Albertsons owner to buy Safeway

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

T

tomturbomatic

Well-known member
Gold Member
Joined
May 21, 2001
Messages
21,766
Location
Beltsville, MD
Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, owner of the Albertsons grocery chain, agreed to buy Safeway for more than $9 billion.

In the 1980s, Safeway was the target of a hostile takeover which they thwarted by the poison pill tactic of taking on a huge amount of debt. The move made them unattractive but was a millstone around the corporation's neck.

If you read the list of grocery stores controled by Cerberus, it is quite extensive. Have your cookie ready as you enter his domain.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/albertsons-owner-buy-safeway-more-9-billion-n46416
 
Albertson's & Ssfeway are two grocery store chains that couldn't make it in Houston and left after only a few years. The market here is very competitive and people are not going to pay convenience store pricing for store house brands.

Plus Safeway ruined Dominick's in Chicago just like they ruined Randall's in Houston.
Both were leading grocers before Safeway got their hands on them.
 
Albertson's came into our grocery market very strong 20 years ago or so opening a bunch of stores in a relatively short time.  They were always considered to be higher priced than local chains and never thrived.  They're all gone now, selling out to a local store chain (Bakers) that is now owned by the Kroger Co.

 

Alberston's was a Mormon-owned company, I've always wondered what their "politics" are like, though it matters little in this market now.

 

We shopped at Safeway for many years until a Bakers store opened near us.  Safeway was gone by the early-80's, selling off their stores to the then latest trend of "bag-it-yourself-and-save" marketing innovations.  I still remember the store brands at Safeway, they had some very good products.
 
I am sorry to see Safeway purchased by this company... I doubt they are considering much other than the quick restructuring buck. We have all seen what that can do to a good company. The Safeways that I shop at here are all very good, one of the few stores that has competitive prices when you use their club card sales (and much less than the higher end stores) but with much better customer service than the low end stores.
 
Albertson's, Osco, Jewell, Safeway all failed in our market. Dillon's (Kroger) bought them out and closed their stores down.

We always liked Safeway the best of the bunch, their stores were clean, well stocked, and staff were your neighbors.

The Safeway stores became Food Barn, which were dirty, cockroach infested, and poor quality produce items. (Failed)

Albertson's was fined for mixing pork with their ground beef, selling the Vietnamese fish as catfish, and their stores were dirty, overpriced and stinky.

Osco/Jewell were mostly here in the pharmacy, variety store. They were very clean well stocked stores but had stiff competition from the Walgreens, CVA, and Walmarts.

Cerberus is known for gutting a company and selling off the carcass, guess they still had something to offer in that respect. Won't effect our market now were we have Dillons, Target, Aldi and Walmart. There are still a few independent IGAs around but only in outlying communities.
 
Safeway is the third largest employer in the SF Bay Area, partly due to its being headquartered in Pleasanton.  It had been headquartered in Oakland, housed in the old brick former Columbia Records factory (78 RPM) for many years before that. 

 

I've always been lukewarm about Safeway.  Sometimes their produce really sucks, and it's often overpriced.  I find the "Club Card" annoying, but the savings are worth it.  Often if what I'm looking for doesn't offer a Club Card discounted brand I won't buy it.  Without the discount, the prices are as high as a specialty supermarket such as Lunardi's or Draeger's. 

 

Where we used to live, we had options galore for grocery shopping, none more than a mile from home:  Nob Hill (owned by Raley's), Lunardi's and Whole Foods in one direction, Safeway in another,  Lucky (which became Albertons, which later reverted back to Lucky) and another Nob Hill in a different direction, and in later years, closest of all, Trader Joe's.

 

Where we live now, no matter which direction we go, the closest supermarket is a Safeway.  I wouldn't mind some competition, but I don't think we'll get any out of this merger.

 

There's a clause in the merger agreement that allows Safeway to continue to seek other offers, and Kroger has shown strong interest.  I'm not so sure a Kroger deal would be better.  They're already the nation's largest grocery chain.
 
Hmmm . . .

