New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

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New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by storewanderer »

This replaces a very very outdated store, likely the most outdated store in the entire chain.

Appears to be another former Shopko Hometown building. Interesting they get this done but the WY one is held.

Interesting Albertsons agreed to this after this location was passed up for remodels since the 80s.

The building of the old store isn't actually the original Safeway in town but was an independent they took over. The original Dageway building is a gable off the downtown in a residential area.

https://www.burlington-record.com/2022/ ... lebration/
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: October 28th, 2022, 8:19 am This replaces a very very outdated store, likely the most outdated store in the entire chain.

Appears to be another former Shopko Hometown building. Interesting they get this done but the WY one is held.

Interesting Albertsons agreed to this after this location was passed up for remodels since the 80s.

The building of the old store isn't actually the original Safeway in town but was an independent they took over. The original Dageway building is a gable off the downtown in a residential area.

https://www.burlington-record.com/2022/ ... lebration/
Nice store, could be a Hy-Vee Dollar Fresh within two years.

Here's how I think the Albertsons/Safeway Denver division will be broken up post-Kroger:
Stores in the Western Slope/Rockies region (everything west of Idaho Springs/Estes Park) will be merged into Intermountain (assuming this stays with SpinCo, which of course should go into Loblaws) and converted to the Albertsons banner.
I agree with you that the I-25 corridor Safeway stores (from Cheyenne down to Pueblo) should be sold to AWG and converted to Price Chopper. AWG bought Dahl's in Des Moines, IA and converted those stores to Price Chopper. (Hy-Vee kicked Dahl's into bankruptcy) Perhaps they can use the Cash Saver name for Safeway stores in exurban, blue-collar areas, like Fort Lupton, Greeley, etc.
Homeland isn't owned by AWG, but is an AWG member. I don't think they are expanding.
The rural stores in eastern CO, western NE, and eastern WY could be sold to Hy-Vee for their Dollar Fresh format. Not sure what would happen to Rapid City- perhaps that becomes King Soopers.

If Hy-Vee ends up going into Denver, I expect them to build stores from the ground up.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

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Agree 100% if Hy Vee enters Denver, they need to build from the ground up. Or at a minimum get sites that make sense for their model (70k+ square feet). I am somewhat concerned however if Hy Vee was not happy about how they did in MSP competing with a weak Cub, how will they go against a very strong King Soopers in Denver? Super Target also has a fair amount of grocery share in Denver- again that is like MSP. So I wonder if some of the same factors that have led to supposed underperformance for Hy Vee in MSP (I think the big problem is heavy price competition in MSP compared to how Hy Vee typically gets to price), would also be problems for Hy Vee in Denver?

If AWG needs Homeland to take some stores to make a deal work, they will make it happen. While Homeland is not owned by AWG directly anymore (recall AWG rescued it from bankruptcy and it was corporate operated for a while), it is still a de facto corporate AWG Store. Homeland has done various small store acquisitions (typically in order to keep supply business with AWG). Most recent was taking over 2 former Albertsons Stores from RPCS around Ponca City/Stillwater and 2 other RPCS nightmare stores in Ponca City. Homeland is a very marginal operator with higher pricing than it should have; they had a nice remodel program developed right before AWG moved them to being "employee owned" and stuck with that program for a few years, but more recently have moved to a much cheaper remodel program. Homeland does a good enough job with the former Albertsons Stores they have (which is quite a few). As stores fail in OK, AWG often "arranges" those stores to go under Homeland.

Cash Saver is a cost plus format. Homeland operates multiple stores in that format also under that and other names. Item prices on the shelf at some arbitrary "cost" (after they account for shipping, labor, and other slushy things) are then assessed a 10% surcharge at checkout (may vary by store and by transaction amount). I do not know if that format has been used before in Denver. I know it is used by Lowes Food in Texas/New Mexico and used by some AWG operators in Kansas.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: November 15th, 2022, 11:30 pm Agree 100% if Hy Vee enters Denver, they need to build from the ground up. Or at a minimum get sites that make sense for their model (70k+ square feet). I am somewhat concerned however if Hy Vee was not happy about how they did in MSP competing with a weak Cub, how will they go against a very strong King Soopers in Denver? Super Target also has a fair amount of grocery share in Denver- again that is like MSP. So I wonder if some of the same factors that have led to supposed underperformance for Hy Vee in MSP (I think the big problem is heavy price competition in MSP compared to how Hy Vee typically gets to price), would also be problems for Hy Vee in Denver?

