Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by babs »

We're being a bit harsh here. The graphics are pretty good compared to most stores. It's the lighting that's awful. Never been a fan of tube lighting. Makes a store look cheap.
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by Bluelightspecial »

I don't think it's terrible, but the store doesn't look that big. The colors overpower it. Look at the produce section, which is small, the decor looks terrible for the size. The Stater Bros. decor they've used like at their store in Pasadena is much more pleasing.
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by luckysaver »

For the last few years, Staters has been "modernizing" itself - they've remodeled many stores, changed the corporate logo, completely changed the look of their weekly ads, elliminated the color-coded employee aprons (now everyone wears blue or white), and greatly expanded product offerings with their own house brands as well as those from Topco Associates.

Stater's Rowland Heights store decor is still stuck in the 1970's, but they just replaced all the aisle signage.

Many of their stores in the IE still have the American Tradition decor package including my neighborhood store in Walnut.

Some of their stores in the OC still have the 1990's Albertsons or Lucky package from their big acquisition in 1999.

The self-checkout kiosks is brand new to the company. The first store to get it is their brand new Whittier replacement store on what used to be the old Fred Nelles campus.

I wonder what Jack Brown is thinking in his grave about the new look to the company.

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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by storewanderer »

luckysaver wrote: May 3rd, 2022, 12:29 am

Stater's Rowland Heights store decor is still stuck in the 1970's, but they just replaced all the aisle signage.

That Rowland Heights interior is actually the decor they were using in 1999. Yes, really. They remodeled a Super Saver they bought somewhere north of San Diego, into that interior (since Super Saver had no interior decor). I believe it was the unit at 3770 Mission in Oceanside.
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by klkla »

I was in this Stater Bros. in Rancho Cucamonga a couple months ago. The store was much busier than the other stores in the area (2 Ralphs, 1 Sprouts, and one Alberston's). The store was clean and well merchandised. The decor package looked warm and friendly. And the employees were great. Even the fluorescent light didn't seem that bad. This is a better direction for them in my opinion.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... Rc3B&hl=en
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by ClownLoach »

klkla wrote: May 4th, 2022, 8:05 pm I was in this Stater Bros. in Rancho Cucamonga a couple months ago. The store was much busier than the other stores in the area (2 Ralphs, 1 Sprouts, and one Alberston's). The store was clean and well merchandised. The decor package looked warm and friendly. And the employees were great. Even the fluorescent light didn't seem that bad. This is a better direction for them in my opinion.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... Rc3B&hl=en

I think this style from Rancho Cucamonga, which I've also seen completed in Encinitas and Tustin, is the best looking store decor Stater Bros has ever put together. This is the decor package that they were rolling out in all new locations until the announcement. I suspect that they realized that they were too similar to the "colorful lifestyle" remodels as well as the prior Kroger interior before "local". Nearly every newly remodeled Vons or Albertsons I've visited in the IE is moving from LLC or older packages to Colorful Lifestyle and it seems they're really pushing to upgrade every store in that market since it was announced to be the 2nd fastest growing residential area in the USA last year. Where Ralphs had pretty much left the IE to be ruled by Stater and Walmart - Albertsons has recognized the need for another competitor and they are really stepping up their game. And they are running a lower overall price than the LA/OC/Ventura/SD markets in the IE. Plus the IE is growing with ex LA and OC residents who are used to shopping Albertsons/Vons anyway; to most of them Stater is foreign and unknown. Stater probably has gained very little if any sales despite the massive home buying wave in Riverside and San Bernardino counties where every home gets 50 offers well over asking price. The aggressive remodel campaign by Albertsons clearly is forcing Stater to up their game on their home turf and they probably had no choice but to move away from their own new decor to the retro 80s style as they continue to remodel stores. I also saw a new TV and radio ad campaign has begun talking about the heritage of Stater Bros serving families for 90 years - it is entirely a branding exercise and does not mention a single sale item or price which is completely the opposite of their past commercials. The commercial is on their Facebook page.

I also found another not so new decor package today that Stater apparently only uses in San Bernardino County? I call it Mission Style and it is a subtle variation of the typical olive green/blue ribbon decor they use almost everywhere else. They have it in Rialto and surrounding locations. These are probably the stores that are most likely to see the new 80s photo walls coming soon.

Finally, Stater is using a new LED light rail with internal reflector for all of their stores now. Unlike the fluorescent tube replacements that everyone else uses to retrofit existing fixtures the Stater one has non glare but very penetrating full spectrum light. It is a much more expensive option that required complete replacement of all the internal components. So it may not be the prettiest fixture visually in a retrofit store - but the light is very pleasant to shop under. For a few years they were using solar tubes with the special diffusing lenses in their stores but I have not seen these in any new build or remodel from the last decade. They probably let in too much UV light causing packaging to fade.
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: May 4th, 2022, 8:05 pm I was in this Stater Bros. in Rancho Cucamonga a couple months ago. The store was much busier than the other stores in the area (2 Ralphs, 1 Sprouts, and one Alberston's). The store was clean and well merchandised. The decor package looked warm and friendly. And the employees were great. Even the fluorescent light didn't seem that bad. This is a better direction for them in my opinion.

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... Rc3B&hl=en
This seems to be the common theme with Stater. They are always busier than the competition, they are always better staffed, and their staff is the most efficient in the west.

Who would have predicted this outcome back in 1999? Definitely not me.

Stater has gotten much better in their store appearance, presentation, and merchandising. Operationally I think they always ran a pretty tight ship.

The competition, on the other hand, has declined in every metric.
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by Romr123 »

I think Vons/Albertsons, though, is carving out the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs to Indio/Coachella) and running the pricy coastal program there...the prices are silly high. Stater's been doing a pretty good job of differentiating Palm Springs (as glitzy as it gets for them) from Cat City (perfectly nice but not quite as glitzy). The bigger issue is familiarity, as you say. They probably could squeeze another store into Palm Springs in the old Stein Mart center near the turn of Palm Canyon (probably when the new condos/housing development are in---apparently the location for Cody Place condos was a Mayfair back in the day as mentioned in a different thread).
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by Romr123 »

One more thing--it's interesting that of the "low-to-middle-brow" grocers of the 90s that really only Stater and Market Basket (New England) are thriving--really the rest of the comparative set (Food Lion/Winn-Dixie) really faded away. The Southeast is scarcely a low-growth environment (but it is a low-income environment--perhaps that's the distinction...income levels of the population).
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Re: Stater Bros. New Decor - back to the 80s?

Post by mbz321 »

HCal wrote: April 26th, 2022, 8:25 pm Am I the only one who likes this? It looks colorful and lively. Maybe a bit retro, but nothing wrong with that.
Right? It looks a lot better than the drab industrial 'decor' they are putting in Giant/Stop & Shop and Acme stores in the Northeast.
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