I seem to remember that for a number of years Albertsons would not put a pharmacy in their strip mall stores if there was a drug store located in the same complex. This seemed to apply with large chains, notably PayLess, as well as some smaller chains over the years such as Skaggs Drug Stores, and some small, locally-owned drug stores (One example in Boise, Idaho was a small store, I believe Hill's Pharmacy, which used to be located next door to the Albertsons on Broadway Ave.). Was there at one point an Albertsons company rule about this? Or was it just some kind of agreement between Albertsons and the various drug stores?
I know of two stores in Vancouver, WA built in the mid-1990s that did not include pharmacies, one was in a complex with a PayLess built at the same time (Albertsons has since relocated) and another in the same complex with locally-owned Hi-School Pharmacy (Hi-School sold this store after being bought by Walgreens which had a store across the street).
In more recent years, it seems that Albertsons puts a pharmacy in all their new stores regardless of other tenants in the same strip mall.
Albertsons pharmacies
Moderator: Groceteria
- runchadrun
- Veteran
- Posts: 618
- Joined: 27 Dec 2005 14:29
- Location: Granada Hills (Los Angeles), CA
- Contact:
It may have been a condition of the drug stores' leases, that they would have the exclusive rights to operate a pharmacy in the shopping center.
Similarly, when I was in college a Trader Joe's opened immediately adjacent to an existing Albertsons. Albertsons had in their lease that no other stores in the center could sell alcohol so that Trader Joe's became the first store in the chain to not have a liquor/wine department. And right as I was turning 21!
Similarly, when I was in college a Trader Joe's opened immediately adjacent to an existing Albertsons. Albertsons had in their lease that no other stores in the center could sell alcohol so that Trader Joe's became the first store in the chain to not have a liquor/wine department. And right as I was turning 21!
Alot of leases contain clauses that prohibit similar stores to enter the same shopping center (I am an ass. manager at a privitely owned Sandwich shop and we have a clause in our contract that says no other store can sell sandwiches). I remember the Albertson's in Oceanside didn't have a pharmacy until 2000 when they remodeled it and put in a SavOn Pharmacy (SavOn will now live on only in Albertsons). I believe at one point there were both a PayLess Drugs and a Thrifty in the same shopping center (odd!!)
There's an example of an exclusive clause that didn't work out. You'd think that Albertson's exclusive would apply to grocery stores in general, not just to alcoholic beverages.runchadrun wrote:Similarly, when I was in college a Trader Joe's opened immediately adjacent to an existing Albertsons. Albertsons had in their lease that no other stores in the center could sell alcohol...
The exclusive clauses in leases have gotten more and more detailed and perhaps bizarre. They are getting more and more detailed to ensure exclusivity without wiping out the landlord's ability to rent to say, more than one restaurant. Often they will name a laundry list of competitors that are forbidden to lease in the same center or limit the amount or percentage of space another tenant can devote to an activity - for example, a Blockbuster lease will prohibit another tenant from devoting more than a certain percentage of space to video sales so that Kroger or CVS can still sell videos, but Hollywood can't come into the center.
There are also radius clauses that prohibit the landlord from leasing space in a completely different center within a certain distance to a competitor.
There's a newer Albertson's (Opened in the late 90's) that is in a plaza with a Longs Drugs that has no pharmacy. There is a cosmetics display along the wall where a pharmacy would be, with a fixture that reads simply "Albertsons Quality Products". Across town there's another Albertsons (Mid 1990's build) with no pharmacy, but they are the only anchor in that strip. Interestingly enough, these are the only two stores in town that still have the "blue-gray" interior, all the other stores have been remodeled into Albertsons' current prototype with the addition of the Sav-On Pharmacy.