Cash Saver is a cost plus format. Homeland operates multiple stores in that format also under that and other names. Item prices on the shelf at some arbitrary "cost" (after they account for shipping, labor, and other slushy things) are then assessed a 10% surcharge at checkout (may vary by store and by transaction amount). I do not know if that format has been used before in Denver. I know it is used by Lowes Food in Texas/New Mexico and used by some AWG operators in Kansas.
Hy-Vee has been successful in Kansas City, which is similar to the Twin Cities, in which you have both Walmart and Super Target (Walmart is stronger in KC than Target), and a chain with naming rights owned by a wholesaler and franchised out (Cub or Price Chopper). I'd think they'd be able to make it work in Denver, which also has significant Walmart and Super Target presence. It would be a much smarter move than going into Kentucky/Tennessee, where the Albertsons/Kroger merger isn't affecting anything.

In Kansas City, Price Chopper stores look decent from what I've seen looking at pictures. One of the Price Chopper franchisee families, the Ball family, owns Hen House Market. Really nice stores.
I'd think if the Denver Safeway stores become Price Chopper, I'd expect them to be sold to division management and then converted over to the Price Chopper name as a franchise (like how Homeland was created out of the Oklahoma Safeway division 35 years ago, only Homeland wasn't franchised).
AWG should also acquire the Safeway distribution center in Denver to supply those Price Choppers and members it already has in the western plains region (which were previously with Affiliated Foods Midwest).
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: November 16th, 2022, 6:46 pm
Hy-Vee has been successful in Kansas City, which is similar to the Twin Cities, in which you have both Walmart and Super Target (Walmart is stronger in KC than Target), and a chain with naming rights owned by a wholesaler and franchised out (Cub or Price Chopper). I'd think they'd be able to make it work in Denver, which also has significant Walmart and Super Target presence. It would be a much smarter move than going into Kentucky/Tennessee, where the Albertsons/Kroger merger isn't affecting anything.

In Kansas City, Price Chopper stores look decent from what I've seen looking at pictures. One of the Price Chopper franchisee families, the Ball family, owns Hen House Market. Really nice stores.
I'd think if the Denver Safeway stores become Price Chopper, I'd expect them to be sold to division management and then converted over to the Price Chopper name as a franchise (like how Homeland was created out of the Oklahoma Safeway division 35 years ago, only Homeland wasn't franchised).
AWG should also acquire the Safeway distribution center in Denver to supply those Price Choppers and members it already has in the western plains region (which were previously with Affiliated Foods Midwest).
I've been to a lot of stores around Kansas City over the years but never even knew they had Super Target... shows how much attention I paid to Target...

I think Hy Vee is making a real mistake going into KY/TN. I don't even know what they are thinking or what they are doing.

Price Chopper quality varies by operator but for the most part the stores are large, have a nice decor package, and put out a strong effort on perimeter (actual quality of perimeter is very subjective... I'd say they are about on par with a typical Kroger perimeter... better items here and there though).

I do not see Denver Safeway Division management taking anything over. Poor management is the reason why the division is in the shape it is in. They've never sent shining stars to run the division and based on how the stores look the middle management/district management is very weak and operates at very low standards; this was a problem long before Albertsons bought Safeway. It is possible they have been starved for resources for years and done the best they can with what they have. Denver Division is the only place I've ever seen brown meat in Safeway Stores, I was shocked to see it 10-15 years ago, and to this day that is still a problem. On my trip to Denver a few months ago, one location I visited, I picked up multiple items that were expired from center store. Wanted to tell someone but the store manager was acting as second cashier in the middle of the afternoon after a 6 person line formed at the one open register (store had no self checkout). Again this is not something that happens at Safeway elsewhere in my experience.

