Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
stores. Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.

The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
discount" sales starting this Wednesday. The blame was put on
"disappointing sales volume". They gave it 5-6 months.

Holy cow! I didn't like the stores even though there was one very close
to home. The staff was terrific but prices on non-sale items were quite
high. They did have a very interesting selection of foods appealing to
a wide variety of ethnicities, but lots of off brands of common things.

I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?

gloria p

On Nov 15, 4:35*pm, "gloria.p" > wrote:
> Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
> stores. *Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
> stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
>
> The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> discount" sales starting this Wednesday. *The blame was put on
> "disappointing sales volume". *They gave it 5-6 months.
>
> Holy cow! *I didn't like the stores even though there was one very close
> to home. *The staff was terrific but prices on non-sale items were quite
> high. *They did have a very interesting selection of foods appealing to
> a wide variety of ethnicities, but lots of off brands of common things.
>
> I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?
>
> gloria p

Why would Smart and Final compete with itself? Makes no sense to
me. Obviously 5 stores in one area was too much.

"gloria.p" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
> stores. Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
> stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
>
> The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> discount" sales starting this Wednesday. The blame was put on
> "disappointing sales volume". They gave it 5-6 months.
>
> Holy cow! I didn't like the stores even though there was one very close
> to home. The staff was terrific but prices on non-sale items were quite
> high. They did have a very interesting selection of foods appealing to a
> wide variety of ethnicities, but lots of off brands of common things.
>
> I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?

Food Emporium closed here. Didn't surprise me as their prices were super
high. They did have a very good selection of gourmet things and things for
people on special diets, like gluten free.

I wasn't there for the closing. My brother and SIL went there on the last
day they were open. Everything was marked down 30% but he said there wasn't
much left. The entire produce department...gone! Whole aisles, just gone!
Brother said he thought perhaps the vendors bought back some of the stuff.

"gloria.p" wrote:
>
> The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> discount" sales starting this Wednesday. The blame was put on
> "disappointing sales volume". They gave it 5-6 months.

Several days ago, I went to the market where I used
to buy Jane's Krazy Salt, and the market was closed.
Fixtures and stuff were auctioned off about a month
ago. I assume there were big sales before it shut down
retail operations, but I didn't know about it. Darn!
I probably missed out on some really good deals.
I'd probably have a couple years supply of Krazy Salt.

In article
>,
ImStillMags > wrote:

> On Nov 15, 4:35*pm, "gloria.p" > wrote:
> > Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
> > stores. *Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
> > stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
> >
> > The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> > discount" sales starting this Wednesday. *The blame was put on
> > "disappointing sales volume". *They gave it 5-6 months.

> > I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?

> Why would Smart and Final compete with itself? Makes no sense to
> me. Obviously 5 stores in one area was too much.

Colorado is a pretty big area.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

"gloria.p" wrote:
>
> Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
> stores. Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
> stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
>
> The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> discount" sales starting this Wednesday. The blame was put on
> "disappointing sales volume". They gave it 5-6 months.
>
> Holy cow! I didn't like the stores even though there was one very close
> to home. The staff was terrific but prices on non-sale items were quite
> high. They did have a very interesting selection of foods appealing to
> a wide variety of ethnicities, but lots of off brands of common things.
>
> I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?
>
> gloria p

It's interesting that they apparently didn't adjust their prices when
they found that people were not buying. All the remodeling and window
dressing in the world won't compensate for excessive prices. People may
like the store visually and come in to buy one or two specialty items,
but if the bulk is overpriced, people will shop elsewhere for the rest.

Dan Abel wrote:
> In article
> >,
> ImStillMags > wrote:
>
>> On Nov 15, 4:35 pm, "gloria.p" > wrote:
>>> Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
>>> stores. Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
>>> stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
>>>
>>> The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
>>> discount" sales starting this Wednesday. The blame was put on
>>> "disappointing sales volume". They gave it 5-6 months.
>
>>> I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?
>
>> Why would Smart and Final compete with itself? Makes no sense to
>> me. Obviously 5 stores in one area was too much.
>
> Colorado is a pretty big area.
>

The Denver metro area had 2.7 million population in 2009.

The stores were all in the Denver metro area in former Albertson's
stores. They weren't close enough to compete with each other. They
were competing with well-established King Soopers (Kroger), Safeway,
Costco, Super Target, Walmart, Sunflower, Sprouts, Whole Foods and
various ethnic grocers. (ALbertson's left the area because they were
third in sales after K.S. and Safeway and they supposedly won't stay in
a state unless they are in first or second place in sales.)

gloria p

On Nov 16, 10:12*am, "Pete C." > wrote:
> "gloria.p" wrote:
>
> > Some of you may remember my asking last spring about Smart and Final
> > stores. *Between May and July they remodeled and opened five Smartco
> > stores in Colorado in what had recently been defunct Albertsons.
>
> > The early news just reported that all five would close, with "deep
> > discount" sales starting this Wednesday. *The blame was put on
> > "disappointing sales volume". *They gave it 5-6 months.
>
> > Holy cow! *I didn't like the stores even though there was one very close
> > to home. *The staff was terrific but prices on non-sale items were quite
> > high. *They did have a very interesting selection of foods appealing to
> > a wide variety of ethnicities, but lots of off brands of common things.
>
> > I'm not happy about more empty storefronts, but what can you do?
>
> > gloria p
>
> It's interesting that they apparently didn't adjust their prices when
> they found that people were not buying. All the remodeling and window
> dressing in the world won't compensate for excessive prices. People may
> like the store visually and come in to buy one or two specialty items,
> but if the bulk is overpriced, people will shop elsewhere for the rest.

there is a chain in MA and CT called Big Y which are gorgeous stores.
It's a family run chain, not affiliated with any of the big
supermarket chains. Very clean. The meat and produce departments are
fantastic. Really top notch quality. They have excellent sales on
basics: my brand of coffee frequently goes 4 or 5 for $10, for
example. Every 3 weeks or so, they have buy one get 2 free sales on
popular items: bagged salad greens, 5 lb bags of potatoes, boneless
chicken breasts, various types of beef steaks or roasts, 3 lb bags of
apples or oranges; Coke or Pepsi, etc. Their everyday prices tend to
be 10-25 cents more on many items. But their sales are outstanding and
the store provides a really great shopping experience. Very clean. The
department managers all recognize me (and other regulars) and their
customer service is 5 star. Between the great loss-leaders, the
quality of the meat and produce, the cleanliness of the stores and
their customer service, it's worth paying maybe a total of $2 or 3
more for the regular priced stuff.
The way to offset generally higher prices and an upscale shopping
atmosphere is to have really great sales.
Big Y has figured it out. Stop and Shop, which had a near monopoly in
my area of CT, is really suffering.