Safeway Remodels

[ClownLoach]

The legendary Murrieta Vons, a disaster that is super low volume, is getting some investment.

They completely replaced the sign that was faded and had four different colors of pink-red, and removed the early 2000s era "Food & Drug" lettering that was prevalent in the Safeway ownership era. Inside they replaced the wall coolers in produce, but what went in appears to be used units relocated from another store. They are low capacity, shallow units that hold very little. They are removing one of the island coffin style freezers/coolers (didn't pay enough attention to what it was) in meats and just poured cement and filled in the drains.

I don't know if any other actual remodeling will occur. The store never got self checkout. The walls were still painted primer white and all the old pre-lifestyle pictures on the wall were still faded to sickly sepia tones before that looked unhealthy (brown vegetable pictures!).

The Albertsons directly across the street has 3X the daily traffic of the Vons and is a nice modern build. No reason to keep both open.

[storewanderer]

The legendary Murrieta Vons, a disaster that is super low volume, is getting some investment.

They completely replaced the sign that was faded and had four different colors of pink-red, and removed the early 2000s era "Food & Drug" lettering that was prevalent in the Safeway ownership era. Inside they replaced the wall coolers in produce, but what went in appears to be used units relocated from another store. They are low capacity, shallow units that hold very little. They are removing one of the island coffin style freezers/coolers (didn't pay enough attention to what it was) in meats and just poured cement and filled in the drains.

I don't know if any other actual remodeling will occur. The store never got self checkout. The walls were still painted primer white and all the old pre-lifestyle pictures on the wall were still faded to sickly sepia tones before that looked unhealthy (brown vegetable pictures!).

The Albertsons directly across the street has 3X the daily traffic of the Vons and is a nice modern build. No reason to keep both open.

Maybe they are about to complete the repaint to the colored walls interior. There sure are a lot of stores with that repainted Lifestyle interior. I actually prefer it to Florida.

Are you sure those shallow produce coolers are used units? I've seen NorCal install those shallow coolers in some remodels. They actually really help with rotation.

Ironically in the new build in Reno which was done after the remodels I mention above, they did not install shallow coolers but instead have extra "deep" produce coolers with shelf like (like shelves on the main aisles) set up for lettuce, broccoli, etc. Based on produce rotation issues this store has since a month after it opened, I would say they should have installed the shallow coolers. Customers constantly mix up old product and new product or employees stocking rushing and push old product to the back and put new product in the front (or my favorite I watched where an employee was moving all the "old" product to the left and threw all of the "new" lettuce to the right. Of course it took about 5 customers before that all got mixed together).

It sounds like their remodel is not being designed to increase traffic in the store... almost like it is designed to cut costs with lower capacity produce case and an entire meat unit being removed. They have used self checkouts sitting around they could easily bring there and drop 4 of.

I think a discount format could be more appropriate for that location but they clearly don't care about traffic there, they are just holding it to keep a competitor out.

[ClownLoach]

The legendary Murrieta Vons, a disaster that is super low volume, is getting some investment.

They completely replaced the sign that was faded and had four different colors of pink-red, and removed the early 2000s era "Food & Drug" lettering that was prevalent in the Safeway ownership era. Inside they replaced the wall coolers in produce, but what went in appears to be used units relocated from another store. They are low capacity, shallow units that hold very little. They are removing one of the island coffin style freezers/coolers (didn't pay enough attention to what it was) in meats and just poured cement and filled in the drains.

I don't know if any other actual remodeling will occur. The store never got self checkout. The walls were still painted primer white and all the old pre-lifestyle pictures on the wall were still faded to sickly sepia tones before that looked unhealthy (brown vegetable pictures!).

The Albertsons directly across the street has 3X the daily traffic of the Vons and is a nice modern build. No reason to keep both open.

Maybe they are about to complete the repaint to the colored walls interior. There sure are a lot of stores with that repainted Lifestyle interior. I actually prefer it to Florida.

Are you sure those shallow produce coolers are used units? I've seen NorCal install those shallow coolers in some remodels. They actually really help with rotation.

