🛒 Kroger-Albertsons Merger: California Impact

[veteran+]

The exit traffic is still funneled through that center space area isn't it (or is there a separate exit)? Not really an easy "escape route." Plus the parking lot is so busy...

Have they done any remodeling or does this still have Lifestyle decor?

I have not been since 2020 and have not heard of any refreshing so I will presume everything is status quo.

I also suspect that the entire complex may be "protected" status?

It seems like at this point a store with that Lifestyle interior should have been remodeled by now. There are still a lot of those interiors left in NorCal but NorCal is different, they were still opening new stores/doing remodels in Lifestyle after the Albertsons merger...

I wonder if they are in a holding pattern on this store considering a conversion to Pavilions...

Liberty Station:

"The Naval Training Center site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the individual structures are designated as historic by the city of San Diego. Dozens of the historical buildings are being adapted for stores, offices, schools, art galleries, and other purposes."

[storewanderer]

I have not been since 2020 and have not heard of any refreshing so I will presume everything is status quo.

I also suspect that the entire complex may be "protected" status?

It seems like at this point a store with that Lifestyle interior should have been remodeled by now. There are still a lot of those interiors left in NorCal but NorCal is different, they were still opening new stores/doing remodels in Lifestyle after the Albertsons merger...

I wonder if they are in a holding pattern on this store considering a conversion to Pavilions...

Liberty Station:

"The Naval Training Center site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and many of the individual structures are designated as historic by the city of San Diego. Dozens of the historical buildings are being adapted for stores, offices, schools, art galleries, and other purposes."

But couldn't they still do their beloved "colorful wall repaint" to the Lifestyle interior as they've done to so many of those in SoCal... since all those do is paint around the existing wall signage...

I also think a Pavilions wall job would look fantastic on the fresh half of the store. On the center store half of the store maybe it wouldn't matter much. I also think the department format/flow and general layout on the fresh half is such that they would not need to actually remodel the departments if they converted to Pavilions. Swap out the merchandise and change presentation and they'd be all set.

[ClownLoach]

I went to check these San Diego stores today.

First off Liberty Station has received light updates at some point including the rectangular aisle hangers which not all repaint lifestyle received. Lighting has been added to the entire store so it doesn't feel as dark and claustrophobic on the "aisle" side.

Everything there is indeed protected, being 101 years old, and has to get specific approval for all work despite all the wacky projects underway like murals everywhere. So I would imagine that the inside is not necessarily being ignored but rather unworthy of the wasted effort of trying to get a light remodel approved like repaint lifestyle. It looks perfectly fine to me and again better taken care of than many other Vons. I would rather it stays like this versus the ugly cartoon colors of the repaint lifestyle, and I think they would have to get approval to do Florida or true Colorful Lifestyle inside which probably aren't worth the effort.

The parking lot is much, much larger than I originally thought. It is almost excessive for that side of the complex. Parking is not an issue even though it is by the food hall.

The other Vons on Midway got the repaint only but I wonder if something "happened" at some point like a small electrical fire or major roof leaks or something else that necessitated the repainting. It otherwise looks rough, worn, and neglected like I have seen at some other "obviously planned for divestiture" ACI stores that appear to be in a state of deferred maintenance. It's also just a bad location in general and the Midway district has become a horrible hotbed for homelessness in San Diego. All this afternoon in broad daylight I saw a man with no pants (yes totally butt naked) walking around, I saw a group of 3 people sitting closely in a triangle on the sidewalk burning something which I'm assuming were drugs, and I saw a very disturbed individual violently swinging a metal pipe hitting fences and plants with it. At least a couple hundred homeless in just a few blocks closer to the Old Town train station. Numerous busted up looking vehicles including many TVs parked everywhere even in the red that didn't appear to have moved in months. Way too many encampments in what was already a rough area but now much worse. I noticed many stores closed very early, Staples appeared to be closed at 5pm although I didn't check their hours. Barnes & Noble closes at 8pm on their marquee sign. Home Depot has had to fully fence in their outside storage behind the store that you normally see low value products piled up in, like mulch.

