Regional brands in national retailers

[SamSpade]

Someone mentioned in a thread they thought that Kroger was better than Albertsons Co's at carrying regional/local food products.

I personally disagree, except maybe with QFC locally. They seem to have a lot of Puget Sound brands shoehorned into their tiny stores and mix, perhaps as a legacy of when they were more like a Whole Foods/natural choice grocer/upscale regional grocer.

We had a local grocer here try to fill their large space (and fail) with unusual or trendy new brands from different regional providers alongside typical mainstream and "natural" groceries. Another is aggressively welcoming in brands from the state to submit their products to them for consideration.

One regional brand I do have to buy at Fred Meyer is Duke's mayonnaise.

[veteran+]

Side Note:

O Organics continues to shrink despite Regional V.P. telling me they were going to increase O Organic skus.



Typical..........................

[storewanderer]

Someone mentioned in a thread they thought that Kroger was better than Albertsons Co's at carrying regional/local food products.

I personally disagree, except maybe with QFC locally. They seem to have a lot of Puget Sound brands shoehorned into their tiny stores and mix, perhaps as a legacy of when they were more like a Whole Foods/natural choice grocer/upscale regional grocer.

We had a local grocer here try to fill their large space (and fail) with unusual or trendy new brands from different regional providers alongside typical mainstream and "natural" groceries. Another is aggressively welcoming in brands from the state to submit their products to them for consideration.

One regional brand I do have to buy at Fred Meyer is Duke's mayonnaise.

I suppose it depends. But in general I find Kroger to do a much better job on regional brands throughout the store. Safeway banner on regional brands is a literal joke especially in center store. Albertsons has made some small changes but it is far from enough at the "Safeway" banner stores. This is the whole reason Safeway failed in Chicago and Philadelphia.

At Smiths they sell various "regional" brands. Some may not quite "fit" the region. For instance in Reno Smiths:
New Mexico- El Pinto Salsa
New Mexico- Sadie's Salsa
Various others I am not so familiar with from New Mexico on the salsa line up.
Texas- Whataburger Ketchup
? - Duke's Mayonnaise (but the lime flavor is currently on clearance)
Utah- Lehi Baking Mixes
Utah- Big J Flour
Utah- Hire's Root Beer Mix
Utah- Stephen's Hot Cocoa Mixes in numerous flavors
Utah- Don Julio Chips
Utah- Cache Valley Cheeses

You probably can find some of these items in a Phoenix Albertsons and a few of the other items in an Intermountain Albertsons, but I am not sure of that or how many SKUs.

There are many other examples.

[storewanderer]

Side Note:

O Organics continues to shrink despite Regional V.P. telling me they were going to increase O Organic skus.



Typical..........................

I was just noticing clearance on some O Organics SKUs, I forget what items they were, but I just scratched my head as to why they were on clearance. Probably because their price was like $3 higher than the same private label Organic SKU at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or Kroger.

Also Open Nature brand... not sure what is happening to it. I barely notice it anymore.

But I also do not notice many "new" Simple Truth SKUs at Kroger in the past year or two. I see a small number of items getting discontinued. I think they are still "introducing enough new items" to "make up for the items being discontinued" though but I am not sure they are growing SKU count net at this point.

[jamcool]

Someone mentioned in a thread they thought that Kroger was better than Albertsons Co's at carrying regional/local food products.

I personally disagree, except maybe with QFC locally. They seem to have a lot of Puget Sound brands shoehorned into their tiny stores and mix, perhaps as a legacy of when they were more like a Whole Foods/natural choice grocer/upscale regional grocer.

We had a local grocer here try to fill their large space (and fail) with unusual or trendy new brands from different regional providers alongside typical mainstream and "natural" groceries. Another is aggressively welcoming in brands from the state to submit their products to them for consideration.

One regional brand I do have to buy at Fred Meyer is Duke's mayonnaise.

I suppose it depends. But in general I find Kroger to do a much better job on regional brands throughout the store. Safeway banner on regional brands is a literal joke especially in center store. Albertsons has made some small changes but it is far from enough at the "Safeway" banner stores. This is the whole reason Safeway failed in Chicago and Philadelphia.

At Smiths they sell various "regional" brands. Some may not quite "fit" the region. For instance in Reno Smiths:
New Mexico- El Pinto Salsa
New Mexico- Sadie's Salsa
Various others I am not so familiar with from New Mexico on the salsa line up.
Texas- Whataburger Ketchup
? - Duke's Mayonnaise (but the lime flavor is currently on clearance)
Utah- Lehi Baking Mixes
Utah- Big J Flour
Utah- Hire's Root Beer Mix
Utah- Stephen's Hot Cocoa Mixes in numerous flavors
Utah- Don Julio Chips
Utah- Cache Valley Cheeses

You probably can find some of these items in a Phoenix Albertsons and a few of the other items in an Intermountain Albertsons, but I am not sure of that or how many SKUs.

There are many other examples.

