Ralphs Fresh Fare..................lol

[veteran+]

The only Fresh Fare in my area is that TINY thing across the street from a big beautiful Bristol Farms on Beverly Bl. in West Hollywood.

Fresh Fare signage has disappeared (label scar present).

Inside? Just wow! It now reminds me of NYC independent stores with crazy tall shelves that no one can reach (and no employees to help). They added another layer of shelves all over the store. There are few endcaps for display because they are linear extensions for the aisles nearest. The aisles themselves were packed with floor stacks and shippers where navigation was impossible (very narrow aisles even without displays) PLUS u-boats all over blocking aisles.

Still, OOSs not under control and produce still crappy. NO parking as usual.

This store gets lots of senior citizen traffic. The top 2 shelves are beyond reach for them. I see them knocking down displays all the time and wheel chair navigation...............................

The store just keeps on getting worse everytime I waste my time to make a visit.

[brendenmoney]

This is one of the now several cases we have seen of a Fresh Fare branding removed, making me think they may be starting to phase out the Fresh Fare branding on Ralphs, kind of like how Albertsons has been slowly phasing out the Savon branding. There are also two Fresh Fare stores I have seen, one near Century City, and the other in Studio City, where the pylon signs on the street now have just a regular Ralphs sign, but the exterior signage still had the Fresh Fare branding. Kroger could be moving to a strategy where all stores have the same branding, but maybe some are renovated with nicer interiors. This is based off of all the regular Ralphs stores I have seen renovated to what I believe is their new Fresh Fare interior, such as the Brea Ralphs. Not that their new high end interior really is that great anyways, but I do think the quality of implementation of it varies by store.

[jamcool]

This is one of the now several cases we have seen of a Fresh Fare branding removed, making me think they may be starting to phase out the Fresh Fare branding on Ralphs, kind of like how Albertsons has been slowly phasing out the Savon branding. There are also two Fresh Fare stores I have seen, one near Century City, and the other in Studio City, where the pylon signs on the street now have just a regular Ralphs sign, but the exterior signage still had the Fresh Fare branding. Kroger could be moving to a strategy where all stores have the same branding, but maybe some are renovated with nicer interiors. This is based off of all the regular Ralphs stores I have seen renovated to what I believe is their new Fresh Fare interior, such as the Brea Ralphs. Not that their new high end interior really is that great anyways, but I do think the quality of implementation of it varies by store.

We still have several Albertsons in Phoenix that have the Osco co-branding.

[storewanderer]

It appears to me Kroger is not doing this "Fresh Fare" format anymore.

At least Kroger is honest here- they took away the few perimeter fresh offers that made Fresh Fare unique... no use even using the branding anymore.

Plus it costs money to light up those signs..

[veteran+]

It appears to me Kroger is not doing this "Fresh Fare" format anymore.

At least Kroger is honest here- they took away the few perimeter fresh offers that made Fresh Fare unique... no use even using the branding anymore.

Plus it costs money to light up those signs..

All the perimeter offers are still there in this tiny store (except for a real bakery). They even have a TOO large floral as well.

Ridiculous.

[storewanderer]

It appears to me Kroger is not doing this "Fresh Fare" format anymore.

At least Kroger is honest here- they took away the few perimeter fresh offers that made Fresh Fare unique... no use even using the branding anymore.

Plus it costs money to light up those signs..

All the perimeter offers are still there in this tiny store (except for a real bakery). They even have a TOO large floral as well.

Ridiculous.

Didn't this store get a remodel into the latest Fresh Fare decor recently too?

The one that has the tacky looking signs that say "the fresh fare" or something on the walls? I assume they did not remove those signs?

There was a Kroger Fresh Fare in Dallas near Love Field also- it still had FF signage a couple years ago. The store interior has been a standard Kroger interior for the past 15++ years. It did at one time have the late 90's/early 00's FF interior. Now it has new logo Kroger signage and no fresh fare sign. It is still a nice big store. But Kroger really need to improve quality on bakery/deli/meat.

So there seems to be a corporate directive to get those fresh fare signs off the exteriors.

[HCal]

I really don't see the point of sub-branding unless it's a completely different format, like Walmart Neighborhood Market. When it's just a variation like Fresh Fare, it's pointless. People aren't paying enough attention to make it worthwhile.

Ralphs should just phase it out. If they really want to, they can introduce an actual premium brand that is completely different, like Vons vs. Pavilions. But that is probably not worthwhile for them at this stage.

[veteran+]

It appears to me Kroger is not doing this "Fresh Fare" format anymore.

At least Kroger is honest here- they took away the few perimeter fresh offers that made Fresh Fare unique... no use even using the branding anymore.

Plus it costs money to light up those signs..

All the perimeter offers are still there in this tiny store (except for a real bakery). They even have a TOO large floral as well.

Ridiculous.

Didn't this store get a remodel into the latest Fresh Fare decor recently too?

The one that has the tacky looking signs that say "the fresh fare" or something on the walls? I assume they did not remove those signs?

