Raleys lays off 47 corporate employees

[storewanderer]

I agree. I think that the concept wasn't bad in it's later years under Yucaipa, but it had limited appeal at best and was only suited for a very limited number of locations. I happened to like the large selection of "meals for two" which were generally very high quality and allowed us to save a lot of money over eating out. But for every "good" location they opened three "bad" locations that weren't viable. And the real issue was the fact that they had high fixed overhead in the costs of the giant warehouse that was probably running at 5% or less of capacity, bleeding away any profits the stores might have made. Supposedly there was some sort of difficulty or problems with the logistics in these custom built buildings too? I do seem to recall seeing smaller than usual delivery trucks for F&E, which means higher delivery costs versus full size semi trucks. Maybe the docks weren't built for typical trucks? I don't think they could handle the typical grocery store trailer swap as they didn't seem to have an additional door for other deliveries?

If he decided to sink an additional amount of money into another mass expansion into viable locations, along with rebranding the entire operation to get the stink of the F&E dud brand off it, it would have probably worked and hedged against Aldi and Amazon. But the problem is that would have cost way too much, and the fixed costs of the business that were rooted in Tesco hubris were way too much to overcome. It probably would have taken another decade or two for a return on the investment and that just wasn't worth it. If you or I owned it and had the money, we probably would have to make the same tough decision that it is better to close the doors rather than continuing to spend good money on bad.

F&E was somewhat of a curious thing for me. Obviously I thought the chain had a lot of problems and my initial impression was very negative. It was in Las Vegas, I was in a casino (no refrigerator, no microwave); I went to F&E hungry and came out hungrier and confused. However as the years went on, the more I shopped there, and was staying in places with a refrigerator and microwave, and tried of their heat and eat items however, the more I liked the chain. The stuff was rather bland but that was a refreshing change from how overly salty many similar "ready to eat" foods are. The dated produce was silly but it drove the point home on freshness. I never waited in line for checkout at any location and often my items were bagged by an employee was I was scanning them. They never had everything I was looking for but as time went on and I was more open to trying their products I did typically pick up a few items I had no intention of buying when I went in.

I liked some of the changes they made during the years; the in store bakery items were great. The private label items were pretty good. They ran some good clearance prices on seasonal food items. The store that was adjusted to display produce differently, have actual cashiers, in Lincoln, CA, also had extra staffing, and it really did feel more like a normal store. I think had they opened with that model the results may have been different but am not sure the model could be profitable with that level of staffing.

I think the small trucks were to keep items "fresh." Weren't the trucks making multiple pick ups a day at the warehouse (to stay "fresh")? I forget. I feel like there was a reason.

I heard Burkle was trying to reorganize around the "Express" format of F&E which was a much smaller size and had less center store/name brand stuff. But that would have required a bunch of relocations.

[veteran+]

I suspect Yucaipa Companies would’ve bought Bashas and done a ‘Fresh & Easy maneuver’ (aka liquidation, probably selling the rural AZ stores to Albertsons) had Raley’s not bought them. That, or Aldi would be kicking the tires at Bashas as we speak.

There have been rumors on and off over the past 25 years of Ahold acquiring Raley’s.

A Save Mart merger would make sense, being that both chains have a joint venture for private label, Super Store Industries. What banner would you use assuming both were to merge? Raley’s has a better reputation.

I don't think Yucaipa Cos. bought F&E to close them. Yucaipa probably had plans to sell them to a new owner, but they had a host of issues, many of which were inherent to the chain and format. Turns out that the U.S. market wasn't interested in 15k square foot supermarkets, many of which were in bad locations to begin with.

I agree. I think that the concept wasn't bad in it's later years under Yucaipa, but it had limited appeal at best and was only suited for a very limited number of locations. I happened to like the large selection of "meals for two" which were generally very high quality and allowed us to save a lot of money over eating out. But for every "good" location they opened three "bad" locations that weren't viable. And the real issue was the fact that they had high fixed overhead in the costs of the giant warehouse that was probably running at 5% or less of capacity, bleeding away any profits the stores might have made. Supposedly there was some sort of difficulty or problems with the logistics in these custom built buildings too? I do seem to recall seeing smaller than usual delivery trucks for F&E, which means higher delivery costs versus full size semi trucks. Maybe the docks weren't built for typical trucks? I don't think they could handle the typical grocery store trailer swap as they didn't seem to have an additional door for other deliveries?

