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Old 06-18-2016, 10:37 AM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,942 posts, read 8,779,876 times
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You knew I'd jump in on this one, right?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Burger Fan View Post
Some actual business background on ACME might help to clear this up. ACME isn't a "failed" supermarket model by any means. At all.


ACME is the eastern division of Albertson's Companies, Inc- a MASSIVE Grocery chain that brings in about 57.5 Billion a year in revenue. Yes, that's Billion. with a B.


ACME was acquired by Albertson's in 1999- Prior to that it was owned by American Stores Inc. with about 19.9 Billion in yearly revenue in 1998- or about 29.9 Billion in 2016 Dollars.


ACME/Albertson's is doing quite well, especially when you contrast it to other local competitors like Genuardi's (acquired by Safeway, then sold to GIANT food stores), Safeway (Which owned Genuardis/A&P/Superfresh- the latter two which were bankrupt and liquidated, and Safeway itself sold to Albertsons), or Pathmark (Bankrupt). Even Walmart doesn't have much of a foothold in the area in terms of Grocery store performance- and not for lack of trying. ACME is simply too entrenched here and RARELY does a location go out of business. (edit: Wiki says Shoprite actually passed ACME as the largest grocer in the greater Philadelphia area, which is kind of a surprise.)
A little corporate-historical cleanup:

The Albertson's, Inc. that currently owns Acme Markets is the second version of the firm. The original one was founded by the Albertson family in Boise, Idaho, in the late 1940s and grew to be one of the largest supermarket chains in the West; its acquisition of American Stores brought it into the East and Midwest. That Albertson's dismembered itself in the mid-2000s; part of the company was sold to a private capital firm and the other part (including Acme) went to Supervalu of Eden Prairie, Minn. Supervalu ran into trouble a few years back and spun off some of its assets; the stores it operated as Albertson's were sold to the private capital management firm, and Albertson's was once again one company.

Safeway Food Stores (now Safeway Inc.) never owned The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the oldest - and for much of its history, the largest - grocery chain in the US and for a while in the 1960s the only one with stores in all 50 states, thus living up to its name. A&P was acquired in the 1990s by the Haub family of Germany, owners of the Tengelmann chain in that country and the same family that endowed the business school at St. Joseph's University. A&P acquired Supermarkets General Corporation (Pathmark), the former largest member of the ShopRite cooperative, in the early 2000s. A&P's corporate history stretching back to 1857 came to an end with the company's bankruptcy and liquidation year before last.

Safeway did own Genuardi's, having bought the Norristown-based chain off the family that owned it. It then promptly trashed its reputation for quality and service, so much so that the company ran ads featuring employees apologizing on radio and TV. That proved too little too late, though.

According to the Wikipedia article on the chain, Safeway and the reconstituted Albertson's are corporate siblings under the umbrella of the private equity firm that bought first one half, then the other, of Albertsons, much like most of the large supermarket operators now operate stores under a number of banners. The two Giant chains - yes, two, one of them based in Carlisle, Pa., and the other in Landover, Md. - are both owned by Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold NV, which also owns the Stop & Shop chain in New England and has launched the small-format Everything Fresh chain here in Philly.

Quote:
But yes- as Fireshaker points out ACMEs and pretty much all grocery stores vary widely from location to location. Grocery stores lose a ton of money on produce that is simply wasted, and the clientele is very price sensitive to coupons, sales etc. Even a difference of a few percent in inventory shrink or expired product can mean the difference between making a profit and not making a profit- which is why you will rarely if ever see large grocery stores opening up in distressed neighborhoods. It's an event when one moves into somewhere like west philly or Chester, because it takes a miracle more or less for the numbers to work out.
Pathmark made something of a specialty out of opening stores in lower-income neighborhoods. I remember the rejoicing that greeted the chain's opening of its store at North Philadelphia Station.