There was a Kroger Fresh Fare in Dallas near Love Field also- it still had FF signage a couple years ago. The store interior has been a standard Kroger interior for the past 15++ years. It did at one time have the late 90's/early 00's FF interior. Now it has new logo Kroger signage and no fresh fare sign. It is still a nice big store. But Kroger really need to improve quality on bakery/deli/meat.

So there seems to be a corporate directive to get those fresh fare signs off the exteriors.

The remodel was barely noticed (scant changes). Even the employees were confused.

Did not notice "the fresh fare" anywhere. I will check again.

[brendenmoney]

All the perimeter offers are still there in this tiny store (except for a real bakery). They even have a TOO large floral as well.

Ridiculous.

Didn't this store get a remodel into the latest Fresh Fare decor recently too?

The one that has the tacky looking signs that say "the fresh fare" or something on the walls? I assume they did not remove those signs?

There was a Kroger Fresh Fare in Dallas near Love Field also- it still had FF signage a couple years ago. The store interior has been a standard Kroger interior for the past 15++ years. It did at one time have the late 90's/early 00's FF interior. Now it has new logo Kroger signage and no fresh fare sign. It is still a nice big store. But Kroger really need to improve quality on bakery/deli/meat.

So there seems to be a corporate directive to get those fresh fare signs off the exteriors.

The remodel was barely noticed (scant changes). Even the employees were confused.

Did not notice "the fresh fare" anywhere. I will check again.

Idk if all implementations of their latest new "fresh fare" decor have signs that say "the fresh fare." I have seen some stores that have that phrase and some that don't.

On another note, I was browsing Google Maps and saw that the Anaheim Hills Fresh Fare that was also recently remodeled to the "higher end" decor (and was a remodel that I know a lot of people had things to say about, which is how I found out it had a remodel) but I noticed on street view that the Fresh Fare exterior signs have been removed. Looks like another one has bitten the dust, and is a plain Ralphs now.

I thought I saw another fresh fare store somewhere that was de-branded to a regular Ralphs somewhere in the Glendale/Pasadena area, but I can't quite pinpoint which store that might be, but maybe someone else can... That one was more of a shock to me since that specific one I did find to be a higher end store in a higher end area.

Now from what I have seen on this forum and in other spots, that's now five stores I have seen with this change. They gotta make room for those fruit cart logos somewhere on the signage I guess

[ClownLoach]

Didn't this store get a remodel into the latest Fresh Fare decor recently too?

The one that has the tacky looking signs that say "the fresh fare" or something on the walls? I assume they did not remove those signs?

There was a Kroger Fresh Fare in Dallas near Love Field also- it still had FF signage a couple years ago. The store interior has been a standard Kroger interior for the past 15++ years. It did at one time have the late 90's/early 00's FF interior. Now it has new logo Kroger signage and no fresh fare sign. It is still a nice big store. But Kroger really need to improve quality on bakery/deli/meat.

So there seems to be a corporate directive to get those fresh fare signs off the exteriors.

The remodel was barely noticed (scant changes). Even the employees were confused.

Did not notice "the fresh fare" anywhere. I will check again.

Idk if all implementations of their latest new "fresh fare" decor have signs that say "the fresh fare." I have seen some stores that have that phrase and some that don't.

On another note, I was browsing Google Maps and saw that the Anaheim Hills Fresh Fare that was also recently remodeled to the "higher end" decor (and was a remodel that I know a lot of people had things to say about, which is how I found out it had a remodel) but I noticed on street view that the Fresh Fare exterior signs have been removed. Looks like another one has bitten the dust, and is a plain Ralphs now.

I thought I saw another fresh fare store somewhere that was de-branded to a regular Ralphs somewhere in the Glendale/Pasadena area, but I can't quite pinpoint which store that might be, but maybe someone else can... That one was more of a shock to me since that specific one I did find to be a higher end store in a higher end area.

Now from what I have seen on this forum and in other spots, that's now five stores I have seen with this change. They gotta make room for those fruit cart logos somewhere on the signage I guess

The fact that Anaheim Hills has changed is notable, because that was always the test store for a different version of Fresh Fare. That store had the expanded perimeter and more premium products, but it did not ever have Fresh Fare decor until the "Reclaimed" look showed up. It always had regular Ralphs decor and was remodeled a couple of times to the latest regular decor despite the Fresh Fare signage.

Ralphs has been replacing signs with terrible new LED ones that are awful. They remove the older dimensional plastic signs and replace with what is a glorified canvas disc with the logo printed on it, and remove the guts of the sign then install a grid of LED blocks. At night the LED blocks glow so brightly inside that they look like about 32 lit up squares that actually make it impossible to see the name Ralphs. They are doing this for energy savings so it makes sense to swap out the individual lit letters on FF formats for the standard oval Ralphs sign simply because it's cheaper. I'm assuming nobody in Kroger corporate works at night so nobody is showing up and seeing these defective signs.