The death of Sav-on?

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retailfanmitchell019
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The death of Sav-on?

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

In the Rite Aid closing stores thread, ClownLoach has noted that the Sav-on name has been removed from Albertsons exteriors in SoCal and replaced with black "PHARMACY" signs that are in the Safeway logo font. These sign changes have been done as Albertsons stores have been remodeled.
Examples so far include the store on Foothill Parkway in Corona (planned as a Lucky/Sav-on, built as Albertsons) and the store on Temecula Parkway in Temecula (former Lucky/Sav-on).
I found a few more:
Huntington Beach-Yorktown (clone of the Corona store)
Spring Valley-Campo Road (former Food Basket/Lucky)
Murrietta-Scott Road (2005 build Albertsons that previously had Jewel interior)
Westminster (former Lucky)
Anaheim (former Lucky, this one had the 2002 version of the Industrial Circus interior)
Riverside-Trautwein (1997 build original Albertsons)
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by storewanderer »

It was probably time to retire the Sav-On banner. I don't think it meant anything to anyone at this point in time. Supervalu did attempt to retain that banner for pharmacy including putting it on the department fixtures.

Not sure why they used black "Pharmacy" signs in Safeway logo font though. The new build stores don't even get those signs, they get all caps white letters that say "PHARMACY" spaced out nicely and it looks good. Typical Safeway I guess. Can't ever do anything any other way than the Safeway way, and that means those black Pharmacy signs.
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: December 23rd, 2022, 12:42 am It was probably time to retire the Sav-On banner. I don't think it meant anything to anyone at this point in time. Supervalu did attempt to retain that banner for pharmacy including putting it on the department fixtures.

Not sure why they used black "Pharmacy" signs in Safeway logo font though. The new build stores don't even get those signs, they get all caps white letters that say "PHARMACY" spaced out nicely and it looks good. Typical Safeway I guess. Can't ever do anything any other way than the Safeway way, and that means those black Pharmacy signs.
Sav-On has little value...Albertsons tried opening some standalone stores but these did not work out. And the Osco name wouldn't work in some locations, such as Boise where Buttrey-Osco stores once existed, then the name was removed from Buttrey stores as the Skaggs stores took on the Osco Drug name. It's probably best to stick with one name for the whole store.

As for the Safeway font....perhaps a rebranding from Albertsons to Safeway is coming for those stores. This is still happening in the Pacific Northwest, recently I noticed that the Albertsons in Troutdale has been rebranded to Safeway. This took place after a nearby Safeway suffered a roof collapse and did not reopen.
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by pseudo3d »

The Sav-on name has been muddled for a while. It was one of I believe Johnston's initiatives to co-brand Sav-on with Albertsons in many markets a la Jewel-Osco, but it wasn't merchandised or run the same way, and the Sav-on branding had little meaning to most of the markets it applied to. All the stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth division got it, but there had never been any stand-alone Sav-on drug stores in the area. There WERE some in Houston, but they sold out to Walgreens in the mid-1980s (fallout from the Jewel/American Stores merger) and by the time the Sav-on name started going everywhere, Albertsons in Houston didn't exist anymore.

I do remember reading that Albertsons LLC opened a Sav-on in a hospital (likely pre-existing space) but I think that disappeared fairly quickly.
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by jamcool »

There are still Albertsons Osco stores in the Phoenix area.
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: December 31st, 2022, 11:08 am The Sav-on name has been muddled for a while. It was one of I believe Johnston's initiatives to co-brand Sav-on with Albertsons in many markets a la Jewel-Osco, but it wasn't merchandised or run the same way, and the Sav-on branding had little meaning to most of the markets it applied to. All the stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth division got it, but there had never been any stand-alone Sav-on drug stores in the area. There WERE some in Houston, but they sold out to Walgreens in the mid-1980s (fallout from the Jewel/American Stores merger) and by the time the Sav-on name started going everywhere, Albertsons in Houston didn't exist anymore.

I do remember reading that Albertsons LLC opened a Sav-on in a hospital (likely pre-existing space) but I think that disappeared fairly quickly.
Johnston had two initiatives:
One was the Albertsons/Sav-On pharmacy or Albertsons/Osco pharmacy. This was just a rebranding of the pharmacy counter but nothing else changed. I think this was a pretty useless initiative.

The other was actual Albertsons/Osco combo store (AZ and NE) or Albertsons/Sav-On combo store (Reno, El Paso). This was the actual combo store program. This put a fully merchandised Osco or Sav-On operation with its own store manager, separate ads, separate shelf tag system, and a shared P&L between food region and drug region into each store. Sav-On was put in charge of all drug categories, liquor, all baby items, household items like laundry hampers and light bulbs, and candy. Albertsons remained in charge of non food things like laundry detergent, pet, and paper products. There were also a number of stores in CA and NM that were not on this explicit combo store program, but they had the drug side of the Albertsons merchandised identically to an Osco or Sav-On (mostly former Lucky/Sav-On combo stores since in 1999 Albertsons discontinued the combo store program at Lucky/Sav-On on paper, but generally kept the merchandise). The Southwest Division continues to run these combo stores with a very much expanded mix of drug items and some promotions specific to the drug categories in those locations in AZ/El Paso. Not sure how United has handled this in NM (probably took out a lot of SKUs).
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by Bagels »

Looks like they're removing it from all Albertsons, regardless of whether it's been recently renovated. Check out the scar on the Tustin store in this recent photo:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alber ... 17.8129315

Interestingly, Tustin has a drive in pharmacy that they branded as "Albertsons Pharmacy" for several years, before slapping the Save-On logo back up (I think it always stayed under the main Albertsons sign).
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Bagels wrote: February 2nd, 2023, 7:51 pm Looks like they're removing it from all Albertsons, regardless of whether it's been recently renovated.
They just removed the Sav-on sign in Chula Vista: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6269871 ... 384!8i8192
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by storewanderer »

My guess is the name Albertsons is getting divested but the names Osco and Sav-On aren't getting divested. To avoid confusion they are just getting all of the Sav-On signs down.

Not really any real reason to go remove these signs now that they are up... I understand doing it as part of a remodel but otherwise the signs aren't bothering anything or anyone. By the same token they don't serve much purpose.

In these stores removing the signs without a remodel, are they putting a "pharmacy" sign elsewhere on the building?
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Re: The death of Sav-on?

Post by wnetmacman »

Albertsons had tried doing Co-branding some time back (I think before the LLC days even) similar to what Jewel-Osco does. For the Jewel Division, it's a no-brainer now; nobody in Chicagoland can imagine the Jewels without Osco inside now. In areas where there was an Albertsons store where Osco was familiar, it was Albertsons Osco, but everywhere else, they did Sav-On.

The problem was in the vast majority of the US outside SoCal, nobody knew Sav-On. It was a wasted branding. Most other divisions (I'm in Louisiana) took down the signs 5 years ago. It's just getting to the Sav-On familiar areas now.
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