News Break:
Bye Bye Genuardi's,
Hello Giant!
The first big news item of 2012... Genuardi's will become a thing of the past. Safeway has decided to pull the plug on all remaining Genuardi's stores and exit the Philadelphia region for good. 16 of the stores are being sold to Giant. You can read all about the news at
phillyburbs.com.
This purchase will be a huge jump for Giant's presence in the area. The chain has has been slowly but surely moving into the area in recent years. Genuardi's, as many of you know, became the poster child for what goes wrong when a huge corporation buys a small local chain. Safeway's changes to Genuardi's alienating customers and ultimately sent the chain down the road to complete failure.
phillyburbs.com.
This purchase will be a huge jump for Giant's presence in the area. The chain has has been slowly but surely moving into the area in recent years. Genuardi's, as many of you know, became the poster child for what goes wrong when a huge corporation buys a small local chain. Safeway's changes to Genuardi's alienating customers and ultimately sent the chain down the road to complete failure.
I haven't thoroughly gone through the list of stores Giant is buying to see how this impacts Acme. I did see that the Newtown Genuardi's is on the list. This store sits just next door to one of Acme's most successful stores. While all of this is not good news for Acme, Giant's impact may be slightly limited since Genuardi's stores are not the necessary size for Giant to provide all their usual bells and whistles. Interestingly we'll be looking at this very topic in the first big post of 2012 which will be going up on January 13. Acme Style will keep you posted on any other developing news stories as they happen. As we all know, this time of year sees big announcements for all sorts of grocery and retail stores. Many of them are unfortunately not good.
i dunno, i feel for all those losing their jobs. it may help some acmes maybe not i guess we will see. not sure how well giant does either.
ReplyDeleteThis is the begining of Giant taking the number 2 spot and pushing Acme to number 3. mabye Supervalu will buy the NJ Genuardis and Acme will get some new stores, but i highly doubt it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Genuardi's stores that is not included in the Giant deal is the Conshohocken location at Ridge & Butler Pikes. The Conshohocken store is up for sale and being that Acme doesn't have a store anywhere near there maybe they would be interested in that location.
DeleteI was wondering about the Norristown Genuardi myself, Giant isn’t buying that store either. There is a small Walmart in that same shopping center that has no room to expand into a Supercenter. The Genuardi building could be a candidate for Walmart’s “Walmart Market” grocery concept, which is essentially the supermarket half of a Supercenter. Then again there is a ShopRite just on the other side of Dekalb Pk. Maybe ShopRite would want to move over there to keep Walmart out and to get a larger nicer store with a better parking lot.
DeleteSome of the stores on the list were surprises just based on how close they are to existing Giants; the Newtown store will only be 2 miles from the recently remodeled Summit Square store for example (which is right on the border of Langhorne and Newtown). Chalfont and New Britain are pretty close together as well, although that one could end up being a relocation (they've tried to expand the New Britain store, but complications keep coming up).
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how Giant is doing compared to Stop & Shop? I kind of wonder if Ahold might start using the Giant name and format in NJ.
ReplyDeleteWhat's strange about the Stop & Shop stores in New Jersey is that Royal Ahold has them in the Giant of Landover division, not Giant of Carlisle despite the fact that they are geographically closer to the Carlisle division stores in neighboring Pennsylvania. If Ahold were to rebrand the NJ stores as Giants, what graphics would they use, the Landover graphics which are similar to the graphics used in the current Stop & Shop branding or the Carlisle graphics used on the nearby Pennsylvania stores.
DeleteStop & Shop is union, while Giant is not, so there is little possibility that any Stop & Shops will become Giants. The supermarket companies generally keep their unionized divisions completely separate from their non-unionized divisions.
