🛒 Kroger-Albertsons Merger: California Impact

[storewanderer]

I think the Downtown San Diego Ralphs is infinitely more accessible and with a far better parking situation than the Downtown San Diego Albertsons...

Having shopped at both stores when I lived in downtown San Diego, my experience is the Albertsons is easier to get in and out of. It has little to do with a different design and everything to do with the location. Navigating Market and G streets around Horton Plaza is a nightmare, mainly because of the store's proximity to the bars and the convention center. Albertsons also has more parking. In terms of getting in and out as a pedestrian, I found them to be the same. Ralphs' edge is its proximity to the offices along Broadway and B streets. The place was hopping at lunchtime and was my go-to for the years I worked on B street.

And, yes, Albertsons, not Safeway, planned the downtown SD Albertsons. It opened in 2006 (long before the merger) under SVU's ownership. It was one of the first San Diego stores to feature the Premium Fresh and Healthy decor. PFE suited that store very well. The Modern Decor makes it look drab and dark. While I'm not a huge fan of the current Jewel decor, it would have been a better choice than Modern. Even Colorful Lifestyle would have been an improvement.

I thought getting between the store and the garage in the Ralphs was easier than the Albertsons. I also do not like the Albertsons garage; it feels dead, dark, and not particularly safe. The Ralphs garage is smaller but brighter and seems to have more going on so it feels safer. In reality both garages are very safe.

It seemed to me like the Ralphs was great for pedestrian access, absolutely has an edge on being more "in the middle" of everything than the Albertsons.

Back when Ralphs had doors on each corner of the building I think they had better pedestrian access. They've now closed one set of doors off, it has been that way for 5-6 years now. The Albertsons mid-block entry is I guess no less convenient than the single Ralphs entry now. But back when Ralphs had an entry on two corners I would argue it had better pedestrian access.

[veteran+]

Know when to use it? So when don't they use it? Is it only usable before dark or something?

Only usable before 6pm?

That's not the best situation and again it wasn't like this before 2020.

I never tried it at midnight or anything but well into the evening 9pm etc. without issue before. Not the case anymore. Even weekends going south are more than sketchy.

Well, they live there and they use it often

I have been there 3 times since 2020. I did not witness the "scale" of the problem that has been stated. Perhaps a little worn out (which I was surprised given the clean feeling I always experience in most of Denver) and a few homeless here and there but no camping out scenarios. Also a scattering of transit police as well.

Camping out scenarios are nothing compared to the direct drug use and other things going on IN the trains in Denver since 2020. I don't care about camping out scenarios if someone is in a train camping out just there and doing nothing and minding their business; I mean, I expect to see that on these trains or subways, it has always been that way. The worst one I encountered out there in Denver since 2020 was use of lighters/matches in the train while camping out was occurring and conduct that seriously scared me and made me exit said train. Multiple times.

To their credit a few days after I reported said incidents I noticed transit police presence on some trains along the route where the issues were. They are responsive.

I don't consider the trains worn out at all but then I am using bay area BART as my baseline for that (about the most worn out trains that exist). Any train looks in great shape (and so quiet/smooth riding) compared to the BART trains.

Anyway you can downplay what I am saying if you would like, but there is quite a bit of data in Denver about what is going on, what I witnessed, this has been going on since 2020 and the few people who started to use it for commuting again in 2021 noticed it but nobody cared. As more and more people started using it for commuting again then finally in 2022 it seems like they have started to care and are trying to fix this, as they are now aware what a big issue this became. I do think they are dedicated to addressing these issues so the system can get back to how it was before 2020.

I actually just went and found this press coverage on the topic. Also nice to see there were 15,997 other complaints besides mine.

https://www.denver7.com/news/investigat ... tes-learns

From ABC7 article above: "The Regional Transportation District has received more than 16,000 complaints from riders and operators regarding drug use on buses, light rail, commuter rail and on RTD grounds since the start of 2022."

~ttps://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/1775f5 ... l_and_bus/

Way off topic and I think we probably need to close this and get back to the Kroger topic going forward.

You have the Last Word

[storewanderer]

[quote=veteran+ post_id=51891 time=1699633879

You have the Last Word
[/quote]

I let the news article and public records data have the last word. But it also serves to show they are working on the situation.