At the time of its acquisition by A&P, Pathmark was working on a new, more upscale experimental store format whose test location was going to be Bart Blatstein's mall at 2nd and Girard in Northern Liberties. A&P's purchase of Pathmark bought that experiment to an end but explains why it opened the store as a Super Fresh, a banner the company was shrinking in the Philadelphia market at the time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cpomp View Post
Are you referring to Philadelphia proper? I don't think the region has any shortage of upscale grocers, but I am extremely dissapointed at Trader Joes for having only 1 city location. They are opening up in NYC left and right. The new larger and fancier Whole Foods on the Parkway is almost complete too.
Check the demographics of the City of Philadelphia and get back to me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by selhars View Post
Are the Philly suburbs really all that lacking in good (or upscale) grocers? I live near DelCo so I shop there. But a friend in Mt. Airy goes to the Layfayette Hill Plymouth Meeting suburbs. If you live in the City Line Avenue area you can shop in north CelCo or MontCo. I'm not as familiar with Bucks county.

I guess if a Wegmans, Tjs or WF isn't NEAR you, it's only human to wonder why there can't be more of them. Who in their right mind WOULD WANT to have to drive 15 miles to their favorite grocery store. But upscale grocers never really are that numerous in an area, are they?

And if you're not near a Wegmans…then you may be near a JTs or a WF. OR sadly, you may not be near any of them.

The comment about Wegman's making all their money pushing their low quality, slickly packaged wegmans brand products made me think of Aldis. (yuck) and of course that's practically all Traders Joes sells ….it's own private label items.

Oddly enough the upscale food shopper is a very interesting consumer. You'd be surprised how many DO shop at places like Aldis and Save-aLot -- and also shop at places like Wegmans, TJs and WF. But I get asking the question about Wegmans. I wish one were near me too.

And I wish there was a GOOD farmer's market near me, like the one in Ardmore. My family used to shop at Produce Junction. Now, adult and single -- I just do the grocery store for product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duderino View Post
I'd have to strongly disagree with your assessment. Compared to the vast majority of supermarket store brands, Wegman's products are clearly superior and definitely do not convey "value brand" like virtually ever other generic brand (other notable exceptions are TJs or Whole Foods).

Marketing/presentation definitely makes Wegmans more appealing for sure, but they wouldn't continue to be so popular if they didn't have an edge on quality, as well. And certainly Philly area folks agree, or else they wouldn't have been so aggressive on expansion in the region over the past 5 years.
I've also noted that when you leave the part of the store with all those eye-popping prepared foods, Wegmans is also very competitive on price. I heard from someone familar with Upstate New York that the Wegmans learned they had to be the hard way: shoppers flocked to their stores to pick up the eye-popping stuff, then went to rival Tops to do the rest of their shopping.

IMO, "generic" is misused when referring to what are known in the industry as "private label" products (brands exclusive to a single company or chain). There was a time in the late 1970s when several supermarket chains, in an effort to capture more business from price-conscious shoppers, did introduce lines of unbranded products; the cans simply read "corn," "peas" or whatever was in them and the labels were plain white (at the chain where I shopped, with green and black stripes below the product name). These were, and are, properly labeled "generic" products, which are so called because they are unbranded.

Private label products are intended to be the equal of nationally advertised brands; the savings presumably come in part from the lack of any need to market or advertise them - but I have seen newspaper ads and coupons for one of the larger private-label lines, Essential Everyday, which was Supervalu's private label and still may be for all I know. Acme carried it once Supervalu took over its part of Albertsons; so did The Fresh Grocer before that chain joined ShopRite. I think Acme carries it still, but I also note the presence of Safeway private label brands (Lucerne dairy products, Select premium line foods) in Acme stores now, no doubt the result of Cerebrus Capital Management (the parent of the second Albertsons) acquiring Safeway. My folks used to shop Safeway when I was growing up in Kansas City after Dad bought me two shares of the company to introduce me to the stock market; I thought Safeway's store brands very good.