I don't really care much who owns Safeway as there are none in my area but there are a few Albertson's. The latter is funny, they are well distributed around SoCal so have to have all the warehouses and deliveries of a large chain but they're really not a large player at all in comparison to Ralph's and Von's. In some areas they have very competitive, well kept stores but in other areas they've seemingly given up and the stores are smaller and not so well kept, which lead to the announcement a few months ago that Albertson's would close a significant number of SoCal stores.

 

Given the intense competition for grocery stores here and razor-thin profit margins many of us are wondering if they'll eventually give up and close. I hope not because Ralph's and Von's need some mainstream competition. I'm lucky because there are both a Ralph's and a Von's within a ten minute walk of where I live so I rarely go to Albertson's, but I'd gently suggest to Cerebus to not let Albertson's manage Safeway.
 
I thought Von's was owned by Safeway.  Maybe that's a thing of the past.

 

I agree that it won't be an improvement if Safeway becomes a re-badged Albertson's.

 

One thing Safeway did back in the '90s, and I'm sure it was due to pressure preservationist groups put on the city, was a re-working of a towering neon sign that stood on property Safeway intended to re-develop, a portion of which was originally occupied by '60s vintage, dome shaped Futurama Bowl.

 

Here's a picture of the finished product:

rp2813++3-7-2014-11-23-35.jpg
 
Here's the original incarnation.  I'm fairly certain the bowling pin on top used to revolve but am not so sure the vintage Safeway "S" does likewise.

rp2813++3-7-2014-11-26-8.jpg
 
Gorgeous Sign!

You're right, it took a minute to find on the Von's website but they are owned by Safeway. I knew they had some Safeway branded products but didn't know if this indicated common ownership or just a marriage of convenience since we have no Safeways and some of this stuff may be produced locally for sale throughout the state.

 

I do hope this doesn't mean the end of Albertson's here, if so the only real competition for Ralph's and Von's will be boutique stores like Trader Joe's and Gelson's or ethnic markets like Vallarta and 99 Ranch Market. I don't think we have any 99 Ranch Markets in the San Fernando Valley but there are plenty in the southern San Gabriel Valley which is heavily Chinese, it's always a good place to get Tsingtao beer on sale. Lots of Vallartas around, these are good for produce but overall for my use you can't beat a good big standard supermarket.
 
I'm finding it ironic...

That Safeway is now owned by their former arch-competitor in Chicago, Jewel. Or I should say, owned by Jewel's parent...

*Jewel's and Dominick's (if we use the correct Chicago S at the end of everything) were arch-rivals in the grocery scene in Chicago for many moons. Jewel sure took a new look at their old friend Dominick's locations.. and bought some.*

(Jewel used the slogan "take a new look at old friend, Jewel" for years.)
 
Well Ralph,

If it's bargains you're a shoppin for, there's always Zonotto's over on Naglee. When my mom was ill and I was living in one of my late uncle's homes around the corner on Shasta Ave I would occasionally shop there. Although they had a limited selection, prices for staple items were about double as compared with a supermarket. Years ago they caught old lady Zonotto with her thumb on the scale, but I'm sure she's gone now. There were a lot of great markets in San Jose just a few years ago. Is PW gone now too? I think that bowling pin at Futurama Lanes did in fact spin around.

PS...I recently found out I'm now part owner of that little Spanish Revival home on Shasta along with 12 other properties in San Jose. Maybe I'll move back, the awful desert heat is a comin :-)

twintubdexter++3-7-2014-14-25-16.jpg
 
Joe, I intentionally omitted Zanotto's (which due to decades of conditioning I still tend to refer to as "De Luxe") from the list above.  I only shop there when I need to pick up just a few items that aren't worth the bother of the tight Safeway parking situation and the often long lines at the check stand.   Zanotto's is always a quick run.  And oh yes, they are thieves when it comes to pricing on almost everything, but I don't know where else you can buy Marianne's Ice Cream from Santa Cruz other than at Zanotto's.

 

Locally owned PW Markets closed up shop a couple of years ago.  They just couldn't compete anymore.  I used to go there once in a while, and when my mom was still in her house, she'd send me there to do her weekly shopping most of the time.  Their newer big stores were really nice.

 

Shasta Avenue is one of my favorite streets in the neighborhood and it hasn't changed much over the years.  Come on back!

