Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

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Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by storewanderer »

This was a new store site for Safeway pre-Albertsons. There was tension in the neighborhood with regards to the fuel component of the project. There was a lot of fighting, etc. Once Albertsons took over they went ahead and built the store but re-did the plans so it is an Albertsons layout store, also they went ahead without a fuel station component. My understanding is this store has done fairly well (but isn't breaking any records).

Now they are trying again to get the fuel station component.

But what gets me is this statement from the developer:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ... iling.html
"A Safeway-branded station would be southwest of the existing Safeway store in a shopping center at the south end of Crocker Village. In the Jan. 15 hearing, Petrovich told the city without the fuel center, he feared the Safeway would have to close. Other stores in the center would also suffer or close in that scenario, he said."

I find this to be a curious hardball tactic. First, I don't think they'd throw money at a new fuel center if the store wasn't doing well. Second, I can't imagine the store closing if it wasn't able to get a fuel center.

I guess we will see if they get their fuel center. After they withdrew from Petaluma after trying to get a fuel center there for 10+ years maybe that is why they are pushing for a fuel center on this store again.

Amazing the fights Safeway has to put fuel centers on CA stores. Nobody seems to fight Costco adding fuel centers in CA, so I don't know why Safeway gets so much trouble. Kroger has been able to get fuel centers on numerous stores elsewhere in the US like nothing.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by lake52 »

storewanderer wrote: April 20th, 2022, 11:01 pm This was a new store site for Safeway pre-Albertsons. There was tension in the neighborhood with regards to the fuel component of the project. There was a lot of fighting, etc. Once Albertsons took over they went ahead and built the store but re-did the plans so it is an Albertsons layout store, also they went ahead without a fuel station component. My understanding is this store has done fairly well (but isn't breaking any records).

Now they are trying again to get the fuel station component.

But what gets me is this statement from the developer:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/ ... iling.html
"A Safeway-branded station would be southwest of the existing Safeway store in a shopping center at the south end of Crocker Village. In the Jan. 15 hearing, Petrovich told the city without the fuel center, he feared the Safeway would have to close. Other stores in the center would also suffer or close in that scenario, he said."

I find this to be a curious hardball tactic. First, I don't think they'd throw money at a new fuel center if the store wasn't doing well. Second, I can't imagine the store closing if it wasn't able to get a fuel center.

I guess we will see if they get their fuel center. After they withdrew from Petaluma after trying to get a fuel center there for 10+ years maybe that is why they are pushing for a fuel center on this store again.

Amazing the fights Safeway has to put fuel centers on CA stores. Nobody seems to fight Costco adding fuel centers in CA, so I don't know why Safeway gets so much trouble. Kroger has been able to get fuel centers on numerous stores elsewhere in the US like nothing.
This store is directly adjacent to a light rail station and there are ample gas stations nearby. The city, right or wrong wants this development to encourage alternate forms of transit due to the proximity to transit, jobs, and downtown as a whole. This goes behind a city wide initiative to ban construction of auto related businesses within a proximity of transit stations.

This developer is pretty well known as a *#%+. Ask any well versed Sacramentan their opinion on Paul Petrovich they’ll have a story to tell you. At this point he’s putting the lawyers kid through college to make a point. If this was really a dealbreaker for Safeway, they wouldn’t have built the store like he claimed the first few lawsuits.

When this store was being built and the fight was just starting, the city trying to prove a point solicited interest from other grocers who would enter the same exact deal as Safeway without the gas station. I believe both Nugget and Save Mart took that deal, Raley’s only denied since they were building a new store right down the road. The developer denied these offers and instead announced he was going to replace Safeway with Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree .

Edit: I should also add that when developing this entire development, the developer tapped into city funding reserves to encourage alternate forms of transportation to the tune of millions.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: April 20th, 2022, 11:01 pm
Amazing the fights Safeway has to put fuel centers on CA stores. Nobody seems to fight Costco adding fuel centers in CA, so I don't know why Safeway gets so much trouble. Kroger has been able to get fuel centers on numerous stores elsewhere in the US like nothing.
Costco does get into opposition. They have two stores in Tustin but only one has a gas station and it's across the street from the store so it creates a snarl of traffic. They tried to install a 16 pump station at the one across town to spread out the demand but the neighbors fought tooth and nail to stop it, with all sorts of preposterous claims about gas stations and how they will all die of cancer if one is built (despite the fact that it would be very far, far away from the nearest homes and the car dealerships with their own gas pumps are 100 feet or less across the road from the same homes) and that they don't want traffic like the poorly designed overloaded station. So despite other gas stations being far closer to homes and the fact that this one actually had space for appropriate traffic control it has not been approved. I have noticed Costco has not made any further improvements to the store itself since then - still has an old layout and dark old mercury vapor light fixtures which are just shockingly dim and unpleasant to shop under once you've been in a newer store lit by LED. I wouldn't be surprised if Costco is shopping for a relocation or even closure since the two stores are only about a mile apart.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by storewanderer »

