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

[ClownLoach]

I was recently in San Diego this week for a work related conference. During my visit I decided to stock up on some groceries during my stay.

I stumbled across a Ralphs on Rosecrans St/Nimitz Ave.

This a very unique looking store due to its small size, and unique exterior and interior design.

The exterior signage is just a standard Ralphs sign (no Fresh Fare branding), but on the inside it looks like it recently got remodeled to the latest Fresh Fare decor package.

I’m curious if this store was always a Fresh Fare that happened to get its Fresh Fare Signage removed (like we’ve seen in La Cañada and Sherman Oaks)?

Or was this store always a regular Ralphs that happened to get renovated to the Fresh Fare format on the inside?

I don’t visit San Diego very often, so I’m not too knowledgeable with the stores in the area.

That has always been a standard Ralphs but it is one of the newest Ralphs in the chain of Ralphs.

It is a former Vons. Vons closed and moved to Liberty Station, it sat empty for a bit, and Ralphs took it over.

I thought Ralphs packed a LOT into this little store. I really like this store. Plus is has the Ralphs gas station (a former 76).

It opened with a standard Kroger interior and felt like a QFC inside (size, perimeter layout, etc.). When it opened, the division president of Ralphs was the former division president of QFC. I hoped this may be an expansion vehicle for Ralphs to start opening stores again but of course this is Kroger who rarely opens new stores on the west coast, so that didn't happen.

Intrerestingly this area has two of some of the newest Ralphs stores very close to each other. This referenced store opened in 2013, with another newer store that opened in the Sports Arena Shopping Center nearby towards the end of 2011. The Sports Arena store feels much more like a newer build Kroger than Ralphs. The Ralphs brand in a way is very new to that neighborhood, since I'm not sure if there were any Ralphs within a 3-5 mile radius previously. Both those stores seem to be doing well against Vons.

Conventional supermarkets do much better in San Diego. There is a very high affiliation of Union members in the market. One of my first upper management assignments was calming a disgruntled, mismanaged store because corporate was sure that they would unionize over working conditions. Thankfully it never came to that after replaced the managers who were incompetent and unpleasant people. Remember nearly every Costco there is Union (converted Price Club), and they ran Sam's out of the market except for one store. I see steady but never overwhelming traffic at Walmart or Target, and their density of stores in the market is weak compared to neighboring counties like Orange and Riverside. Usually when you see a closure in San Diego it is because of an outdated facility or a landlord with development plans.

The new Ralphs you speak of at Sports Arena is a replacement store for a very old store that was there for decades. The previous store was next door, it keeps changing hands to different discounters. Last I saw it was a Forever 21 Red outlet and something else I forget. It was what I call a classic Ralphs around 30K size. Traditional design with the glass front and signs on the walls to the sides. The Sprouts in HB on Warner was one and still resembles the same general design, same for the Orange Ralphs, Garden Grove except that they expanded about 15K to the left.

[storewanderer]

So I finally spent some time in the real "Fresh Fare" elimination store in Costa Mesa.

I am confused as can be about what they did here.

The store was not remodeled out of the last Fresh Fare decor. It still has all the square molding with the Ralphs Fresh Fare logos and the giant "A Passion for all that's good" slogan across the front. But, they scraped off the Fresh Fare letters for all of these logos and dabbed mismatched white paint over the scars. Where they have the panoramic skyline murals that are typical of all these FF stores prior to "Reclaimed" decor they also just smeared white paint across the Fresh Fare lettering. A two year old could have done this branding cover up, it is incredibly tacky. If they just bought a roll of white duct tape and used it, it would have been neater.

What makes less sense is the attempt to keep some of the FF features. They didn't have Prime Beef, but they still do have the dry aging case. Why one would want a dry aged Choice steak is beyond me, I didn't see any cut in the case but I imagine the price would be the same. No claims of sustainable or a named fancy source for seafood. They still had Murray's cheese and the large island version that is staffed to boot - the FF remodels are getting a reduced version that removes the dedicated staffing and puts the cheese prep into the workload of the regular deli dept.

They still had expanded organics all over the store. They still had expanded specialty produce.

So basically they switched to lower quality beef, lower quality seafood, took down the sub sign, smeared white paint on the walls and rebranded it to Ralphs. And a 5 minute walk away is the other Ralphs that is still a Fresh Fare and got the sign replaced recently, recommitting to the branding and format. Weird. It's similar to our Albertsons vs Vons discussion, they have two stores next to one another so they changed up the branding slightly on one to give the illusion of choice.

