storewanderer wrote: ↑March 31st, 2022, 9:16 pmI agree with this but considering they did quietly rebrand Santa Cruz, Monterey, etc. area from Save Mart to Lucky back around 2012, how many stores that used to be Lucky up until 1999, are now branded Save Mart? I can't think of many:
Tahoe City
Truckee
Auburn
Carmichael
Placerville (2)
Sacramento (Gerber, Folsom Blvd., Kiefer, Fair Oaks)
Roseville
Davis
Lodi
Marysville
So using that logic it would not even be hard to convert such a small number of stores back to a better recognized banner. There are some ex-Albertsons units scattered in those territories as well that would probably need to be converted (the NV units, Grass Valley, Chico, Jackson, Elk Grove).
There are a few more scattered around the central valley that Save Mart bought from ASC Lucky around 1997 but I'll ignore those since that is arguably Save Mart's market area.
Also I think they need to return the old red Lucky logo... (they can keep the updated Save Mart and Food Maxx logos...).
Tracy was also a Lucky. In fact the former Lucky/Albertsons is the only Save Mart-bannered store still in town; one was converted to Food Maxx and the other (a replacement for their original, much smaller Tracy location next door) is vacant, actually leaving a food desert.
I think the Modesto home base and history is a big reason why they won't rebrand the valley stores. Lucky was more popular than Save Mart in Tracy and Stockton, and Save Mart had no prior history in Sacramento at all. But the Sacramento media market includes all of those places, and they probably don't want to use 2 names in the region. Although Albertsons doesn't have a problem with that in Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Southern California.