ReplyDeletethe lionville giant and genuardi's are ridiculously close to each other, i'm pretty bummed that our genuardi's is closing, because they have the world's best donuts, and that was our 2nd favorite grocery store when I was little (our favorite was superfresh, which closed in april)
ReplyDeleteWhat really surprises me is that Giant is buying the Springfield Genuardi's (one of their highest volume stores). There is a Giant less than two miles away that was built in 2008, on the site of a Value City that was torn down. Also, the Giant in Lionville was a Clemens, so I would assume they would buy the Genuardi's and close their own store. The Produce Junction in Exton not far away was an A&P for a short time, then a Genuardi's for a short time (which closed years before this one opened), then a Michaels, which moved to a huge new much nicer plaza. There was a Rite Aid next to the Clemens in Lionville which moved to a freestanding store in 2003, but strangely moved to another freestanding store in 2010. The original Rite Aid next to Clemens became a Wine & Spirits which was part of Clemens and now Giant. And yet the Genuardi's, built new in 2000, has a tiny Wine & Spirits next to it too... the one in Giant is bigger though.
ReplyDeleteHi, Giant purchased stores nclose to mexisting mGiants to keep competitors from moving into them. This is and old Acme trick and a good one. Will Giant hurt Acme any more then they have. Maybe, But remember Acme has superior meat and perishables to Giant( giants meat is a grade above Walmart and is poor in Quality) Gerry
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know who they would sell the Marlton(Evesham) and Cherry Hill locations to? Shoprite already has locations close to those two stores, and may not take them. Wegmans already has locations in Cherry Hill and Mt Laurel so that option is out. As much as I would love Acme to take the Marlton location, there's no chance on that happening.
ReplyDeleteThe Genuardi's in Chalfont is almost across the street from an Acme (which is busier than the Genuardi's usually). Giant taking over this location will definitely have an impact. And Giant will probably end up closing their neighboring "New Britain" location in a dying shopping center...a former Clemens that dates from the late 1960's and Giant hasn't really touched (they wanted to expand but the township was giving them issues).
ReplyDeleteDoylestown is losing its Genuardi's, without a Giant replacement (Giant took over a SuperFresh in the same town a few years back). From what I can tell, the neighboring Acme is a very high volume store that has received their latest remodel. It should give it a bit of a boost being in the center of town. (Rumors of Whole Foods taking over the Genuardi's space keeps floating around)
I think the only reason the Whole Foods in Doylestown rumor stays alive is that it just seems like such a good fit for that area.
DeleteThe Genuardi's in Chalfont opened way back in 1988 but is a lot nicer than the nearby Acme which is from 1998! Also, I really doubt the Clemens/Giant in New Britain will close. They spent a lot of money making room for the PLCB Wine & Spirits section a few years back. Whole Foods also already has stores in North Wales, Plymouth Meeting, Jenkintown, and Wynnewood... all in Montgomery County and not that far away.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Giant is really too concerned with the Liquor store space....the PLCB can easily add an outside door (as a matter of fact I went to this store once and took me a minute to realize you had to enter through the Giant). Giant has made it very clear they will leave if the township does not let them expand and add gas pumps, and as of now there has been no agreement and Giant hasn't invested any money into the store.
ReplyDeleteWhole Foods does have stores in the general area...but Doylestown definitely has the demographics to fit (also a bit undeserved in natural/organic products unless you count the Warrington Wegmans) and it is a bit of a drive to North Wales. Or at the very least, a Trader Joes, but I don't think they would want that large of space.
The Doylestown Genuardi store seems to be a perfect location for a Whole Foods.
Deletedespite the fact that we shop at genuardis (lionville)often, I never realized that there was a wine and spirits there too, until Mango Starr pointed it out to me! My grandmother really likes the springfeild Genuardis.
ReplyDeletewell there have been rumors since this past September in the trade pubs, particularly Food Trade News out of Philly, that Genuardi's/Safeway may get outta town and sure enough, like Acmestyle said, this is an excellent example of what happens when a big corporation takes over a small regional operator and uses too many cost cutting measures and ultimately 'kills' the draw to this store...
ReplyDeleteKinda curious who would take over the 4 New Jersey stores, especially Barnegat, Marlton and Northfield; seems like it would be a good opportunity for Acme if they weren't hurting as well... they still have a name in south Jersey and in Barnegat, you have so many retirement communities w/ former northern New Jerseyans that remember the Acme name.
But here is the million dollar question about Safeway and Genuardi's: they purchased the chain in 2001 for over $550 million dollars, there were 40 stores at the time, mostly in Philly suburbs and few scatttered in south Jersey and Delaware, not much in way of warehouse facilities or assets, but around $1 billion in sales and probably # 3 in market share at the time.