Ironically in the new build in Reno which was done after the remodels I mention above, they did not install shallow coolers but instead have extra "deep" produce coolers with shelf like (like shelves on the main aisles) set up for lettuce, broccoli, etc. Based on produce rotation issues this store has since a month after it opened, I would say they should have installed the shallow coolers. Customers constantly mix up old product and new product or employees stocking rushing and push old product to the back and put new product in the front (or my favorite I watched where an employee was moving all the "old" product to the left and threw all of the "new" lettuce to the right. Of course it took about 5 customers before that all got mixed together).

It sounds like their remodel is not being designed to increase traffic in the store... almost like it is designed to cut costs with lower capacity produce case and an entire meat unit being removed. They have used self checkouts sitting around they could easily bring there and drop 4 of.

I think a discount format could be more appropriate for that location but they clearly don't care about traffic there, they are just holding it to keep a competitor out.

They definitely are doing this work for cost cutting purposes only. Like you said, they are just holding this space. I believe it is about 20 years old and was hoping they would finally pack it in but then I saw the brand new signage and was disappointed immediately. The equipment being installed is definitely not brand new. I suspect it is being relocated from other remodels and closures. The new-to-the-store produce cases are so short that there is a massive gap between them and the soffit above too. I don't think they are even 6ft tall. The older coolers had a lot of rust stains and were very noisy.

The decor, if you could call it that, predates the repaint lifestyle. It is the version with the random oval shaped illustrations in between departments that say things like "Produce Fresh Market" and such. Those are the ones that are so faded they're a sickly sepia tone. Repaint lifestyle doesn't have anything like that.

I only venture over to that side of town when I need a haircut, so probably not going to be there for a few more weeks to see what else they're up to.

Depending on the outcome of the merger case, I am interested enough about the community that I am going to actually write a letter to the CEO and ask them to please consider making a deal like they did in Irvine where they transfered those two leases to H-Mart. The area needs a proper Hispanic market and a proper Asian market. The area is different and those stores would pull from a very large radius that already travels to Corona for 99 Ranch or even goes to Fallbrook or Riverside for Northgate. The Asian population has grown tremendously in the area and many new businesses are opening. 85°C Bakery just opened in Temecula and has been selling out daily, but the small independent market next door is not pleasant to say the least. And the local Cardenas is a model of self destruction under Apollo incompetence. Hispanic markets are very busy at night especially in suburbs but they start closing the service departments at 6pm or even earlier in some cases. Go to Northgate and they'll have every department open past 9pm, sometimes 10.

They would not hurt their existing stores selling the Vons and maybe even bring more traffic to the already busy Albertsons across the street. They could keep the fuel center open too and just rebrand it to Albertsons, maybe hand out coupons for the store across the street. Or rebrand the Albertsons to Vons just to continue the illusion of competition. But they don't need both stores and they are doing the community a disservice by sitting on this one.

I actually do wonder if Kroger would want both Vons sites in the market too, they are both probably 50K boxes that fill in the space nicely between the only two Ralphs in the area. That could be another reason for sitting on them. The one on Rancho California would also be ideal for Stater Bros. Walmart would probably take both as neighborhood markets. So they probably do sit on these for anticompetitive purposes. All the more reason for them to cut their likely losses and transfer to a ethnic competing brand versus a direct one. Eventually their landlord will do it for them otherwise as they can't be happy with whatever percentage rent they're getting, and meager traffic that means low rents for surrounding stores in the strip malls.

[storewanderer]

The legendary Murrieta Vons, a disaster that is super low volume, is getting some investment.

They completely replaced the sign that was faded and had four different colors of pink-red, and removed the early 2000s era "Food & Drug" lettering that was prevalent in the Safeway ownership era. Inside they replaced the wall coolers in produce, but what went in appears to be used units relocated from another store. They are low capacity, shallow units that hold very little. They are removing one of the island coffin style freezers/coolers (didn't pay enough attention to what it was) in meats and just poured cement and filled in the drains.

