Safeway closed their 80s era store in Concord on Monument Blvd. On January 15. This store was not remodeled into the new Lifestyle decor. It still had the old 90s decor and was quite run down. The store was located in a very low income and crime ridden neighborhood in Concord. I would say that this area is one of the worst areas in the entire city.
There is a FoodMaxx across the street that is very popular and does very good business. The area is populated by a large number of Latinos and they shop at the FoodMaxx. There simply is not enough business to support a Safeway along with a FoodMaxx.
In 2005, it was a different story. The supermarket across from Safeway was an Albertsons. The Albertsons was built as a Lucky just a few years earlier. The Albertsons was the biggest and newest supermarket in the county. The entire shopping center was brand new and very nice looking. However, Albertsons was hated by the people of the city. The prices were awful and people still resented Albertsons for the destruction of the Lucky name. Lucky was a local supermarket chain that was known as the low price leader that went back decades.
The Albertsons closed and Safeway survived. However, these days it is Safeway that is the high priced store and FoodMaxx is the winner.