Pavilions Long Beach converting to Vons

[storewanderer]

I am not very surprised by this change based on how this store is or how it appears to be doing (not great). Or maybe I am. Why bother doing a banner change now? Also I wonder why they convert it to Vons and not to Albertsons given Albertsons was previously nearby. Must be another of those Safeway mindset decisions this SoCal region keeps making.

Funny to me they are screwing around with banners when there are going to be a bunch of pending divests. I don't see this one as a pending divest though...

[veteran+]

Is this store near any of these high end neighborhoods?

Belmont
El Dorado Park
City College Area
The Plaza
Naples-Marina Area
State College Area
Los Altos
Park Estates
Los Cerritos Area
Alamitos Heights
Dominguez

[ClownLoach]

Is this store near any of these high end neighborhoods?

Belmont
El Dorado Park
City College Area
The Plaza
Naples-Marina Area
State College Area
Los Altos
Park Estates
Los Cerritos Area
Alamitos Heights
Dominguez

First off, with the long-ago closure of the first store in Garden Grove this has stood as the oldest Pavilions in the chain until now. Long Beach was the 2nd Pavilions location to open. I believe the site is a former Zody's. So it is the longest running Pavilions in the chain.

Aside from Marina Pacifica Ralphs, this Pavilions is arguably the 2nd best located grocery store in Long Beach when it comes to quality of surrounding neighborhoods. At first I thought it would make sense to brand it Albertsons. But Albertsons has abandoned two locations a block away, first the 1995 build that went to Stater Bros in the Lucky merger (they kept the Lucky and converted to Albertsons, this is the locally famous store destroyed by a tornado). Then the kept Lucky now Albertsons was divested to Haggen in that debacle so they could keep the Pavilions. That Haggen became Amazon Fresh after sitting vacant for years. Clearly the Pavilions was the best performer, and then the bonus of Ralphs closing a block up the Diagonal.

In 1995 basically this three block area had Pavilions, Ralphs, Albertsons, Lucky, and a Food4Less. Pavilions is the only original store left. Nothing big has opened in the area to siphon off share unless you think Amazon Fresh is having an effect. I think they would have received enough benefit from Ralphs closing to offset Amazon opening. That is the top preforming Amazon Fresh location in the chain but that isn't saying a whole lot as supposedly none are profitable 'yet' according to some reddit employee forums.

I would imagine that this to-be-Vons won't be remodeled either aside from a repaint. It was already a "Pavilions in name only" format with a Vons lifestyle 2.0 interior. The store is solidly busy and needed a refresh of some sort. Probably easier to slap a coat of paint and a Vons sign on it versus do a months long rebuild to the Pavilions current format. Since the only real difference now between a large upscale Vons and a Pavilions is the size of the liquor department I don't think this is a suitable location for the Pavilions name either. I do not see this area being quite rich enough to make installation of the wine cellar and 5+ aisles of liquor work out. I don't believe that the store is underperforming and this is a last ditch effort to save it (as it was in Westminster). I expect if the merger didn't go through we would continue to see them convert stores based on the overall performance of the liquor business. The top performing stores in liquor are the Pavilions now. Really odd to see that be the main distinguishing factor in banners but that's exactly how they're operating it. The Laguna Niguel store that downsized to open up a 20K vacancy next door (last I visited it was now for lease) reduced everything in the store significantly except for the 6 aisles of wine and liquor - makes the store look like a liquor store that happens to have meat and produce.

[veteran+]

Would anyone know the total square footage of this store?

[ClownLoach]

Would anyone know the total square footage of this store?

At least 60,000 Sq ft. I think this is a factor in deciding if they will remodel as Pavilions vs converting to Vons. These oversized stores took a very long time to remodel in Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita etc. In this very competitive spot they really can't afford to have the store torn up for 6+ months, especially when the net result is a reduction of GM and health/pharmacy items to expand liquor to a ridiculous extreme. Makes sense to do a lighter remodel and brand as Vons. This is a solid upper middle class market - but not high end enough to sell full cart loads of high end spirits or need a wine sommelier and wine cellar. Again that's really the only thing that differentiates Pavilions from Vons aside from the new decor package. I've seen plenty of Albertsons and Vons with all the other features known to Pavilions (higher end service meat/seafood and expanded organics). The liquor is the only real differentiator now.

I still expect to see more of the more upscale Vons and Albertsons with top wine and liquor sales converted to Pavilions format in the future.

