Albertsons and Safeway store closings? (Tucson, Scottsdale: sale, live, prices)

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by grmi66

Not going to be sad to see any of their stores close. Can't remember the last time I shopped at either store and not left irritated. The Safeway that I stop into that's a block away from work still doesn't have a self check lane. Hate having one item and having to stand in a line that's 6-7 people deep because they refuse to open more cash registers. Plus hate knowing that I'm paying a third more than I would at Fry's.

Note that with Albertsons buying out Safeway, self checkouts might be going away from Safeway stores, as Albertsons did away with their self checkouts a few years ago. I'm not sure how Safeway determines which stores get self checkouts, but most that I have been to do not have them. Fry's and Basha's, on the other hand, have self checkouts in almost all of their stores.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Pink Jazz

Note that with Albertsons buying out Safeway, self checkouts might be going away from Safeway stores, as Albertsons did away with their self checkouts a few years ago. I'm not sure how Safeway determines which stores get self checkouts, but most that I have been to do not have them. Fry's and Basha's, on the other hand, have self checkouts in almost all of their stores.

Albertsons dumped their loyalty program too. Safeway is expensive and it is downright extortion without a card. I read, though, that their will be little change - Safeway will be run as Safeway and Albertsons as Albertsons has been - at least in the short term. As for self checkout, "our" Safeway has it. When they don't I will go somewhere else.

[new2colo]

Albertsons is worthless. I hope all the stores close. For some reason, everytime I step into one of their stores, I feel like I've been transported back to 1972. It's just so outdated. Unfortunately I get the same feeling with Bashas.

[Solere]

I hope as many stores as possible remain open. The more competition the better. Who cares about fancy renovations and upgrades. A clean, well lit store is what most care about. According to this article, the intention of the merger is not to close stores.

http://www.pionline.com/article/2014...y-merger-story


There are also Fry's stores close to each other that happened with the last merger.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by new2colo

Albertsons is worthless. I hope all the stores close. For some reason, everytime I step into one of their stores, I feel like I've been transported back to 1972. It's just so outdated. Unfortunately I get the same feeling with Bashas.

Not the Bashas near me. Covered parking, wiiide parking spaces, upscale decor inside including a nice sit down cafe type area with a flat screen TV. I like the experience there the best, it's the prices that keep me away.

[grmi66]

Love Winco, got hooked on shopping there when I lived in Idaho. Their grocery prices are even better than Wal-Mart's, plus they are employee owned. So the employees are actually friendly & helpful.

[Juram]

Originally Posted by vince3vince

With the merger becoming official with the start of the year, will any of these stores end up closing due to close proximity? I frequent a safeway on FLW and given there is an albertsons a mile up FLW, was curious if they will close. Are the names changing as well or will they still operate under the Safeway business model?

From what I've read, they are keeping the two stores separate. In some area's where they have too many stores in close proximity they'll have to close either an Albertsons or a Safeway and I imagine they'll take the opportunity to slough off some of the more underperforming stores.

[Juram]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Albertsons dumped their loyalty program too. Safeway is expensive and it is downright extortion without a card. I read, though, that their will be little change - Safeway will be run as Safeway and Albertsons as Albertsons has been - at least in the short term. As for self checkout, "our" Safeway has it. When they don't I will go somewhere else.

Self-checkout comes with a major cost of increased theft though and why a lot of stores are questioning if they should continue offering it. Costco had a trial run and it ended up costing them considerably so they decided against it, although they always frame it as "these machines just annoy people, our employees can do a better job", but the bottom line is that it is costing them A LOT of money.


Self-checkout also creates a built in excuse for shoplifters when caught. "Oh, the darn machine is so difficult to figure out, I guess I just made a mistake."

That's costing stores big time. Richard Hollinger, who studies theft for the National Retail Federation, says many companies are removing their self-checkout lanes, claiming customers don't like them. In reality, he says, they're just losing too much money.
"They've done the cost-benefit analysis, and there were some negatives that they never really anticipated," Hollinger says.
One reason is that at self-checkout, wannabe shoplifters have a great excuse.
"If I didn't scan everything, I can say, 'Oh, I couldn't tell what was going on, it was confusing, it was beeping at me,' " says Malay Kundu, the CEO of StopLift, a Massachusetts company that uses computerized video analysis to flag shoplifting.

Naughty Or Nice? Retailers Use Smiles To Fight Self-Checkout Theft : NPR



It just creates many new opportunities for shop-lifters or people to mislabel stuff that they are buying....ie.....get organic produce, pay regular produce prices...etc. Scan expensive coffee as cheap fruit....and so on.


I can understand why more and more stores want to avoid the whole thing, it just ends up jacking up the cost overall for everyone. I love the convenience of them but could also do without and wouldn't be shocked to see Safeway and even Kroger(Fry's) doing away with them completely.

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by Juram

I can understand why more and more stores want to avoid the whole thing, it just ends up jacking up the cost overall for everyone. I love the convenience of them but could also do without and wouldn't be shocked to see Safeway and even Kroger(Fry's) doing away with them completely.

Definitely don't see Kroger doing away with them; they are committed to them and even encourage their use over the standard checkout lines. Many Kroger-owned supermarkets now typically have fewer staffed checkout lines open during off-peak hours than they did in the past, while all the self checkout lines are typically kept open the entire day.

[Juram]

Around 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores were sold to Washington state grocer Haggen.

This reportedly includes 7 stores in Nevada and at least 3 stores in Arizona, 2 in Tucson and the Safeway at Anthem.


Haggen is expected to keep the stores running with the same employees but switching them over to Haggen Grocery branding by mid 2015.

Haggen to Expand from 18 Stores to 164 Stores with Major Acquisition - 23ABC News