Odd they would offer Whataburger ketchup, there are no Whataburgers in Nevada. Walmart in Phoenix has all of the Whataburger condiments, Fry’s and Albertsafeway have just the spicy ketchup.

[arizonaguy]

What's really interesting here is that for a lot of things I actually think Walmart does a better job with regional brands than Albertsons/Safeway or Fry's, at least in Arizona.

It's not just the Whataburger condiments but Walmart is also pretty consistent with Harkin's popcorn (Sam's Club even had it for a short while). Walmart also has a decent selection of regional Hispanic and Asian focused products that Albertsons/Safeway and Fry's do not.

Fry's does have some end caps of "Made in Arizona" products at some of its stores though, but the selection varies by store and isn't really comprehensive.

[veteran+]

Before Safeway, Albertsons in Palm Springs had varieties of all foods that surpassed anything in the area. This included sizes, flavors, regional, local and more. The prices were higher. Very large store.

It is where I shopped when I lived there.

[storewanderer]

Someone mentioned in a thread they thought that Kroger was better than Albertsons Co's at carrying regional/local food products.

I personally disagree, except maybe with QFC locally. They seem to have a lot of Puget Sound brands shoehorned into their tiny stores and mix, perhaps as a legacy of when they were more like a Whole Foods/natural choice grocer/upscale regional grocer.

We had a local grocer here try to fill their large space (and fail) with unusual or trendy new brands from different regional providers alongside typical mainstream and "natural" groceries. Another is aggressively welcoming in brands from the state to submit their products to them for consideration.

One regional brand I do have to buy at Fred Meyer is Duke's mayonnaise.

I suppose it depends. But in general I find Kroger to do a much better job on regional brands throughout the store. Safeway banner on regional brands is a literal joke especially in center store. Albertsons has made some small changes but it is far from enough at the "Safeway" banner stores. This is the whole reason Safeway failed in Chicago and Philadelphia.

At Smiths they sell various "regional" brands. Some may not quite "fit" the region. For instance in Reno Smiths:
New Mexico- El Pinto Salsa
New Mexico- Sadie's Salsa
Various others I am not so familiar with from New Mexico on the salsa line up.
Texas- Whataburger Ketchup
? - Duke's Mayonnaise (but the lime flavor is currently on clearance)
Utah- Lehi Baking Mixes
Utah- Big J Flour
Utah- Hire's Root Beer Mix
Utah- Stephen's Hot Cocoa Mixes in numerous flavors
Utah- Don Julio Chips
Utah- Cache Valley Cheeses

You probably can find some of these items in a Phoenix Albertsons and a few of the other items in an Intermountain Albertsons, but I am not sure of that or how many SKUs.

There are many other examples.

Odd they would offer Whataburger ketchup, there are no Whataburgers in Nevada. Walmart in Phoenix has all of the Whataburger condiments, Fry’s and Albertsafeway have just the spicy ketchup.

It was just added in a recent reset. We will see if it lasts.

I was surprised they did not have any other condiments besides the Ketchup and Spicy Ketchup.

Las Vegas does have a Whataburger now, on the strip; Panda Express is the franchisee. So there is one Whataburger in Nevada.

[pseudo3d]

I suppose it depends. But in general I find Kroger to do a much better job on regional brands throughout the store. Safeway banner on regional brands is a literal joke especially in center store. Albertsons has made some small changes but it is far from enough at the "Safeway" banner stores. This is the whole reason Safeway failed in Chicago and Philadelphia.

At Smiths they sell various "regional" brands. Some may not quite "fit" the region. For instance in Reno Smiths:
New Mexico- El Pinto Salsa
New Mexico- Sadie's Salsa
Various others I am not so familiar with from New Mexico on the salsa line up.
Texas- Whataburger Ketchup
? - Duke's Mayonnaise (but the lime flavor is currently on clearance)
Utah- Lehi Baking Mixes
Utah- Big J Flour
Utah- Hire's Root Beer Mix
Utah- Stephen's Hot Cocoa Mixes in numerous flavors
Utah- Don Julio Chips
Utah- Cache Valley Cheeses

You probably can find some of these items in a Phoenix Albertsons and a few of the other items in an Intermountain Albertsons, but I am not sure of that or how many SKUs.

There are many other examples.

Odd they would offer Whataburger ketchup, there are no Whataburgers in Nevada. Walmart in Phoenix has all of the Whataburger condiments, Fry’s and Albertsafeway have just the spicy ketchup.

It was just added in a recent reset. We will see if it lasts.

I was surprised they did not have any other condiments besides the Ketchup and Spicy Ketchup.

Las Vegas does have a Whataburger now, on the strip; Panda Express is the franchisee. So there is one Whataburger in Nevada.

I mean, back in the 1970s and 1980s they DID have about half a dozen locations in the Las Vegas area.

[storewanderer]

Was looking around the salad dressings in produce (refrigerated) at Smiths tonight. Noticed about 6 SKUs of some dressing I am not familiar with. Price was 5.99 per jar. Looked at the package- some regional brand from St. George, UT called Wild Coyote. Never heard of it. Will look for a markdown and give it a try.