lake52 wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:48 am

This store is directly adjacent to a light rail station and there are ample gas stations nearby. The city, right or wrong wants this development to encourage alternate forms of transit due to the proximity to transit, jobs, and downtown as a whole. This goes behind a city wide initiative to ban construction of auto related businesses within a proximity of transit stations.

This developer is pretty well known as a *#%+. Ask any well versed Sacramentan their opinion on Paul Petrovich they’ll have a story to tell you. At this point he’s putting the lawyers kid through college to make a point. If this was really a dealbreaker for Safeway, they wouldn’t have built the store like he claimed the first few lawsuits.

When this store was being built and the fight was just starting, the city trying to prove a point solicited interest from other grocers who would enter the same exact deal as Safeway without the gas station. I believe both Nugget and Save Mart took that deal, Raley’s only denied since they were building a new store right down the road. The developer denied these offers and instead announced he was going to replace Safeway with Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree .

Edit: I should also add that when developing this entire development, the developer tapped into city funding reserves to encourage alternate forms of transportation to the tune of millions.
Where did you hear that Nugget and Save Mart both agreed to enter the site without the gas station? Did they actually sign formal letters of intent or was it not something they actually committed to? This seems like a questionable location for Nugget to me. Save Mart probably would have been an okay fit, but Save Mart is practically out of Sacramento at this point and is behind on remodels in that market, I find it surprising they would entertain the idea of a new store in a shaky market for them, especially in 2016-2018 when they were having pretty serious problems as a chain.

If that is the case why didn't one of them open a store on this site?

Safeway was trying to get this site developed starting back in 2015. Then the developer claimed they wouldn't open unless they could get the gas station. Typical old stubborn tactic of the pre-Albertsons Safeway to behave in that manner. At that point if Nugget or Save Mart were interested, why didn't we see one of them build the store between 2016-2018?

After a few years Albertsons looked at this and in 2018 said look, we don't have to have a gas station, we will just open our store without one. Safeway finally opened without the gas station in 2019. Everything seemed fine.

And now... this. I wonder why Safeway got it in their mind they need a gas station here again. Is it, perhaps, that customers are asking for it? Given the shopping center is supposed to serve the needs of its customers, I have to think that may be what has happened.

At this point the store is approaching 3 years old. There is still space for a gas station because evidently nothing else wants that space. If there was another viable use for the space there has been 3 years for it to come and build on the space.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by Alpha8472 »

Safeway Gas stations are not as busy as Costco gas stations. The one in Dublin, California at the former Flagship Safeway is not busy at all in the evening. Sometimes there are no cars there at all, and I wonder if it is even open. The Safeway Gas station in San Ramon, California is also not busy at all. The gas prices are not that low. You can find gas just as cheap or cheaper at ARCO, Valero, Exxon, Marathon, etc.

Costco has relocated stores before. The Martinez, California store was refused an expansion to the store and gas station. The Costco moved to a nearby city (Concord) and does even more business. The old Costco became a Walmart and now has more crime and traffic than before.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:22 pm Safeway Gas stations are not as busy as Costco gas stations. The one in Dublin, California at the former Flagship Safeway is not busy at all in the evening. Sometimes there are no cars there at all, and I wonder if it is even open. The Safeway Gas station in San Ramon, California is also not busy at all. The gas prices are not that low. You can find gas just as cheap or cheaper at ARCO, Valero, Exxon, Marathon, etc.

