Groceteria.com

- Apparently, from some recent Flickr photos, the flagship Safeway at Market/Duboce in SF is getting a remodel...

- Cala on Hyde Street in SF slated to close in 2010:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 12VQF7.DTL

- Safeway moving into the old Lucky/Albertsons space in downtown San Jose?
http://cbs5.com/local/downtown.sj.grocery.2.811342.html

TheStranger wrote:- Safeway moving into the old Lucky/Albertsons space in downtown San Jose?
http://cbs5.com/local/downtown.sj.grocery.2.811342.html

Actually, the proposed Safeway is a different location, I believe, in a highrise closer in to downtown. But I'm going to be really sad to see that Cala go.

I'm confused though about that store... Is it still part of Ralphs/Kroger?

romleys wrote:I'm confused though about that store... Is it still part of Ralphs/Kroger?

Yeah, the article was a little unclear and erroneously suggested that Kroger had already completely left the area. It also erroneously called Kroger "Kroger's", but that's just a pet peeve, I guess. It doesn't bug me quite as much as "Lucky's" or "Costco's" at least, since there actually was a person named "Kroger" once.

Cala and Bell are now under Food 4 Less, they are not under Ralphs. They are still owned by Kroger. The Hyde and Silver locations continue to stock a lot of Ralphs items.

The two Bells are slated to close in 2009 when their leases expire. Silver is becoming Fresh and Easy and the one in the Noe Valley neighborhood is becoming Whole Foods.

Pretty disgusted about the supposed, planned closure of the Hyde Cala, but I guess I'm not surprised. Between Kroger not wanting to run conventionals in NorCal and the land use issue, highest and best use, etc., I guess the store had a lot of "chips" stacked against it.

What a shame.


The other interesting thing is many times in San Francisco we see new stores opened in the base of condos. Maybe that will happen here. I'm guessing Cala Foods is not interested in this idea.

Groceteria wrote:t doesn't bug me quite as much as "Lucky" or "Costco's" at least, since there actually was a person named "Kroger" once.

I'm guessing you mean "Lucky-apostrophe-s." The message board changed it to Lucky for some reason when I tried to post it. The one that bugs me is "Ralph-apostrophe-s" since there's no apostrophe. The founder's name was George A. Ralphs. Occasionally I see it in newspapers (mainly the Daily News) with the apostrophe.

Anyway, a new Ralphs Fresh Fare opened last year at the base of a Downtown LA condo so it's not like Kroger is averse to the idea as a concept, but doing it in SF is a different story.

Kroger seemed to have little commitment to NoCal and their track record with truly urban places is limited and poor. This is pretty much what I would have expected, although I would have thought that the stores would've been closed a while ago. It's encouraging that they're doing Fresh Fare in downtown LA, but if SF is under Food4less, they probably wouldn't do it there.

There was a Fresh Fare in San Francisco, it was one of the Calas sold to Delano's IGA.

Ralphs milked Cala/Bell for years with smaller, inferior stores and pricing that was absolutely absurd. They priced far higher than the standard Ralphs, and even ran ads with higher prices than the standard Ralphs. Safeway and Albertsons/Lucky undercut them miserably. Along the way, the Cala/Bell Store Count fell from probably over 30 down to the current 3.

There have been some adjustments made to the pricing in this store as of late, and it is competitive now.

Groceteria wrote: It doesn't bug me quite as much as "Lucky's" or "Costco's" at least, since there actually was a person named "Kroger" once.

Or "Wal-Marts". I hear that on a regular basis.

It is too bad that the Hyde & California Cala is going to die, but hardly a surprise. I was amazed to see it continue after Ralphs gave up on this region. I wondered if it was ever still run by Ralphs/Kroger, I didn't realize that they still had any distribution to this area. Someone mentioned that they were being supplied by Food 4 Less trucks/warehouses. I know Food 4 Less is kind of a hairy beast ownershipwise, with different owners in different regions. However, I have not seen any Food 4 Less in the Bay Area for several years. They all became FoodMaxx. Is that owned by Kroger? It's a shame that one of the few "regular" grocery stores in that part of the city is going away. Hopefully they will have space on the ground floor of whatever they build for there to be a supermarket. Lord knows that part of town needs more markets.

The worst part of that Cala closing is that the wonderfully weird 1960's era building will surely be torn down. I must admit it is probably wiser to build a higher-rise building on that plot of land, but it's a shame for SF to lose another piece of mid-century architecture. Unlike LA, the Bay Area doesn't seem to have a whole lot of late 40's-mid 60's buildings, at least ones of note design-wise. The older parts of the peninsula have some gems, as does the east bay, but SF is mostly early 20th century and very late 20th century.

On another forum, someone made a comment about the site of that Cala previously having something noteworthy on it. They asked it as a question, to see if anyone else knew the answer but one one seemed to. I heard that the DHL shipping company got its start as a "back of a station wagon" courier in the parking lot of that Cala, but I don't think that's what they were referring to. Does anyone know what was there before Cala, or even when it was built?

Food Maxx is owned by Save Mart. As far as I know they own it 100% and don't have any franchises.

Kroger runs some FoodsCos in the bay area. The FoodsCos are supplied by C&S out of the old Ralphs Warehouse in Stockton (which is still open but not run by Kroger)... That warehouse stocks an assortment of Kroger branded items. Dairy and bread are trucked up from the SoCal plants. The Ralphs brand items seen at the remaining Cala/Bell Stores are also trucked up from SoCal.

The remaining Cala/Bell sold a mix of Ralphs and Best Yet for the longest time back when Cala/Bell was "for sale," but finally replaced all of the Best Yet with Kroger brand items a year ago. Cala/Bell currently has a very odd assortment with Ralphs brand on the somewhat slow moving items and Kroger brand on the fast moving items and the very slow moving items. Conversely, a real Ralphs has Ralphs on the fast moving items and Kroger on the slow moving stuff.

Keeping in mind this is San Francisco, I'd say nothing is official until we see the Cala Store demolished. It may take years to get these plans finalized.

The San Francisco Chronicle featured the Cala supermarket on Nob Hill in San Francisco in John King's weekly historic architecture column on May 30, 2010. See: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1DKH1G.DTL Most Groceteria.com users will enjoy the brief article and the photos.

I like the pictures. I'll keep my mouth shut beyond that.

The store officially closed today December 1st 2011 at 2pm.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/romleys/64 ... hotostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/romleys/64 ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/romleys/64 ... otostream/