Schnucks and Canada Private Label

[storewanderer]

Went to a few Schnucks Stores. One of them carries Supervalu/UNFI brands (Essential Everyday and Equaline) and little to no Schnucks brand stuff.

But the other two did carry Schnucks brands. Also some Food Club stuff mixed in now, but not a whole lot.

One of them had an endcap full of Schnucks potato chips, 1.39 per bag. A bunch of weird flavors. Garlic bread with cheese, "taco," maple bacon, jerk, jalapeno, etc. These looked familiar to me. These looked like Presidents Choice potato chip flavors. Flipped the bag over and sure enough Product of Canada. I looked around, didn't see any other items that appeared to be carry overs. But I wonder if they are using some of the same suppliers and getting essentially the same products as Presidents Choice?

Schnucks is a pretty good store. They are way underrated and don't get the credit they deserve. Also few customers in IL.

[Romr123]

Don't know which Canadian vendor those chips come from (likely Humpty Dumpty--these are the "Canadian" chips you find throughout New England and are usually lower in price). I found a bunch of interesting private label flavors at Winn-Dixie down in Florida, including "all dressed" which had another name at W-D. (It's a combo flavor of sour cream and onion, ketchup, barbecue and salt/vinegar which, along with ketchup chips, are really popular throughout Canada. I think you're right that the manufacturer just runs multiple store brands off the line that also does President's Choice/Compliments/etc.

Schnucks' isn't at their strongest in those N. Illinois stores...as you say, they use SuperValu for private label up there (can't quite make it from the St. Louis area in an 8 hr day for a driver). They do pretty well up to Bloomington, IL (these were organically developed stores rather than the acquisition up in Rockford/further north). Schnucks and Dierbergs were strong enough in the early 90s that they held off Walmart extending food toward the metro area (past Eureka MO/Waterloo, IL), and Target had grocery in their original 1970s build stores but hasn't done anything with Super Target in the market (Target was quite early into St. Louis, but paradoxically quite late into Kansas City (only expanding there with Super Target in the early 90s).

St. Louis has an unusually strong food culture for it's size, which has created a pretty symbiotic relationship with Schnucks and Dierbergs, which are both at the upper end of mass-market supermarkets (there's another echelon above them---Straub's....the "old money" supermarket with charge accounts etc)....the classic St. Louis barbecue cut (pork shoulder steaks) were popularized by Schnucks in the 50s. Nearly every week growing up in the summer Schnucks had "Pride of the Farm whole pork shoulders cut into steaks 99 cents a pound" (I can even remember the announcer's tone).

https://nourish.schnucks.com/landing/ho ... was%20born!

[storewanderer]

I did also look at the two Schnuck's units in Bloomington/Normal. I didn't go to the ones around Peoria. I also went looking for a Schnucks in Davenport, actually Bettendorf, but I see it was closed down a while ago (I think I reported that closure here actually).

Schnuck's is in trouble in Bloomington. The southern-most store on Veterans has almost no traffic, and you can tell walking through it how poorly it is doing. There is a Jewel north of the Schnuck's that has even less traffic, just got a low budget remodel, and is doing a better job hiding how poorly it is doing, but the lack of customers, lack of staffing, and lack of perishables especially meat in the Jewel speaks volumes. In between these two sits a newer Hy-Vee that is absolutely killing them. There is also a Kroger sort of across from the dead Jewel, which was just fully remodeled, and seemed pretty busy which was surprising. Meijer and Fresh Thyme were in this mess too, as well as Wal Mart Supercenter. Meijer isn't doing the business I would expect it to, Fresh Thyme is a total dud, but Wal Mart is booming. Strange little area when it comes to stores.

Then go south a little from the Schnucks and there is another situation of Kroger and Jewel close together. This time Kroger has the better location but the Kroger is a complete dive (old Superstore, Ralphs interior- maybe it wasn't so bad but for some reason I really dislike those Superstore era Krogers- I just find them dumpy and low end no matter what interior they have), the Jewel is a larger and very nice Jewel also recently remodeled. In this case I couldn't tell which of the two gets more traffic but both had enough to survive.

Schnucks looks to be in a better spot in its store at the North edge of Bloomington/Normal as there isn't any other conventional supermarket up there. But this store still didn't seem all that busy considering all things.

The Schnucks with the UNFI/Supervalu brands I went into was a former Hilander and it was a pretty giant store. They really had trouble filling the space. This store had been remodeled somewhat recently. It appears Kroger had the Ralphs decor on it, but the only trace was some tile work behind the service meat counter. What is funny is Schnucks wall decor in that location reminds me of Fred Meyer early 00's wall decor.

I also notice Schnucks fully demolished the pharmacy spaces and converted them to sales floor space. You really can't tell where they were, the only giveaway is the flooring looks a little different in the demolished areas.

I think Hy Vee just rolls over Schnucks. I think Schnucks actually has higher quality fresh products. Hy Vee quality is also very good though. Tough competition.

[Bakeragr]

Schnucks' private label offerings have greatly expanded in the past couple of years. They have brought in quite a few unique items. Or at least unique to the Midwest. I feel like I see more people shopping at their locations in Central Missouri more than in the past.
You know, back when they acquired National, they carried Presidents' Choice items for many years. Interestingly, Hy-Vee carried them too.

I believe they cut a deal with Supervalu when they bought the Shop 'N Save locations to use SVU for their northern locations, i.e. Rockford and DeKalb. It doesn't quite jive with their other store locations.
Personally, I still find it odd that they bailed on Memphis, because with the way they've improved their selection and merchandising, I think it really would have benefited them in that market. Kroger is the only mainline operator there. Wonder if they thought Publix was coming soon. I also think it's odd that they closed that store in Bettendorf when it was a new build that they constructed. I think simply adding another location in the market would have helped. Hy-Vee historically has been a tough competitor, however.