During a visit this week to the King of Prussia PA store, my favorite cashier informed me that the self checkouts would be removed in the next week or two.
The reason given? "They are never scheduling anyone to work the self checkout, so we have to get rid of them since we can't put another cashier on."
Local competition includes Walmart Supercenter; Wegmans (the largest in the state of PA); Target with P'Fresh (the largest on the east coast); and Giant.
That doesn't really makes sense. They could pull a cashier off a regular register put them on self-checkouts and bam... FOUR more registers are now open.
They are slowly phasing them out in all stores...so if you find another one with them, it likely won't be for long.
I really don't get it either....all other stores I can think of have self-checkout, and one of the biggest complaints of the A&P to Acme conversions was the removal of them.
Technically, the guy is correct. Cashiers get trained specifically for self checkout. It's not hard to operate, but they can't simply throw an extra cashier onto a self checkout lane.
When my store had self checkouts, they had the self checkout operator split time between them and the desk (when it got slow).
The bridge construction in Blairstown has finally finished, so now it no longer takes a decade to get to the Acme. (My dad still won't go- he likes the crappy Mansfield ShopRite.) And I've found out why Acme didn't take the Belvidere A&P- apparently, the store needs a lot of cleanup work and the landlord wouldn't help.
Yeah but let's be real, the KOP wal mart is one of the worst wal mart's in the state. If they would sink a few bucks into the KOP ACME it would help. All the competition is modern, the KOP ACME is as stale as they come. So they are going to get rid of the self check outs, and force everyone into the one or two lanes they have open? That's a terrible idea, the lines already move as slow as molasses in that store.
Hi Sean, you are 100% correct. The KOP Walmart is a sad joke. The store is about 80% groceries, with a handful of flat screen TVs and some sad clothing. Good luck trying to find anything else in that store. I wish they would just close it already.
That being said, it *does* do a strong grocery business. I've heard at least half a million a week.
The KOP Walmart actually started out life as a Home Depot in the 90's. After they relocated up the road around ten years ago, Walmart tried to have the old store demolished so they could build a Supercenter. For whatever reason, they couldn't get the permits, and just decided to recycle the old building, which is why it is so scaled back. I think as soon as opportunity knocks, that building will be gone.
Hi Anthony. I live in KOP, so I am very familiar with the history of the store.
The Township Supervisors did not want a bigger store built on that piece of land. They limited Walmart to the same sq ft that Home Depot was using. Walmart decided to make a full sized grocery department, and shrink/eliminate the remaining departments.
The end result is a "grocery store with flat screen televisions" which serves little purpose. Most people I know drive the extra 5 minutes to the "real" full sized Supercenter on Trooper Road.
That being said, plenty of clueless people *do* grocery shop at the KOP Walmart. It supposedly does 500K/week in grocery sales.
They did that with a Walmart store in my area too (was a regular old-school location that they crammed groceries into). I never understood that reasoning as the selection in the non-food departments was cut down to almost nothing. The store had a full service Deli when it opened, but a year or so later, the slicers were removed. There are plenty of full service regular grocery stores in the area. And The prices at Walmart on groceries really aren't that great compared to the ShopRite, Giant, or Wegmans down the road. Even Acme is cheaper on branded milk than Walmart. They opened a real Supercenter in the next town over last year and again, the grocery area is very poor and most people just seem to use it for 'convenience' shopping vs. a full shopping trip.
Talk is that Amazon is looking at building 20 brick and mortar stores - some as pickup locations and some as actual stores to shop at. Number could go as high as 2,000 if the test is successful.
Weis Markets now has 199 stores. They took a beating last quarter spending a lot of money converting the former Mars locations and some Maryland Food Lion locations.
On other news, the Safeway store in Bel Air MD will be reopening Nov 9th and holding a grand re-opening Nov 12th. The store has been closed since January when snow during the blizzard collapsed the roof over the Produce side of the building. Gone is the lifestyle decor and in with the new decor that was first seen at the Rockville MD Safeway. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-safeway-to-reopen-1102-20161101-story.html
As you can see from the other articles linked on the right, the grand reopening was delayed. There was significantly more damage to the steel holding up the roof than initially believed and they took more time to completely redo the store. It will be interesting to see how it does since their shoppers had to change their shopping patterns when the store was closed.
Surprised that only 50 of the employees are coming back, but I guess people can't wait forever and draw unemployment and pay the bills.