I once saw a statistic that stated that 98 percent of American shoppers buy private label products (aka "store brands"). I'm willing to believe this, for in my experience, most store brand products (though not all) are as good as their nationally advertised counterparts. The private label products at Bottom Dollar Food (My Essentials and Hannaford, the latter the store brand of parent Delhaize USA's Maine grocery chain) were some of the best around, as was the A&P-family brand America's Choice. (Pathmark's store brand wasn't very good when it was an independent company.) Essential Everyday is up there, as is Wegmans' private label. (Aldi Nord - there are two German companies operating under that name - also owns Trader Joe's, and in Germany, Aldi stores carry Trader Joe's products as a premium line.) Aldi and ShopRite's store brands are hit-or-miss, as is the one carried in Thriftway and Shop n Bag stores, which I see are soon to be supplied by Wetterau Foods, the wholesaler that supplies independently owned stores operating under the IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) banner. (The former Pathmark at Chelten and Wayne avenues, on the other side of Germantown from me, is reopening as an IGA.) I'll let you know what I think of IGA private-label products if and when I get over to Chelten Market. Save-a-Lot's private label products are the pits.

What does distinguish Wegmans' private label from many of the others is its inclusion of products meant to cater to upscale shoppers' concerns. For instance, I have a bottle of Wegmans tomato ketchup in my fridge right now; when I was visting my DC friend over Memorial Day weekend, we bought it because it was made with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.

ShopRite stores, by the way, are also independently owned and operated, but the wholesaler that supplies them, Wakefern Food Corporation of Keasbey, N.J., is a cooperative owned by the supermarkets it supplies. Again, as Burger Fan noted about Acme stores, ShopRites vary in quality, though the variations are more from owner to owner than from location to location. The Brown family, for instance, operates ShopRite stores in West Philadelphia (52nd above Lancaster) and East Falls/Germantown (Bakers Square) and just opened a Fresh Grocer in a former Pathmark at Cedarbrook Plaza on the West Oak Lane (Philadelphia)/Wyncote (Cheltenham Township) border, and all three of these stores rival any you'd find in the suburbs for appearance, variety, service and quality of offerings. The new Cedarbrook Fresh Grocer even has a section featuring natural and organic foods, and the store's advertising takes direct aim at Whole Foods ("Why spend your Whole Paycheck on natural foods?" "Whole Paycheck" is the derisive nickname some have given the natural-foods chain for reasons anyone who's shopped in one should be able to figure out).

(ShopRite acquired the Fresh Grocer trademark from its owner, Pat Burns, when he took his chain into the ShopRite cooperative. Wakefern is now making the banner available to its other owners. Fresh Grocer stores generally have more extensive prepared-foods offerings than ShopRite stores do, as might befit a chain born at the edge of the University of Pennsylvania campus. It got its start, by the way, because Penn's real estate people couldn't persuade Whole Foods to take the supermarket space it was building in its parking garage at 40th and Walnut streets; Penn then approached the operator of the Drexeline (then IGA) supermarket in Upper Darby, told him what they (and their neighbors) were looking for, and twisted his arm hard to get him to agree to try it. The store was a hit from Day One. You might also note that Fresh Grocer stores are also located mainly in lower-income neighborhoods, and three of the chain's now six [with more to come] stores are next to college campuses, including the one I shop at, which is in a La Salle University-owned strip mall. The store's phone number (1-877-4-LaSalle) makes the relationship clear too.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by southbound_295 View Post
Kroger tried to negotiate with A&P. They might come into the area, yet. They own Harris Teeter, which is in some of Delaware. I'm more inclined to think that Publix is headed for Philadelphia. I don't see Meijer showing up on the east coast, though. I'll agree with you on that.
Publix is expanding, but I hadn't heard that the chain had plans to expand territorially outside its Deep South base. What have you heard?

Harris Teeter also operates mainly in the South; for purposes of this discussion only, Washington, DC, is a Southern city (actually, it was historically in several ways). Kroger is based in Cincinnati but largely pulled out of the Midwest (Ohio and I think metro Chicago aside) many years ago; most of its stores are now in the southern United States. it would be interesting if it made a push back above the Mason-Dixon line.

