Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by Bagels »

ClownLoach wrote: January 26th, 2023, 1:47 pm
Bagels wrote: January 26th, 2023, 12:20 pm
veteran+ wrote: January 26th, 2023, 9:44 am Which Walmart Neighborhood stores are you talking about?

I have never noticed very much traffic at any of these stores.

The last one I had been to was the one in Rancho Mirage and it was never busy. I am surprised it is still open, especially in that area.
I don't venture into too many Neighborhood Markets, but the Anaheim (ex-Ralphs) and Huntington Beach (I think it was previously a drug store) locations are generally massively crowded. And both are nearby large format stores. Looks like Walmart's cramming more general merchandise in these stores as they renovate them...

In comparison, a flagship Albertsons is just 1.5 miles up Beach Blvd., in a much nicer & more vibrant shopping center, and it's always a ghost town when I'm in there...
I'm sure Walmart culled any unprofitable neighborhood market stores already. If it's still open it is either a barnburner of sales that would not transfer to a nearby full line supercenter, or a low rent/owned building. The busiest stores I am familiar with are in areas Walmart simply can't build a large store in. There are a couple of cases where the Walmart Neighborhood Market is across the street/freeway from a standard Walmart that has no room for expansion or regulations against it. I do know of one California Neighborhood Market that does more sales volume than the regular Walmart across the highway.

My personal favorite is still Santa Maria where there is a full size regular Walmart that shares a wall with a full size Walmart Neighborhood Market due to restrictions that were intended to prevent construction of a Supercenter. At some point the city might as well end the charade and let them tear down the wall to make it one store. It reminds me of the states where the liquor department has to be in a separate suite attached to the store itself, but it's all the food instead.

Curious about the Anaheim stores mentioned. Anaheim had 3, two were ex-Pep Boys locations and one was a former Asian supermarket. The one on Euclid across from Food4Less closed a year or two ago. I'm not familiar with one that was a Ralphs. I know the one on Beach Blvd. had a Ralphs across the street many years ago in the center that sat boarded up for 20+ years before becoming a food hall and fitness place. Huntington Beach was a large Thrifty that Rite Aid didn't keep for long, it was enlarged to absorb most of the adjacent strip mall. The Beach Blvd Albertsons mentioned was a Skaggs Alpha Beta at some point in time. There is a larger, newly remodeled Albertsons built to be a Lucky Savon combo a mile west along with a nice Ralphs Fresh Fare. I'm not sure which will get divested but I'm sure the Beach Blvd Albertsons will be the preferred store to go to Spinco. It is a nice store but I expect it to meet the bulldozer and be replaced by either an expansion of the medical facility next door or high density apartments like the ones that went up across the street.
The Anaheim location is at Ball/Anaheim Blvd. I believe you’re correct - it is a former Pep Boys. The location was closed, gutted and rebuilt. It now features Walmart Blue instead of the Neighborhood Green, and the sign says Walmart Anaheim Neighborhood Market. It features a lot more general merchandise and Hispanic groceries than previously.

I’m sure is a concept format but the store must do well to receive that level of a makeover l.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by storewanderer »

The only busy Wal Mart Neighborhood Markets I've ever seen are in CA, also one in Bentonville. Anywhere else I've been, those stores range from low traffic to outright dead. I question how they survive but staffing is minimal, they seem to have good control over fresh products (not putting much out), and the funny thing is those not busy Neighborhood Markets while not very appealing looking are actually a pretty good place to shop because there is no crowd, no line, the few employees are relaxed, pricing is low, they seem to keep up on markdowns of about to expire perishables, and they are in stock on everything.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by ClownLoach »

Interesting new wrinkle: I noticed that the Ralphs commercials in my area have become Kroger brand commercials. They use the song "simply the best" with the same lousy cartoon figures, and the "store" shown has a Kroger logo with the fruit cart. The last screen is the same Kroger logo with fruit cart taking up the top half of the screen and below are all the logos of their banners. Maybe they are actually nuts enough to rebrand nationwide?

About a year ago the Facebook ads said "Ralphs by Kroger" for a few months then went back to Ralphs.

They definitely are trying to drive the awareness of the Kroger brand and remind the customer that Ralphs is Kroger, Kroger is Ralphs....
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

ClownLoach wrote: January 29th, 2023, 4:35 pm Interesting new wrinkle: I noticed that the Ralphs commercials in my area have become Kroger brand commercials. They use the song "simply the best" with the same lousy cartoon figures, and the "store" shown has a Kroger logo with the fruit cart. The last screen is the same Kroger logo with fruit cart taking up the top half of the screen and below are all the logos of their banners. Maybe they are actually nuts enough to rebrand nationwide?

About a year ago the Facebook ads said "Ralphs by Kroger" for a few months then went back to Ralphs.

They definitely are trying to drive the awareness of the Kroger brand and remind the customer that Ralphs is Kroger, Kroger is Ralphs....
Are these TV commercials aired on local TV (ABC/CBS/NBC/CW/FOX)? Or are these commercials aired on YouTube? YouTube ads are still Ralphs, with the fruit cart logo.
Rebranding Fry's, King Soopers, Dillons, Smith's, Pick N Save, etc. to Kroger would work fine. I expect that there will be a lot of backlash if Kroger rebranded their West Coast chains (Fred Meyer, Ralphs, QFC).
I'm guessing Kroger wants to make the fruit cart like the Target bullseye or Walmart spark. In that case, I expect for new Ralphs signage, the fruit cart will dwarf the Ralphs oval.