[storewanderer]

Physically this store is tired but in mint condition for a Safeway Lifestyle Store. Flooring etc. in perfect shape. The store is very spacious. It is evident it has not had heavy traffic in years and the somewhat moderate level of traffic it has is not hard on the store. It is a well run store with good employees.

What I observed of this store was the traffic it had was mostly single people going in and buying a small number of items. But at their pricing a small number of items often means $50+. Perimeter bakery/deli/seafood appeared to be particularly underperforming and over-assorted, with Pavilions these areas have some different items than standard Vons, and prices across the board are outrageously higher than usual (that pricing probably killed those departments in this store). The departments looked fresh but it was evident sales volume was very, very low in those departments.

The Drive Up and Go was opened in the back of the store so I am not sure how that offer was doing.

I think the musical chairs of Albertsons in that neighborhood is not necessarily due to failure. It is more due to circumstance (mergers and divests). Stater is doing VERY well there.

[ClownLoach]

I think I've got this one figured out, just need to go look at it. I think this is a two-fold change. First, the next Vons to the west on the Traffic Circle is 100% going to be divested. The Ralphs across the street from it is a huge high volume store. For some reason the Vons seems to attract more of the college student clientele with small transactions and lots of cheap beer. That Vons has come a long way, it was a very old store doubled in size in the late 1990s with a full remodel inside and out. But there is no way they keep it. So the next store up the road now will have the Vons nameplate.

Second, I'll bet they're downsizing the store like Laguna Niguel. I didn't put two and two together until now and need to validate by visiting. The setup is unusual in that it is an appropriate 75,000 Sq ft box where stores were built along the front without any rear access as their back wall is the store front wall. These stores included a coffee place, haircut place, Panda Express, cleaners and a big dentist office. Then the entrance is a centered tunnel similar to a California Smiths but outdoors and the Pavilions sales floor is about 55K.

I noticed last December they had cleared out the stores to the right of the entrance including a dental office and dry cleaners. Apparently according to reviews the store is undergoing heavy and disruptive construction plus downsizing of selection. We haven't seen this on any Pavilions to Vons previously. In fact the Anaheim Hills and Westminster stores kept the "Pavilions lifestyle" decor with just new paint, really no change at all to the store or assortment aside from the Vons sign going up. They could easily wall off that eastern portion and make it a 15K to 20K retail space, and the store would still be on the larger side for Vons. The main perimeter departments are all center store with refrigeration mainly on the west side of the building so all that would need to move is the Pharmacy.

My bet would be Petco would go in as they're going to get forced out of their nice newer store by the Marina (ugly case of pretty new center <20 years old being demolished for 5 story luxury apartments) and there literally is not a site open anywhere for them in the area unless they wanted to rent part of the dead Sears on Bellflower. Although it will be a drive of 3 or 4 miles they have a chance to retain customers by moving there. The CVS that recently closed nearby is too small for Petco and I don't think the center it's in will survive the decade, it was already sold to a developer and I'm sure the small format Target in the ex Ralphs would happily close due to massive high shrink. I think the entire thing will be torn down for apartments for Cal State Long Beach students across the street as the school is the highest attended University in California now.

I'll be in the area next week and see if my hypothesis is correct that it's a downsizing. But the rebranding is a valuable clue to the merger strategy that is underway - guaranteed the traffic circle Vons is on the internal divest list, but this also doubles up the theory that they will maintain separate banners post merger and possibly sell off or license the Albertsons name if they can make a deal or are forced to create SpinCo.

[ClownLoach]

Physically this store is tired but in mint condition for a Safeway Lifestyle Store. Flooring etc. in perfect shape. The store is very spacious. It is evident it has not had heavy traffic in years and the somewhat moderate level of traffic it has is not hard on the store. It is a well run store with good employees.

What I observed of this store was the traffic it had was mostly single people going in and buying a small number of items. But at their pricing a small number of items often means $50+. Perimeter bakery/deli/seafood appeared to be particularly underperforming and over-assorted, with Pavilions these areas have some different items than standard Vons, and prices across the board are outrageously higher than usual (that pricing probably killed those departments in this store). The departments looked fresh but it was evident sales volume was very, very low in those departments.

The Drive Up and Go was opened in the back of the store so I am not sure how that offer was doing.

I think the musical chairs of Albertsons in that neighborhood is not necessarily due to failure. It is more due to circumstance (mergers and divests). Stater is doing VERY well there.