Last edited by MarketStEl; 06-18-2016 at 10:56 AM..
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Old 06-18-2016, 11:47 AM
 
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Great post MarketStEl - informative, insightful, and fair
Quote:
The Brown family, for instance, operates ShopRite stores in West Philadelphia (52nd above Lancaster) and East Falls/Germantown (Bakers Square) and just opened a Fresh Grocer in a former Pathmark at Cedarbrook Plaza on the West Oak Lane (Philadelphia)/Wyncote (Cheltenham Township) border, and all three of these stores rival any you'd find in the suburbs for appearance, variety, service and quality of offerings.
I notice you didn't mention the Brown ShopRite in far SW Phila.
All I know is the Island Avenue Brown Family ShopRite in Eastwick/Penrose Park -- SUCKS! (IMO) That's the one that's closest to me.
-- NO (ok hardly any) Brand selection. (I wanted a (ANY) NON soybean oil salad dressing. yeah, right)
-- NEVER enough cashiers so lines are out the wahzoo (that means looong, too long)
-- Cleanliness is barely "OK/acceptable" but NOT great
-- Lighting is terrible

I live in the DC area, and come home to Phila once a month. In MD I shop at Giant (the sister company to the Giant in PA, but technically not the same company). My flagship Giant is "the bahmb." I supplement my Giant run, with MOM's Organic Market, Trader Joes, and Fresh MARKET (not Fresh Grocer. Fresh MARKET is a small upscale chain out of NC that's like a small Whole Foods). I love Wegmans, but it's not along my usually route so I get there only every few months.

I just mention that to give an idea of the kind of shopping I'm used to.

When I come home to Philly, I'm aghast at the local ShopRite. Dirty, crowded, AND no selection. That Brown ShopRite is horrible. You'd think it was at 5th and Tioga or something. No organic products. No specialty produce or meats Until it closed, if I had the time -- versus just needing to go around the corner -- I always went to the Pathmark in Glenolden. It was the closest DECENT Supermarket. I visited a friend in Springfield (DelCo) -- and we went to the Glen Mills Wegmans…..it was like heaven. Now THAT is my kind of supermarket.

All that said while I may want another Wegmans in DelCo. The Philly suburbs really are not really lacking in decent grocery options. Depending on where you live in the suburbs at upscale market may not be the closest one to you. But I don't think there are THAT many suburban neighborhoods or townships that don'e have that kind of grocery fairly close. I don't' think -- for example that anyone is more than 10 miles from SOME kind of decent or upscale grocer.

Last edited by selhars; 06-18-2016 at 12:11 PM..
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Old 06-18-2016, 12:07 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,809 posts, read 34,419,348 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
You knew I'd jump in on this one, right?



A little corporate-historical cleanup:

According to the Wikipedia article on the chain, Safeway and the reconstituted Albertson's are corporate siblings under the umbrella of the private equity firm that bought first one half, then the other, of Albertsons, much like most of the large supermarket operators now operate stores under a number of banners. The two Giant chains - yes, two, one of them based in Carlisle, Pa., and the other in Landover, Md. - are both owned by Dutch supermarket operator Royal Ahold NV, which also owns the Stop & Shop chain in New England and has launched the small-format Everything Fresh chain here in Philly.



Pathmark made something of a specialty out of opening stores in lower-income neighborhoods. I remember the rejoicing that greeted the chain's opening of its store at North Philadelphia Station.

At the time of its acquisition by A&P, Pathmark was working on a new, more upscale experimental store format whose test location was going to be Bart Blatstein's mall at 2nd and Girard in Northern Liberties. A&P's purchase of Pathmark bought that experiment to an end but explains why it opened the store as a Super Fresh, a banner the company was shrinking in the Philadelphia market at the time.

I've also noted that when you leave the part of the store with all those eye-popping prepared foods, Wegmans is also very competitive on price. I heard from someone familar with Upstate New York that the Wegmans learned they had to be the hard way: shoppers flocked to their stores to pick up the eye-popping stuff, then went to rival Tops to do the rest of their shopping.

IMO, "generic" is misused when referring to what are known in the industry as "private label" products (brands exclusive to a single company or chain). There was a time in the late 1970s when several supermarket chains, in an effort to capture more business from price-conscious shoppers, did introduce lines of unbranded products; the cans simply read "corn," "peas" or whatever was in them and the labels were plain white (at the chain where I shopped, with green and black stripes below the product name). These were, and are, properly labeled "generic" products, which are so called because they are unbranded.

