Bashas/AJs/Food City

[storewanderer]

Where to start on this chain of stores...

I don't even know where to start.

There are marketing signs posted that appear to be from Raleys but it is only some of the marketing- stuff like endcap signs, signs in pharmacy about flu shots, cart return signs, and that is it. There are Raleys private label format items with the Bashas name on the labels. Bashas appears to have just installed a new POS system but they are using a different system than Raleys and even different pinpads the nice new Equinox ones (Raleys just replaced pinpads too- new crummy Verifones there) so it doesn't appear there is an effort to integrate them on an IT hardware or software perspective which is strange.

One thing I found interesting in the Bashas Stores is their price structure. I think their everyday pricing is lower than Safeway/Albertsons/Frys. Their sale prices aren't necessarily as many or as good but on an everyday basis their prices are very fair/reasonable. Yet hardly anyone seems to be shopping these stores Bashas. They feel dead, look dead, and just have a dead vibe. The employees seem bored and sort of unenthusiastic, but somewhat friendly. Food City seems to be viable but I cannot believe the condition of some of those stores... and their service is terrible. Food City must have good hot food because there was a line up at every location I went to that had hot food. AJs seems to run a first class operation but their center store business looks to be almost nothing at this point, they need to reinvent themself to make produce/meat/center store/seafood more productive. It looks like most of their sales are prepared food/bakery/drinks.

There seems to be a Bashas private label again, on some items, the ones with a white background package and red background logo are Raleys brand items redesigned with the Bashas logo. Then other items have Food Club, others have some weird "Bashas A to Z" label, and some seem to be generic packer labels.

One interesting thing I was able to confirm is they do still supply various independent grocers. They supply IGA Stores in Eloy, Buckeye, and independent in Superior. I suspect they must supply something in the range of 30 or so stores, mostly IGAs.

If I thought it could be executed I'd probably suggest Raleys convert a few of the better performing Bashas that don't have much competition to the Raleys brand/format and see what happened, if they could run them like an above average Raleys, they could probably really increase sales. But I'm not sure about Raleys at this point after some of what they've done like Raleys ONE if that would work or not. So to that point I wonder if Raleys should take a different approach and convert some of the bottom performing Bashas (a couple not too far apart in Tempe look like promising stores that do no business and are very sad places), but decent neighborhoods to the Raleys format and operating style and see what could happen. They could figure out what works in the low volume stores (or if it bombs it doesn't matter as much since they're low volume stores anyway) then decide if it is a good idea for the better stores. I don't think they could possibly do any worse than Bashas but after how the Raleys ONE thing went especially in Reno it is absolutely possible.

[jamcool]

How well did Raleys do in NM? They left. Bashas’ is a 100 year old brand in Arizona and a well known family here (the family name is on a high school In Chandler). Don’t change a store name to a Californicator brand.
Once again Bashas’ makes its cash in smaller towns and on the Indian reservations (Dine’ Markets). Food City is the dominant Latino chain in Arizona, the same as AJ’s is the dominant upscale chain in the state (no competitors like Bristol Farms or Gelsons)

[storewanderer]

How well did Raleys do in NM? They left. Bashas’ is a 100 year old brand in Arizona and a well known family here (the family name is on a high school In Chandler). Don’t change a store name to a Californicator brand.
Once again Bashas’ makes its cash in smaller towns and on the Indian reservations (Dine’ Markets). Food City is the dominant Latino chain in Arizona, the same as AJ’s is the dominant upscale chain in the state (no competitors like Bristol Farms or Gelsons)

Raleys did fine in NM but they did not want to support far flung stores anymore. The economy wasn't good and Raleys had made some bad decisions in CA/NV on new stores that were bleeding major cash due to building in speculation of housing developments that got delayed/canceled back then. Those specific problem new stores back then, as of today, have worked out very well for Raleys.

They can continue to make their money in small towns and on Indian reservations but they need to do something with these Bashas format stores in competitive areas to make them better performing/draw in more customers/liven the places up. I think the name is carrying a lot of baggage as far as customer perception of the stores goes. I hesitate about using the Raleys banner because I think it is not a recogized banner- they do not have name recognition with the CA transplants in AZ because not many of those transplants are from Raleys territory in the first place. So to that point it could be considered a fresh banner. But it is less about the banner and more about the store format, merchandising style, and promotional strategy used in the Raleys format vs. what Bashas is doing (I think using the Raleys ways could be a lot more productive around some of the metro Phoenix stores- but it would bomb in the rural stores...). Reviving the Bashas banner somehow should not impact what they are doing in small towns or on Indian reservations.

