Wichita- a Kroger and Wal Mart only market

[storewanderer]

I thought it would be interesting to make some comments on Wichita since this is a market that is literally only Kroger (Dillon) and Wal Mart. There are some Aldis spread around, and one Whole Foods. There are two AWG independents on the edges of Wichita (Leekers) rather far from any Dillons, and one Spartan Nash supplied store called Barney's Discount Drugs which is mostly center store items. Also some ethnic stores but they are small under 10k square foot operations, some are supplied by AWG. Trader Joe's is there, Sprouts went out of business and is vacant, and Whole Foods looks to barely hang on.

Dillon has primarily large stores with a few Marketplace Stores out on the edges of the area. Dillon has mostly case ready meat including beef (not sure if any is cut in store), pricing seems equal or higher than what I see out at Smiths, and is the typical Kroger operation but somehow seems a little worse. They close at 10 PM and staffing after 8 PM is an issue (I stood in line down an aisle waiting for self checkout at one store after 8 PM as they only had 4 of them open- probably the first time I've ever had this happen at any Kroger operation). The other thing I noticed with Dillon was their markdown program doesn't even go above 50% off on their "manager's special" markdowns- it seems to be some weird thing like 48% or 49% off the short dated perishables.

Dillon overall strikes me as a typical Kroger program but with worse meat, worse store hours, worse staffing, and borderline worse pricing. I suppose this is a dream market for Kroger as they have no other conventionals to compete with. Produce and bakery were both extremely disappointing on mix and price.

Dillon does still have a hot Chinese Food program in most stores (starting at 6.99 for 1 entree bowl), and still has extensive salad bars (run by the produce department) which I found interesting they still have those offers as the rest of Kroger doesn't seem to do that stuff anymore. Not all stores have Boar's Head in deli.

This Wichita is a market ripe for Hy-Vee or WinCo to enter. I am surprised neither has moved in. WinCo would probably be most useful.

[Bakeragr]

Interestingly enough, our Gerbes stores in Central Missouri all seem to be getting remodeled and upgraded at the moment. The stores here also compete with Schnucks and Hy-Vee. They seem to be holding their own, but it is likely due to the fact that they're not directly by their competition.
I can't say I've been in a Kroger in Wichita, but they really have minimal competition other than Walmart and AWG-affiliated stores in most of Kansas.
I am really surprised that Kroger, Dillons division especially, hasn't capitalized on their distribution facilities and expanded into Tulsa. I guess Winco is there now, but still. I think they'd do well and it's really not that far from Wichita. In addition, I think Dillons was too reactionary when they left Springfield. I think had they tightened their pricing they'd be doing just fine there.

[retailfanmitchell019]

I thought it would be interesting to make some comments on Wichita since this is a market that is literally only Kroger (Dillon) and Wal Mart. There are some Aldis spread around, and one Whole Foods. There are two AWG independents on the edges of Wichita (Leekers) rather far from any Dillons, and one Spartan Nash supplied store called Barney's Discount Drugs which is mostly center store items. Also some ethnic stores but they are small under 10k square foot operations, some are supplied by AWG. Trader Joe's is there, Sprouts went out of business and is vacant, and Whole Foods looks to barely hang on.

This Wichita is a market ripe for Hy-Vee or WinCo to enter. I am surprised neither has moved in. WinCo would probably be most useful.

Seems like another market Albertsons should've never exited, along with Oklahoma.
There is one Dillons on Wichita's northwest side that is a 1997 model Albertsons (drop ceiling in center store, warehouse ceiling for perimeters).
In 2002, when Albertsons sold its supermarkets in Kansas, they had 5 stores within the state: 4 in Wichita, 1 in Topeka. It seems like Albertsons ultimately exited Wichita due to being #4 in market share, coupled with lack of penetration in the region. The stores were sold to AWG-owned Falley's/Food 4 Less (spun off from Fred Meyer in 1998). AWG F4L was sold to Homeland in 2006. Homeland eventually failed around Wichita.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 155885734/
Albertsons still had a presence in Kansas until the 2006 breakup, via Osco Drug.

[storewanderer]

Interestingly enough, our Gerbes stores in Central Missouri all seem to be getting remodeled and upgraded at the moment. The stores here also compete with Schnucks and Hy-Vee. They seem to be holding their own, but it is likely due to the fact that they're not directly by their competition.
I can't say I've been in a Kroger in Wichita, but they really have minimal competition other than Walmart and AWG-affiliated stores in most of Kansas.
I am really surprised that Kroger, Dillons division especially, hasn't capitalized on their distribution facilities and expanded into Tulsa. I guess Winco is there now, but still. I think they'd do well and it's really not that far from Wichita. In addition, I think Dillons was too reactionary when they left Springfield. I think had they tightened their pricing they'd be doing just fine there.

Dillons seems pretty well upgraded with its stores and they have these very large stores (even non Marketplace Stores). With no competition at least they upgrade their stores.

The Springfield exit was a mistake, and it was the result of a Hy-Vee opening in Springfield. They basically had a group of marginally performing stores, Hy-Vee opened across the street from one of them, and they ran out of there. They already had a newer store in Springfield from the late 90's they had closed/transferred to some other operator years prior to the exit of the rest of the stores. They actually did have one fuel center in Springfield and one store that had been recently remodeled to the Ralphs interior when they exited.

Dillon was doing odd stuff around the time they exited Springfield. They also closed a newer store out in Coffeyville. The final Oklahoma Store in Pryor which was a complete dive closed.