 

 
 
If Kroger....

....Is on a buying spree, I wish they'd buy the Hy-Vee closest to me at Crossroads.

A store Winn-Dixie would be ashamed of, charging Publix prices.

I don't know much about Hy-Vee in other cities, but the ones here - well, I would hesitate to post full expression of my opinion of them in the DL forum. I can get out of the two University Avenue stores, the Logan Avenue store and the new one on Ansborough with most of the enamel on my teeth intact, even if I'm never really pleased. But the one at Crossroads is a pit.
 
Safeway is Von's

Safeway also owns Pavilions, if that hasn't already been mentioned.

My very first job was at Safeway. I worked in the bottle room counting containers and issuing deposit slips, back before the automatic machines existed. It was horrible.

We have two Safeways, a Whole Foods, a Fred Meyer (Kroger), a Zupan's, and a Trader Joe's all within walking distance of the house. Most of what we buy, however, comes from Safeway or Whole Foods, plus sometimes Trader Joe's. Safeway's pricing is nothing special, but in this market they are less expensive than Albertson's, which for years has seemed unusually expensive when compared to their competition. I'm not sure how their stores here stay open. Perhaps the customers who shop in their stores do so out of convenience more than anything else.
 
Harris Teeter.... I believe that Kroger bought Harris Teeter, a slightly upscale supermarket chain that has a few stores the Washington area.

My fear, though, with these venture capital type firms buying a company like Safeway, they will be all about 'maximizing shareholder value' by 'unlocking and monetizing assets', meaning they could care less about selling groceries, it's all about stripping profitable assets out of the company and leaving a company carcass on the curb... I hope the store can make it through this, and I hope its employees don't get screwed in the process.
 
Futurama Bowl and Zanotto's

Although I moved to San Diego in 1998, I grew up in West San Jose and remember the Futurama Bowl well. We moved to Sacramento in high school then I came back and, when in college at Santa Clara University, they converted it to the Safeway. I lived in Santa Clara about two miles from Zanotto's and would often ride my bike there. Loved that neighborhood and have so many great memories of my time there when in college and the years after until I moved.
 
I work for a company who was taken over by Cerberus, RUN DO NOT WALK.......

I feel sorry for any who works at Safeway, lots of good folks will get the axe.
 
When I moved here in 1986, there were 2 HEB stores, an Albertsons, a Piggly Wiggly, a Safeway, and a couple of mom & pop small independents and a MiniMax 15 minutes away. Walmart built a Super Center in 1990, a Sam's Club opened in 1992. The Piggly Wiggly burned down in 1989 or 1990. I did go to Safeway some because they tripled and quadrupled coupons. I found their prices to be very high. What really upset me when looking at many of the customers, they looked like they really couldn't afford the stores prices. I watched most customers get into their own vehicles. I couldn't understand why they didn't go to HEB where there was a better selection, better pricing, and a cleaner store. Safeway was taken over by AppleTree (and also in Houston). Albertsons closed in like 2005 or 2006 as did MiniMax. Now all that's left are 2 HEB stores, Walmart Supercenter; Target has some groceries but I find them expensive and an Aldi opened up last summer, which I don't intend to patronize. I shop at HEB, Target, and Sam's.
 
Here in Florida, most of our Albertsons are gone as far as I know. Publix bought ours out and didn't make any drastic changes, pretty much the same layout. I remember the Albertsons seemed like a huge store and were a bit expensive. They had a great package-to-order meat and seafood case though, something no one else here had. They were around for about 10 years. Publix seemed to buy most of them, although I heard Winn Dixie had been considering some locations.
 
Apple Tree WAS Safeway. And another failed intermediate in Austin, Randalls. Albertson's, whoever they were, closed all but a couple stores. HEB and Walmart ruled with homespun HEB ahead and Kroger nowhere to be seen.

HEB has little penetration in DFW but Kroger's pricing/quality/selection is comparable and they are EVERYwhere. And there's the 10% geezer discount plus price adjustments for the asking. That is, if the store brand is out of stock and you ask, they will sell you the national brand equivalent for the same price.