Costco has relocated stores before. The Martinez, California store was refused an expansion to the store and gas station. The Costco moved to a nearby city (Concord) and does even more business. The old Costco became a Walmart and now has more crime and traffic than before.
The trick with the Safeway gas station is you have to screw around to get a deal. Since they charge a .10 per gallon credit card surcharge in CA (they stopped doing that in Reno after seeing little of the competitor stations did it and it was putting them at a disadvantage, another move that was able to happen after Albertsons took over but there was zero flexibility on that topic under the old Safeway), but if you use a Safeway gift card you get the cash price, basically as long as you have a credit card that gives extra cash back at grocery, you just go and buy a Safeway gift card using your credit card (for 5% back), then you go to the Safeway gas pump with your gift card and pay there and get the cash price.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by lake52 »

storewanderer wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:16 pm
lake52 wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:48 am

This store is directly adjacent to a light rail station and there are ample gas stations nearby. The city, right or wrong wants this development to encourage alternate forms of transit due to the proximity to transit, jobs, and downtown as a whole. This goes behind a city wide initiative to ban construction of auto related businesses within a proximity of transit stations.

This developer is pretty well known as a *#%+. Ask any well versed Sacramentan their opinion on Paul Petrovich they’ll have a story to tell you. At this point he’s putting the lawyers kid through college to make a point. If this was really a dealbreaker for Safeway, they wouldn’t have built the store like he claimed the first few lawsuits.

When this store was being built and the fight was just starting, the city trying to prove a point solicited interest from other grocers who would enter the same exact deal as Safeway without the gas station. I believe both Nugget and Save Mart took that deal, Raley’s only denied since they were building a new store right down the road. The developer denied these offers and instead announced he was going to replace Safeway with Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree .

Edit: I should also add that when developing this entire development, the developer tapped into city funding reserves to encourage alternate forms of transportation to the tune of millions.
Where did you hear that Nugget and Save Mart both agreed to enter the site without the gas station? Did they actually sign formal letters of intent or was it not something they actually committed to? This seems like a questionable location for Nugget to me. Save Mart probably would have been an okay fit, but Save Mart is practically out of Sacramento at this point and is behind on remodels in that market, I find it surprising they would entertain the idea of a new store in a shaky market for them, especially in 2016-2018 when they were having pretty serious problems as a chain.

If that is the case why didn't one of them open a store on this site?

Safeway was trying to get this site developed starting back in 2015. Then the developer claimed they wouldn't open unless they could get the gas station. Typical old stubborn tactic of the pre-Albertsons Safeway to behave in that manner. At that point if Nugget or Save Mart were interested, why didn't we see one of them build the store between 2016-2018?

After a few years Albertsons looked at this and in 2018 said look, we don't have to have a gas station, we will just open our store without one. Safeway finally opened without the gas station in 2019. Everything seemed fine.

And now... this. I wonder why Safeway got it in their mind they need a gas station here again. Is it, perhaps, that customers are asking for it? Given the shopping center is supposed to serve the needs of its customers, I have to think that may be what has happened.

At this point the store is approaching 3 years old. There is still space for a gas station because evidently nothing else wants that space. If there was another viable use for the space there has been 3 years for it to come and build on the space.
Nugget and Save Mart never had formal agreements because Paul Petrovich has treated this as “Safeway with a gas station or bust” the entire time. The surrounding Land Park/Curtis Park area is relatively wealthy, I’d say comparable to Nugget’s other Sacramento store (Florin) and would have done similar good business. You can search “Paul Petrovich Nugget Market” and find plenty of documentation of the city working with Nugget but the developer saying a gas station was required to make this project financially feasible. I know from other sources that the city reached out to many grocers who agreed this was a feasible location but without Mr Petrovich wanting to play ball they couldn’t seriously consider.

When the city originally denied the gas station, the owner changed all the concept art and signage to read that low value chains such as Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree, DD’s Discounts, Pawn Shops, etc were coming soon. It has been a nonstop battle between the city and the developer and when they weren’t arguing over the gas station it was over controversial street names or trying to weasel out of low income housing requirements. Keep in mind Sacramento is a relatively easy city to develop in as far as California standards go. At this point the lawsuits are probably 50% out of spite between the two parties.

As for why this space hasn’t been leased out yet. I’d imagine it’s still technically reserved for Safeway via pending litigation. If it wasn’t and they were actively marketing it (they aren’t) I’m sure a new tenant would move in. As stated above this is a pretty good area and the emergence of North Oak Park, Broadway, and the whole UC Davis Aggie Square development will only make it better.

It’s also good to remember that Mr Petrovich and Safeway have developed a couple stores together including the highest volume Safeway in the region not too far away from the Crocker Park store (R St.). Given that Mr Petrovich specializes in grocery anchored developments, I would imagine he would want to honor his commitment to Safeway.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by storewanderer »

lake52 wrote: April 21st, 2022, 11:52 pm

You can search “Paul Petrovich Nugget Market” and find plenty of documentation of the city working with Nugget but the developer saying a gas station was required to make this project financially feasible. I know from other sources that the city reached out to many grocers who agreed this was a feasible location but without Mr Petrovich wanting to play ball they couldn’t seriously consider.

