Lucky's Supermarkets in Trouble (buy, tax, money, closing)

[Huasho]

Lucky’s Closing 32 Stores, Laying Off Associates


Read it Here: https://tinyurl.com/vhn9uxw

[abbottkd71]

Originally Posted by Huasho

Lucky’s Closing 32 Stores, Laying Off Associates


Read it Here: [url]https://tinyurl.com/vhn9uxw[/url]

That's really too bad. I live in Colorado, and it's one of my favorite places to shop in Fort Collins. Hopefully, that one will stay open.

[davebarnes]

I never understood their geographic expansion strategy.
Also, not a “fan”. I find that Sprouts, King Soopers, and Safeway satisfy my grocery needs.

[beachmouse]

All the traditional grocery chains want to expand into Florida because they see strong population growth and Publix getting twice the margins that the industry as a whole gets. But Publix fights hard on its home turf and Albertsons and the like have spent countless millions trying to compete head to head only to discover they couldn't and they end up leaving the state. The newcomers who make it work have either been budget chains (Walmart, Aldi) or premium players like Whole Foods.

So for Kroger to try to expand into Florida, it rather made sense to partner with Lucky's on the premium side where they weren't directly competing with Publix at first and then go general grocery once they established their first brand. Except that they apparently didn't get the numbers they wanted from Lucky's in Florida and decided not to go through with the big expansion attempt that probably would have worked as well as Albertson's attempts did.

[Huasho]

beachmouse, I am with you. But Publix for me is the clean restrooms, and maybe a couple of items per month and that's it.

ALDI gets 90 to 95% of the money allocated for groceries, and we are happy campers shopping there.

[old_cold]

Mine will be closing. Too bad. Whenever I'm in there it's pretty busy. But I have to admit going mostly for the meat/seafood sales. The veggies and fruits look good but seem to spoil very rapidly.

[twinkletwinkle22]

I stopped in Sarasota FL Lucky's to check it out. Unexciting except carts had a place for your wine sip (I think).
Trader Joe's already has that market. I'ma Publix fan but wish they'd offer more take-home meals and hot pizza.
When Publix upped their organic meat offerings I quit shopping other places.

[craigiri]

Originally Posted by twinkletwinkle22

I stopped in Sarasota FL Lucky's to check it out. Unexciting except carts had a place for your wine sip (I think).
Trader Joe's already has that market. I'ma Publix fan but wish they'd offer more take-home meals and hot pizza.
When Publix upped their organic meat offerings I quit shopping other places.

We have a Publix around the corner but only buy Spring Water and maybe ice cream there.

Trader Joes and Veggie stands (Yoders, etc.) pretty much satisfy our needs. I never even knew Luckys was here or what it was despite being here for quite a few years. I think they lacked decent marketing...if I never ran into them!

Common sense would say that the need for almost unlimited markets is a bubble. Each of us can only consume X calories so the idea that we need 10's of thousands of SKU's and every sort of discount food seem overkill.

Costco itself...wow, that place is a nightmare of people filling up their carts with BIG packages of food.

I often wonder where the market is....that is, I've lived in very populated places much of my life and yet there was no need to so many vast complexes.

I suspect it's like everything else. The only "market" is trying to steal market share from others. It's like the Big Box craze which ends up leaving behind millions of unoccupied square feet. No one (or few) has a grand plan so it's build, build, build and if a place goes out of business....well, the shareholders and taxpayers will pay for any losses to the tax base and corporation.

Down here I suspect Amazon will end up with a lot of the food market - through Whole Foods and then through home delivery. It's already obvious that most people stay within 10 minutes of their homes - that's why there are duplicates of most stores within 15 minutes.

So excuse me now while I go order some hinges off Amazon instead of driving to Lowes and finding out they have a limited selection!

:-)