I see photos online of the "debranding from FF" effort and cannot believe how bad it looks. But it is a debranding effort so there is obviously some kind of logic or something to trigger them to go in and remove all of this "fresh fare" branding. as opposed to just keeping it there (as they do with Ralphs Marketplace until they remodel). How about in center store, the FF units do seem to have expanded "gourmet" type SKUs in center store, maybe they moved those out? I've seen dry aging cases present but not used in some stores... maybe they don't use it anymore but didn't remove it?

That other Ralphs that is still FF, I assume it has better quality meat/seafood? Or?

[ClownLoach]

So I finally spent some time in the real "Fresh Fare" elimination store in Costa Mesa.

I am confused as can be about what they did here.

The store was not remodeled out of the last Fresh Fare decor. It still has all the square molding with the Ralphs Fresh Fare logos and the giant "A Passion for all that's good" slogan across the front. But, they scraped off the Fresh Fare letters for all of these logos and dabbed mismatched white paint over the scars. Where they have the panoramic skyline murals that are typical of all these FF stores prior to "Reclaimed" decor they also just smeared white paint across the Fresh Fare lettering. A two year old could have done this branding cover up, it is incredibly tacky. If they just bought a roll of white duct tape and used it, it would have been neater.

What makes less sense is the attempt to keep some of the FF features. They didn't have Prime Beef, but they still do have the dry aging case. Why one would want a dry aged Choice steak is beyond me, I didn't see any cut in the case but I imagine the price would be the same. No claims of sustainable or a named fancy source for seafood. They still had Murray's cheese and the large island version that is staffed to boot - the FF remodels are getting a reduced version that removes the dedicated staffing and puts the cheese prep into the workload of the regular deli dept.

They still had expanded organics all over the store. They still had expanded specialty produce.

So basically they switched to lower quality beef, lower quality seafood, took down the sub sign, smeared white paint on the walls and rebranded it to Ralphs. And a 5 minute walk away is the other Ralphs that is still a Fresh Fare and got the sign replaced recently, recommitting to the branding and format. Weird. It's similar to our Albertsons vs Vons discussion, they have two stores next to one another so they changed up the branding slightly on one to give the illusion of choice.

I see photos online of the "debranding from FF" effort and cannot believe how bad it looks. But it is a debranding effort so there is obviously some kind of logic or something to trigger them to go in and remove all of this "fresh fare" branding. as opposed to just keeping it there (as they do with Ralphs Marketplace until they remodel). How about in center store, the FF units do seem to have expanded "gourmet" type SKUs in center store, maybe they moved those out? I've seen dry aging cases present but not used in some stores... maybe they don't use it anymore but didn't remove it?

That other Ralphs that is still FF, I assume it has better quality meat/seafood? Or?

The dry aged meat case was filled.

I do not feel like there is any difference in most of center store between regular Ralphs and Fresh Fare, nor has their been for quite some time. The main difference is the segregated natural/organic merchandise - those sections are larger than a normal Ralphs. They were large at this debrand store and that matches the neighborhood. If say they had closed this (very busy) Ralphs it would be snapped up by Whole Foods instantly.

The other Ralphs Fresh Fare stores that have lost the separate title on the main sign and pylon are doing that at the time they're remodeled to that ghastly "Reclaimed" decor with cardboard signs and fake wood everywhere. Thankfully they stopped using real reclaimed, filthy nasty wood after the first few remodels. They keep Fresh Fare branding all over the store inside on those, the deli/bakery area gets large letters calling it "The Fresh Fare" as if that is a brand like Signature Cafe was for Safeway. They keep Boars Head deli, they keep Prime Beef and some of the Santa Monica seafood product (same as Pavilions). Clearly it is a different concept than a standard Ralphs.

This is what makes the Costa Mesa situation different from the others. Costa Mesa did see some reduction in assortment with the brand change. They are obviously trying to target a different customer than the store down the street that just crosses the boundary into Newport Beach.

The other changes are only exterior sign changes that do not necessarily happen to every store, but they're definitely still a distinct format. The only time these signs have changed, the store is just completing a remodel into the Reclaimed decor which is only for Fresh Fare and Signature formats that we have seen. They have window graphics over the doors that say in very large letters Welcome to Fresh Fare. It's a completely different decor package. The meat and seafood and produce and expanded organics/naturals. There is a difference, but I don't think it is as large of a difference anymore and it is more focused on the expanded organics/naturals than necessarily becoming a more gourmet store. Pavilions is much more distinctly different from a Vons or Albertsons, even in the subpar conversion they did in San Clemente that didn't expand the perimeter adequately. Pavilions is more upscale, scatters many higher priced and premium items into every aisle, and is a more gourmet concept plus a strong liquor store.