[retailfanmitchell019]

Also looking at pictures they finally remodeled the Balboa store. That one opened its doors as a boring Vons Lifestyle interior with nothing to differentiate it as a Pavilions besides the liquor area next door you would access through a cut-through doorway (the Pavilions-in-name-only like Long Beach and a few others). Few pictures but it looks like a full interior gut which could be good and bad at the same time, it had a separate liquor department next door with a very dark and moody interior with lots of cherry woodwork, it appears that has been completely torn out and is bright and shiny with lit shelves and light quartz stone everywhere.

Looking at pics on Google, it's a beautiful store now.
This was an Albertsons (ex-Lucky) that I believe had the Wegmans style interior similar to Corona Del Mar. I'm not sure why it closed in 2010 (maybe it wasn't fancy enough for Newport Beach I guess). Had Albertsons kept the store open through the Safeway merger, it would've been converted to Pavilions anyway.

Here's another potential Pavilions conversion: the Vons in Torrey Hills Center (Carmel Valley). This one opened in 2006 and still has the original Lifestyle I interior. Neighborhood demographics are perfect for a Pavilions.

I think other potential Pavilions conversions in San Diego County would be the Vons stores in Rancho Penasquitos, La Costa Town Square (was aborted during the pandemic), Cardiff, and Del Mar.

[ClownLoach]

Also looking at pictures they finally remodeled the Balboa store. That one opened its doors as a boring Vons Lifestyle interior with nothing to differentiate it as a Pavilions besides the liquor area next door you would access through a cut-through doorway (the Pavilions-in-name-only like Long Beach and a few others). Few pictures but it looks like a full interior gut which could be good and bad at the same time, it had a separate liquor department next door with a very dark and moody interior with lots of cherry woodwork, it appears that has been completely torn out and is bright and shiny with lit shelves and light quartz stone everywhere.

Looking at pics on Google, it's a beautiful store now.
This was an Albertsons (ex-Lucky) that I believe had the Wegmans style interior similar to Corona Del Mar. I'm not sure why it closed in 2010 (maybe it wasn't fancy enough for Newport Beach I guess). Had Albertsons kept the store open through the Safeway merger, it would've been converted to Pavilions anyway.

Here's another potential Pavilions conversion: the Vons in Torrey Hills Center (Carmel Valley). This one opened in 2006 and still has the original Lifestyle I interior. Neighborhood demographics are perfect for a Pavilions.

I think other potential Pavilions conversions in San Diego County would be the Vons stores in Rancho Penasquitos, La Costa Town Square (was aborted during the pandemic), Cardiff, and Del Mar.

I don't think Pavilions got off to a good start in San Diego. The first one in the Sorrento Valley area was not exactly a hit. I would not call the Laguna Niguel conversion successful either after being downsized and remodeled a second time to accommodate shrinking. I know the pandemic was an excuse for La Costa but I don't think this brand can actually be successful everywhere and still mean something to the customer. That's why Ralphs Fresh Fare has flopped, it was over expanded and lost it's specialization in the process.

When Safeway owned the Vons companies they basically destroyed Pavilions and rendered the banner and concept irrelevant. They stopped investment for the most part, conducting rudimentary remodels to a more "woodgrain" Safeway decor as they purged the "stripe" decor out of Vons and removed most of the specialty products except for a slightly better bakery, meat and seafood counter. In the second phase of ruining Pavilions, many stores were downgraded to Vons while others either opened as Pavilions-in-name-only or were remodeled to it with Safeway Lifestyle 2.0 interiors that had no distinction from the regular fleet. Then they started to realize the error of their ways and some stores got the "Pavilions Lifestyle" decor with the bronze sparkle letters and sponge painted walls with glass photo prints. But the damage was done and the only reputation Pavilions had left was a more expensive Vons. And as a result Pavilions has failed in neighborhoods where it should not have, like Anaheim Hills near Yorba Linda. Under Albertsons someone must have smelled an opportunity to fix the problem because otherwise I'm sure they would have killed the banner off entirely by now and we have seen some positive momentum with the brand expanding again as a quasi-fancy and healthy store (and the removal from stores that were never an accurate reflection of the concept like Long Beach). What I see changing with La Jolla and presumably Montecito is that they're steering away from the quasi-Whole Foods and moving more towards the Bristol Farms model again as what I'll call Pavilions 5.0.