At this point in Oklahoma I am not sure there is much room for Kroger. They are trying their delivery thing in Oklahoma City and advertising it but I never saw any vans driving around when I was there. WinCo and Crest are both in Oklahoma City and Crest is a strong operator. In Tulsa you have Reasors which historically has been strong and some other AWG operators that lack excitement and some have folded in recent years like Food Pyramid (TERRIBLE operator) and Warehouse Markets but some of those reopened under other AWG operators.

In other areas, Homeland has made some pretty significant improvements to its operation, most stores have been remodeled. There are still a couple unremodeled Albertsons left. They have actually built a few new construction stores around Oklahoma City. Homeland still needs a lot of work. They have converted more stores to Cash Saver and Homeland actually does a pretty good job with the Cash Saver format on center store (perimeters are awful), one of the few Cash Saver formats I've seen that I'd actually shop center store regularly if I lived in the area. Seeing how they destroyed the Jewel interior former Albertsons in Del City into an ugly Cash Saver was extremely depressing but getting past that it had a good center store and dairy. They are running stronger specials across their banners and have cleaned up their merchandising. They seem to have kicked me out of their loyalty program maybe because I didn't go there for too many years but it didn't matter as they no longer require the loyalty card for sale prices. Fresh departments look very good in their newer stores but still pretty rough looking in their older stores.

[BatteryMill]

Strikingly similar situation to Winchester, Virginia, of which has been chronicled on this forum.

[retailfanmitchell019]

The Springfield exit was a mistake, and it was the result of a Hy-Vee opening in Springfield. They basically had a group of marginally performing stores, Hy-Vee opened across the street from one of them, and they ran out of there. They already had a newer store in Springfield from the late 90's they had closed/transferred to some other operator years prior to the exit of the rest of the stores. They actually did have one fuel center in Springfield and one store that had been recently remodeled to the Ralphs interior when they exited.

Dillon was doing odd stuff around the time they exited Springfield. They also closed a newer store out in Coffeyville. The final Oklahoma Store in Pryor which was a complete dive closed.

I think Pryor was the sole Dillons in Oklahoma. It closed in 2005 or so. Dillons also had a couple of stores in Northwest Arkansas as recent as the late 90s, but they eventually left. Dillons in Joplin was destroyed by the 2011 tornado, they never even bothered to rebuild.

I suspect one factor in Dillons exiting Springfield was shoplifting, Springfield at one time had the highest rate of larceny theft in the US of cities between 100k-250k: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... 93250,000)
I've been reading reviews of Walmart, Price Cutter, and Doller General stores in Springfield where household products are locked up, along with homeless people outside these stores.

I'll put it to you this way: the situation in Springfield makes Seattle or Portland look good when it comes to this type of shenanigans.

[storewanderer]

The Springfield exit was a mistake, and it was the result of a Hy-Vee opening in Springfield. They basically had a group of marginally performing stores, Hy-Vee opened across the street from one of them, and they ran out of there. They already had a newer store in Springfield from the late 90's they had closed/transferred to some other operator years prior to the exit of the rest of the stores. They actually did have one fuel center in Springfield and one store that had been recently remodeled to the Ralphs interior when they exited.

Dillon was doing odd stuff around the time they exited Springfield. They also closed a newer store out in Coffeyville. The final Oklahoma Store in Pryor which was a complete dive closed.

I think Pryor was the sole Dillons in Oklahoma. It closed in 2005 or so. Dillons also had a couple of stores in Northwest Arkansas as recent as the late 90s, but they eventually left. Dillons in Joplin was destroyed by the 2011 tornado, they never even bothered to rebuild.

I suspect one factor in Dillons exiting Springfield was shoplifting, Springfield at one time had the highest rate of larceny theft in the US of cities between 100k-250k: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... 93250,000)
I've been reading reviews of Walmart, Price Cutter, and Doller General stores in Springfield where household products are locked up, along with homeless people outside these stores.

I'll put it to you this way: the situation in Springfield makes Seattle or Portland look good when it comes to this type of shenanigans.

Hy Vee opened its first Springfield Store in 2011 and Dillons exited Springfield in 2014. When Dillons exited Springfield, Price Cutter only kept 2 of the former Dillons stores open and never reopened the other 2. Only one of them is still open now. There are now 3 Hy Vees in Springfield.

Dillons exited Springfield because their business was failing. Their stores were not doing well. They had one store toward the center of Springfield close to a college campus that got a remodel into the Ralphs interior and added a gas station; that was their best store there. I do recall some homeless activity there. A couple other Dillons stores were very marginal performing, one was completely killed when a new Hy Vee opened and it wasn't long after that, that it was curtains for Dillons in Springfield. They rolled over to Hy Vee. The one good store wasn't enough to support multiple failing stores that also needed remodels. They had already closed an almost brand new store near Springfield in the 2000's and transferred it to some independent, it since closed. Really what Kroger probably should have done with Springfield was moved the stores out of Dillons Division and into one of the Kroger banner divisions surrounding.

I've been in Springfield multiple times and went into various stores there and nothing was locked up back in the pre-COVID era at these grocery stores back then... no noticeably different security measures there at the time there than elsewhere. But it isn't a place I particularly enjoyed visiting. But it has nothing on the current situation throughout CA, Portland, Seattle, or Denver. But if you don't believe me- arrange some trips to Springfield, Portland, and Seattle and see what you observe.

The lock up situation has become intense in recent years all over and sometimes there isn't much rhyme or reason. Stuff is locked up in stores all over. In Wichita I went into a Wal Mart that seemed like an okay area but had so much lock up I thought I was back home in Reno at one of the worst theft stores (the two that removed self checkout). Conversely I went into a Wal Mart in Fort Worth that seemed like a marginal area and it had ZERO lock up product.