Strong parallel though between Costa Mesa situation and San Clemente. Both were identical branded stores, one large and one small, a couple of blocks apart on same street. Both rebranded one store to create a mainline store and a premium store. In Costa Mesa the now regular Ralphs isn't quite that, it's more like a Fresh Fare. In San Clemente, the new Pavilions isn't the whole package, but it's definitely a step up from Albertsons.

[SoCalShopper1023]

It looks like my local Ralphs Fresh Fare (320 W Colorado Blvd in Pasadena) got it’s signage changed to a regular Ralphs one.

This is the store that I previously mentioned on this thread, that was recently remodeled and had kept the Fresh Fare branding. I guess that wasn’t the case for long.

What’s interesting is that the exterior LED signage on the actual building still has the Ralphs Fresh Fare branding, I’m assuming that’s eventually going to change.

[brendenmoney]

I've seen similar cases where the pylon signage received the regular Ralphs signage but kept the exterior Fresh Fare signage on the building. The Fresh Fare at Ventura and Goldwater Canyon in Studio City (former Hughes with the cool retro-looking exterior facade) had this exact situation. Same thing with the Century City Fresh Fare. However, I visit these stores some months ago so I imagine signage on the buildings could have been switched in the meantime since my visits.

[storewanderer]

I've seen similar cases where the pylon signage received the regular Ralphs signage but kept the exterior Fresh Fare signage on the building. The Fresh Fare at Ventura and Goldwater Canyon in Studio City (former Hughes with the cool retro-looking exterior facade) had this exact situation. Same thing with the Century City Fresh Fare. However, I visit these stores some months ago so I imagine signage on the buildings could have been switched in the meantime since my visits.

Was this sign in East Pasadena damaged or something? On Google Street View it looks like one side of the sign was sort of fading but it is hard to tell. Plus the street view is from 2022..

I'm starting to wonder if the sign thing is handled by Kroger Corporate and they don't even know what Fresh Fare is and what store is or isn't a Fresh Fare.

[ClownLoach]

Going in a circle here, aside from sign changes - has there been any other store besides Costa Mesa where they have actively removed the Fresh Fare programs from the store and made them more like a "regular" Ralphs? All these other sign changes seem to be on stores that otherwise have been remodeled into the latest Fresh Fare program interior (the ugly barn wood and cardboard decor) OR they remain in a previous Fresh Fare decor with no changes to programs or any attempt to "de brand" Fresh Fare from the interior. There are no examples I am aware of where a store got remodeled to a Fresh Fare decor program AND removed the branding AND moved to a lower end assortment.

Only Costa Mesa actively worked to make it into a "regular" Ralphs.

The rest of this just seems to be a cost cutting move as stores get new signage and it's much cheaper to install a plain backlit oval instead of fancy individual cut out letters.

[SamSpade]

Wow, that is a luxurious store -
SERVICE
SERVICE
SERVICE
!
Feels like a waste to use that space for departments that have been part of most larger supermarkets for decades now (I guess "service seafood" is a bit unusual, but not on the CA coast I would think).

[SoCalShopper1023]

Wow, that is a luxurious store -
SERVICE
SERVICE
SERVICE
!
Feels like a waste to use that space for departments that have been part of most larger supermarkets for decades now (I guess "service seafood" is a bit unusual, but not on the CA coast I would think).

I always wondered why they had those “service” signs as well. They’ve been there for as long as I lived in that area (26 years). Maybe the they’re remnants of when the store was a Hughes Market.

This store is also right on the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade route (held every New Year) and it’s also about a mile away from the Rose Bowl Stadium.

I wonder if maybe the reason why they have those service signs up, for the hundreds of out of state tourists that visit every year for the parade that have no idea what “Ralphs” is.

[SoCalShopper1023]

Wow, that is a luxurious store -
SERVICE
SERVICE
SERVICE
!
Feels like a waste to use that space for departments that have been part of most larger supermarkets for decades now (I guess "service seafood" is a bit unusual, but not on the CA coast I would think).

I always wondered why they had those “service” signs as well. They’ve been there for as long as I lived in that area (26 years). Maybe they’re remnants of when the store was a Hughes Market.

This store is also right on the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade route (held every New Year) and it’s also about a mile away from the Rose Bowl Stadium.

I wonder if maybe the reason why they have those service signs up, for the hundreds of out of state tourists that visit every year for the parade that have no idea what “Ralphs” is.