An AWG entry into Denver would also provide potential competition for Associated Food Stores and Affiliated Amarillo. I do like AFS and Affiliated, I think they are strong wholesalers, but part of why they are as strong as they are is due to lack of competition. Given how they are organized though it may very well be a situation where the bigger they are the better as I think both are co-op set ups where any profits the wholesaler makes go straight back to the stores being supplied at the end of the year... there was that one year after AFS bought Albertsons Utah that the stores being supplied had to write checks back to AFS to cover losses from that acquisition; first and last time that ever happened.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by pseudo3d »

Weaknesses of the Denver division aside, that is one difference between Kroger and Albertsons; it's maintaining the small town stores. Obviously, Albertsons isn't in a rush to buy up tiny, forgotten stores (Lawrence Bros. IGA and United excused), but Kroger would've closed or sold it as they've been doing in other markets.

Even though it's only 25k square feet, I wonder if it's mostly food or if it has a greater proportion of non-food items.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: November 16th, 2022, 11:31 pm Weaknesses of the Denver division aside, that is one difference between Kroger and Albertsons; it's maintaining the small town stores. Obviously, Albertsons isn't in a rush to buy up tiny, forgotten stores (Lawrence Bros. IGA and United excused), but Kroger would've closed or sold it as they've been doing in other markets.

Even though it's only 25k square feet, I wonder if it's mostly food or if it has a greater proportion of non-food items.
Kroger has plenty of small town stores, it just depends on the division. It does seem like they want towns of 5-10k population though. Safeway runs MANY stores in towns under 5k population. I question how those fit for Kroger. But Kroger did buy that Jay C Chain years ago and got many very small town stores, now as time has gone on they converted many to Ruler Foods and didn't even keep them as a conventional format. So I wonder if we may see some of that sort of thing.

This Burlington Store was doing good volume for Safeway. It was too small and did not meet the needs of the community very well. It was good Albertsons Corporate took a look at some of this Shopko real estate.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: November 16th, 2022, 11:34 pm
pseudo3d wrote: November 16th, 2022, 11:31 pm Weaknesses of the Denver division aside, that is one difference between Kroger and Albertsons; it's maintaining the small town stores. Obviously, Albertsons isn't in a rush to buy up tiny, forgotten stores (Lawrence Bros. IGA and United excused), but Kroger would've closed or sold it as they've been doing in other markets.

Even though it's only 25k square feet, I wonder if it's mostly food or if it has a greater proportion of non-food items.
Kroger has plenty of small town stores, it just depends on the division. It does seem like they want towns of 5-10k population though. Safeway runs MANY stores in towns under 5k population. I question how those fit for Kroger. But Kroger did buy that Jay C Chain years ago and got many very small town stores, now as time has gone on they converted many to Ruler Foods and didn't even keep them as a conventional format. So I wonder if we may see some of that sort of thing.

This Burlington Store was doing good volume for Safeway. It was too small and did not meet the needs of the community very well. It was good Albertsons Corporate took a look at some of this Shopko real estate.
JayC was the only division that Kroger had where the smaller stores were the focus; in every other division, they have their stores concentrated in cities with suburban locations and maybe one or two in smaller satellite cities. Kroger, for instance, has a giant void between Houston and Dallas save for the two B/CS stores and another store somewhere in East Texas. Going east from Houston, for instance, they have a few stores in Beaumont area and Lake Charles area, but really none beyond that.

Seeing as how JayC now has less than two dozen locations branded as such (if I read correctly) and getting merged into the Louisville Division, its prospects for continued survival under that name and format aren't great.
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: November 16th, 2022, 11:46 pm
JayC was the only division that Kroger had where the smaller stores were the focus; in every other division, they have their stores concentrated in cities with suburban locations and maybe one or two in smaller satellite cities. Kroger, for instance, has a giant void between Houston and Dallas save for the two B/CS stores and another store somewhere in East Texas. Going east from Houston, for instance, they have a few stores in Beaumont area and Lake Charles area, but really none beyond that.

Seeing as how JayC now has less than two dozen locations branded as such (if I read correctly) and getting merged into the Louisville Division, its prospects for continued survival under that name and format aren't great.
Really Jay C is just a "small" Kroger. There are (were) some small Krogers around the Midwest too that were very much like a Jay C (15k square feet) in a small town. But Kroger has been actively closing those. Jay C does have a few larger (40k square foot) stores.

Dillon also runs some smaller stores but over time they've been replacing, expanding, in a couple cases closing...
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Re: New Safeway opening Burlington, CO

Post by jamcool »

Safeway's main strength is small town stores, like in Arizona, where often the only alternative is the Dollar chains-and Walmart in some towns.
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