None of those homeless issues are in Liberty Station nor do I expect them to be tolerated there.

For that reason alone I would imagine the Liberty Vons probably has substantially lower shrink, and they probably would be harder to justify the Ralphs and Midway Vons both being kept since they are practically on top of each other. So I take back my original opinion, I would expect the Midway Vons to divest. The Liberty store is probably safe and could easily be upgraded to Pavilions if/when they want to start expanding that again.

[storewanderer]

I went to check these San Diego stores today.

First off Liberty Station has received light updates at some point including the rectangular aisle hangers which not all repaint lifestyle received. Lighting has been added to the entire store so it doesn't feel as dark and claustrophobic on the "aisle" side.

Everything there is indeed protected, being 101 years old, and has to get specific approval for all work despite all the wacky projects underway like murals everywhere. So I would imagine that the inside is not necessarily being ignored but rather unworthy of the wasted effort of trying to get a light remodel approved like repaint lifestyle. It looks perfectly fine to me and again better taken care of than many other Vons. I would rather it stays like this versus the ugly cartoon colors of the repaint lifestyle, and I think they would have to get approval to do Florida or true Colorful Lifestyle inside which probably aren't worth the effort.

The parking lot is much, much larger than I originally thought. It is almost excessive for that side of the complex. Parking is not an issue even though it is by the food hall.

The other Vons on Midway got the repaint only but I wonder if something "happened" at some point like a small electrical fire or major roof leaks or something else that necessitated the repainting. It otherwise looks rough, worn, and neglected like I have seen at some other "obviously planned for divestiture" ACI stores that appear to be in a state of deferred maintenance. It's also just a bad location in general and the Midway district has become a horrible hotbed for homelessness in San Diego. All this afternoon in broad daylight I saw a man with no pants (yes totally butt naked) walking around, I saw a group of 3 people sitting closely in a triangle on the sidewalk burning something which I'm assuming were drugs, and I saw a very disturbed individual violently swinging a metal pipe hitting fences and plants with it. At least a couple hundred homeless in just a few blocks closer to the Old Town train station. Numerous busted up looking vehicles including many TVs parked everywhere even in the red that didn't appear to have moved in months. Way too many encampments in what was already a rough area but now much worse. I noticed many stores closed very early, Staples appeared to be closed at 5pm although I didn't check their hours. Barnes & Noble closes at 8pm on their marquee sign. Home Depot has had to fully fence in their outside storage behind the store that you normally see low value products piled up in, like mulch.

None of those homeless issues are in Liberty Station nor do I expect them to be tolerated there.

For that reason alone I would imagine the Liberty Vons probably has substantially lower shrink, and they probably would be harder to justify the Ralphs and Midway Vons both being kept since they are practically on top of each other. So I take back my original opinion, I would expect the Midway Vons to divest. The Liberty store is probably safe and could easily be upgraded to Pavilions if/when they want to start expanding that again.

Midway strikes me more as the style of a store Kroger may be better at operating than Liberty Station. I have little to no confidence in Kroger running anything "upscale" aside from Marianos at this point. Midway is still the busier of the two stores and is obviously "lower rent." Midway grand reopened from its remodel about a year ago.

The Midway Vons is open until Midnight while Liberty Station closes at 10 PM. I find that interesting. I do recall in multiple evening trips to that Liberty Station store that it was quite dead in the evening. I am more surprised Midway is open until Midnight given the issues you observed.

Liberty Station opened with those rectangular aisle hangers. Those have been around Safeway for a long time. A group of Canada Stores got them too during some very late center store resets.

[ClownLoach]

I went to check these San Diego stores today.

First off Liberty Station has received light updates at some point including the rectangular aisle hangers which not all repaint lifestyle received. Lighting has been added to the entire store so it doesn't feel as dark and claustrophobic on the "aisle" side.

Everything there is indeed protected, being 101 years old, and has to get specific approval for all work despite all the wacky projects underway like murals everywhere. So I would imagine that the inside is not necessarily being ignored but rather unworthy of the wasted effort of trying to get a light remodel approved like repaint lifestyle. It looks perfectly fine to me and again better taken care of than many other Vons. I would rather it stays like this versus the ugly cartoon colors of the repaint lifestyle, and I think they would have to get approval to do Florida or true Colorful Lifestyle inside which probably aren't worth the effort.

