Chains with two stores very close to each other

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luckysaver
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Post by luckysaver »

In South Pasadena, VONS was one of the Safeways sold to VONS in '88. Since Pavilions is VONS's upscale concept, you would expect different options at the stores. Actually, the stores are across the street, not in the same shopping center. I guess in some cities, a supermarket company can own or operate stores across the street, as with the case in Montebello where there's an Albertsons-Savon across the street from Max Foods (both owned by SuperValu).

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Post by greebs »

In Granada Hills you have 2 Ralphs across the street from each other. One was a former Hughs Market, the other built as a Ralphs. Both bare the Ralphs name.
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Post by Groceteria »

I've split this discussion off from a different topic. Please (as always) try to keep it focused on history leading to the situation rather than just the current status of the stores. Thanks.
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runchadrun
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Post by runchadrun »

greebs wrote:In Granada Hills you have 2 Ralphs across the street from each other. One was a former Hughs Market, the other built as a Ralphs. Both bare the Ralphs name.
These are on the corner of Chatsworth and Zelzah. The store on the south side of the street is on the site of a former Treasury store which later became the Coast Federal Savings data processing center. The current Ralphs opened around 1997. See this thread for more: http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=361

The store on the north side of the street is the former Hughes and it replaced the Granada Lanes bowling alley, which was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The TJ Maxx in that center is a former Thriftimart and later Safeway.

Edit: Here is an architect's rendering of the shopping center from 1961: http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032982.jpg

I've lived in Granada Hills for 6 years and this has been a mystery to me, and it made no sense about which stores got closed and sold in the merger. There must be something in the lease that forces Ralphs to keep the duplicate store open. The Hughes at Devonshire and Balboa became a Ralphs and the Ralphs at Chatsworth and Balboa (which is the store in my avatar, now Staples) closed when the Ralphs on the south side of Chatsworth opened. Meanwhile a Ralphs at the corner of Devonshire and Reseda (former Zody's, now a Korean store) was sold to Vons, despite that there was a Vons at Reseda and Nordhoff and Lucky across the street and it only lasted as a Vons until about 2002. It would have made a lot more sense for Ralphs to keep the Devonshire/Reseda store and sold one of the Chatsworth/Zelzah stores.

UPDATE (July 07): The store on the north side (former Hughes) closed earlier this year. The plan is to replace it with a Kohl's but there is neigbhorhood opposition since Zelzah is a narrow, almost country, road in that area and the site is immediately adjacent to homes. More info from the developer at http://www.granadavillageshoppingcenter ... quest.html and the Neighborhood Council (which opposed the plan) at http://www.ghsnc.org/nc_kohls.htm
Last edited by runchadrun on 10 Jul 2007 10:40, edited 3 times in total.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

runchadrun wrote:...I've lived in Granada Hills for 6 years and this has been a mystery to me, and it made no sense about which stores got closed and sold in the merger. There must be something in the lease that forces Ralphs to keep the duplicate store open...
Given the age of the stores that you described, my guess is it's probably a lease condition that requires Ralphs to keep open as a grocery store or the lease terminates and the property reverts back to the landlord. As I'm sure you know, there's a fairly widespread phenomenon in competitive grocery markets that it makes more economic sense for a grocer to keep a lease on a dark store simply to prevent the competition from moving in. Obviously, that's bad for the landlord, other tenants, and usually bad for the neighborhood. This tactic has been upheld by various courts, so in the last several years, savvy landlords have been putting in lease clauses to prevant this from happening.

Although I've never seen it happen with grocery stores, I've seen plenty of bank mergers that resulted in branches being located literally across the street from one another, and it ending up making economic sense for both branches to remain open, because of amount of deposits and customer base. I don't think that that's as much of a factor as it once was, as the need to actually "go to the bank" has diminished quite a lot over the last 15 years.
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Post by lvkewlkid »

With the Kroger buyout of Raley's (former Albertson's) in Las Vegas, its not uncommon to see 2 Smith's within a one mile of one another.
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Daniel
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Post by Daniel »

In Fresno, there were 2 Save marts directly across the street from each other at First & McKinley. One was a 60's era store that was quite small, the other was a former Alpha Beta Save Mart bought. Both stores operated for at least a year before the 60's era store was closed. That building is now a thrift store, while the ex-Alpha Beta closed 3 or 4 years ago and is now a DD's Discounts (Ross subsidiary).
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Post by Jeff »

For many years up to a couple a go, there were two Vons across a small street from each other in Pacific Beach (San Diego). One was a Safeway the other a Vons.
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Post by TenPoundHammer »

Here're a couple.