Or as just happened, they were out of 5/$1 small limes and sold me 79C ea large limes for the same price. Today the deli custom made me a fresh fish sandwich with double cheese and deluxe bun for 50C off. Then there was the half-price Boar's Head ham over the holidays.

I like Kroger. They are union, paying a competitive wage and benefits, and VERY competitive in the market.

The supermarket--umm, market--is not that different from the appliance market. Brands fall in and out of ownership umbrellas and corporate acquisitors.
 
AppleTree was what was left of Safeway after they sold the Safeway stores to the employees. AppleTree was an employee owned chain, and like Safeway in this region it fell apart too after a few years. Safeway stores here were very nice and clean, but usually had very few customers. Limited selection and high prices is what killed them.

Kroger in Houston is very high priced. The only place I have seen a pound of Land O Lakes butter "on sale" for $4.99 per pound. The same item is $2.89 at H-E-B. But they do stock quite a selection. It's the only store in Houston I know of that sells peanut oil in a quart sized container. Most everyone else sells it by the gallon only.

H-E-B is giving Walmart a real run for the money here price wise. I think the selection at HEB is better and in a lot of cases so are the prices too.

Aldi reminds me too much of a public food pantry. We've been in there a few times and there are some deals, but a lot of stuff is just a few cents cheaper than HEB or Walmart. I do like the fact that a lot of the stuff sold at Aldi is or European orgin.
 
So far

I have yet to see anything Cerberus Capital Management LP has taken over and made a success of.

Perhaps I missed something but these so called vulture capital firms are just that, vultures picking over a carcass.

And one wonders why American business can't seem to put out a good product or service. The answer is obvious, too much attention paid to shareholder value and not enough to the customer. That is a recipe for failure each and every time.

Funny thing is, neither Honda or Toyota crow about unlocking monetary assets or boosting shareholder value. Yet both companies are flush with cash and don't have to resort to the feast or famine tactics that Detroit uses on a regular basis. And I noticed that they never seem to deal with "shareholder revolts" because the stock price is not doing well.

What I do see is both companies with a long track record of success; taking away market share from Detroit and driving every European import save Volkswagen back to France, Italy, Sweden, et al. Customer loyalty for their products is highest in the industry.

This story will pan out like so many other "merger of equals". In other words it will lay a giant egg. Lawyers, bean counters, and incompetent corrupt management will get their share of rewards. Joe worker bee will get the shaft. And customers will suffer too. I imagine there will be gobs of "retention" bonuses paid out to "maintain continuity in the management suite".

Business as usual in America.
 
Freebies

Hey guy's,
was cleaning out some stuff taken out of an elderly lady's house, I helped with, and thought somebody might have some use for it. If you are interested in any of the items, let me know, and I will try to make the arrangements to get them to you. Being as I am currently unemmployed, I will have to send them COD. If I could do differently, I would, however it is what it is.
Hugs,
David

lotsosudz++3-8-2014-14-47-36.jpg
 
The link leads to a good article about this merger. Anyway you look at it this is wishful thinking all by itself. Sure by merging Albertson's & Safeway you have a huge company that can dictate low purchase pricing similar to Walmart, but Safeway will continue to offer limited selection at sky high prices. It has never nor will it ever occur to the management that this may be the problem with the store. They will end up like A&P did eventually.

http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/With-Cerberus-Safeway-may-get-revitalized-or-5298709.php
 
Pavalions...

As ponted out by other members, Pavalions is owned by Safeway. The store near me looks exactly like a smaller Safeway Marketplace except for the non-packaged meat and fish area with it's pricey filet minion and Maine lobster tails. The store is in Rancho Mirage around the corner from Sunnylands where the President just stayed. Although the store is just a glorified Safeway the clientele thinks and behaves otherwise. There's always a Rolls or Bentley parked in front where the curb is painted red and marked NO PARKING-FIRE LANE. Customers walk around like they have a permanent smell up their nose. It's not uncommon for a checker to have finished scanning an entire order while the customer stands there, cell phone at ear, and waits until their conversation is completed before digging out their Vuitton wallet and paying. Needless to say I prefer to shop where the common folk do.

what do you mean I can't park there!

twintubdexter++3-8-2014-16-41-34.jpg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top