The closest Safeway location is 20 mins away in Perry Hall MD. I know that some did get work at that location. It is a shame if some did have to find other work. This Safeway's closest competition is several Shoprite stores run by the Kleins family. Wegmans is up the road in Abingdon and Aldi is opening nearby in the former SuperFresh/Mars space.Bel Air is a crowded market and Safeway cannot afford to be closed any longer.
When snow collapsed the roof on Trader Joe's in Westfield last winter and the store had to be demolished and rebuilt. Most of the employees have been temporally assigned to the Millburn store with the rest in other stores.
Apparently they also didn't find it worthwhile enough to set up a temporary store in the area (even close for a bit then open in a tent once the weather would allow for it - as even the Grand Union chain did, at least once).
Article in paper today about the upcoming grand opening of the Safeway and some interior pictures: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-safeway-getting-ready-1109-20161106-story.html
I don't mind the idea of self checkouts if I only have one item. The GIANT "U-Scan" or whatever it's called is seriously below grade, and is a mess. My ACME (Doylestown) doesn't have self checkouts and never had. I like the idea of Albertsons removing the self-checkouts, more regular registers can be open.
My problem is that it rarely works out that way. Weis took theirs out of some stores and often still only has one or two registers open. I recall a few times at the Glen Mills Acme when I visited (where they took them out) where the lines were becoming ridiculous.
I have no problems with the Giant, Wegmans, or Acme self checkouts.
I strongly prefer scanning and bagging my own groceries, and I don't need any offensive or intrusive questions/comments from the cashiers, which unfortunately, happens to me more often than you'd think.
I see that Acme is now offering gas rewards to be used at Sunoco stations keyed to your MyMixx phone number. What’s interesting about this for me is that Safeway resumed their gas rewards program here in Delaware a couple of months ago with Sunoco replacing Exxon (which joined the Plenti program).
Since I use the same phone number for both MyMixx and Safeway Rewards, I wonder how my Gas Rewards will be dealt with at the pump. Will they be combined, default to just one chain, or will it just confuse the system>
I know the MyMixx just uses your number, no card, but does Safeway still have an actual card? For instance here with Price Chopper you scan the card at pump (or cashier does for cash pay inside) so having the # linked wouldn't matter (as you need the card itself to redeem).
From what it looks like, everything is combined. There was a blurb on the front of the ad from this week in small print that says 'Maximum gas reward at participating Sunoco stations is $1 per Gallon....and $1 per gallon at Safeway, Carrs/Safeway, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, and Albertsons gas stations'.
Safeway has an actual card but since I don’t carry it I use my phone number instead. It worked the same way when they offered Gas Rewards at Exxon - I could either swipe my card or enter the associated phone number. I assume it works the same way at Sunoco.
I am an Acme employee and my gas rewards are not working at the pump at Sunoco. My employee card number doesn't work, nor my phone number, nor my physical card. What the heck?
Seems like a reasonable idea - they kind of "connect" the Shaw's and Acme sections of the company.
Some overlap in eastern MA (Worcester) and a few smaller areas in VT where they might have to get rid of a store or a few (kind of like the Hannaford/Stop & Shop situation).
Not sure about any in PA (with Acme locations) - PC is more in the north east part of the state (Scranton and Delaware Water Gap areas).
Possibly (as in the S&S/Hannaford setup) someone like Tops would be a potential to take stores that had to be sold (they already have some in VT towns but may be different spots than the overlaps with this, and it would also make sense in the eastern MA area to go with that one, what seemed odd at the time, store they got from the S&S/Hannaford deal)?
During a visit this week to the King of Prussia PA store, my favorite cashier informed me that the self checkouts would be removed in the next week or two.
ReplyDeleteThe reason given? "They are never scheduling anyone to work the self checkout, so we have to get rid of them since we can't put another cashier on."
Local competition includes Walmart Supercenter; Wegmans (the largest in the state of PA); Target with P'Fresh (the largest on the east coast); and Giant.
That doesn't really makes sense. They could pull a cashier off a regular register put them on self-checkouts and bam... FOUR more registers are now open.
DeleteExactly! Needless to say, I might start visiting a different Acme. I'm a big self checkout guy.
DeleteThey are slowly phasing them out in all stores...so if you find another one with them, it likely won't be for long.
DeleteI really don't get it either....all other stores I can think of have self-checkout, and one of the biggest complaints of the A&P to Acme conversions was the removal of them.