Coincidently at that time, Grand Union, which was once a national player and had a formidable footprint of just under 200 stores in the metro New York, New Jersey market (where property is at a premuim) was available at a bankruptcy price of under $200 million, but still doing around a billion dollars as a chain in volume mostly coming from about half of the 200 stores which were still somewhat competitive in size, etc...
Safeway had no presence in the metro New York market and could have changed the name and done all the reinventing in those 100 or more stores that they tried to do in Genuardi's and could have boosted that chain in a much more lucrative market than Philly, and at a bargain price!
Instead, Royal Ahold took advantage just like they're doing now and converted most of those Grand Unions (over 60 to be exact) into profitable, competitive & better volume stores... ironically, Acme had the same opportunity as well & passed; instead, Safeway now lost close to $400 million since 2001.
Does it make any sense...?
Oh, definitely.
ReplyDeleteIf Acme was serious about keeping the northern NJ market, Grand Union was their best chance. Stop & Shop has grown by leaps and bounds because of many of the former Grand Union locations they purchased, and there are a few (such as one near my house) that have received nothing in the way of remodels but still seem to do very well. I find it hard to believe Acme couldn't make most of them work if they wanted to, as Stop & Shop isn't exactly known for low prices.
The NJ Genuardis locations would probably make a lot of sense for Acme, especially stores like the one in Barnegat that operate in a very Acme-dominated area (Acme pretty much owns the southern half of the Jersey shore.) Of course, this will probably be yet another lost opportunity to do something... anything... to make it look like they're trying.
I think the Wine & Spirits situation in Lionville is a test marketing strategy. They have a normal store close to a one stop shop. The Acme in Newtown Square has a Wine & Spirits in it now even though the old one tucked behind the center is still open! And guess what, they first opened a store in the neighborhood in the 50's right next to Acme! I think that one had to move to their freestanding location (which seems so seedy compared to the Acme one) because Acme wanted to expand in the late 70's or 80's. Coincidentally the nearby Genuardi's which closed a year and a half ago was built with a Wine & Spirits right next to it (well on the other side of a Happy Harry's), but when Happy Harry's closed Staples wanted the empty Happy Harry's AND the Wine & Spirits! The Wine & Spirits ended up moving to the EB Games space which closed at a convenient time. I can't believe they kept their 10 year old sign during the switch! Now the store faces a slightly different way and has a "warehouse" ceiling, but the same small selection as before...
ReplyDeleteMango, what is with your obsession with Wine & Spirits stores? They really aren't that interesting or unique...just another state-run monopoly.
ReplyDeleteRight but isn't their basic concept pretty amazing? The STATE owning a chain of retail stores? And no two look alike? In 2005, over 10 of them in my area moved to new buildings at the same time so that sort of started my obsession.
ReplyDeleteDidn't take too long for Safeway to destroy Genuardi's - the chain is now doing half of the business it did 10 years ago. Safeway arrogantly came in and changed the stores too much, too fast. Club card, Safeway Select private label, tiny endcaps, limits, and so on. Genuardi's was a rising star, a strong player in the market. And now look at them.
ReplyDeleteThe East Marlborough store is just miles away from the current Kennett Square Giant, which does a booming business, and ran the Acme out of town.
As for potential buyers of the unsold stores.. Acme would be wise to snap up the NJ locations, and maybe Redner's would look at the PA locations - they are expanding even further southward, and backfilling could provide them with an even more stable store base to fund outward expansion.
And to anon's point - when the three (now two) Delaware Genuardi's stores went union, the Genuardi's name came down, and the Safeway name went up. They still run the Genuardi's ad, though. The employees wanted the same deal as the unionized Safeway in Dover had.
This is a sad announcement for all the old-time Genuardi's customers and those of us in retail (I work for a DSD vendor) who remember when the family owned the chain.
lionville rite aid moved because their store wasnt getting enough business hidden behind the re/max and the now abandoned (for the same reason) burger king, the same thing happened to the phoenixville rite aid. In the produce junction in exton that used to be an A&P was the garden center original?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it but why did the Lionville Regal Cinemas not last?