If he decided to sink an additional amount of money into another mass expansion into viable locations, along with rebranding the entire operation to get the stink of the F&E dud brand off it, it would have probably worked and hedged against Aldi and Amazon. But the problem is that would have cost way too much, and the fixed costs of the business that were rooted in Tesco hubris were way too much to overcome. It probably would have taken another decade or two for a return on the investment and that just wasn't worth it. If you or I owned it and had the money, we probably would have to make the same tough decision that it is better to close the doors rather than continuing to spend good money on bad.

If Burkle would have consulted with talent like Paul Madarietta (former Trader Joes Exec) who was one of the original architects of Fresh & Easy he would have knocked it out of the park.

The early days of F&E were highly influenced and fashioned by the best parts of Trader Joes (especially the food). As Tesco continued to vomit its hubris on Paul M. and another American Exec (forgot his name but he went to Walgreens to expand their food offerings) Fresh & Easy quickly declined with much alacrity. The original vision was deconstructed.

Paul's vision of F&E would have taken on the likes of Aldi, Lidl an even Trader Joes, admirably!! I believe Amazon Fresh may not even have been started.

[veteran+]

I agree. I think that the concept wasn't bad in it's later years under Yucaipa, but it had limited appeal at best and was only suited for a very limited number of locations. I happened to like the large selection of "meals for two" which were generally very high quality and allowed us to save a lot of money over eating out. But for every "good" location they opened three "bad" locations that weren't viable. And the real issue was the fact that they had high fixed overhead in the costs of the giant warehouse that was probably running at 5% or less of capacity, bleeding away any profits the stores might have made. Supposedly there was some sort of difficulty or problems with the logistics in these custom built buildings too? I do seem to recall seeing smaller than usual delivery trucks for F&E, which means higher delivery costs versus full size semi trucks. Maybe the docks weren't built for typical trucks? I don't think they could handle the typical grocery store trailer swap as they didn't seem to have an additional door for other deliveries?

If he decided to sink an additional amount of money into another mass expansion into viable locations, along with rebranding the entire operation to get the stink of the F&E dud brand off it, it would have probably worked and hedged against Aldi and Amazon. But the problem is that would have cost way too much, and the fixed costs of the business that were rooted in Tesco hubris were way too much to overcome. It probably would have taken another decade or two for a return on the investment and that just wasn't worth it. If you or I owned it and had the money, we probably would have to make the same tough decision that it is better to close the doors rather than continuing to spend good money on bad.

F&E was somewhat of a curious thing for me. Obviously I thought the chain had a lot of problems and my initial impression was very negative. It was in Las Vegas, I was in a casino (no refrigerator, no microwave); I went to F&E hungry and came out hungrier and confused. However as the years went on, the more I shopped there, and was staying in places with a refrigerator and microwave, and tried of their heat and eat items however, the more I liked the chain. The stuff was rather bland but that was a refreshing change from how overly salty many similar "ready to eat" foods are. The dated produce was silly but it drove the point home on freshness. I never waited in line for checkout at any location and often my items were bagged by an employee was I was scanning them. They never had everything I was looking for but as time went on and I was more open to trying their products I did typically pick up a few items I had no intention of buying when I went in.

I liked some of the changes they made during the years; the in store bakery items were great. The private label items were pretty good. They ran some good clearance prices on seasonal food items. The store that was adjusted to display produce differently, have actual cashiers, in Lincoln, CA, also had extra staffing, and it really did feel more like a normal store. I think had they opened with that model the results may have been different but am not sure the model could be profitable with that level of staffing.

I think the small trucks were to keep items "fresh." Weren't the trucks making multiple pick ups a day at the warehouse (to stay "fresh")? I forget. I feel like there was a reason.

I heard Burkle was trying to reorganize around the "Express" format of F&E which was a much smaller size and had less center store/name brand stuff. But that would have required a bunch of relocations.

The smaller trucks were mostly about dock configurations, landlord picadillos, city ordinances, etc.

There were other reasons but all was about logistics, not keeping stuff fresh. They had weird "combo" trucks where there were moveable sections for ambient, refrigerated and frozen product...........................so strange!

[pseudo3d]

I don't think Yucaipa Cos. bought F&E to close them. Yucaipa probably had plans to sell them to a new owner, but they had a host of issues, many of which were inherent to the chain and format. Turns out that the U.S. market wasn't interested in 15k square foot supermarkets, many of which were in bad locations to begin with.