[jamcool]

Arizona and NorCal are as different market wise as apples and oranges. One wonders why Raley’s bought Bashas’ except to prop-up the NorCal operations-probably the same reason why American Stores(Acme)bought Alpha Beta in the 60s . Or Fisher/Fazio’s bought the Shopping Bag chain in LA in the 70s.

[SamSpade]

Bashas' used to have a phenomenal bakery and iced tea program. Not that these necessarily save the store overall, but could bring in customers. Hopefully that's still in place.

AJ's also had a good tea/coffee program, sounds like that is still going based on thread beginning.

Hopefully Raley's didn't change the bakery; that's something I feel is a strong suit.

[ClownLoach]

I'm way overdue for an Arizona trip. Have they put any capital into the AJ's stores? They were nice stores with beautiful looking foods, but terribly dated last time I was there. Stores looked like something out of the 80's and 90's with dusty fake grapevines everywhere, oak woodwork, ugly tile floors, I'm sure it was "nice" and "upscale" when they were built but it looks like that was 30+ years ago and now they're just stale and neglected. Lighting was always terrible as well; there is a fine line between the elegance of using grids and such to diffuse the light in an effort to soften it up versus what they did which was make the stores into dark caves by mostly leaving no light on ceilings and just using in-rack lights.

AJ's reminds me of the oddball San Diego/IE chain Baron's Market in their appearance and decor, except for Baron's weird no full service anything perimeter. But Baron's dated appearance can be overlooked by the fact that they have working lighting so you can see around the store without using a flashlight; AJ's was way too dark last time I visited and I went into multiple stores that were consistently caves inside.

[storewanderer]

Arizona and NorCal are as different market wise as apples and oranges. One wonders why Raley’s bought Bashas’ except to prop-up the NorCal operations-probably the same reason why American Stores(Acme)bought Alpha Beta in the 60s . Or Fisher/Fazio’s bought the Shopping Bag chain in LA in the 70s.

I see things Raleys could do with Bashas if they tried... and things Bashas could really help Raleys with if they would take the help. But it doesn't seem like much of anything is going on.

[storewanderer]

Bashas' used to have a phenomenal bakery and iced tea program. Not that these necessarily save the store overall, but could bring in customers. Hopefully that's still in place.

AJ's also had a good tea/coffee program, sounds like that is still going based on thread beginning.

Hopefully Raley's didn't change the bakery; that's something I feel is a strong suit.

The iced tea program is alive and well; China Mist tea brewed and ready at a bargain price 0.99 at Food City or at AJs 1.79 for a large is present at pretty much every Bashas Store in the deli, at many Food City Stores, and at multiple places in the AJ's Stores (at the coffee bar and also at the food service register).

No changes at bakery but lack of foot traffic in the stores seems to be impacting the assortment and mix.

[storewanderer]

I'm way overdue for an Arizona trip. Have they put any capital into the AJ's stores? They were nice stores with beautiful looking foods, but terribly dated last time I was there. Stores looked like something out of the 80's and 90's with dusty fake grapevines everywhere, oak woodwork, ugly tile floors, I'm sure it was "nice" and "upscale" when they were built but it looks like that was 30+ years ago and now they're just stale and neglected. Lighting was always terrible as well; there is a fine line between the elegance of using grids and such to diffuse the light in an effort to soften it up versus what they did which was make the stores into dark caves by mostly leaving no light on ceilings and just using in-rack lights.

AJ's reminds me of the oddball San Diego/IE chain Baron's Market in their appearance and decor, except for Baron's weird no full service anything perimeter. But Baron's dated appearance can be overlooked by the fact that they have working lighting so you can see around the store without using a flashlight; AJ's was way too dark last time I visited and I went into multiple stores that were consistently caves inside.

The only capital that appears recent is to the Food City Stores and in my opinion the remodels look terrible. I cannot stand the wall decor being used.

AJs is not touched but they look maintained (not run down)... those tile floors are in perfect condition... I'll take these dated looking but very nicely finished AJs interiors over that new Gelson's interior you posted in the other thread any day.

This is an interesting tie to Baron's. I think if you took Baron's produce/meat/liquor/center store and mixed it with AJ's bakery/deli/prepared foods/service/some of center store you could have a real winner of a store.

[veteran+]

I have a few close friends in Phoenix and they stay away from all of Basha's companies.

Various complaints about all of the monikers.