Raley’s closing South Lake Tahoe (Village) location

[bryceleinan]

Friends and family started hearing rumors last week, however, South Tahoe Now lays out the official release that Raley’s is closing their Tahoe Village location closest to the Nevada state line. Release says that the landlord and Raley’s could not come to terms on a lease extension.

http://southtahoenow.com/story/02/06/20 ... 9pUZsmFjhA

No replacement tenant announced yet.

[storewanderer]

This is a very high profile closure. The store has been underperforming as a full line conventional grocery store for years. The store was in poor physical condition (had the early 00's Ralphs copycat interior Raleys developed) and desperately needed a deep cleaning and remodel but wasn't getting either.

This store also had the lower price scale of Raleys (used down in Nevada at a few stores near Smiths locations- Sparks McCarran, Carson City, and Reno North Hills) but I don't think the local customers ever caught on that this was the cheapest store up there.

The store closed its pharmacy many years ago and lost the "local" business years ago due to parking issues at the shopping center. So the store turned into a big tourist store. Massive foot traffic when Tahoe is busy (which is basically always since COVID reopening).

Over the years Raleys removed more and more products from the aisles, shortened aisle lengths, made aisles wider, and did a lot of other things to try to make the massive space look/feel full. Bakery, deli, produce, and meat have looked terrible in this store for years now, which is odd, as there should have been an opportunity to sell those items to the tourists.

Raleys also massively expanded mix of things like liquor and bottled water, snacks, etc. Tourist items. The store in recent years seemed understaffed every time I went in with only 2-3 registers open max plus the self checkouts and lines always backed up at all lanes; self checkouts there are always a complete fiasco because tourists don't understand they can't take liquor through those, plus Raleys self checkout interface is the slowest and worst possible implementation of the NCR for some reason; it is clumsier and slower than the 1st generation self checkouts at Kmart and Albertsons 20 years ago.

What should have happened here is Raleys downsize their store down to 25k square feet and do a liquor/snack/drug concept in the space. Forget meat, produce, and most of dry grocery. The way they talk it sounds like they tried to explore options but nothing worked out. I don't think continuing the current large store was a sustainable idea nor is it the best use for this land. The store had way too much dead space. Tahoe is too busy to have so much dead space in such a prime location.

[ninersdd]

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/ ... ake-tahoe/

According to this article at the end, a director for Raleys was asked if they will open other locations within a 30 miles radius of the lake. They said they are looking into options. Where could they exactly go?(Especially after taking over the Scolari's stores)

[storewanderer]

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/ ... ake-tahoe/

According to this article at the end, a director for Raleys was asked if they will open other locations within a 30 miles radius of the lake. They said they are looking into options. Where could they exactly go?(Especially after taking over the Scolari's stores)

There is a sliver of the Rite Aid that is available. Ross is in the old Lucky; not sure if there may be a lease restriction on grocery. Bad location and old building that needs a lot of work. I wish a Trader Joe's would go there but so far nothing; even a Sprouts would be nice.

Maybe if the Whole Foods decides to not stay in Lake Tahoe, Raleys could take that over. Whole Foods has been looking busier at Tahoe lately though. Still not sure how the Whole Foods is doing but the 365 build store there has a lot less perimeter so it should be a lot cheaper to run and easier to staff.

[veteran+]

https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/ ... ake-tahoe/

According to this article at the end, a director for Raleys was asked if they will open other locations within a 30 miles radius of the lake. They said they are looking into options. Where could they exactly go?(Especially after taking over the Scolari's stores)

Extreme fluctuations in sales (uber seasonal markets) requires extreme skill sets to manage. I learned that in the Palm Springs area.

When a quick 300% increase or decrease (or more) in sales occurs it is tough at best.

[storewanderer]

Extreme fluctuations in sales (uber seasonal markets) requires extreme skill sets to manage. I learned that in the Palm Springs area.

When a quick 300% increase or decrease (or more) in sales occurs it is tough at best.