Private label products are intended to be the equal of nationally advertised brands; the savings presumably come in part from the lack of any need to market or advertise them - but I have seen newspaper ads and coupons for one of the larger private-label lines, Essential Everyday, which was Supervalu's private label and still may be for all I know. Acme carried it once Supervalu took over its part of Albertsons; so did The Fresh Grocer before that chain joined ShopRite. I think Acme carries it still, but I also note the presence of Safeway private label brands (Lucerne dairy products, Select premium line foods) in Acme stores now, no doubt the result of Cerebrus Capital Management (the parent of the second Albertsons) acquiring Safeway. My folks used to shop Safeway when I was growing up in Kansas City after Dad bought me two shares of the company to introduce me to the stock market; I thought Safeway's store brands very good.


Publix is expanding, but I hadn't heard that the chain had plans to expand territorially outside its Deep South base. What have you heard?

Harris Teeter also operates mainly in the South; for purposes of this discussion only, Washington, DC, is a Southern city (actually, it was historically in several ways). Kroger is based in Cincinnati but largely pulled out of the Midwest (Ohio and I think metro Chicago aside) many years ago; most of its stores are now in the southern United States. it would be interesting if it made a push back above the Mason-Dixon line.
Kroger owns Litmans.

Harris Teeter is headquartered in Matthews, NC, which is adjacent to Charlotte. They sold themselves to Kroger when Publix decided to open a Charlotte division. Publix recently announced plans to enter Richmond. They are currently looking at DC & Maryland. They are known to cater to Caribbean populations. What's the chance that they're going to DC & not expand to the Philadelphia market?

At the same time, Wegmans just opened in Richmond. They have announced intentions of moving into NC. NC is not the deep South. There's a lot of crossover with MidAtlantic foods.

While this is happening, Lidl is preparing to launch from PA/NJ to GA.
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Old 06-18-2016, 12:13 PM
 
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Yep we're going to get a Lidi where I am in MD. I'll go to check it out. But likely won't shop there.
It's supposedly a competitor to Aldis. And that's not for me.
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Old 06-18-2016, 08:35 PM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by selhars View Post
Great post MarketStEl - informative, insightful, and fair
Thanks. Now, if everyone would just stop calling store brands "generics," I'll be happy.


Quote:
I notice you didn't mention the Brown ShopRite in far SW Phila.
All I know is the Island Avenue Brown Family ShopRite in Eastwick/Penrose Park -- SUCKS! (IMO) That's the one that's closest to me.
-- NO (ok hardly any) Brand selection. (I wanted a (ANY) NON soybean oil salad dressing. yeah, right)
-- NEVER enough cashiers so lines are out the wahzoo (that means looong, too long)
-- Cleanliness is barely "OK/acceptable" but NOT great
-- Lighting is terrible

I live in the DC area, and come home to Phila once a month. In MD I shop at Giant (the sister company to the Giant in PA, but technically not the same company). My flagship Giant is "the bahmb." I supplement my Giant run, with MOM's Organic Market, Trader Joes, and Fresh MARKET (not Fresh Grocer. Fresh MARKET is a small upscale chain out of NC that's like a small Whole Foods). I love Wegmans, but it's not along my usually route so I get there only every few months.

I just mention that to give an idea of the kind of shopping I'm used to.

When I come home to Philly, I'm aghast at the local ShopRite. Dirty, crowded, AND no selection. That Brown ShopRite is horrible. You'd think it was at 5th and Tioga or something. No organic products. No specialty produce or meats Until it closed, if I had the time -- versus just needing to go around the corner -- I always went to the Pathmark in Glenolden. It was the closest DECENT Supermarket. I visited a friend in Springfield (DelCo) -- and we went to the Glen Mills Wegmans…..it was like heaven. Now THAT is my kind of supermarket.
I can actually relate.

The ShopRite of La Salle, my local supermarket, is still owned by Ron Burns, as are the other four pre-ShopRite Fresh Grocers still operating [40th and Walnut, 56th and Chestnut, Progress Plaza and 4th and Adams in Wilmington; all of these were built by the chain or for it (in the case of Penn). The original Drexeline store was converted into a ShopRite, a store it acquired at 53d and Chester was closed, and the chain's seventh store and only one in New Jersey, in New Brunswick, it also shuttered after about a year in business (I hear the store was a little too far from the Rutgers campus to be convenient to students there).