I don't know if any other actual remodeling will occur. The store never got self checkout. The walls were still painted primer white and all the old pre-lifestyle pictures on the wall were still faded to sickly sepia tones before that looked unhealthy (brown vegetable pictures!).

The Albertsons directly across the street has 3X the daily traffic of the Vons and is a nice modern build. No reason to keep both open.

Maybe they are about to complete the repaint to the colored walls interior. There sure are a lot of stores with that repainted Lifestyle interior. I actually prefer it to Florida.

Are you sure those shallow produce coolers are used units? I've seen NorCal install those shallow coolers in some remodels. They actually really help with rotation.

Ironically in the new build in Reno which was done after the remodels I mention above, they did not install shallow coolers but instead have extra "deep" produce coolers with shelf like (like shelves on the main aisles) set up for lettuce, broccoli, etc. Based on produce rotation issues this store has since a month after it opened, I would say they should have installed the shallow coolers. Customers constantly mix up old product and new product or employees stocking rushing and push old product to the back and put new product in the front (or my favorite I watched where an employee was moving all the "old" product to the left and threw all of the "new" lettuce to the right. Of course it took about 5 customers before that all got mixed together).

It sounds like their remodel is not being designed to increase traffic in the store... almost like it is designed to cut costs with lower capacity produce case and an entire meat unit being removed. They have used self checkouts sitting around they could easily bring there and drop 4 of.

I think a discount format could be more appropriate for that location but they clearly don't care about traffic there, they are just holding it to keep a competitor out.

They definitely are doing this work for cost cutting purposes only. Like you said, they are just holding this space. I believe it is about 20 years old and was hoping they would finally pack it in but then I saw the brand new signage and was disappointed immediately. The equipment being installed is definitely not brand new. I suspect it is being relocated from other remodels and closures. The new-to-the-store produce cases are so short that there is a massive gap between them and the soffit above too. I don't think they are even 6ft tall. The older coolers had a lot of rust stains and were very noisy.

The decor, if you could call it that, predates the repaint lifestyle. It is the version with the random oval shaped illustrations in between departments that say things like "Produce Fresh Market" and such. Those are the ones that are so faded they're a sickly sepia tone. Repaint lifestyle doesn't have anything like that.

I only venture over to that side of town when I need a haircut, so probably not going to be there for a few more weeks to see what else they're up to.

Depending on the outcome of the merger case, I am interested enough about the community that I am going to actually write a letter to the CEO and ask them to please consider making a deal like they did in Irvine where they transfered those two leases to H-Mart. The area needs a proper Hispanic market and a proper Asian market. The area is different and those stores would pull from a very large radius that already travels to Corona for 99 Ranch or even goes to Fallbrook or Riverside for Northgate. The Asian population has grown tremendously in the area and many new businesses are opening. 85°C Bakery just opened in Temecula and has been selling out daily, but the small independent market next door is not pleasant to say the least. And the local Cardenas is a model of self destruction under Apollo incompetence. Hispanic markets are very busy at night especially in suburbs but they start closing the service departments at 6pm or even earlier in some cases. Go to Northgate and they'll have every department open past 9pm, sometimes 10.

They would not hurt their existing stores selling the Vons and maybe even bring more traffic to the already busy Albertsons across the street. They could keep the fuel center open too and just rebrand it to Albertsons, maybe hand out coupons for the store across the street. Or rebrand the Albertsons to Vons just to continue the illusion of competition. But they don't need both stores and they are doing the community a disservice by sitting on this one.

I actually do wonder if Kroger would want both Vons sites in the market too, they are both probably 50K boxes that fill in the space nicely between the only two Ralphs in the area. That could be another reason for sitting on them. The one on Rancho California would also be ideal for Stater Bros. Walmart would probably take both as neighborhood markets. So they probably do sit on these for anticompetitive purposes. All the more reason for them to cut their likely losses and transfer to a ethnic competing brand versus a direct one. Eventually their landlord will do it for them otherwise as they can't be happy with whatever percentage rent they're getting, and meager traffic that means low rents for surrounding stores in the strip malls.

