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Safeway certainly didn't seem interested in allowing Dominick's to continue doing business in Chicago.
Safeway purchased Dominick's Finer Foods in 1998. I did not arrive in Chicagoland until 2000 so i never experienced the old stores.
Safeway got rid of a lot of the local brands and the store brands that a lot of Chicagoans really liked, I have been told. Their labor contracts in Chicago were unfavorable (often $3 and hour HIGHER than Jewel-Osco). Also, a lot of the stores were allowed to deteriorate.
By 2007, I would walk into some of the Dominicks stores in the North Suburbs - think Lake County. On a Saturday morning, 25% of their dairy stock was marked down and over 50% of their fresh meats. They had butter that was going out of date which is something I never saw before.
What is really sad is that the merchandising, layout and quality of the Dominicks stores - even toward the end would put the Safeway stores in Arizona to shame. The ones that I have seen in California are not any better.
In my local Safeway store, they fry chicken at 6 am for the remainder of the day. Chicken under a heat lamp for eight hours? I will pass.
Safeway paid $1.2B for Dominicks in 1988 and had an offer to buy the chain for $450M in 2008 or so. They refused and ended up liquidating the chain for about $200M.
The demise of Dominicks has not been all bad. A lot of the local independents have added their old stores to their roster. Fresh Markets, Fresh Thymes, and Mariano's have all opened up locations throughout the region.
I lived in Dominicks' territory from 1999-2001 (Cook County, Chicago, far north side), and again in 2013-2014 (Lake County). I really never shopped it that much. In the late 90s-early 2000s, I lived in city neighborhoods with no car, so I grocery shopped where was walkable. Jewel was easily reachable on foot, Dominicks required El or bus, which is no fun with rollcarts/grocery bags. When I lived in Lake County, we mostly shopped the Great Lakes Commissary. I did occasionally go to the Lake Bluff Dominicks store, but it closed while we were there. It was easily the closest non-commissary grocery store to the base.
I wonder how the stores you liked in IL compare to Fresh Market in Smithtown, near Uncle Giuseppe's. The more of these finer markets, the better, I say.
Heinan's is a growing, family owned store (since 1929), based in and with most locations in Ohio (19 stores) and they've recently begun opening new stores (4) in the Chicago suburbs (more specifically the higher end suburbs - Barrington, Lake Bluff, Glenview, Bannockburn). They're new here - 1 - 2 years or so in this area. The Glenview location opened back in 2014.
I've never been to one, nor driven past one, but the area I travel in is pretty limited - I do my grocery shopping STRICTLY based on convenience, followed by price.
that is what it sounded like to me: a regional chain. We have a similar chain here, but I think they are only in AR. The store name is Harps. Very good, very fresh produce but also pricier than other stores.
that is what it sounded like to me: a regional chain. We have a similar chain here, but I think they are only in AR. The store name is Harps. Very good, very fresh produce but also pricier than other stores.
Heinen's was a Cleveland based supermarket chain with 18 locations in the Cleveland area. They are a high-end, high service chain that does a very good job serving the customer. Personally, the only better supermarket in the state is Dayton's Dorothy Lane Market which is in a league of its own. Heinen has benefited from the very weak competitors in the Cleveland area.
Chicago is a whole different game. There are dozens of competitors and the list is growing after the demise of Dominicks.
Mariano's has done very well in Chicago but their growth has been restrained due to the precarious financial position of its parent Roundy's which was hemorrhaging in Milwaukee and SE Wisconsin. However, since being purchased by Kroger's last year, they have the cash to expand throughout Chicagoland and they are aggressively doing so.
That will put a strain on Heinen's which has only four locations.
Byerly, a Minneapolis upscale chain attempted the same expansion into the Chicagoland market about fifteen years ago and was unsuccessful.
I do not want to be a smart alack but there are reasons why a lot of supermarkets don't come to New York - especially your neck of the woods. The cost of doing business on Long Island is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than in Chicago as are the taxes. And the costs of doing business in Chicagoland are NOT inexpensive.
You are right.
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