But while the Progress Plaza store, which I patronize occasionally, is generally well run, neat and clean, everyone I know, including me, has some gripe about the La Salle store. Aisles are cluttered, litter isn't swept up as often as it should be, and service at the service counters varies in speed and attentiveness.

The difference between that store and the new Wyncote store in Cedarbrook Plaza is like night and day. Attractive displays, neat and well-stocked shelves and aisles, attentive service, and a wider and better selection of products to boot.

I'm sorry to hear the Brown family operates one turkey of a ShopRite.

I intend to check out the Fresh Market in Chestnut Hill, which opened about two months ago in a very intelligently designed mixed-use building with apartments above. The main reason: I read that Fresh Market carries Duke's mayonnaise. Southern cooks swear by it, and after trying it, I understand why. A small grocery store near Olney Transportation Center had it for a while, but no longer; the last jar I bought I had to buy at that Wegmans in suburban Washington. If that comes a-cropper, I may just have to go back to making my own.

Quote:
All that said while I may want another Wegmans in DelCo. The Philly suburbs really are not really lacking in decent grocery options. Depending on where you live in the suburbs at upscale market may not be the closest one to you. But I don't think there are THAT many suburban neighborhoods or townships that don'e have that kind of grocery fairly close. I don't' think -- for example that anyone is more than 10 miles from SOME kind of decent or upscale grocer.
The La Salle store aside, I'd put Fresh Grocer stores up against any good suburban supermarket save Wegmans, but the difference there is mainly one of scale - Wegmans stores are actually inverted Walmarts. ("Inverted" because Walmart predominantly sells general merchandise but tacks supermarkets onto some of its stores; Wegmans is a supermarket but has a sizable section devoted to housewares, linens and small appliances.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by southbound_295 View Post
Kroger owns Litmans.

Harris Teeter is headquartered in Matthews, NC, which is adjacent to Charlotte. They sold themselves to Kroger when Publix decided to open a Charlotte division. Publix recently announced plans to enter Richmond. They are currently looking at DC & Maryland. They are known to cater to Caribbean populations. What's the chance that they're going to DC & not expand to the Philadelphia market?

At the same time, Wegmans just opened in Richmond. They have announced intentions of moving into NC. NC is not the deep South. There's a lot of crossover with MidAtlantic foods.

While this is happening, Lidl is preparing to launch from PA/NJ to GA.
Didn't know Kroger sold jewelry!

Well, given that they're marching north from Florida into Washington, yes, it would seem that Publix (which is employee-owned, a fact that would make me want to try it out if it opened in this area) might want to consider heading deeper into the Mid-Atlantic market, but probably only after establishing itself in Washington first. And there's a non-trivial Caribbean population in Philly, if Aisle 3 at the La Salle Fresh Grocer and the Haitian Baptist church next door to me can serve as proxies. (So, for that matter, can the Germantown Save-a-Lot, the nicest Save-a-Lot you will ever set foot in. Germantown residents held Ron Burke's feet to the fire when he announced that he was closing the Fresh Grocer on West Chelten Avenue next to the Regional Rail station and replacing it with a strip mall with Save-a-Lot as an anchor tenant. Besides having a produce section that's not from hunger, this Save-a-Lot has a decent selection of Jamaican foods and products as well as a large array of Caribbean sauces and international seasonings.)

Lidi, I take it, is an Aldi clone?
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Old 06-18-2016, 09:05 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,809 posts, read 34,419,348 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarketStEl View Post
Thanks. Now, if everyone would just stop calling store brands "generics," I'll be happy.




I can actually relate.

The ShopRite of La Salle, my local supermarket, is still owned by Ron Burns, as are the other four pre-ShopRite Fresh Grocers still operating [40th and Walnut, 56th and Chestnut, Progress Plaza and 4th and Adams in Wilmington; all of these were built by the chain or for it (in the case of Penn). The original Drexeline store was converted into a ShopRite, a store it acquired at 53d and Chester was closed, and the chain's seventh store and only one in New Jersey, in New Brunswick, it also shuttered after about a year in business (I hear the store was a little too far from the Rutgers campus to be convenient to students there).

