Retail Watchers

I don't know if anyone has noticed this. But I was viewing the latest Albertsons TV ad where there is a kid who is causing a cleanup on asile 9. But during this commercial, there is some light music in the background. Would you believe it is a instrumental version of the famous, "It's Joe Albertsons supermarket but the bakery (or meat or produce etc) department is mine!"? I remember that jingle from either the late 1970's well into the 1980's.

I saw the commercial last night and noticed the jingle also. Perhaps this is a subtle hint that Albertsons is trying to make an effort to bring back some of the things that made them a good chain during the 1970s and 1980s. For what it's worth, this commercial has been airing quite often lately, and in my opinion, is one of the better ones Albertsons has had in the past several years.

Is that on youtube by chance?

Found it:

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/72JU/albertsons- ... aisle-nine

Your right about the jingle. Very faint but I see what you guys mean.

That's definitely one of Albertson's more memorable recent ads in my opinion, but I think that there would be a better way for them to express how they're going back to the things that made them grade in the 70's and 80's than by using a subtle jingle that most people won't even notice, if that's what their intentions actually are.

I was in an intermountain division store tonight and the jingle about the meat department was playing in between the usual canned music.

Seemed a little out there to hear that jingle, but certainly better than the generic announcements Supervalu used to make between songs in-store.

They've come far, fast, on pricing and fresh departments... I'm really impressed.

storewanderer wrote:I was in an intermountain division store tonight and the jingle about the meat department was playing in between the usual canned music.

Seemed a little out there to hear that jingle, but certainly better than the generic announcements Supervalu used to make between songs in-store.

They've come far, fast, on pricing and fresh departments... I'm really impressed.

I've recently noticed that too at the stores here in the Southwest division.

I know I've said it before, but Albertsons is running a number of nice moderate - high volume stores here in Arizona (a division that was left for dead back in 2005/2006). If Safeway does decide to leave the Arizona market (which I am in no way convinced that they will, seeing as they have been in the market since the late 1930s/early 1940s) I can see Albertsons LLC plucking the desirable locations and running a nice competitor to Kroger / Fry's.

These LLC people have figured out how to drive sales. This is not rocket science. Cut the prices and you will move product. Maintain quality and the customers will be very happy. Keep sales levels up and employee staffing hours are stable which helps the attitude of the employees, working in a successful store. This philosophy has been lost at Albertsons since the late 1990's and they started to veer the wrong way in the 1997-1998 period when they started to think price wasn't important.

It is going to take time and money to fix things, changes won't come overnight. It will be interesting to see how much time LLC is willing to spend turning around some of these operations. I think, they are going to be more patient than a lot of industry observers think.

I was very impressed with the attitude of the employees in the store I visited yesterday (and again today). This is a complete 180 from when Supervalu was running the store. The store is tired (blue/gray) and could be a lot cleaner, but, fresh areas look great. Customer count isn't great either and oddly it appears most of the traffic improvements in this store are on perimeter: all meat upgraded to USDA Choice, a very nice, extensive, high quality deli with a lot of good promotions, and very fresh looking well priced produce. Bakery still needs work, bakery looks like Supervalu still (terrible prices), not like the LLC Southwest Stores.