Vons closing Vista store

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Re: Vons closing Vista store

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: June 23rd, 2022, 10:35 am
storewanderer wrote: June 20th, 2022, 8:42 pm Looks like it will make a great Grocery Outlet location. The irony is they'd remodel the space, put in a new ceiling, etc. Not saying I've heard they will take the location but it would be a great fit.
That would be a good bet. However, I'm hoping Stater Bros takes it.
That would be a great outcome. Isn't it too small though?

Is something wrong with the current Stater in Vista? I see it still has the Albertsons floor and it is in awful condition.
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2022, 11:21 pm That would be a great outcome. Isn't it too small though?

Is something wrong with the current Stater in Vista? I see it still has the Albertsons floor and it is in awful condition.
There are 2 Stater Bros in Vista. Both are indeed former Albertsons divested during the Lucky marriage. You are thinking of the one on Santa Fe Ave (1994 build), 2 miles north of the Vons? That one still has the Albertsons setup where non-food aisles run perpendicular to food aisles. Stater should really remodel this one. There is a clone of this store down in Poway (Stater gave this one new flooring recently).
The other Stater is on the south end of Vista (Sycamore Ave). That one is older than the Santa Fe Ave store, yet in better condition. The Vons is halfway in between the 2 stores, so it could work out for them.

Albertsons kept 3 stores in Vista initially: an ASC Super Saver @ Foothill Dr/E Vista Way, a former Lucky on Melrose Dr, and a former Alpha Beta/Lucky a mile down the street from the Super Saver. ABS converted the Super Saver into an Albertsons in 2005, gutting the exterior and giving it new interior. As a result, the Albertsons down the street was closed and became subdivided between a Fresh & Easy/Family Dollar.
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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retailfanmitchell019 wrote: June 24th, 2022, 10:21 am
storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2022, 11:21 pm That would be a great outcome. Isn't it too small though?

Is something wrong with the current Stater in Vista? I see it still has the Albertsons floor and it is in awful condition.
There are 2 Stater Bros in Vista. Both are indeed former Albertsons divested during the Lucky marriage. You are thinking of the one on Santa Fe Ave (1994 build), 2 miles north of the Vons? That one still has the Albertsons setup where non-food aisles run perpendicular to food aisles. Stater should really remodel this one. There is a clone of this store down in Poway (Stater gave this one new flooring recently).
The other Stater is on the south end of Vista (Sycamore Ave). That one is older than the Santa Fe Ave store, yet in better condition. The Vons is halfway in between the 2 stores, so it could work out for them.

Albertsons kept 3 stores in Vista initially: an ASC Super Saver @ Foothill Dr/E Vista Way, a former Lucky on Melrose Dr, and a former Alpha Beta/Lucky a mile down the street from the Super Saver. ABS converted the Super Saver into an Albertsons in 2005, gutting the exterior and giving it new interior. As a result, the Albertsons down the street was closed and became subdivided between a Fresh & Easy/Family Dollar.
Did Stater take out any aisles in the store that kept drug aisles horizontal?

For some reason NorCal Albertsons straightened the aisles in the few stores they still had in that layout in NorCal, before the division was sold to Save Mart. But Reno was never straightened.

Save Mart still has 5 stores around Reno with that horizontal aisle layout. The most recent remodel Save Mart did, they went ahead and straightened the aisles in the store and it is awful. In the other stores that did not straighten the aisles, in 4 of those stores, the one thing Save Mart did due to lack of inventory with the horizontal aisles is they made the aisles shorter and also took the ones in formal OTC "drug" and HBA (about 3 aisles) down to a 4-5 foot height. The rest of the aisles are standard height. I go back and forth on what I think of that horizontal aisle layout.
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

Post by CalItalian »

KPBS had a story a few weeks back on this closure.
https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/07 ... y-for-many
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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Forgot to say this...
I drove by the store a couple weeks ago. The Vons sign is taken down.

Here's to hoping Stater takes this one.
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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storewanderer wrote: June 25th, 2022, 11:45 am

Did Stater take out any aisles in the store that kept drug aisles horizontal?

For some reason NorCal Albertsons straightened the aisles in the few stores they still had in that layout in NorCal, before the division was sold to Save Mart. But Reno was never straightened.