It is a very heavy Monday-Friday morning and afternoon store, as you see in traditional communities where there is a stay at home parent. The large square footage and wide aisles help this store with wear and tear. Also it got a full remodel from old Pavilions decor (white walls/purple red stripe) to "Pavilions Lifestyle" with the arched signs and the nice sponge painted walls. For some bizarre reason the store received a full remodel again at the end of the Lifestyle 2.0 rollout, the beginning of the "Pavilions in Name Only" Era under Safeway. The other two banner changes I'm familiar with (Anaheim Hills/Westminster) never had true Safeway lifestyle decor remodels. Hence the mint condition appearance. If it wasn't performing then it wouldn't have received two remodels in a time frame where most Pavilions even in richer areas only got one. Also I believe this is an owned building. Zero rent makes a big difference, and if my hypothesis is right that this is a downsizing to create rental space that is only going to make the remaining footage more productive and bring in new income/traffic next door.

Stater Long Beach was non existent there until the strike. I wasn't even sure if they would stay open as their first couple of years they maintained the blue and gray Albertsons decor and had absolutely no customers. I mean 5pm prime time nobody in line. They struck gold with the strike. Food4Less had already closed and was a low end IGA which would eventually become a Fresh and Easy. Then the other stores around it all were on strike (Pavilions, Albertsons, Ralphs). Suddenly they were the only conventional grocery store open on the entire Eastern side of Long Beach. This may be the single best example where they would go from "zero to hero" since they didn't have any presence in town previously and nobody had heard of them.

As far as Albertsons goes - yes this is an area where they upset the customers and mismanaged their brand severely. They could open a new store and hand out gold bars at the grand opening but nobody in the neighborhood would show up. First the location that became Stater Bros is actually rather lousy - set back and facing the wrong direction. It's an old National Lumber. They never had any level of success there, while the "tornado Lucky" was one of their best and busiest stores. When they rebuilt after the freak tornado it looked great (might have had some kind of new decor for Lucky, I honestly don't remember) Albertsons took it over and did what they did with pricing and operating model. Then they decided to try to complete a massive, gut the store remodel where they moved the entrances, set up the horror of triple split aisles (!!!) and lowered the ceilings around the perimeter making it the worst implementation of Premium Fresh and Healthy decor I've seen. Somehow despite adding numerous windows it came out like a miserable dark cave. The store was shredded for almost a year with this construction and much worse when finished than before they started. They never recovered from that remodel and I'm sure they were happy to hand the keys to Haggen to escape their mistakes. So they did everything in their power to screw up their operations in the neighborhood and upset their customers. Albertsons was the store of last resort in the area. I was still surprised Ralphs closed up the street after also doubling their size in a mid 2000's remodel but then the real reason was revealed (not COVID pay like Kroger claimed), that the site is being absorbed by a medical center that is planned next door. If they hadn't lost the site I think Ralphs would have been trying to do something to keep the Pavilions location instead as their store had terribly limited parking which put a hard cap on sales.

[retailfanmitchell019]

I still expect to see more of the more upscale Vons and Albertsons with top wine and liquor sales converted to Pavilions format in the future.

That's assuming the Kroger merger doesn't happen. I think Calabasas, Rancho Mirage, Irvine (Quail Hill), and San Clemente (Plaza Pacifica) Albertsons stores would be great for the Pavilions format.
I think Vons stores in Carlsbad (Rancho Santa Fe, and the one across from Carlsbad Mall), Encinitas (Santa Fe), Del Mar, San Diego (Liberty Station), Pacific Palisades, Studio City, Encino, Agoura Hills, and Thousand Oaks would be good Pavilions conversions.
Calabasas is a very special Albertsons- was always shown in Albertsons TV ads. It definitely had the Jewel interior, and it was the flagship Albertsons until the Market Street near Boise opened.

I think the musical chairs of Albertsons in that neighborhood is not necessarily due to failure. It is more due to circumstance (mergers and divests). Stater is doing VERY well there.

I expect the Vons there to be converted to Ralphs assuming the Kroger merger is completed.

[retailfanmitchell019]

Stater Long Beach was non existent there until the strike. I wasn't even sure if they would stay open as their first couple of years they maintained the blue and gray Albertsons decor and had absolutely no customers. I mean 5pm prime time nobody in line. They struck gold with the strike. Food4Less had already closed and was a low end IGA which would eventually become a Fresh and Easy. Then the other stores around it all were on strike (Pavilions, Albertsons, Ralphs). Suddenly they were the only conventional grocery store open on the entire Eastern side of Long Beach. This may be the single best example where they would go from "zero to hero" since they didn't have any presence in town previously and nobody had heard of them.

I'm surprised there were ANY IGA stores in the LA basin.