WILD HARVEST OUT...
SAFEWAY'S ORGANICS IN
AT JEWEL!
We've officially stocked our shelves with even more organic and naturally-sourced foods! Learn more about our new O Organics and Open Nature products: http://shout.lt/09tr
Posted by Jewel-Osco on Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Not a big surprise but nice to get confirmation that it's definitely happening... SuperValu branded products are going to start vanishing from shelves sooner than later. Jewel has already begun discounting Wild Harvest prodcuts to get rid of inventory in favor of Safeway's organics and health food brands. Not sure what's happening at Acme. There is no announcement on their Facebook page. No announcement at this time on Albertsons or Shaw's Facebook pages either. Perhaps they're starting with a slow rollout. Someone did pose the question on this post if the Essential Everyday products were going to be phased out next. Jewel evaded the question.
Does anyone know how long the Wild Harvest brand has been around? I'm not sure if it started with American Stores or was introduced under Albertsons first round of ownership. Either way, it kinda of sucks that SuperValu gets to walk away with it after it's been so well established at Acme for so many years.
Has Everyday Essentials vanished from Acme's shelves yet? If so, is the Acme brand back, or is it some other brand name from Albrtson's? It'd be nice to see Acme's name return. As far as I'm concerned, Everyday Essentials can go to hell.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look like anything has happened with Essential Everyday at any of the banners, including Acme. They wouldn't make a big change like that without supporting it with a huge ad campaign. All of Safeway's brands are going to eventually wind up at Acme. Whether they will continue to say "Safeway" on them is anyone's guess. They might switch out the Safeway logo for something like "Essential Stuff" or "Stuff for Everyday". Full lines of Acme branded products are never coming back, that's for sure.
DeleteAwww... that's kinda sad.
DeleteWild Harvest was originally introduced by an independent Star Market, which had about four Wild Harvest stores in Massachusetts sometime in the 1990s. The brand was also a section in stores and Shaw's assumed it when they bought Star Market... and then Albertsons, and then Supervalu took it over with their crappy redesign. Albertsons and then Supervalu continued to add "Wild Harvest" sections in stores that they owned.
ReplyDeletePersonally I find the design of the Wild Harvest packaging to be better than Safeway's O Organics. It's interesting too that SuperValu updated the design and expanded the product line of Wild Harvest right before being dumped by Albertsons.
DeleteI agree, O Organics packaging does look tacky. I hope Supervalu keeps up the Wild Harvest section in their stores. Any chance that it wasn't Albertson's who dumped Supervalu but the other way around? It would seem logical for Supervalu to make the move since Albertson's is now their competitor. At Genuardi's they carried products with the Safeway logo on it, so I think it will go the same way for ACME.
DeleteBut the thing is... Safeway's branded products won't just be in Acme. They also be in Alberstons, Jewel, Shaws and Star Markets. Being spread out to so many different stores, I just think they HAVE to drop the Safeway name on the products. Too much branding confusion for these banners that are already reeling from disastrous branding management in recent years.
DeleteIt doesn't take much to change labels if it's a single box with a single formulation (Kroger does it all the time). Safeway did put their label on the "other brands", but it was also in conjunction with doing all the buying from the California office, which as you may know killed Genuardi's, killed Dominick's, and nearly killed Randalls/Tom Thumb, which was predicted to close in the near future (like Dominick's, market share started evaporating post-Safeway).
DeleteI think Acme will definitely start seeing some more Acme-branded products in the near future, probably by year-end, though unfortunately, I don't think Acme will ever go back to "normal", pre-1999 levels.
Regardless of how much effort it takes to make different labels, in the end it will impact the cost of production and these companies are trying to ring every last penny of profit out of their private labels. While Kroger may be doing it, the trend in the industry is to do the exact opposite. The two Giants and Stop and Shop are a recent example of custom produced private labels getting axed for a generic label that can be used at any of the three banners… the label making absolutely NO sense at Giant/Carlisle. The brand doesn’t even have a name for godsake. A&P took over Pathmark and ditched Pathmark branded products in favor of their generic “America’s Choice”. These giant companies that are running multiple supermarket chains have no clue about the importance of branding. It’s been proven over and over again.
DeleteThe mess at the two Giants and Stop & Shop are part of a rebranding by "Royal A-Hole" that not only stripped out private labels but also the logo of all their chains, and A&P would also be a candidate because it was struggling when it purchased Pathmark. Right around that time, they CLOSED their Detroit (Farmer Jack) and New Orleans divisions. SuperValu did it as well because they absorbed over 1000 stores (not including 11 distribution centers and over 100 fuel centers), and SuperValu struggled, making cuts by eliminating private labels, killing the fuel centers, and divesting other assets (bigg's, Bristol Farms). You would know what damage did SuperValu did to Acme, at least Albertsons (v1) tried to update and modernize the chain.
DeleteEssential Everyday is going away, and I think the reason Jewel evaded the question is that they didn't want to de-rail the subject. Most of Safeway's store brands are generic (O Organics, etc.) but I think that for the Safeway brand, there will be regional labels, where instead of Safeway printed on the bottom, it will be Acme...or Jewel-Osco...or Randalls...or Albertsons...or Vons...or what have you.
Getting higher volume in the stores and actually innovating with stores (Albertsons store designs just bring it to par, Safeway hasn't made major changes in a decade) is another issue altogether.
It was announced that SVU and Albertsons did meet agreements on "winding down" their transition services. Of course, O Organics was last seen in Chicago as recently as late 2013.
ReplyDeleteWhether Acme branded products will return is anyone's guess, but I hope so! Keep your eyes peeled.
Also, the reason I think that Jewel is getting the new brands first is because it seems (to me) that it's the prize "jewel" of the existing Albertsons divisions. Probably in order, I'd expect to see Shaw's/Star Market next, then SoCal, then the Pacific Northwest, then Southwest, then Acme, then South. United is anyone's guess.
ReplyDeleteThe Phoenixville Acme has all Wild Harvest items discounted and has O Organics items on the shelves. Say what you want about SuperValu, but Wild Harvest is superior to O Organics!
ReplyDeleteIn the 1950's and 1960's, Acme's main private label was the Ideal brand, along with Farmdale, Glenside and several others. Ideal would be a brand that could be used in any of the chains if Acme has retained the rights to it.
ReplyDeleteBy now, everyone knows that "Signature[Select, Farms, Home, and so forth]" is the new store brand for the stores owned by Albertsons. However, I noticed an ad for "Jewel-Osco" brand smoked sausage in a Jewel circular. When the banner was the store brand name, Jewel Osco always carried "Jewel," not "Jewel-Osco," brand food products.
ReplyDelete