But while the Progress Plaza store, which I patronize occasionally, is generally well run, neat and clean, everyone I know, including me, has some gripe about the La Salle store. Aisles are cluttered, litter isn't swept up as often as it should be, and service at the service counters varies in speed and attentiveness.

The difference between that store and the new Wyncote store in Cedarbrook Plaza is like night and day. Attractive displays, neat and well-stocked shelves and aisles, attentive service, and a wider and better selection of products to boot.

I'm sorry to hear the Brown family operates one turkey of a ShopRite.

I intend to check out the Fresh Market in Chestnut Hill, which opened about two months ago in a very intelligently designed mixed-use building with apartments above. The main reason: I read that Fresh Market carries Duke's mayonnaise. Southern cooks swear by it, and after trying it, I understand why. A small grocery store near Olney Transportation Center had it for a while, but no longer; the last jar I bought I had to buy at that Wegmans in suburban Washington. If that comes a-cropper, I may just have to go back to making my own.



The La Salle store aside, I'd put Fresh Grocer stores up against any good suburban supermarket save Wegmans, but the difference there is mainly one of scale - Wegmans stores are actually inverted Walmarts. ("Inverted" because Walmart predominantly sells general merchandise but tacks supermarkets onto some of its stores; Wegmans is a supermarket but has a sizable section devoted to housewares, linens and small appliances.)



Didn't know Kroger sold jewelry!

Well, given that they're marching north from Florida into Washington, yes, it would seem that Publix (which is employee-owned, a fact that would make me want to try it out if it opened in this area) might want to consider heading deeper into the Mid-Atlantic market, but probably only after establishing itself in Washington first. And there's a non-trivial Caribbean population in Philly, if Aisle 3 at the La Salle Fresh Grocer and the Haitian Baptist church next door to me can serve as proxies. (So, for that matter, can the Germantown Save-a-Lot, the nicest Save-a-Lot you will ever set foot in. Germantown residents held Ron Burke's feet to the fire when he announced that he was closing the Fresh Grocer on West Chelten Avenue next to the Regional Rail station and replacing it with a strip mall with Save-a-Lot as an anchor tenant. Besides having a produce section that's not from hunger, this Save-a-Lot has a decent selection of Jamaican foods and products as well as a large array of Caribbean sauces and international seasonings.)

Lidi, I take it, is an Aldi clone?
Kroger has a Litman dept in their big stores. I think they're called Kroger Marketplace.

Publix sells Cuban bread, makes Cuban sandwiches, & stocks a lot of Caribbean products. They can fill a void in Philadelphia that Pathmark filled. If they're going to DC it would make zero sense for them to not go to Philadelphia. You're probably looking at 5 - 7 years. Keep in mind that they've already announced intentions to go to Richmond. That's halfway between Charlotte & Philadelphia. When they announced that they were coming into NC, I told a couple of people that I figured that they would go to Philadelphia. That was just before A&P started pulling Pathmark out.

Lidl is Aldi's main competition in Europe.
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Old 06-19-2016, 01:08 AM
 
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I intend to check out the Fresh Market in Chestnut Hill...
I like Fresh Market -- a LOT!
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Old 06-19-2016, 12:54 PM
 
Location: Philaburbia
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Originally Posted by southbound_295 View Post
Kroger has a Litman dept in their big stores. I think they're called Kroger Marketplace.
Kroger Marketplace stores sell everything.
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Old 06-19-2016, 04:15 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,809 posts, read 34,419,348 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81 View Post
Kroger Marketplace stores sell everything.
I haven't been in one, but I think they're like Meijer/Thrifty Acres.
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Old 06-19-2016, 09:34 PM
 
Location: South Carolina
21,003 posts, read 26,983,613 times
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Originally Posted by kyb01 View Post
I'm not following Acme really but what's weird is how they took over some dead Super Fresh locations. How could they expand when they've been a "failed" super market model, imo, for ages?
Acme, a division of Albertson's, has fared better than A&P.
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