Technically, the guy is correct. Cashiers get trained specifically for self checkout. It's not hard to operate, but they can't simply throw an extra cashier onto a self checkout lane.
DeleteWhen my store had self checkouts, they had the self checkout operator split time between them and the desk (when it got slow).
the union is pushing them I bet to get rid of them
ReplyDeleteAlbertsons is the one who wants the self-checkouts eliminated.
DeleteAnd Albertsons can go cry to someone else when they lose my business. Plenty of people like myself strongly prefer a self checkout experience.
DeleteThe bridge construction in Blairstown has finally finished, so now it no longer takes a decade to get to the Acme. (My dad still won't go- he likes the crappy Mansfield ShopRite.) And I've found out why Acme didn't take the Belvidere A&P- apparently, the store needs a lot of cleanup work and the landlord wouldn't help.
ReplyDeleteYeah but let's be real, the KOP wal mart is one of the worst wal mart's in the state. If they would sink a few bucks into the KOP ACME it would help. All the competition is modern, the KOP ACME is as stale as they come. So they are going to get rid of the self check outs, and force everyone into the one or two lanes they have open? That's a terrible idea, the lines already move as slow as molasses in that store.
ReplyDeleteHi Sean, you are 100% correct. The KOP Walmart is a sad joke. The store is about 80% groceries, with a handful of flat screen TVs and some sad clothing. Good luck trying to find anything else in that store. I wish they would just close it already.
DeleteThat being said, it *does* do a strong grocery business. I've heard at least half a million a week.
The KOP Walmart actually started out life as a Home Depot in the 90's. After they relocated up the road around ten years ago, Walmart tried to have the old store demolished so they could build a Supercenter. For whatever reason, they couldn't get the permits, and just decided to recycle the old building, which is why it is so scaled back. I think as soon as opportunity knocks, that building will be gone.
DeleteHi Anthony. I live in KOP, so I am very familiar with the history of the store.
DeleteThe Township Supervisors did not want a bigger store built on that piece of land. They limited Walmart to the same sq ft that Home Depot was using. Walmart decided to make a full sized grocery department, and shrink/eliminate the remaining departments.
The end result is a "grocery store with flat screen televisions" which serves little purpose. Most people I know drive the extra 5 minutes to the "real" full sized Supercenter on Trooper Road.
That being said, plenty of clueless people *do* grocery shop at the KOP Walmart. It supposedly does 500K/week in grocery sales.
They did that with a Walmart store in my area too (was a regular old-school location that they crammed groceries into). I never understood that reasoning as the selection in the non-food departments was cut down to almost nothing. The store had a full service Deli when it opened, but a year or so later, the slicers were removed. There are plenty of full service regular grocery stores in the area. And The prices at Walmart on groceries really aren't that great compared to the ShopRite, Giant, or Wegmans down the road. Even Acme is cheaper on branded milk than Walmart. They opened a real Supercenter in the next town over last year and again, the grocery area is very poor and most people just seem to use it for 'convenience' shopping vs. a full shopping trip.
DeleteTalk is that Amazon is looking at building 20 brick and mortar stores - some as pickup locations and some as actual stores to shop at. Number could go as high as 2,000 if the test is successful.
ReplyDeleteWeis Markets now has 199 stores. They took a beating last quarter spending a lot of money converting the former Mars locations and some Maryland Food Lion locations.
On other news, the Safeway store in Bel Air MD will be reopening Nov 9th and holding a grand re-opening Nov 12th. The store has been closed since January when snow during the blizzard collapsed the roof over the Produce side of the building. Gone is the lifestyle decor and in with the new decor that was first seen at the Rockville MD Safeway. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-safeway-to-reopen-1102-20161101-story.html
ReplyDeleteAs you can see from the other articles linked on the right, the grand reopening was delayed. There was significantly more damage to the steel holding up the roof than initially believed and they took more time to completely redo the store. It will be interesting to see how it does since their shoppers had to change their shopping patterns when the store was closed.
DeleteSurprised that only 50 of the employees are coming back, but I guess people can't wait forever and draw unemployment and pay the bills.
Maybe more surprising that a chain as large as they are wouldn't have kept those employees by having them help out in other stores in the interim.
DeleteAs a union shop, it's highly likely that most employees were assigned to other stores in the region.
DeleteNot to mention, bumping rights...