Tahoe stores employ many tactics to respond to this. Houses either owned or rented by the chain to house employees willing to come from elsewhere to volunteer to work. Dispatch salaried managers to the Tahoe stores on Holiday Weekends from 100+ miles away to help out. J1 Visa employees on seasonal contracts. These are big dollar stores and Safeway and Raleys spare no expense to respond to the crowd. Raleys self checkouts are a big problem, too slow and clumsy. Raleys regular checkout is generally good, they are good at having baggers on duty, which really helps move the lines.

This closing Raleys during some busy periods in the past would randomly be open 24 hours for a few weeks/months. Raleys never had 24 hour stores since the 80's other than this one off situation.

One of the things in Raleys favor to respond to these giant increases in sales was having these big oversized stores. Raleys has been very willing to tailor product mix to the store. For example this closing Raleys, it is just flat out having almost no SKUs in certain product categories. Let's start with pet food. This is a tourist store. They hardly have any of it. Baking items/cake mixes- again- drastic cut in this category in this store compared to a typical store. But then, things like bottled water, soda, liquor, what seem like endless facings of this stuff. Beach toys and other stuff a typical Raleys does not sell.

[ninersdd]

Extreme fluctuations in sales (uber seasonal markets) requires extreme skill sets to manage. I learned that in the Palm Springs area.

When a quick 300% increase or decrease (or more) in sales occurs it is tough at best.

Tahoe stores employ many tactics to respond to this. Houses either owned or rented by the chain to house employees willing to come from elsewhere to volunteer to work. Dispatch salaried managers to the Tahoe stores on Holiday Weekends from 100+ miles away to help out. J1 Visa employees on seasonal contracts. These are big dollar stores and Safeway and Raleys spare no expense to respond to the crowd. Raleys self checkouts are a big problem, too slow and clumsy. Raleys regular checkout is generally good, they are good at having baggers on duty, which really helps move the lines.

This closing Raleys during some busy periods in the past would randomly be open 24 hours for a few weeks/months. Raleys never had 24 hour stores since the 80's other than this one off situation.

One of the things in Raleys favor to respond to these giant increases in sales was having these big oversized stores. Raleys has been very willing to tailor product mix to the store. For example this closing Raleys, it is just flat out having almost no SKUs in certain product categories. Let's start with pet food. This is a tourist store. They hardly have any of it. Baking items/cake mixes- again- drastic cut in this category in this store compared to a typical store. But then, things like bottled water, soda, liquor, what seem like endless facings of this stuff. Beach toys and other stuff a typical Raleys does not sell.

Yeah, reminds me of how at the one in Incline Village where that has a lot of beach stuff(Of course another high tourist area and captive audience store with lots of beaches)

[storewanderer]

Yeah, reminds me of how at the one in Incline Village where that has a lot of beach stuff(Of course another high tourist area and captive audience store with lots of beaches)

Incline is a very high profit store for Raleys, probably one of the best in their chain. They have that store merchandised to the max with everything they can possibly offer plus the extra tourist/beach type stuff. The great thing about that store is it stays busy all year, it is just a question of how busy. They may not have sporting goods or fishing supplies anymore (or maybe they still do), but they have what the current tourists are looking for. Natural Grocers will open soon in Incline Village but I doubt Raleys will feel the $40k a week in sales Natural Grocers may end up doing (if they are lucky to even do that much).

[storewanderer]

The store is closed now, there was a snow issue with the roof. Will be interesting to see if they reopen. I hope for their sake they don't have a NNN lease, would sure be lousy to have to pay roof repairs on a building you are about to vacate.

The store was evacuated today due to the roof issue.

[bryceleinan]

The store is closed now, there was a snow issue with the roof. Will be interesting to see if they reopen. I hope for their sake they don't have a NNN lease, would sure be lousy to have to pay roof repairs on a building you are about to vacate.

The store was evacuated today due to the roof issue.

Yeah, that is a rough one for Raley’s if it’s NNN. I’m fairly certain the landlord has a replacement tenant in mind, otherwise, they would have negotiated with Raley’s a bit more.