News Break:
Weis CEO OUT!
Weis CEO, David Hepfinger. has resigned from the company. An article over at SupermarketNews.com details the financial package he will receive. CEO's make more money failing at their job than most of us make succeeding at ours for a lifetime! While the company says Hapfinger left to pursue other interests, recent troubles at the grocer may have hastened his exit. Sources told Supermarket News that Weis has had disappointing results with it's acquired Genuardi's stores in the Philly area as well as recent remodels in it's established markets. The new Hillsborough Weis may be one of the stores falling below expectations. I stopped by again last week and the store was completely dead. There were far more employees than customer. Picked up a few items that were all priced higher than I would have paid elsewhere. Can't say I will be back anytime soon.
Tour the Brand New Kings
Kings has opened its first new store in a decade in Gillette, New Jersey. The new store has set up shop in about half the space formally occupied by Pathmark. Progressive Grocer has a video tour of the store which you can view by clicking here. Former Acme President, Judy Spires, makes several appearances throughout the video. While the store does look very nice, it doesn't seem quite as cutting-edge as the video would like us to believe.
New ShopRite in Vineland, New Jersey
ShopRite opened a replacement store in Vineland back in June. I just discovered the news this week over on ProgressiveGrocer.com. The new store is located just a short distance from the former Vineland ShopRite and is now located directly across from an updated Walmart SuperCenter. You can take a look at the new $25 million store in a video on youtube by clicking here. The Vineland Acme must certainly be feeling the pinch. You can visit that store on the blog by clicking here. For more details, pictures and a floorplan of the new ShopRite, check out an article in SuperMarketNews.com by clicking here.
Fresh and Easy Declares Bankruptcy
Fresh and Easy burst onto the scene on the West Coast back in 2007. The chain was Britian-based Tesco's first venture into the American market. The small-format stores arrived with much fanfare and speculation that they would deal a devastating blow to traditional supermarkets. That didn't happen. In fact, Fresh and Easy was a loser since day one. After opening 220 stores over the past six years, Tesco is calling it quits. Yucaipa is acquiring 150 locations which may be used to relaunch the Wild Oats banner. Tesco is taking the easy way out by declaring banruptcy for the chain despite their ability to absorb the debts that Fresh and Easy currnetly has. You can read more about it at LATimes.com by clicking here.
ShopRite opened a replacement store in Vineland back in June. I just discovered the news this week over on ProgressiveGrocer.com. The new store is located just a short distance from the former Vineland ShopRite and is now located directly across from an updated Walmart SuperCenter. You can take a look at the new $25 million store in a video on youtube by clicking here. The Vineland Acme must certainly be feeling the pinch. You can visit that store on the blog by clicking here. For more details, pictures and a floorplan of the new ShopRite, check out an article in SuperMarketNews.com by clicking here.
Fresh and Easy Declares Bankruptcy
Fresh and Easy burst onto the scene on the West Coast back in 2007. The chain was Britian-based Tesco's first venture into the American market. The small-format stores arrived with much fanfare and speculation that they would deal a devastating blow to traditional supermarkets. That didn't happen. In fact, Fresh and Easy was a loser since day one. After opening 220 stores over the past six years, Tesco is calling it quits. Yucaipa is acquiring 150 locations which may be used to relaunch the Wild Oats banner. Tesco is taking the easy way out by declaring banruptcy for the chain despite their ability to absorb the debts that Fresh and Easy currnetly has. You can read more about it at LATimes.com by clicking here.
Programming Note:
Friday store posts will be resume their regular schedule of going up every other week.
"The new Hillsborough Weis may be one of the stores falling below expectations. **I stopped by again last week and the store was completely dead.** "
ReplyDeleteThat's normal for a typical Weis. Think I'd be more bewildered if there actually were customers in the store.
I'm near several Weis' that are pretty high volume (Easton and most of the Poconos stores); they vary wildly though. It's definitely a chain where the busy stores carry the slow ones.
DeleteAnd in other news, Wonder Bread and Drake's Cakes have returned to store shelves.
ReplyDeleteBad news for Giant... they are closing their store in Warrington PA which was one of the two Genuardi's they bought in 2010, over a year before Giant bought 15 other Genuardi's. Two of the former Clemens bought by Giant in 2006 have since closed, but neither of those closing were really a surprise, as both stores were very small and run down, and too close to existing Giants to justify upgrades. This Genuardi's in Warrington opened in 2000 along with its twin in nearby Feasterville, the other of the first two Genuardi's-Giant conversions.
ReplyDeleteThe Feasterville Genuardi's actually opened way before Warrington...I want to say around 1996 or so. It seems to be when they started their new prototype (Although from what I recall, Feasterville does not have a separate cafe entrance). I think Warrington wasn't open until late 2001. I remember Target and Lowe's being open before Genuardi's was even built.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Warrington Genuardi's was pretty much a failure from the get-go, and when Wegmans opened across the street, this place became a ghost town.
Giant was 'forced' to take Warrington in order to gain Feasterville, so they put virtually no money or effort into this store..they were just filling up time on the lease and seeing if it would make any money (rumor is, this store was losing around a MILLION a year). It's really an awful location..it doesn't face a main road, and there is no signage for the store (or the smaller stores in the center like the recently opened JoAnn/former Bed bath and Beyond) on Street Road.
Oh and the planned Walmart Supercenter that is planned to be build adjacent to the shopping center in the next few years did not help matters any.
Giant's prices have become very uncompetitive, although they try to justify it with their gas 'discount' program. It is puzzling why a company the size of Giant couldn't even compete with Wegmans on store brand pricing. Corporate is so disconnected from reality it isn't funny. They could have done a lot more to make this store successful, but they did nothing. (They could have experimented and made it into a 'Bottom Dollar' type format, which I thought would have been a better option for the area, but they chose not to) They bit off way more they can chew with these Genuardi's takeovers I think. Stores like Jamison (the next closest Giant after the old Warminster store) and King of Prussia are not busy either. Unfortunately, I took a part time job at this Giant and now I have to help close it down, and hope I'll be placed in a nearby store (for a lot less hours than I received here, I'm sure)