When the city originally denied the gas station, the owner changed all the concept art and signage to read that low value chains such as Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree, DD’s Discounts, Pawn Shops, etc were coming soon.

As for why this space hasn’t been leased out yet. I’d imagine it’s still technically reserved for Safeway via pending litigation. If it wasn’t and they were actively marketing it (they aren’t) I’m sure a new tenant would move in.

Given that Mr Petrovich specializes in grocery anchored developments, I would imagine he would want to honor his commitment to Safeway.
I do find this fascination with a gas station being connected to this store very odd. I am really wondering if Safeway is pushing for this so desperately or if this developer just has his heart set on there being a gas station there for some reason. I mean, the developer is going to get money regardless what develops on the site... but you don't make money on a vacant pad. I don't believe for a second that Safeway is sitting back saying they are going to close a solidly performing 3 year old store if they can't get a gas station added to the lot.

Safeway built the new Reno Store without a gas station (pre-existing 7-Eleven in the shopping center dating back over a decade) no problem. Safeway did want a gas station to go with the new Reno Store but there were not any good spots to try and put it in the center and they let that go. The new El Dorado Hills Store did get a very nice gas station/full c-store/wash really it is overdone for the area but very nice, and the new Roseville store is getting a gas station as well though I am not sure if it is just a kiosk type model or what. So there seems to be a thing where this NorCal Division is generally speaking still pushing for gas stations for some reason, I guess it is another holdover of the "old corporate Safeway way or no way" attitude left in the division. But Albertsons built the store without the gas station so I really thought this topic was to rest after the store opened without it...

I remember that thing about saying the Crocker project would be converted to low end retailers since they denied the gas station and just laughed and thought to myself there is no way those retailers would pay the rents that a space in this development would command.

I guess we will see what happens. Where is the next closest Safeway with a gas station? Out Elk Grove-Florin Road? Maybe this is a push to have another location closer to R Street for the fuel rewards redemption. There are plenty of Chevrons around that accept Safeway fuel rewards though.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:33 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 21st, 2022, 6:22 pm Safeway Gas stations are not as busy as Costco gas stations. The one in Dublin, California at the former Flagship Safeway is not busy at all in the evening. Sometimes there are no cars there at all, and I wonder if it is even open. The Safeway Gas station in San Ramon, California is also not busy at all. The gas prices are not that low. You can find gas just as cheap or cheaper at ARCO, Valero, Exxon, Marathon, etc.

Costco has relocated stores before. The Martinez, California store was refused an expansion to the store and gas station. The Costco moved to a nearby city (Concord) and does even more business. The old Costco became a Walmart and now has more crime and traffic than before.
The trick with the Safeway gas station is you have to screw around to get a deal. Since they charge a .10 per gallon credit card surcharge in CA (they stopped doing that in Reno after seeing little of the competitor stations did it and it was putting them at a disadvantage, another move that was able to happen after Albertsons took over but there was zero flexibility on that topic under the old Safeway), but if you use a Safeway gift card you get the cash price, basically as long as you have a credit card that gives extra cash back at grocery, you just go and buy a Safeway gift card using your credit card (for 5% back), then you go to the Safeway gas pump with your gift card and pay there and get the cash price.
Or, of course you could cut out couple steps and just pay with actual cash at the gas station. Not quite as good if you get the bonus for the gift cards, but otherwise not an issue.
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Re: Safeway-Sacramento-Crocker Village

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: April 22nd, 2022, 10:24 am

Or, of course you could cut out couple steps and just pay with actual cash at the gas station. Not quite as good if you get the bonus for the gift cards, but otherwise not an issue.
In that case you will find another gas station with the price a few cents below Safeway and just buy gas there...

The Safeway gas station is somewhat beneficial for when there is a 5% back with a gas station or a grocery store on a credit card (usually does not happen in the same quarter). If you pay the gas pump at Safeway at the pump the transaction codes as a gas station. If you pay for gas at the register (at gas kiosk or inside gas convenience store) the transaction codes as a supermarket. In contrast at Kroger, whatever you do out at the fuel island (whether at the pump or at the kiosk register) codes as gas station.
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