The closest Safeway location is 20 mins away in Perry Hall MD. I know that some did get work at that location. It is a shame if some did have to find other work. This Safeway's closest competition is several Shoprite stores run by the Kleins family. Wegmans is up the road in Abingdon and Aldi is opening nearby in the former SuperFresh/Mars space.Bel Air is a crowded market and Safeway cannot afford to be closed any longer.
DeleteWhen snow collapsed the roof on Trader Joe's in Westfield last winter and the store had to be demolished and rebuilt. Most of the employees have been temporally assigned to the Millburn store with the rest in other stores.
DeleteApparently they also didn't find it worthwhile enough to set up a temporary store in the area (even close for a bit then open in a tent once the weather would allow for it - as even the Grand Union chain did, at least once).
DeleteArticle in paper today about the upcoming grand opening of the Safeway and some interior pictures: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aegis/ph-ag-safeway-getting-ready-1109-20161106-story.html
DeleteThat new decor has to go. Yuck. Makes the store look cheap. Safeway used to have a little bit of class but Albertsons is killing it. Oy. Bad news.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the idea of self checkouts if I only have one item. The GIANT "U-Scan" or whatever it's called is seriously below grade, and is a mess. My ACME (Doylestown) doesn't have self checkouts and never had. I like the idea of Albertsons removing the self-checkouts, more regular registers can be open.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that it rarely works out that way. Weis took theirs out of some stores and often still only has one or two registers open. I recall a few times at the Glen Mills Acme when I visited (where they took them out) where the lines were becoming ridiculous.
DeleteI have no problems with the Giant, Wegmans, or Acme self checkouts.
ReplyDeleteI strongly prefer scanning and bagging my own groceries, and I don't need any offensive or intrusive questions/comments from the cashiers, which unfortunately, happens to me more often than you'd think.
I see that Acme is now offering gas rewards to be used at Sunoco stations keyed to your MyMixx phone number. What’s interesting about this for me is that Safeway resumed their gas rewards program here in Delaware a couple of months ago with Sunoco replacing Exxon (which joined the Plenti program).
ReplyDeleteSince I use the same phone number for both MyMixx and Safeway Rewards, I wonder how my Gas Rewards will be dealt with at the pump. Will they be combined, default to just one chain, or will it just confuse the system>
I know the MyMixx just uses your number, no card, but does Safeway still have an actual card?
DeleteFor instance here with Price Chopper you scan the card at pump (or cashier does for cash pay inside) so having the # linked wouldn't matter (as you need the card itself to redeem).
From what it looks like, everything is combined. There was a blurb on the front of the ad from this week in small print that says 'Maximum gas reward at participating Sunoco stations is $1 per Gallon....and $1 per gallon at Safeway, Carrs/Safeway, Tom Thumb, Randalls, Vons, and Albertsons gas stations'.
DeleteThis makes sense, especially in regions where both ACME & Safeway have stores with gas stations (like Kent County, Delaware).
DeleteSafeway has an actual card but since I don’t carry it I use my phone number instead. It worked the same way when they offered Gas Rewards at Exxon - I could either swipe my card or enter the associated phone number. I assume it works the same way at Sunoco.
DeleteSafeway still uses a card , unlike Acme
ReplyDeleteWho owns the new Superfresh on Amboy Ave in Edison?
ReplyDeleteKevin Kim, who also owns a Key Food Marketplace in New Brunswick and Queens, as well as The Food Emporium in Garwood.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI am an Acme employee and my gas rewards are not working at the pump at Sunoco. My employee card number doesn't work, nor my phone number, nor my physical card. What the heck?
ReplyDeleteBig news. Looks like ACME may get another brother in the adopted family.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-price-chopper-m-a-albertsons-cos-idUSKBN13P061
Seems like a reasonable idea - they kind of "connect" the Shaw's and Acme sections of the company.
ReplyDeleteSome overlap in eastern MA (Worcester) and a few smaller areas in VT where they might have to get rid of a store or a few (kind of like the Hannaford/Stop & Shop situation).
Not sure about any in PA (with Acme locations) - PC is more in the north east part of the state (Scranton and Delaware Water Gap areas).
Possibly (as in the S&S/Hannaford setup) someone like Tops would be a potential to take stores that had to be sold (they already have some in VT towns but may be different spots than the overlaps with this, and it would also make sense in the eastern MA area to go with that one, what seemed odd at the time, store they got from the S&S/Hannaford deal)?