Food4Less to exit Las Vegas

[storewanderer]

7 stores will close, 6 will convert to Smiths. Why Smiths wants its name on some of those stores in some of those neighborhoods as they try to become more upscale in the better areas is beyond me.

Food 4 Less in Las Vegas was an odd mix of former Albertsons/Raleys, Price Rite, and some new builds.

I think most if not all of the closing stores are former Raleys/Albertsons. I'm not sure any of those are actually staying open...

So, Food4Less in Las Vegas was being supplied from CA, while Smiths in Las Vegas is supplied from AZ. Earlier this year, Albertsons Las Vegas Stores were moved to the AZ Division after being in the SoCal Division so those stores are also now being supplied from AZ.

Now the last grocer left in Las Vegas who supplies from CA is Vons. And I'm sure that will change shortly.

[submariner]

7 stores will close, 6 will convert to Smiths. Why Smiths wants its name on some of those stores in some of those neighborhoods as they try to become more upscale in the better areas is beyond me.

Food 4 Less in Las Vegas was an odd mix of former Albertsons/Raleys, Price Rite, and some new builds.

I think most if not all of the closing stores are former Raleys/Albertsons. I'm not sure any of those are actually staying open...

So, Food4Less in Las Vegas was being supplied from CA, while Smiths in Las Vegas is supplied from AZ. Earlier this year, Albertsons Las Vegas Stores were moved to the AZ Division after being in the SoCal Division so those stores are also now being supplied from AZ.

Now the last grocer left in Las Vegas who supplies from CA is Vons. And I'm sure that will change shortly.

How many of these F4L locations are former Smiths stores? Many So Cal locations for F4L were former Smith's locations from their failed venture into the area in the 90s.

[reymann]

could this be a sign that kroger may get out of the warehouse style market concept and cerberus may sell off the vons stores soon, it'll be interesting if stater bros enters the las vegas market or not soon

[storewanderer]

I don't think they should need to divest much in Las Vegas. Mostly low volume stores and so so much competition.

I think there are some inherent problems with the F4L format: the stores are a mess, they don't feel very safe, and the prices are not all that good. I think the hispanic markets in Las Vegas (there are many nice ones) probably were the true nail in the coffin for F4L. Most of the closing F4L Stores are conventional format, not warehouse format. You bag the items yourself, but other than that, they are conventional stores with a typical layout, floor tiles, service deli, etc. The F4L Stores being converted to Smiths are mostly warehouse format though, so it will be interesting to see how those are handled.

Stater will fail in Las Vegas with their current price structure if they enter. That would be a poor decision. Pulling from CA puts them at a major product cost disadvantage compared to the competitors in Las Vegas who all (except Vons) pull from AZ or elsewhere. Smiths is much more aggressive on price than Ralphs, much more effective at selling center store than Ralphs, and also seems to sell a lot more bakery/deli/meat/produce than Ralphs, so if Stater goes into Las Vegas with the mindset that Smiths is like Ralphs they will fail downright miserably. They need to stick with SoCal or Central California where the competition is not very good and also very high priced. Stater is also high priced, just not as high as the others which are so far out of line on price. There is a good reason why Albertsons moved Las Vegas into the AZ Division, those stores needed relief on price, the SoCal cost structure and pricing it required simply no longer works in a market like Las Vegas.

[klkla]

IMO there will likely only be two stores required for divestiture in Las Vegas as a result of the Safeway/Albertsons deal (Boulder City and Anthem). Smiths would be the likely buyer for both stores so this is probably also a house cleaning move to strengthen the Smiths brand in Las Vegas going forward.

[arizonaguy]

It appears that Kroger is going to treat the Vegas market a lot like it treats the Phoenix market. Here in Phoenix, everything is a Fry's, however there are very noticeable differences in merchandising and product selection among the Fry's stores.

For example, the Fry's Signature (and even some "regular" Fry's stores in more upscale areas) have larger floral, housewares, wine, bakery, deli, and organic departments and merchandise mix versus Fry's stores in more of the economically disadvantaged areas, which tend to have a larger product mix of "value" items. Fry's stores in Hispanic areas have much more of a mix of Hispanic items as well (and there's even a Fry's Mercado) concept which tests this out.

I thought that if Bashas' couldn't make it, that Fry's would be interested in purchasing the Food City division and trying a Food 4 Less concept out here, but it seems that Kroger might not be interested in expanding it.

[storewanderer]

A third potential divest store in Las Vegas I think would be the Vons located on Twain. Awful Yelp Reviews for this store, most of which I did not validate when I made a Sunday night visit to the store a couple months ago. It is a large non lifestyle store in the 2000's decor, looking a little tired, but not bad, with a gas station out front and appears to be low volume (I think the gas station was previously another, but it is a large clean station with a full convenience store).

[klkla]

A third potential divest store in Las Vegas I think would be the Vons located on Twain.

Good point. I had forgotten about that Albertsons around the corner.

The VONS was originally a Mervyns. VONS had a smaller store further down in the center (Where the park is now). Initially the store did really well so it's too bad that it is low volume now.

[storewanderer]

I had actually heard that Twain Vons was closing, but then it was kept open. It didn't exactly look low volume, but obviously was not high volume either.

It is a nicer, larger store than the Albertsons around the corner, but the Albertsons has a better location by far.

The other interesting thing now is Kroger will have 36 stores in Las Vegas after the closures (down from 44 stores). Currently Albertsons has 29 stores in Las Vegas and Vons has 14 stores in Las Vegas. So Albertsons will be the store count leader in Las Vegas pretty comfortably, assuming few closures/divesting take place. I wonder how long Cerberus will sit on poorly performing stores just to prove a point, because they sure have a lot of them! The thing I noticed when I was in Las Vegas is the Albertsons Stores are really not doing well at all. I don't think the Southwest Division has helped the Las Vegas Stores...

[reymann]

walmart has to be licking its chops on the divested stores in las vegas!!