Pavilions 5.0, if operated correctly as a truly upscale higher end market, should not fit into very many locations. La Jolla is a slam dunk as the demographic there is perfect, basically unlimited spending money. The San Clemente and Montecito conversions are also guaranteed winners in that format, and Malibu needs it. All the Newport Beach stores for sure. Not so sure about Seal Beach, some of the LA County locations, etc. as their clientele is more of that Whole Foods customer instead of the Bristol Farms customer. They may have to rebrand more of the Pavilions to Albertsons or Vons if their newest vision is entirely premium format.

Obviously there are limitations to how much interaction Kroger and Albertsons can have beyond the initial merger agreement and basic operational discussions that would have taken place at a high level during that negotiation process. There must have been an agreement that the Pavilions concept would be a growth vehicle in the newly combined company and thus they continue to make investments to strengthen the banner, made it a separate division, etc. Because there is clearly a much higher cost to move a store "up" to the newest Pavilions concept versus a standard remodel they must have some big plans for it.

[Bluelightspecial]

Also looking at pictures they finally remodeled the Balboa store. That one opened its doors as a boring Vons Lifestyle interior with nothing to differentiate it as a Pavilions besides the liquor area next door you would access through a cut-through doorway (the Pavilions-in-name-only like Long Beach and a few others). Few pictures but it looks like a full interior gut which could be good and bad at the same time, it had a separate liquor department next door with a very dark and moody interior with lots of cherry woodwork, it appears that has been completely torn out and is bright and shiny with lit shelves and light quartz stone everywhere.

Looking at pics on Google, it's a beautiful store now.
This was an Albertsons (ex-Lucky) that I believe had the Wegmans style interior similar to Corona Del Mar. I'm not sure why it closed in 2010 (maybe it wasn't fancy enough for Newport Beach I guess). Had Albertsons kept the store open through the Safeway merger, it would've been converted to Pavilions anyway.

Here's another potential Pavilions conversion: the Vons in Torrey Hills Center (Carmel Valley). This one opened in 2006 and still has the original Lifestyle I interior. Neighborhood demographics are perfect for a Pavilions.

I think other potential Pavilions conversions in San Diego County would be the Vons stores in Rancho Penasquitos, La Costa Town Square (was aborted during the pandemic), Cardiff, and Del Mar.

The Balboa peninsula store's lease was bought out by Safeway which is why they converted it into a Pavilions. There was another Pavilions near Lido Island that they closed when the new store opened. That store was tiny. There is another Pavilions across from Balboa Bay on Bayshore Dr. That store opened originally as a Safeway before the Vons merger.

[CalItalian]

California AG Bonta's statement on joining FTC lawsuit to block Kroger's buyout of Albertsons. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/ ... otten-deal

[ClownLoach]

Ralphs is advertising the grand reopening of the Temecula location today. This store already had the newest current Ralphs decor ("Neighborhood") and the website/ad do not indicate it was upgraded to Fresh Fare. I will go check it out this weekend and see if they actually have come up with something new. Hopefully it won't be cardboard cutout letters on white paint like Yorba Linda. This was always a solid, good executing Ralphs I would shop if I lived nearby, with decent traffic although I would not call it "busy" except weekends.

Obviously the remodeled flagship Walmart has shaken everyone up on the street. Stater Bros is 6 months into a total tear down (while open) remodel like they did in Oceanside. Albertsons remodeled to a nice version of Modern (Florida) decor, not the cheaper version popping up that is just paint and stick on lettering (no actual wood or tile behind the letters). So I guess Ralphs felt the need to step up as well. The neighborhood is still growing and there are some breathtaking new homes from a Japanese builder on their first US project up the street. This is probably the only area of California that is truly growing at a nearly double digit rate annually.

[ClownLoach]

Ralphs is advertising the grand reopening of the Temecula location today. This store already had the newest current Ralphs decor ("Neighborhood") and the website/ad do not indicate it was upgraded to Fresh Fare. I will go check it out this weekend and see if they actually have come up with something new. Hopefully it won't be cardboard cutout letters on white paint like Yorba Linda. This was always a solid, good executing Ralphs I would shop if I lived nearby, with decent traffic although I would not call it "busy" except weekends.