They do the colored walls repaint to that interior too. I have seen stores in Texas with that Lifestyle 1 interior get the colorful walls repaint. The dated oval signs got replaced with square signs from Lifestyle 2 interior (probably used ones).

I wonder how many stores they sit on like this... and how that impacts their financials. I think Safeway sits on a lot of stores like this just to keep competition out. This is something that in my observation Kroger does not do in most regions anymore (but I think they do it rather heavily still at Ralphs and QFC). Kroger generally wants productive stores. They would not keep a store like the Murrieta Vons open (they already had those multiple Murrieta Ralphs they closed that were similar poor stores). It does them no good to waste resources on a store like that. That is part of "cost cutting."

This is a real flaw of how Safeway does business over the years. They sit on stores like this, the stores are lousy, pull a few customers from a high volume store nearby, and cost money to oversee and operate. It is games like this Safeway plays that cause Safeway pricing to be so outrageous.

[ClownLoach]

Maybe they are about to complete the repaint to the colored walls interior. There sure are a lot of stores with that repainted Lifestyle interior. I actually prefer it to Florida.

Are you sure those shallow produce coolers are used units? I've seen NorCal install those shallow coolers in some remodels. They actually really help with rotation.

Ironically in the new build in Reno which was done after the remodels I mention above, they did not install shallow coolers but instead have extra "deep" produce coolers with shelf like (like shelves on the main aisles) set up for lettuce, broccoli, etc. Based on produce rotation issues this store has since a month after it opened, I would say they should have installed the shallow coolers. Customers constantly mix up old product and new product or employees stocking rushing and push old product to the back and put new product in the front (or my favorite I watched where an employee was moving all the "old" product to the left and threw all of the "new" lettuce to the right. Of course it took about 5 customers before that all got mixed together).

It sounds like their remodel is not being designed to increase traffic in the store... almost like it is designed to cut costs with lower capacity produce case and an entire meat unit being removed. They have used self checkouts sitting around they could easily bring there and drop 4 of.

I think a discount format could be more appropriate for that location but they clearly don't care about traffic there, they are just holding it to keep a competitor out.

They definitely are doing this work for cost cutting purposes only. Like you said, they are just holding this space. I believe it is about 20 years old and was hoping they would finally pack it in but then I saw the brand new signage and was disappointed immediately. The equipment being installed is definitely not brand new. I suspect it is being relocated from other remodels and closures. The new-to-the-store produce cases are so short that there is a massive gap between them and the soffit above too. I don't think they are even 6ft tall. The older coolers had a lot of rust stains and were very noisy.

The decor, if you could call it that, predates the repaint lifestyle. It is the version with the random oval shaped illustrations in between departments that say things like "Produce Fresh Market" and such. Those are the ones that are so faded they're a sickly sepia tone. Repaint lifestyle doesn't have anything like that.

I only venture over to that side of town when I need a haircut, so probably not going to be there for a few more weeks to see what else they're up to.

Depending on the outcome of the merger case, I am interested enough about the community that I am going to actually write a letter to the CEO and ask them to please consider making a deal like they did in Irvine where they transfered those two leases to H-Mart. The area needs a proper Hispanic market and a proper Asian market. The area is different and those stores would pull from a very large radius that already travels to Corona for 99 Ranch or even goes to Fallbrook or Riverside for Northgate. The Asian population has grown tremendously in the area and many new businesses are opening. 85°C Bakery just opened in Temecula and has been selling out daily, but the small independent market next door is not pleasant to say the least. And the local Cardenas is a model of self destruction under Apollo incompetence. Hispanic markets are very busy at night especially in suburbs but they start closing the service departments at 6pm or even earlier in some cases. Go to Northgate and they'll have every department open past 9pm, sometimes 10.

They would not hurt their existing stores selling the Vons and maybe even bring more traffic to the already busy Albertsons across the street. They could keep the fuel center open too and just rebrand it to Albertsons, maybe hand out coupons for the store across the street. Or rebrand the Albertsons to Vons just to continue the illusion of competition. But they don't need both stores and they are doing the community a disservice by sitting on this one.