The parking lot is much, much larger than I originally thought. It is almost excessive for that side of the complex. Parking is not an issue even though it is by the food hall.

The other Vons on Midway got the repaint only but I wonder if something "happened" at some point like a small electrical fire or major roof leaks or something else that necessitated the repainting. It otherwise looks rough, worn, and neglected like I have seen at some other "obviously planned for divestiture" ACI stores that appear to be in a state of deferred maintenance. It's also just a bad location in general and the Midway district has become a horrible hotbed for homelessness in San Diego. All this afternoon in broad daylight I saw a man with no pants (yes totally butt naked) walking around, I saw a group of 3 people sitting closely in a triangle on the sidewalk burning something which I'm assuming were drugs, and I saw a very disturbed individual violently swinging a metal pipe hitting fences and plants with it. At least a couple hundred homeless in just a few blocks closer to the Old Town train station. Numerous busted up looking vehicles including many TVs parked everywhere even in the red that didn't appear to have moved in months. Way too many encampments in what was already a rough area but now much worse. I noticed many stores closed very early, Staples appeared to be closed at 5pm although I didn't check their hours. Barnes & Noble closes at 8pm on their marquee sign. Home Depot has had to fully fence in their outside storage behind the store that you normally see low value products piled up in, like mulch.

None of those homeless issues are in Liberty Station nor do I expect them to be tolerated there.

For that reason alone I would imagine the Liberty Vons probably has substantially lower shrink, and they probably would be harder to justify the Ralphs and Midway Vons both being kept since they are practically on top of each other. So I take back my original opinion, I would expect the Midway Vons to divest. The Liberty store is probably safe and could easily be upgraded to Pavilions if/when they want to start expanding that again.

Midway strikes me more as the style of a store Kroger may be better at operating than Liberty Station. I have little to no confidence in Kroger running anything "upscale" aside from Marianos at this point. Midway is still the busier of the two stores and is obviously "lower rent." Midway grand reopened from its remodel about a year ago.

The Midway Vons is open until Midnight while Liberty Station closes at 10 PM. I find that interesting. I do recall in multiple evening trips to that Liberty Station store that it was quite dead in the evening. I am more surprised Midway is open until Midnight given the issues you observed.

Liberty Station opened with those rectangular aisle hangers. Those have been around Safeway for a long time. A group of Canada Stores got them too during some very late center store resets.

They're too close together though. I never realized how close. They're direct true overlaps and can't both be kept. Something odd about the Midway remodel like I said, maybe serious roof issue or something where they had to repair damage and that justified the "remodel" and "grand reopening." It seems funky and disjointed but I can't put my finger on it. The rectangular signs showed up after Lifestyle 2.0 first came out. Many Lifestyle 2.0 had arch hanger signs before rectangles. I don't recall seeing the red box rectangles until after the Safeway/Albertsons merger. I was also surprised how poor the visibility into that Midway center is, and how far back the Vons is from the street. It makes sense now and my fears were probably unfounded.

[storewanderer]

They're too close together though. I never realized how close. They're direct true overlaps and can't both be kept. Something odd about the Midway remodel like I said, maybe serious roof issue or something where they had to repair damage and that justified the "remodel" and "grand reopening." It seems funky and disjointed but I can't put my finger on it. The rectangular signs showed up after Lifestyle 2.0 first came out. Many Lifestyle 2.0 had arch hanger signs before rectangles. I don't recall seeing the red box rectangles until after the Safeway/Albertsons merger. I was also surprised how poor the visibility into that Midway center is, and how far back the Vons is from the street. It makes sense now and my fears were probably unfounded.

The close together nature makes it that much more seem like Liberty Station may be a viable Pavilions conversion. They are close together but I think they attract a different customer.

