Albertsons stores in Boise seem almost like a different chain than when visiting an Albertsons or even Safeway around the Portland area. Not so much with WinCo, and even less so with Fred Meyer and Walmart.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: August 12th, 2022, 10:12 pm
The problem is with history you have Safeway headquartered in Pleasanton- chain didn't make it; huge region sell offs in the 80's; then in the 00's pulled out of IL/PA outright, sold out of Canada, eventually sold out to Albertsons. Tried to run their entire chain like California and it flopped (probably wouldn't have flopped if they hadn't PRICED the entire chain like California...).
Unfortunately, the 'pricing like California' seems to have been brought over to the Albertsons divisions after the merger as well (I'm specifically talking about Acme, whose prices have always been mediocre since the later 1990's, and have only become progressively worse. They are losing market share fast to Ahold's Giant PA chain and many others).
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: August 17th, 2022, 6:42 pm

Unfortunately, the 'pricing like California' seems to have been brought over to the Albertsons divisions after the merger as well (I'm specifically talking about Acme, whose prices have always been mediocre since the later 1990's, and have only become progressively worse. They are losing market share fast to Ahold's Giant PA chain and many others).
When it comes to the topic of price, Albertsons and Safeway was a literal marriage made in hell. The Albertsons LLC had gotten better on price, the Supervalu Albertsons was really bad, worse than Safeway at the time. The Albertsons LLC when it was down to 200 stores had better pricing than Safeway in AZ, CO, and TX if you could find an open store. I was hoping their pricing ideas would transition to the rest of the chain but it seems the Safeway pricing ways have taken control over the entire national chain.

At this time Safeway's pricing seems like it is worse than ever in NorCal, but the competitors do follow them up quite rapidly within days now (not even weeks like it once was). 5.49 Progresso Soup, 3.49 Chef Boy Ardee Beeferoni, 3.69 Pringles (not the mega stack)... wild pricing.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by SamSpade »

Albertsons "year end" and Q4 financials for 2022 fiscal year discussion -
https://boisedev.com/news/2023/04/11/al ... -earnings/
the company warned that its margin fell and said the coming year could be “more difficult.”
For the fourth quarter, Albertsons said its identical store sales increased 5.6% . . . Net sales were $18.3 billion during the quarter, up from $17.4 billion a year ago. . . inflation, growth in its pharmacy operations and increases in digital sales fueled the increase.
. . . margin on its sales went down – sliding to 27.8% from 28.7%. . . a variety of things led to the decrease in profit margin – from fewer COVID-19 vaccinations to increased delivery packaging costs and a rise in advertising spend.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by storewanderer »

They run more aggressive promotions so margin falls. Regular pricing is terrible so people just buy the sale items. They never seem to get it.

What will be funny is if their financial results start to outperform Kroger in the remainder of 2023...
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by HCal »

the company warned that its margin fell and said the coming year could be “more difficult.”

When they were trying to justify the $4 billion special dividend, they were saying their financial position was great. Funny how the story has changed.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: April 13th, 2023, 12:30 am the company warned that its margin fell and said the coming year could be “more difficult.”

When they were trying to justify the $4 billion special dividend, they were saying their financial position was great. Funny how the story has changed.
You know the merger just HAS to happen because their margins fell and the coming year "could" be more difficult.

I am wondering if some of the giveaway sales are on purpose to make margins fall or something. I'll enjoy it while it lasts I guess.
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by veteran+ »

This is why I never believe anything the C-Suite says.

It is always propaganda, gaslighting and doublespeak and it is Never their fault. The employees and customers pay for their mistakes and hubris.

Oh...................let's do another update on our logo :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Albertsons announces strategic review of company

Post by storewanderer »

There is a logo change?

They just lost their legal head to Lowes. Seems like that's the type of position you would want to stay through the merger.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business- ... roger-sale

I hope this doesn't play out like Rite Aid where after multiple failed mergers the thing goes full blown zombie retailer mode.
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