I actually do wonder if Kroger would want both Vons sites in the market too, they are both probably 50K boxes that fill in the space nicely between the only two Ralphs in the area. That could be another reason for sitting on them. The one on Rancho California would also be ideal for Stater Bros. Walmart would probably take both as neighborhood markets. So they probably do sit on these for anticompetitive purposes. All the more reason for them to cut their likely losses and transfer to a ethnic competing brand versus a direct one. Eventually their landlord will do it for them otherwise as they can't be happy with whatever percentage rent they're getting, and meager traffic that means low rents for surrounding stores in the strip malls.

They do the colored walls repaint to that interior too. I have seen stores in Texas with that Lifestyle 1 interior get the colorful walls repaint. The dated oval signs got replaced with square signs from Lifestyle 2 interior (probably used ones).

I wonder how many stores they sit on like this... and how that impacts their financials. I think Safeway sits on a lot of stores like this just to keep competition out. This is something that in my observation Kroger does not do in most regions anymore (but I think they do it rather heavily still at Ralphs and QFC). Kroger generally wants productive stores. They would not keep a store like the Murrieta Vons open (they already had those multiple Murrieta Ralphs they closed that were similar poor stores). It does them no good to waste resources on a store like that. That is part of "cost cutting."

This is a real flaw of how Safeway does business over the years. They sit on stores like this, the stores are lousy, pull a few customers from a high volume store nearby, and cost money to oversee and operate. It is games like this Safeway plays that cause Safeway pricing to be so outrageous.

I'm not sold on the idea that the previous Ralphs closures in the area weren't huge mistakes long term, like many of the other Ralphs closures that were very short sighted. I can think of 3 sites they've closed at and probably want back, at least the two Murrieta sites are now surrounded by exploding populations and would most likely be very profitable stores (the Temecula Ralphs on Winchester probably couldn't survive the assault from Winco across the street). But you're totally right on Albertsons/Safeway mentality. Here they have an obvious surplus of stores where Ralphs only has 2, Stater has 4, but then ACI has 8. The only two ACI stores that are highly productive are the Albertsons directly across from said Murrieta Vons and the Temecula Pkwy one. They definitely could cut the two Vons branded stores and sell them off as they have Albertsons in close vicinity. The Murrieta Vons wouldn't even be a risk of a Stater takeover because they are a mile or so up the road already. But it would be the perfect site for the newest Ralphs in California and worth a bidding war with anyone else interested such as 99 Ranch or Vallarta or others. And that obviously causes ACI to sit on it and run it at a loss when they're literally across the street in a better building, better location, and bring in triple the foot traffic.

I think it is a delicate balance. Here the Vons across from Albertsons is a logical closure/sell-off but also a huge risk of loss of share if say Ralphs took the site. In Long Beach Ralphs closed too many stores and now exploding population has left them incapable of absorbing any more business as they have too many stores that have inadequate parking and square footage so they operate maxed out with lines down the aisles, encouraging customers to find alternative chains to shop and in effect feeding Northgate, Superior, Grocery Outlet and others who have moved into low quality real estate and been incredibly successful. Heck, for a while the Amazon Fresh SM over shared on LinkedIn that the Long Beach store was #1 in sales and profit in the chain probably thanks to Ralphs closing a block away. It probably still is #1.

They both need to be smarter and have better projections before closing and consolidating. If they allow themselves to exceed their maximum capabilities of remaining stores they literally cap their future growth and gift share to competitors like Walmart and Costco.

I need to run some errands today and might stop by to see if a more serious attempt at remodeling has begun at that Murrieta Vons.

[ClownLoach]

Following up on that Murrieta store, zero additional work. Just new signs, removal of the coffin island in meats, and the new produce racks that are barely 6ft tall and have such a large gap on top I could shove a Costco size paper towel pack in there. They look ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as the whole store painted primer white.

