buckguy wrote: ↑April 18th, 2023, 5:45 pm
I always wondered why Food Fair (and Acme) never got bigger in DC. Acme had been there since the 20s, but always had single digit market share and uneven locations. Food Fair had to use the FoodLane name until Grand Union bought the local Food Fair chain but that didn't stop the Philly chain from building large shopping centers (the first multi-anchor center, Seven Corners) which gave them nice showcases. Did they shrink from aggressive competitors like Safeway and Giant? Somehow they and Acme seemed to have bigger operations in Baltimore, while competing against those two. A&P never had a huge number of stores in the DC area and Grand Union had an uneven operations, so I would think that someone could have made a strong enough effort to be a decent #3 in the market and at least over take Grand Union.
I know that this isn't a grocery history site but A&P in DC was always very interesting to me.
When I lived in the DC area from 1995 - 2000 A&P still had a small presence in DC under the SuperFresh banner. They closed most of the SuperFresh stores in Northern Virginia in 2002 but didn't fully exit DC until 2011.
I remember in my time there they built a new store in Fairfax that looked much more "modern" than the drop ceiling and cramped feeling stores that Safeway and Giant had. It had warehouse ceilings and actually was a nice store that is now a 99 Ranch Market at 10780 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22030.
My mother liked to shop there as she was from Michigan and SuperFresh was very similar to Farmer Jack the dominant Detroit area chain from the late 1980s - early 2000s.
A&P had some very nice new concept stores they were building in the late 90's/early 00's. The idea of these stores was to try to revitalize the chain. I don't think they ever did enough volume despite these being very nice stores.
In the 2000s, Meijer double-downed on the "I-75" expansion route. I once saw a presentation in which they explained that they targeted Las Vegas / Phoenix / SoCal-Inland Empire, but Super K-Mart and Walmart were aggressively building the region out so they stuck with the I-75 route. That turned into a bust, as stores in places like Cincinnati, Louisville, etc. performed poorly and Walmart & (Super) Target aggressively built out Central Florida (Meijer acquired several sites in Central Florida, but sold them).
In the mid-2010s, Meijer moved its focus to Western IL / Wisconsin & Minnesota. They acquired some sites in Minnesota and I believe they still own them, but they said pre-COVID that the Minnesota market was over grocered. My best guess is that they smelled blood with Roundy's faltering with its Mariano's project but Meijer failed to foresee Kroger acquiring and revitalizing the chain.
I don't believe Pittsburgh has ever officially been on the map, but with the expansion into Cleveland seemingly more successful, it'd be natural.
I wonder if there is a unique issue with the Pittsburgh market. Back in the day, Food Fair/Pantry Pride did not seem to want to expand to the west in PA. They were quite powerful back then and feared by Kroger, A&P and Safeway.
Interesting. Acme never had more than 5 or 6 stores in Greater Pittsburgh and they unevenly covered the smaller markets, even when their CEO came from the family whose chain Acme had purchased and ran as their Johnstown Division. Very odd. The one chain that entered Pittsburgh during the super market era was Loblaw which built stores and then bought the local Star chain. That operation was merged with their Youngstown operation and transferred to National Tea, which never made money in the Pittsburgh area and never invested much. Thorofare dominated the market for many years but did not invest in its stores when it should have in the 60s and Giant Eagle over took them. There were relatively strong co-ops at one time, with Foodland being the dominant one. Fun fact---Kroger bought the predecessor to Giant Eagle in the corner grocery era; the founding family turned around and started building super markets.
I wonder if one issue for Food Fair was the declining population. There are towns in the Pittsburgh orbit that began losing population in the 20s. Pittsburgh itself lost population in the 20s. Between the World Wars and in the decade or so afterward, Cleveland rather than Pittsburgh was the big magnet for people from the small towns and also drew people from Pittsburgh.
The topography in SW Pennsylvania is rugged in places and I wouldn't have wanted to take a semi from Pittsburgh to Uniontown in the winter on the old two lane roads---that also may have been a factor. The Alleghany plateau as its called is a significant barrier to eastward and southward expansion from Pittsburgh. There used to be a surprising amount of competition in Youngstown (nearest market of any size to Pittsburgh) and, for decades, a small number of families controlled much of the Cleveland market through chains and co-ops, running very strong operations, with large stores and first rate perishables. Kroger had many problems in Cleveland, often closing stores after a short period of time. A&P did ok for awhile but was handicapped by having relatively small stores. Food Fair may have seen limited opportunity for Westward development from Pittsburgh which would have been the most feasible direction to grow back in the 50-70s.
I always wondered why Food Fair (and Acme) never got bigger in DC. Acme had been there since the 20s, but always had single digit market share and uneven locations. Food Fair had to use the FoodLane name until Grand Union bought the local Food Fair chain but that didn't stop the Philly chain from building large shopping centers (the first multi-anchor center, Seven Corners) which gave them nice showcases. Did they shrink from aggressive competitors like Safeway and Giant? Somehow they and Acme seemed to have bigger operations in Baltimore, while competing against those two. A&P never had a huge number of stores in the DC area and Grand Union had an uneven operations, so I would think that someone could have made a strong enough effort to be a decent #3 in the market and at least over take Grand Union.
Clearly off topic, mea culpa!
I believe that was a missed oportunity for them in the DC area. It was a time of great diversification for them. They were never afraid of the "big" 5 back then (they displaced a couple of them a few times at their peak). At that time they had the largest shopping center/mall property development, real estate company in the USA.
buckguy wrote: ↑April 18th, 2023, 5:45 pm
I always wondered why Food Fair (and Acme) never got bigger in DC. Acme had been there since the 20s, but always had single digit market share and uneven locations. Food Fair had to use the FoodLane name until Grand Union bought the local Food Fair chain but that didn't stop the Philly chain from building large shopping centers (the first multi-anchor center, Seven Corners) which gave them nice showcases. Did they shrink from aggressive competitors like Safeway and Giant? Somehow they and Acme seemed to have bigger operations in Baltimore, while competing against those two. A&P never had a huge number of stores in the DC area and Grand Union had an uneven operations, so I would think that someone could have made a strong enough effort to be a decent #3 in the market and at least over take Grand Union.
I know that this isn't a grocery history site but A&P in DC was always very interesting to me.
When I lived in the DC area from 1995 - 2000 A&P still had a small presence in DC under the SuperFresh banner. They closed most of the SuperFresh stores in Northern Virginia in 2002 but didn't fully exit DC until 2011.
I remember in my time there they built a new store in Fairfax that looked much more "modern" than the drop ceiling and cramped feeling stores that Safeway and Giant had. It had warehouse ceilings and actually was a nice store that is now a 99 Ranch Market at 10780 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22030.
My mother liked to shop there as she was from Michigan and SuperFresh was very similar to Farmer Jack the dominant Detroit area chain from the late 1980s - early 2000s.
Yeah, many of those SuperFresh stores were former Food Fair/Pantry Pride stores in Virginia and DC.