1. A very small town near me, called Fairview, used to have two IGA stores RIGHT ACROSS from each other. Not bad for a fourcorners.

2. In the 1930s, Greenville, Michigan had two A&P's a block apart.
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Post by Groceteria »

TenPoundHammer wrote:2. In the 1930s, Greenville, Michigan had two A&P's a block apart.
Actually, that was fairly common in the 1930s. Most older chains hit their peak in terms of numbers of stores between 1929 and 1935, which is when they started consolidating into supermarkets. Since the stores served a primarily pedestrian- and transit-based population, they were often within three or four blocks each other, sometimes closer if lease conditions required it or both stores were making money.
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Post by drpep »

On Upper Front Street in Binghamton,NY is a plaza with two Giant Markets. The free standing Giant is the original and just across the lot in a strip mall is a former Grand Union that is now the second Giant Market. These are not Ahold Giants but a local Broome County operation of about a dozen stores.
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Post by Toby Radloff »

Back in 1976 or so, there were two Pick-N-Pay's within a block of each other on Clark Avenue in Cleveland...one was an original Pick-N-Pay which opened in the 1950's, and the other was a former Kroger that Pick-N-Pay took over after Kroger closed all of its Kroger-branded stores in Cuyahoga County. The two Pick-N-Pays operated side by side for at least two years, then the original Pick-N-Pay closed (the building later became a Gray Drug/Rite Aid, and is now a Family Dollar)...the former Kroger later became a Finast and a Tops. Tops closed the Clark Ave. store a year or so before the chain pulled out of OH. A Save-A-Lot occupies this location now.
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Post by Toby Radloff »

Also, for years, there were two A&P's on Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland which were less than a mile away from each other...one was at 13598 Euclid Avenue (in the Forest Hills shopping plaza...that location is still a Konni's Supermarket), and the other at 14525 Euclid Avenue...a colonial centennial store that opened in the late 1950's. Both A&P's continued to operate until A&P left OH...those two were among the last A&P's to close in the Cleveland area. The 14525 Euclid colonial later operated as Rogers Supervalu, then it was torn down to make way for a Walgreens.
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Post by krogerclerk »

Kroger ended up with stores roughly across Peachtree St in the Brookhaven area of DeKalb County as a result of A&P and Harris-Teeter leaving the market. A&P had a long running centennial store in Cherokee Plaza, an early centennial, it had a pressed tin ceiling rather than a drop tile ceiling. Harris-Teeter opened its first store(1992ish)in Atlanta across from the A&P, resulting in a redevelopment of Cherokee Plaza and a new A&P in the mid-90's.

The nearest Kroger and Publix(the two dominant chains in Atlanta), were in the Buckhead area a couple of miles away. Kroger snapped up the A&P and reopened the store within a few days of closing as A&P in 1999. It's overall layout and exterior design is similar to a Kroger of the same vintage, with only decor differing. Harris-Teeter exited the Atlanta market in 2001, with Kroger buying all dozen or so locations and reopening 8, the 4 or 5 that closed were in competition with an existing Kroger. However, the Brookhaven H-T was reopened as Kroger despited being across from the ex-A&P Kroger. There was speculation that Kroger would attempt a Kroger Fresh Fare in this particular H-T, but it closed late in 2005, leaving only one Kroger operating in the area.
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Post by runchadrun »

Here's another one...the two Ralphs within about 1/4 mile on Lincoln Blvd in Marina del Rey. The store on Lincoln and Admiralty Way is the former Marina Market, which was owned by Yucapia as of at least 1990. The store at Lincoln and the end of the 90 Freeway is a former Alpha Beta. It opened around 1994-95 and was built as a flagship store around the same time as the Miracle Mile store and was supposed to be an example of the "new" Alpha Beta with all the bells and whistles and a natural foods selection, kinda like a Ralphs Fresh Fare. Both of these stores were owned by Yucaipa at the time of the Ralphs merger, so it's interesting that Yucapia would build a store so close to another one of theirs unless their intent was to close the Marina Market (which they didn't do).

After the merger the Alpha Beta changed completely to a Ralphs (it's now a Fresh Fare), while the Marina Market kept the name but added a small Ralphs oval to its sign. In this view you can see it if you try hard: http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&c ... &encType=1 The other views show what it looked like in the middle of its recent major remodel.
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