Obviously the remodeled flagship Walmart has shaken everyone up on the street. Stater Bros is 6 months into a total tear down (while open) remodel like they did in Oceanside. Albertsons remodeled to a nice version of Modern (Florida) decor, not the cheaper version popping up that is just paint and stick on lettering (no actual wood or tile behind the letters). So I guess Ralphs felt the need to step up as well. The neighborhood is still growing and there are some breathtaking new homes from a Japanese builder on their first US project up the street. This is probably the only area of California that is truly growing at a nearly double digit rate annually.

And... Giant waste of my time.
Ralphs did all of three things.

First, they deep cleaned the store which was long overdue.

Second, they removed the floor and went to polished concrete.

Third, they added a Starbucks kiosk with some pretty wall art showing Temecula grapevines behind it.

That is the entire remodel. Zero repaint. Zero new graphics. And worse, this store's last remodel was botched as they had some wall lighting over department graphics to light them up while the rest was dark. It's still that way, bright and dark areas all along the perimeter wall with no rhyme or reason unless you're along the wall and look up and see the misplaced fixtures. The store also had aisle hangers that were not centered properly, some practically over the gondola, and they didn't fix this either. Meanwhile Stater Bros is finishing up a half year long remodel down the street where every single perimeter department was moved and physically rebuilt from scratch, every refrigeration unit replaced, the only area not moved is the service meat counter. For all intents and purposes it is a completely new store, even the drop ceiling was raised and replaced so it is now even all across the store.

Absolutely zero investment by Kroger here and the grand reopening signs out front seem to just be confusing the customers who see the same damn store exactly the way it was.

[storewanderer]

Ralphs is advertising the grand reopening of the Temecula location today. This store already had the newest current Ralphs decor ("Neighborhood") and the website/ad do not indicate it was upgraded to Fresh Fare. I will go check it out this weekend and see if they actually have come up with something new. Hopefully it won't be cardboard cutout letters on white paint like Yorba Linda. This was always a solid, good executing Ralphs I would shop if I lived nearby, with decent traffic although I would not call it "busy" except weekends.

Obviously the remodeled flagship Walmart has shaken everyone up on the street. Stater Bros is 6 months into a total tear down (while open) remodel like they did in Oceanside. Albertsons remodeled to a nice version of Modern (Florida) decor, not the cheaper version popping up that is just paint and stick on lettering (no actual wood or tile behind the letters). So I guess Ralphs felt the need to step up as well. The neighborhood is still growing and there are some breathtaking new homes from a Japanese builder on their first US project up the street. This is probably the only area of California that is truly growing at a nearly double digit rate annually.

And... Giant waste of my time.
Ralphs did all of three things.

First, they deep cleaned the store which was long overdue.

Second, they removed the floor and went to polished concrete.

Third, they added a Starbucks kiosk with some pretty wall art showing Temecula grapevines behind it.

That is the entire remodel. Zero repaint. Zero new graphics. And worse, this store's last remodel was botched as they had some wall lighting over department graphics to light them up while the rest was dark. It's still that way, bright and dark areas all along the perimeter wall with no rhyme or reason unless you're along the wall and look up and see the misplaced fixtures. The store also had aisle hangers that were not centered properly, some practically over the gondola, and they didn't fix this either. Meanwhile Stater Bros is finishing up a half year long remodel down the street where every single perimeter department was moved and physically rebuilt from scratch, every refrigeration unit replaced, the only area not moved is the service meat counter. For all intents and purposes it is a completely new store, even the drop ceiling was raised and replaced so it is now even all across the store.

Absolutely zero investment by Kroger here and the grand reopening signs out front seem to just be confusing the customers who see the same damn store exactly the way it was.

This one already had a Starbucks kiosk, did they expand it?

Maybe they did a center store reset (does it still have a Kitchen Place?)? Typically a center store reset would not warrant a "grand reopening" ad though.

Maybe they made some changes to produce/bakery/deli?

Was the floor in bad condition that warranted removal? Wasn't the last time I was there, but it has been a while.

With how their latest interior looks maybe it is a good thing they just kept the other interior (I don't like that interior either).