[Huasho]

Lucky’s Closing 32 Stores, Laying Off Associates


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

Miami never had a chance, with just days to open up !!!!

[Huasho]

In the dirty world of Grocery Wars I am wondering if Kroger PULLED the PLUG on purpose..

All is possible.

[sinatras]

I will miss their freshly fried tortilla chips!

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by Huasho

In the dirty world of Grocery Wars I am wondering if Kroger PULLED the PLUG on purpose..

All is possible.

Yes. The articles in December about the ending of their investment relationship said that they didn't feel the investment was going well.

I repeated the news about the Kroger divesture MULTIPLE times on the anti-Publix threads multiple times in last month with no response until I started whining because no one was paying attention to me lol.

Originally Posted by sinatras

I will miss their freshly fried tortilla chips!

I need to swing by and try their famous bacon.

[beach43ofus]

I predicted this here on C-D, and told my wife they won't last. I visited 2 of their stores, and knew w/in minutes they just didn't have it. Sprouts and Trader Joe's are far superior, and have much lower prices.

For Lucky's prices, I'm going to Whole Foods, or Fresh Market.

There's a new Luckys under construction in Venice. I wonder what will happen to it? I'm guessing that is one to be closed before it even opened. Hopefully, Detweilers across the street will buy it and move into it. The existing Detweilers in Venice is in desperate need of expanding, and upgrading.

[boy3365]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I predicted this here on C-D, and told my wife they won't last. I visited 2 of their stores, and knew w/in minutes they just didn't have it. Sprouts and Trader Joe's are far superior, and have much lower prices.

For Lucky's prices, I'm going to Whole Foods, or Fresh Market.

There's a new Luckys under construction in Venice. I won't what will happen to it. I'm guessing that is one to be closed before it even opened.

Of Lucky's, Sprouts, and Earth Fare in Orlando, I thought Lucky's was the winner of the "alternative to Whole Foods" wars. It certainly looked that way on Yelp and my personal opinion. 4.5 to 5 stars at every location. Sprouts and Earth Fare had mixed reviews. Yelp is not scientific of course. Sprouts would be okay either way because it is a national brand. I thought Earth Fare would be a bust, but maybe this gives them an edge.

[beach43ofus]

I'm not familiar with Earth Fare. I just read a few more articles on Lucky's, and it sounds like they tried to grow too fast, and made some bad real estate decisions.

I don't eat meat (I do eat fish), or much processed or prepared food. Over the past 10 years, I've become adept at evaluating this segment of the wider grocery store marketplace. I can't get myself to pay Publix prices, so I'm always looking for alternatives. I split my spending between Aldi, Sprouts, & WalMart. My wife prefers Publix, but she buys mostly BOGO's, and the easy to prepare pre-packaged meals.

Lucky's prices were too high. Their Sarasota location is invisible from the main road (41 aka Tamiami Trail), and their Bradenton/Lakewood Ranch site had to cost a truckload of cash to buy and build. The profit margins for grocers can't sustain such costly real estate as that Bradenton/Lakewood Ranch site w/o deep pockets to fund a very long time horizon.

The Venice store was set to open in the weeks ahead. Constructon appears to be 75% complete. That was a good & highly visible location, and since it was in a under utiized strip center, I'm guessing the cost was right for a grocer. They were going to have to take on local grocer Detweilers though, and I didnt see Lucky's winning that battle.

I feel terrible for those who are losing jobs due to this, but the over-crowded specialty grocery store market has spoken.

[Huasho]

I literally cannot afford Whole Foods, Earth Fare or Fresh Market, I will miss Luckys tremendously, they were opening in a couple of weeks under 3 mls from me.. What a shame.

But MORE was Lost in the Wars, so we go on.

The Miami TJ's is very small, cramped with horrible parking and 20 mls R/T for me, so I go there maybe every 2 months, I am lucky that ALDI is within walking distance from me, so most of our grocery money we spend there, very little at Walmart and less than little at Pubix !!!

[Huasho]

Originally Posted by boy3365

Of Lucky's, Sprouts, and Earth Fare in Orlando, I thought Lucky's was the winner of the "alternative to Whole Foods" wars. It certainly looked that way on Yelp and my personal opinion. 4.5 to 5 stars at every location. Sprouts and Earth Fare had mixed reviews. Yelp is not scientific of course. Sprouts would be okay either way because it is a national brand. I thought Earth Fare would be a bust, but maybe this gives them an edge.

Daughters in NE Orlando are crying because Luckys in Winter Park is closing. I drove 100 mls RT to go to Broward, and worse yet we had one opening under 3 mls from Us in under 2-3 weeks..A frikken shame. I was waiting for a yr for this to happen and BINGO they never came and they are gone basically from the Sunshine State in less than a Month.

Luckys definetely miles ahead of Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Earth Fare, you have to be a millionaire with NO respect for money to buy in those 3 places, and I live on a fixed income.

[beachmouse]

Their Panama City store didn't have competition in the premium grocery niche, but Hurricane Michael closed the store for months and when it reopened, a lot of the locals probably couldn't afford it anymore because residential rents went up so much. I'm disappointed they couldn't make a go of it- I really like Publix but always feel like competition keeps even the best retailers on top of their game better.