Yes, all of the Lifestyle 2.0 in my area got the arch hangers that matched the wall signage sort of. But shortly after Safeway finished Lifestyle 2.0, they started a program that involved center store resets, the white shelves/lit shelves in drug, and some focus on ethnic foods in some stores. This was when Burd was still the CEO. With that program is where those rectangle aisle signs came from, putting those up was part of the center store reset. So some stores that either opened with Lifestyle 2.0 or were very late remodels into Lifestyle 2.0, never had the arch hangers but got the rectangles. Knowing how Safeway did things back then they planned to do these resets chainwide (recall at this point they still had Canada, Dominicks, and Genuardis) and ordered those rectangle aisle hangers for 1,700 stores and that is why Albertsons is still installing them to this day even when they don't fit in with the decor.

[ClownLoach]

They're too close together though. I never realized how close. They're direct true overlaps and can't both be kept. Something odd about the Midway remodel like I said, maybe serious roof issue or something where they had to repair damage and that justified the "remodel" and "grand reopening." It seems funky and disjointed but I can't put my finger on it. The rectangular signs showed up after Lifestyle 2.0 first came out. Many Lifestyle 2.0 had arch hanger signs before rectangles. I don't recall seeing the red box rectangles until after the Safeway/Albertsons merger. I was also surprised how poor the visibility into that Midway center is, and how far back the Vons is from the street. It makes sense now and my fears were probably unfounded.

The close together nature makes it that much more seem like Liberty Station may be a viable Pavilions conversion. They are close together but I think they attract a different customer.

Yes, all of the Lifestyle 2.0 in my area got the arch hangers that matched the wall signage sort of. But shortly after Safeway finished Lifestyle 2.0, they started a program that involved center store resets, the white shelves/lit shelves in drug, and some focus on ethnic foods in some stores. This was when Burd was still the CEO. With that program is where those rectangle aisle signs came from, putting those up was part of the center store reset. So some stores that either opened with Lifestyle 2.0 or were very late remodels into Lifestyle 2.0, never had the arch hangers but got the rectangles. Knowing how Safeway did things back then they planned to do these resets chainwide (recall at this point they still had Canada, Dominicks, and Genuardis) and ordered those rectangle aisle hangers for 1,700 stores and that is why Albertsons is still installing them to this day even when they don't fit in with the decor.

I don't think they have that many pre-made because they have a variety of them. The rectangles for lifestyle/colorful lifestyle, Pavilions, and Florida are different entirely. They use different c channels and the board itself is covered in different printed woodgrain colors. This is more obvious on the Pavilions decor where it is all light pine, but the Florida decor is a darker brown walnut and lifestyle is maple. The C channels are sometimes black, white, or clear. I have seen them installing the boards at a Florida remodel and they arrive with woodgrain printed onto the entire board already (not stuck onto a plain board), C channels all attached, the strips slide in and the number sticks on.

[rwsandiego]

I went to check these San Diego stores today.

First off Liberty Station has received light updates at some point including the rectangular aisle hangers which not all repaint lifestyle received. Lighting has been added to the entire store so it doesn't feel as dark and claustrophobic on the "aisle" side...

The additional lighting was desperately needed.

...
The parking lot is much, much larger than I originally thought. It is almost excessive for that side of the complex. Parking is not an issue even though it is by the food hall...

Unless something has changed, the Trader Joe's side of the complex had insufficient parking, made worse by The Rock Church being allowed to use the parking lot.

...
The other Vons on Midway got the repaint only but I wonder if something "happened" at some point like a small electrical fire or major roof leaks or something else that necessitated the repainting. It otherwise looks rough, worn, and neglected like I have seen at some other "obviously planned for divestiture" ACI stores that appear to be in a state of deferred maintenance....

Even when it was newly remodeled into Lifestyle 2.0 the Midway store seemed "off." It was very nice when it had the decor package before Lifestyle 1.0 (don't remember the package name) and pretty much a dump when it still had the old red script on white walls VONS interior.