I agree. I think that the concept wasn't bad in it's later years under Yucaipa, but it had limited appeal at best and was only suited for a very limited number of locations. I happened to like the large selection of "meals for two" which were generally very high quality and allowed us to save a lot of money over eating out. But for every "good" location they opened three "bad" locations that weren't viable. And the real issue was the fact that they had high fixed overhead in the costs of the giant warehouse that was probably running at 5% or less of capacity, bleeding away any profits the stores might have made. Supposedly there was some sort of difficulty or problems with the logistics in these custom built buildings too? I do seem to recall seeing smaller than usual delivery trucks for F&E, which means higher delivery costs versus full size semi trucks. Maybe the docks weren't built for typical trucks? I don't think they could handle the typical grocery store trailer swap as they didn't seem to have an additional door for other deliveries?

If he decided to sink an additional amount of money into another mass expansion into viable locations, along with rebranding the entire operation to get the stink of the F&E dud brand off it, it would have probably worked and hedged against Aldi and Amazon. But the problem is that would have cost way too much, and the fixed costs of the business that were rooted in Tesco hubris were way too much to overcome. It probably would have taken another decade or two for a return on the investment and that just wasn't worth it. If you or I owned it and had the money, we probably would have to make the same tough decision that it is better to close the doors rather than continuing to spend good money on bad.

If Burkle would have consulted with talent like Paul Madarietta (former Trader Joes Exec) who was one of the original architects of Fresh & Easy he would have knocked it out of the park.

The early days of F&E were highly influenced and fashioned by the best parts of Trader Joes (especially the food). As Tesco continued to vomit its hubris on Paul M. and another American Exec (forgot his name but he went to Walgreens to expand their food offerings) Fresh & Easy quickly declined with much alacrity. The original vision was deconstructed.

Paul's vision of F&E would have taken on the likes of Aldi, Lidl an even Trader Joes, admirably!! I believe Amazon Fresh may not even have been started.

Amazing how Tesco continues to poison American supermarket retail. They tried marketing the F&F clothing brand with Hy-Vee (which fell apart within three years) and they botched Amazon Fresh.

[storewanderer]

The smaller trucks were mostly about dock configurations, landlord picadillos, city ordinances, etc.

There were other reasons but all was about logistics, not keeping stuff fresh. They had weird "combo" trucks where there were moveable sections for ambient, refrigerated and frozen product...........................so strange!

Those are odd trucks but they are often used by convenience store wholesalers and food service distributors. This way they can get supplies, refrigerated, and frozen all delivered on one stop.

Given the nature of F&E not quite being sure what it wanted to be (supermarket, convenience store, or food service) maybe the trucks made sense.

[veteran+]

The smaller trucks were mostly about dock configurations, landlord picadillos, city ordinances, etc.

There were other reasons but all was about logistics, not keeping stuff fresh. They had weird "combo" trucks where there were moveable sections for ambient, refrigerated and frozen product...........................so strange!

Those are odd trucks but they are often used by convenience store wholesalers and food service distributors. This way they can get supplies, refrigerated, and frozen all delivered on one stop.

Given the nature of F&E not quite being sure what it wanted to be (supermarket, convenience store, or food service) maybe the trucks made sense.

For most of us back then, they did NOT make sense (to those that had grocery retail experience, which were not that many).

[ClownLoach]

The smaller trucks were mostly about dock configurations, landlord picadillos, city ordinances, etc.

There were other reasons but all was about logistics, not keeping stuff fresh. They had weird "combo" trucks where there were moveable sections for ambient, refrigerated and frozen product...........................so strange!

Those are odd trucks but they are often used by convenience store wholesalers and food service distributors. This way they can get supplies, refrigerated, and frozen all delivered on one stop.

Given the nature of F&E not quite being sure what it wanted to be (supermarket, convenience store, or food service) maybe the trucks made sense.

For most of us back then, they did NOT make sense (to those that had grocery retail experience, which were not that many).

I think the key here is the buildings were built for these non-standard size trucks, making them useless for anything else. And the non-standard trucks drove up the overhead even further. Maybe they liked these small trucks for driving around in Europe where they might have been a requirement, and ordered them up for the USA as if we needed them too? Aldi doesn't seem to have this issue and uses full size trucks.