[brendenmoney]

I wonder when that Murrietta Vons lease ends. I imagine since Albertsons hasn't upright closed the store yet, there may not be a deed restriction in place for that store. Having this store open in my opinion is certainly better than Albertsons just closing the store outright and leaving it empty for 20+ years. I imagine the landlord certainly wants Vons out badly as said previously. The only asset this store still has is the gas station, which Albertsons can just construct another one on the Albertsons property across the street if it truly is that great of an asset to them. Idk how much they care about their gas station business in their SoCal division.

Someone said somewhere the Albertsons across the street was supposed to be getting a renovation as well over the summer, and am curious if there has been progress on that. I imagine this is mainly to dump LLC.

[ClownLoach]

I wonder when that Murrietta Vons lease ends. I imagine since Albertsons hasn't upright closed the store yet, there may not be a deed restriction in place for that store. Having this store open in my opinion is certainly better than Albertsons just closing the store outright and leaving it empty for 20+ years. I imagine the landlord certainly wants Vons out badly as said previously. The only asset this store still has is the gas station, which Albertsons can just construct another one on the Albertsons property across the street if it truly is that great of an asset to them. Idk how much they care about their gas station business in their SoCal division.

Someone said somewhere the Albertsons across the street was supposed to be getting a renovation as well over the summer, and am curious if there has been progress on that. I imagine this is mainly to dump LLC.

All that has happened to the Albertsons is it got the linoleum removed a while back (not an improvement). They also removed the Sav-On sign as is typical although there is one off to the side. Maybe they were considering a closure of the Vons and wanted to upgrade the Albertsons a bit first? Or even line up a remodel with a closure and rebanner it to Vons (or even upgrade to Pavilions which would be a smarter choice for the area). Although I don't think they would do anything other than install newer self checkout units and change the decor, everything else is pretty much standard modern Albertsons inside.

The Vons I estimate is right around the time that one would expect the lease to end. So when I saw the brand new signage I was disappointed. My understanding is newer leased properties are less likely to have those complicated restrictions, so if Vons closed they could be replaced by the landlord with a competitor immediately. Even with the lack of new stores in the state and mediocre parking, as crazy as it sounds I could see that Vons having tremendous interest from Kroger as the population over there is increasing incredibly fast. If the store was competitively operated it would deliver many years of healthy comp sales increases.

What is interesting is that I stumbled into that Murrieta Vons a year and a half ago and it was being walked by an ACI corporate person and several individuals in suits who I would assume were prospective buyers. This was before the C&S announcement was made, so I had to assume it was merger related activities before they chose to go with a single buyer. It made sense at the time they'd try to sell it as a "token" divestiture and makes me wonder if they had someone less desirable than C&S originally planned. Of course such a low quality store would also be of little interest to any smart acquirer, so those people could have been from C&S for all I know and decided they didn't want it. I think that was about the time they painted all the walls primer white and added a few crappy LED strips to brighten it up.

Both Vons branded stores in the area are absolutely dead all the time. Although that may seem like a bonus if you don't like crowds, neither have self checkout and they maintain very limited perishable inventory. The deli at the Temecula Vons has all their meats/cheeses slammed into a single case for example, very limited assortment. Both have poor parking lot configurations which is probably why they struggle as otherwise they could easily bring them up to the latest standards and they'd be nice stores to shop. The locations are the problem and not so much the Vons banner.

They're going to need to do something because they're probably already hurting from the huge new Trader Joe's two miles west, and I am very sure that they're going to announce a new build Whole Foods for the long vacant Triangle property any day now.

[retailfanmitchell019]

All that has happened to the Albertsons is it got the linoleum removed a while back (not an improvement). They also removed the Sav-On sign as is typical although there is one off to the side. Maybe they were considering a closure of the Vons and wanted to upgrade the Albertsons a bit first? Or even line up a remodel with a closure and rebanner it to Vons (or even upgrade to Pavilions which would be a smarter choice for the area). Although I don't think they would do anything other than install newer self checkout units and change the decor, everything else is pretty much standard modern Albertsons inside.