... It's also just a bad location in general and the Midway district has become a horrible hotbed for homelessness in San Diego. All this afternoon in broad daylight I saw a man with no pants (yes totally butt naked) walking around, I saw a group of 3 people sitting closely in a triangle on the sidewalk burning something which I'm assuming were drugs, and I saw a very disturbed individual violently swinging a metal pipe hitting fences and plants with it. At least a couple hundred homeless in just a few blocks closer to the Old Town train station. Numerous busted up looking vehicles including many TVs parked everywhere even in the red that didn't appear to have moved in months. Way too many encampments in what was already a rough area but now much worse. I noticed many stores closed very early, Staples appeared to be closed at 5pm although I didn't check their hours. Barnes & Noble closes at 8pm on their marquee sign. Home Depot has had to fully fence in their outside storage behind the store that you normally see low value products piled up in, like mulch...

That area was pretty chewed up when I first moved to San Diego in 2000, sightly improved, and fell back down. It doesn't help matters that the County of San Diego has a huge mental health facility on Rosecrans Street just north of the Big Lots shopping center.

The Ralphs located in the Target shopping center was an absolute pit before the current store was built. Homeless people everywhere, chewed up store, and surly employees. I suppose I'd be surly, too, if I had to deal with the store's clientele day in and day out.

... None of those homeless issues are in Liberty Station nor do I expect them to be tolerated there.

For that reason alone I would imagine the Liberty Vons probably has substantially lower shrink, and they probably would be harder to justify the Ralphs and Midway Vons both being kept since they are practically on top of each other. So I take back my original opinion, I would expect the Midway Vons to divest. The Liberty store is probably safe and could easily be upgraded to Pavilions if/when they want to start expanding that again.

I can see the Liberty Station store becoming a Pavilions. Point Loma has a lot of old money (and some new money) and could easily support a Pavilions.

Did you happen to visit the small Ralphs at Rosecrans and Nimitz Blvd? That used to be a VONS until they moved to Liberty Station. I can see that location as a Lazy Acres.

[storewanderer]

They're too close together though. I never realized how close. They're direct true overlaps and can't both be kept. Something odd about the Midway remodel like I said, maybe serious roof issue or something where they had to repair damage and that justified the "remodel" and "grand reopening." It seems funky and disjointed but I can't put my finger on it. The rectangular signs showed up after Lifestyle 2.0 first came out. Many Lifestyle 2.0 had arch hanger signs before rectangles. I don't recall seeing the red box rectangles until after the Safeway/Albertsons merger. I was also surprised how poor the visibility into that Midway center is, and how far back the Vons is from the street. It makes sense now and my fears were probably unfounded.

The close together nature makes it that much more seem like Liberty Station may be a viable Pavilions conversion. They are close together but I think they attract a different customer.

Yes, all of the Lifestyle 2.0 in my area got the arch hangers that matched the wall signage sort of. But shortly after Safeway finished Lifestyle 2.0, they started a program that involved center store resets, the white shelves/lit shelves in drug, and some focus on ethnic foods in some stores. This was when Burd was still the CEO. With that program is where those rectangle aisle signs came from, putting those up was part of the center store reset. So some stores that either opened with Lifestyle 2.0 or were very late remodels into Lifestyle 2.0, never had the arch hangers but got the rectangles. Knowing how Safeway did things back then they planned to do these resets chainwide (recall at this point they still had Canada, Dominicks, and Genuardis) and ordered those rectangle aisle hangers for 1,700 stores and that is why Albertsons is still installing them to this day even when they don't fit in with the decor.

I don't think they have that many pre-made because they have a variety of them. The rectangles for lifestyle/colorful lifestyle, Pavilions, and Florida are different entirely. They use different c channels and the board itself is covered in different printed woodgrain colors. This is more obvious on the Pavilions decor where it is all light pine, but the Florida decor is a darker brown walnut and lifestyle is maple. The C channels are sometimes black, white, or clear. I have seen them installing the boards at a Florida remodel and they arrive with woodgrain printed onto the entire board already (not stuck onto a plain board), C channels all attached, the strips slide in and the number sticks on.

I've seen some in the cheaply done Colorful Lifestyle remodels that are the same ones they put into the late Safeway resets, specifically in OR/WA/CO.

Completely different aisle signs for Florida and Pavilions, not these. Similar placement but not these.