There are now more damn health food stores in my town than grocery stores (coffee, snacks)

[ABQConvict]

50 lb sack of flour $10

2 lb block of yeast $12

1 lb salt $.79

Boom. You'll be swimming in bread for pennies a loaf.

[corydon]

2 bucks a gallon... Are you folks not connected to an underground water pipe???? It's been around for a few years in most places and it goes for about $1.00 for a few 100 gallon....

Rumor has it that in some homes there is a hot and cold water line... Just rumors.. can't believe everything off course.

[tickyul]

This is the trend now, more and more fru-fru foods for the folks that are willing to pay the extra price. This fru-fru trend is doing a BIG invasion of "regular" grocery stores....and it pulls the price of ALL of the food up.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by randomparent

Businesses either respond to demographic shifts, or they go belly up. Sounds like the OP is outnumbered. We've got an old, outdated grocery down the street that is poorly positioned to succeed in the market. They're down-market in what is now an up-market neighborhood, and the locals drive right on by in pursuit of a better shopping experience. The corporation refuses to put any money into the store, so it's circling the drain, which is sad to see, but if they had done their research and kept up, they probably would have retained their customer base.

this is a very good point,

I use to sell grocery stores and this is a major issue- no upgrades, and customer base is die-ing off, not going after younger generations. or adapting to shifting buying habits



the upside is if they could sell to someone who can invest in the local market, make it appealing , then they may have something



im not opposed to change, I was part of a co-op that promoted maine farms and buying local fresh food products

the issue I had was when a professional marketing person started putting down an entire industry to promote this newer co-op.
"you guys are slow up here, you need to scare people into buying our products, fear is the biggest and deepest motivator"

the propaganda started and hasn't stopped, the half-truths and feel good marketing

[Woof]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

50 lb sack of flour $10

2 lb block of yeast $12

1 lb salt $.79

Boom. You'll be swimming in bread for pennies a loaf.

That would lead to a lot of dangerous blunt instruments for me.

[aquamarin]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

50 lb sack of flour $10

2 lb block of yeast $12

1 lb salt $.79

Boom. You'll be swimming in bread for pennies a loaf.

Exactly. I bake my own healthy bread from whole wheat flour. I cant afford to pay $5 or $6 for their healthy bread.... but want to eat healthy.

[Ruth4Truth]

The town I'm in is like the OP's, except we have 3 Albertson's and 2 Smith's, in terms of conventional grocers. We have a small neighborhood specialty grocer. There's Trader Joe's. But there are two Whole Foods stores (within 3 blocks of each other. One was a Wild Oats that WF took over), a food co-op, two Sunshine grocery stores, which is some kind of health food/organic food store, and Natural Foods Grocery, formerly Vitamin Cottage, which has the best prices. All this, in a town of 70,000. (And that's not counting WalMart.) I haven't heard anything about Albertson's closing--are they only closing in certain regions? It's very popular here.

The gallon jugs of water at our WF cost the same as in any other store.

A manager at one of the WF told me the chain is expanding, and going into smaller towns. Both stores in my town do a booming business, in spite of being within 3 blocks of each other. I have the feeling that if they'd open a store across town, that one would be booming, too. I don't know why a relatively small town needs so many grocery stores. The Sunshine stores don't seem to get much traffic, I'm guessing they'll be the first to go. All the other stores have been in town forever, and are well-trafficked. They seem to be keeping up. If I were Albertson's, though, I'd close 1 of the stores. 2 of their stores are in the same part of town, so they could consolidate.

[randomparent]

Albertsons and Safeway have either recently completed or are in the last stage of a merger. (I can't keep up!) In advance of the merger, the companies shed a total of 150 stores or so to four different buyers. News sources place the closings in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest. I think Safeway has been trouble for awhile. Kroger-owned King Soopers is the dominant tradional supermarket here in Colorado, and I think that is unlikely to change. The last Albertsons near me closed several years ago and is now a natural foods store. King Soopers seems to be thriving, but it would be unwise to let down its guard.

[creepy]

You must live in a rich person's city. One a city gets a lot of rich people everyone starts catering to them.

[RVcook]

Wish I didn't have to drive 55 minutes one way to get to one.

I guess we all have our complaints.

RVcook