Rebranding everything to Kroger would probably be fatal.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 29th, 2023, 5:03 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 29th, 2023, 4:35 pm Interesting new wrinkle: I noticed that the Ralphs commercials in my area have become Kroger brand commercials. They use the song "simply the best" with the same lousy cartoon figures, and the "store" shown has a Kroger logo with the fruit cart. The last screen is the same Kroger logo with fruit cart taking up the top half of the screen and below are all the logos of their banners. Maybe they are actually nuts enough to rebrand nationwide?

About a year ago the Facebook ads said "Ralphs by Kroger" for a few months then went back to Ralphs.

They definitely are trying to drive the awareness of the Kroger brand and remind the customer that Ralphs is Kroger, Kroger is Ralphs....
Are these TV commercials aired on local TV (ABC/CBS/NBC/CW/FOX)? Or are these commercials aired on YouTube? YouTube ads are still Ralphs, with the fruit cart logo.
Rebranding Fry's, King Soopers, Dillons, Smith's, Pick N Save, etc. to Kroger would work fine. I expect that there will be a lot of backlash if Kroger rebranded their West Coast chains (Fred Meyer, Ralphs, QFC).
I'm guessing Kroger wants to make the fruit cart like the Target bullseye or Walmart spark. In that case, I expect for new Ralphs signage, the fruit cart will dwarf the Ralphs oval.

Rebranding everything to Kroger would probably be fatal.
I could argue Mariano's, QFC, Ralphs, F4L/FoodsCo, Ruler, and Fred Meyer are different formats and as such it would not be appropriate to rebrand them for that reason.

They need to figure out what they want Kroger to mean. If they want Kroger to mean a bunch of 50k+ square foot conventional food and drug combination stores with pharmacies, then rebranding Frys, King Soopers/City Market, Dillon/Gerbes/Bakers, Pick N Save, Smiths, would work just fine for them. There would still be some small stores with no pharmacy in the bunch but it wouldn't be many. Rebranding Safeway/Acme/Shaws would be problematic due to wide variance in store size and lack of pharmacy in many stores due to lease issues (really same situation as Ralphs). Rebranding the Albertsons or Jewel banner may be relatively consistent with the "Kroger" 50k+ square foot food/drug/pharmacy format. Pretty much anything in TX could be rebranded.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by ClownLoach »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 29th, 2023, 5:03 pm
ClownLoach wrote: January 29th, 2023, 4:35 pm Interesting new wrinkle: I noticed that the Ralphs commercials in my area have become Kroger brand commercials. They use the song "simply the best" with the same lousy cartoon figures, and the "store" shown has a Kroger logo with the fruit cart. The last screen is the same Kroger logo with fruit cart taking up the top half of the screen and below are all the logos of their banners. Maybe they are actually nuts enough to rebrand nationwide?

About a year ago the Facebook ads said "Ralphs by Kroger" for a few months then went back to Ralphs.

They definitely are trying to drive the awareness of the Kroger brand and remind the customer that Ralphs is Kroger, Kroger is Ralphs....
Are these TV commercials aired on local TV (ABC/CBS/NBC/CW/FOX)? Or are these commercials aired on YouTube? YouTube ads are still Ralphs, with the fruit cart logo.
Rebranding Fry's, King Soopers, Dillons, Smith's, Pick N Save, etc. to Kroger would work fine. I expect that there will be a lot of backlash if Kroger rebranded their West Coast chains (Fred Meyer, Ralphs, QFC).
I'm guessing Kroger wants to make the fruit cart like the Target bullseye or Walmart spark. In that case, I expect for new Ralphs signage, the fruit cart will dwarf the Ralphs oval.

Rebranding everything to Kroger would probably be fatal.
This was tonight on CBS during the football game - but I use DIRECTV Stream so all my ads are comparable to YouTube and other online services. Many commercials are blacked out and just say "Commercial Break in Progress." The industry term is "Addressable TV" where they serve specific ads to the specific household which is why these streaming services are being pushed so hard even by traditionals like DIRECTV as they get more $$$ per commercial. I usually would see the Ralphs ads, most recently whichever one had the person dancing in the gas station about lower than low prices.

I do agree it would be completely stupid to rebrand. Yet corporate egos love ideas like that. I would just love to see how they would handle concepts like Fred Meyer or Food4Less. What do you call it? Big Kroger? Kroger4Less Discount Grocery?

I can't imagine that when they were titling the online ads "Ralphs By Kroger" that click through rates went up, otherwise why change back?
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by SamSpade »

ClownLoach wrote: January 29th, 2023, 4:35 pm Interesting new wrinkle: I noticed that the Ralphs commercials in my area have become Kroger brand commercials. They use the song "simply the best" with the same lousy cartoon figures, and the "store" shown has a Kroger logo with the fruit cart. The last screen is the same Kroger logo with fruit cart taking up the top half of the screen and below are all the logos of their banners. Maybe they are actually nuts enough to rebrand nationwide?
Off Topic
I have seen some Kroger national ad buys that do display the Kroger logo largest, then show the regional brands below, as you describe. This does appear to be the agency's buying strategy during key large audience TV (sports, basically). Many "Kroger family of stores" did partner with local sports franchises - for example, in Portland, Fred Meyer is partnered with the TrailBlazers and the Timbers. Safeway chose to drop that association for whatever reason.

Albertsons (as Safeway, really) are affiliated with the Oregon State Beavers athletics program.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by jamcool »

Fry’s has been a partner with the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks for several years (their Downtown Phoenix store is across the street from both teams facilities) AlbertSafeway is a partner with the Cardinals.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by storewanderer »

Smiths seems to be the official grocery store of the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Re: Kroger to merge with Albertsons?

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

Safeway has long been a partner of the San Francisco Giants (since at least the 1980's,even before one time CEO Peter magowan saved the team from moving to Tampa).

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