ReplyDelete"it was not there, then it was, but now its not" said my history teacher
ReplyDeleteOops... I just double checked and there actually is no Wine & Spirits next to this Genuardi's. Or at least not anymore. The shopping center is fairly new but that doesn't rule out the possibility of one being there and moving eventually. On Google Maps there is a Wine & Spirits icon in front of it, but Google Maps can't be trusted. I think I assumed there was a Wine & Spirits there because the Giants in West Chester (NOT the old Clemens) and West Grove have one next to them, and those centers are based on the same design as this Exton one.
ReplyDeleteThe Genuardi's store at Flourtown shopping center is a little on the small side for a Giant, however at the back of the center there is a huge Kmart building that has been vacant for years. It will be interesting to see if if Giant eventually moves into the old Kmart space. If Giant just does a quickie rebranding of the existing Genuardi's without making many other changes that may serve as an indication that they intend move into the Kmart building.
ReplyDeleteWith the two Jersey Shore Genuardi's stores up for sale, I wonder who will go into those locations. I'm hoping for an Acme in Egg Harbor Twp but I'm expecting Shop Rite. As for Barnegat I'm guessing it will wind up being a Shop Rite or a maybe a Super Stop & Shop.
ReplyDeleteGiant is only closing these stores for six days, five at a time to convert. After that they will be looking more critically at each location to determine needs of each building. Have been hearing North Wales and Maple Glen are to be knocked down and built as larger stores with gas pumps. Also, they are working on gas at Chalfont which is already way busier than the Acme across the street and do NOT plan to close the New Britain store as long as it keeps "making money."
ReplyDeleteI can see where there's room to build a larger store at the North Wales location, but as far as Maple Glenn is concerned, I don't see how there is room to build a larger store at that site.
DeleteAs far as the remaining 4 south Jersey Genuardi's, there's no way Shop Rite would take those stores... Barnegat is too small and there are 2 ShopRites already doing gangbuster business in Manahawkin and a new one in Waretown very close by. As far as Egg Harbor and Marlton, the same applies as there's larger ShopRites already doing business in those towns.
ReplyDeleteAs far as competition left, Stop & Shop, Giants sister company is not really opening below Toms River (middle Ocean Cty.)so if Giant isn't taking those south Jersey stores, neither is S&S... Foodtown, particularly Food Circus operators, are closing 2 stores, 1 which is just up the road in Bayville, so there out and we know bankrupt A&P/Pathmark is closing the Manahawkin Pathmark after they recently closed the small Barnegat A&P and will only renovate and keep the SuperFresh in Manahawkin open as their lone store in that area. Wegmans and Whole Foods are unlikely candidates too.
The only operator in the area who could actually benefit from those stores and has some name recognition is Acme, but are they up for battling ShopRites in those areas...
I didn't realize how close the Manahawkin ShopRite was to the Barnegat Genuardi's. My beach house is in Margate and I don't usually make it that far north. I thought there was a chance Stop & Shop might want the Barnegat store because its in Ocean County which is part of the New York TV market. As far as Egg Harbor Twp is concerned with both the Genuardi's on Fire Rd and Pathmark on Black Horse Pk closing I'm hoping that one of those two stores stays alive as either a ShopRite or an Acme, but you may be right is saying that nobody will want them.
DeleteAre you sure there is a ShopRite near the Genuardi's that just closed in Egg Harbor Twp? My daughter lives there and was complaining that they had to go to Somers Point to grocery shop now.
DeleteThis reply is to GUman
Looks like Weis Markets is jumping on three former Genuardi's locations (Norristown, Conshohocken, and Doylestown)
ReplyDeleteWeis Markets is buying the Genuardi's stores in Doylestown, Conshohocken, and Norristown.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/money/weis-markets-to-buy-doylestown-genuardi-s/article_5efe09b6-62ed-5feb-a916-7f69739244af.html
Federal Trade Commission will NOT permit Giant acquiring four Genuardi's : Newtown, Kennett Square, Roslyn and Springfield.
ReplyDeleteI currently work for Vons a division of Safeway. Following the purchase of Genuardis I was sent there to help out as this group was combined with Safeway/Eastern Division. I could see from the initial changes done by Safeway Management there would be trouble. Dropping Bors Head deli products, choice beef and MANY regional products. Customer counts began to drop immediaetely. One thing Safeway knows how to do is kill business. Look at the current stock price!
ReplyDelete