ACI hasn't rebranded a single Albertsons store to Vons in SoCal. Although Vons has higher store count, I suspect the Albertsons name is higher volume than Vons at this point. If anything, I expect the Vons name to gradually disappear over time.

I'm not sure if Murrieta has good demographics for Pavilions.

If the Winchester Rd Albertsons is getting a remodel, I expect it to get the "Modern Neighborhood" interior that Upland has.

[ClownLoach]

All that has happened to the Albertsons is it got the linoleum removed a while back (not an improvement). They also removed the Sav-On sign as is typical although there is one off to the side. Maybe they were considering a closure of the Vons and wanted to upgrade the Albertsons a bit first? Or even line up a remodel with a closure and rebanner it to Vons (or even upgrade to Pavilions which would be a smarter choice for the area). Although I don't think they would do anything other than install newer self checkout units and change the decor, everything else is pretty much standard modern Albertsons inside.

ACI hasn't rebranded a single Albertsons store to Vons in SoCal. Although Vons has higher store count, I suspect the Albertsons name is higher volume than Vons at this point. If anything, I expect the Vons name to gradually disappear over time.

I'm not sure if Murrieta has good demographics for Pavilions.

If the Winchester Rd Albertsons is getting a remodel, I expect it to get the "Modern Neighborhood" interior that Upland has.

Santa Barbara Albertsons became Vons although that is a stretch. They were going to rebrand the LB Pavilions to Albertsons but then chose Vons instead for likely merger related reasons as the next closest Vons was a divest so if a merger occurred they'd both swap banners. Its a crap shoot and only reason I suggested it is the artificial competition they have created where Vons would nearly disappear from the area. Incredulously there are still reviews posted all the time from customers who won't shop Vons but will shop Albertsons and vice versa because they still perceive them to be some kind of separately managed companies. I'm always amused when a Vons review is bad and it's answered by Albertsons.

Murrieta/Temecula is majority home owner and high average household income in the $100Ks. Several mansion filled communities surrounding such as La Cresta and De Luz; those are all multi million dollar estates. More mansion districts in Temecula nearby. What makes the valley unique to SoCal is the relatively low home price, which causes the residents to have a much higher than average disposable income. Because of this the valley has the highest density of cars per household in the US, more boats and RVs than anywhere you've ever seen, and there is a strong desire for more upscale retail. To be clear, if you converted say CA-74 to a full scale freeway and then extended it to I-15 you would see the entire market become a extension of South OC and home values would triple.

Murrieta has finally figured out how to market this correctly and the new Triangle center that is finally going to be built is going to be all high end, so far the boxes are allegedly Whole Foods, REI and a luxe gym (either Equinox or Lifetime) but they are focused on "modern, upscale progressive" tenants and supposedly have many to bring in. If you look at neighborhood boards on Reddit or elsewhere the #1 complaint is not enough upscale retail which leaks sales into OC and SD markets. Murrieta alone estimates they're "leaking" $2 Billion per year in retail sales to other cities and counties, although they closed a good size gap with the new Costco development. There is also a high demand for Asian businesses as it is estimated nearly 20% of area households are Asian now. There is a lot of growth in the restaurant sector but no space for a 1st class market like 99 Ranch or H-Mart unless they do a new build, and because of oversaturation of grocery stores in general there aren't any grocery centered developments underway. For a new market entry both chains would probably want an existing market to convert as it drives down costs substantially since much can be reused thus reducing risk. They'll gladly wait for such a box to open. Which is why I would love to see Vons get the heck out of here.

If you wanted to compare Murrieta and Temecula to South OC cities, your comparisons would be Lake Forest at the lowest end, Mission Viejo as the average, and Laguna Niguel at the higher end. There are many communities of $1M homes that would be $3M or more in SD market or OC.

Back to the remodels, at this time the city has no projects open with the planning commission from Albertsons or Kroger. So any work being planned is going to be limited to very basic permits that are low value enough to not require any discussion. The only big projects underway at the moment are the new build Home Depot that is finishing up (I expect it to open by Halloween) and a remodel of the North Murrieta SuperTarget which will include a fully covered parking lot for Drive Up.