Save Mart still has 5 stores around Reno with that horizontal aisle layout. The most recent remodel Save Mart did, they went ahead and straightened the aisles in the store and it is awful. In the other stores that did not straighten the aisles, in 4 of those stores, the one thing Save Mart did due to lack of inventory with the horizontal aisles is they made the aisles shorter and also took the ones in formal OTC "drug" and HBA (about 3 aisles) down to a 4-5 foot height. The rest of the aisles are standard height. I go back and forth on what I think of that horizontal aisle layout.
Found a picture for the mid-90s Albertsons layout on Newspapers.com. This was from a store opening in Omaha.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148917 ... 0s-layout/
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 20th, 2022, 6:15 pm
Found a picture for the mid-90s Albertsons layout on Newspapers.com. This was from a store opening in Omaha.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148917 ... 0s-layout/
Supervalu did not seem to like this aisle layout and "un did" it in many stores.

In Reno the stores with this layout when they went to Albertsons/Sav-On format made all of the horizontal aisles drug (they did allow paper and pet to stay over there, and candy).

There are currently 3 stores around Reno with this layout:
Save Mart "shortened" the height of the medicine/HBA/OTC aisles when they cut so many SKUs out and also for security purposes and to allow for a clear line of sight to the pharmacy from the center aisle and front end (what good did that do now..).
Save Mart, 195 West Plumb, Reno (remodeled by Save Mart but still has this layout)
Save Mart, 10500 N. McCarran, Reno (not remodeled by Save Mart, but reset heavily a couple of times by Save Mart, so product placement differs)
Save Mart, South Carson St., Carson City (not remodeled by Save Mart, product placement in this one is still pretty similar to that diagram other than what was done in the Sav-On reset).

There are also 2 Lucky with this layout:
Santa Rosa, CA
Ukiah, CA
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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storewanderer wrote: December 20th, 2022, 9:33 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 20th, 2022, 6:15 pm
Found a picture for the mid-90s Albertsons layout on Newspapers.com. This was from a store opening in Omaha.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148917 ... 0s-layout/
Supervalu did not seem to like this aisle layout and "un did" it in many stores.
Old Albertsons even managed to remodel these stores with that mid-90s layout and in some cases, undid it. There was an Albertsons in Ventura with this layout that may have been an exact clone of that Omaha store. Looking in your Flickr photos, it had a 2006 era Jewel remodel that may have been done at the very end of Old Albertsons.
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Re: Vons closing Vista store

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retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 20th, 2022, 10:14 pm
storewanderer wrote: December 20th, 2022, 9:33 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 20th, 2022, 6:15 pm
Found a picture for the mid-90s Albertsons layout on Newspapers.com. This was from a store opening in Omaha.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148917 ... 0s-layout/
Supervalu did not seem to like this aisle layout and "un did" it in many stores.
Old Albertsons even managed to remodel these stores with that mid-90s layout and in some cases, undid it. There was an Albertsons in Ventura with this layout that may have been an exact clone of that Omaha store. Looking in your Flickr photos, it had a 2006 era Jewel remodel that may have been done at the very end of Old Albertsons.
The horizontal aisle thing seemed to start in the early 90's with the two-entry design Albertsons (the one that had bakery/deli in one front corner and liquor in the opposite front corner).

Basically there are a couple of versions here:
1. 1990 or late 80's era two-entry design Albertsons: seafood counter in middle of back wall. This layout does NOT have the horizontal aisles.
2. 1992 era two-entry design Albertsons: seafood counter in back corner (liquor in that front corner and pharmacy in between the two) which had horizontal aisles.

The last store Save Mart remodeled in Reno at 4995 Kietzke opened in 1992 and Save Mart actually un-did the horizontal aisles in this store so now the aisles are all straight. I am not sure after keeping horizontal aisles in other remodels why they decided to make this change. The remodel did not come out well, the aisles feel narrow, and awkward. Seafood is hidden in the back corner with aisles coming way too close to it making it very easy to miss.

Another store that often has this layout of vertical grocery aisles and horizontal drug aisles is Wal Mart Neighborhood Market. In Rocklin, CA is a former Albertsons of the Omaha layout you posted, now Wal Mart Neighborhood Market, and it largely kept the old Albertsons layout of course demolishing bakery and seafood (after gutted by Wal Mart). It even has a tiny never open deli counter in the position where the Albertsons deli was. In Granite Bay, CA there is another former Albertsons (was Ralphs too, Ralphs remodeled it beyond recognition from Albertsons and moved all the departments around- $$$) now Wal Mart Neighborhood Market and it too has horizontal drug aisles now but never had them as Albertsons as it was a late 80's unit.
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