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Supermarket Roundup
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Supermarket RoundupA closer look at the increasingly competitive supermarket industry
Nash Finch Company (319-393-1880) opened a 65,000 sq.ft. Econofoods replacement store on Edgewood Road southwest in Cedar Rapids, IA. The supermarket is a "Fresh Place" concept store that joins three other recently-remodeled stores in Dubuque, IA, Peru, IL and Waterloo, IA . . . .Fresh Market, Inc. (757-229-3201) plans to open an 18,000 sq.ft. upscale supermarket at the Oak Groves Shoppes located at the intersection of State Road 434 and Jamestown Road in Altamonte Springs, FL during September. The supermarkets play classical music, use dim lighting and have antique display fixtures in an attempt to create a unique shopping experience. The first Fresh Market opened in 1982 . . . . Winn-Dixie (904-783-5000) will provide host locations for The Return Store, a new business designed to serve e-business and traditional merchants and their customers in handling merchandise returns. The Return Store expects to have between 400 and 600 units up and running in Winn-Dixie stores by the end of 2001, and a total of 2,000 stores in all locations by Christmas 2001. . . .Albertson’s (208-395-6200) has reached an agreement with a neighborhood organization to open a 63,000 sq.ft. supermarket on a site formerly housing Montgomery Ward at DeVargas Center in Santa Fe, NM. An opening during the first quarter of 2001 is planned . . . .Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., (201-573-9700) which trades as A&P, blamed a consumer-spending slowdown for its revised earnings projections.The debt-rating agency Standard & Poor’s said it might downgrade A&P’s credit rating from BBB- to BB+. . . .This Summer, Kroger (513-762-4000) will rename the Fred Meyer Marketplace stores it purchased in AZ to Fry’s Marketplace. There are currently 17 Fred Meyer stores all in the Valley region of AZ. Fry’s marketplace, Kroger’s market-leading chain, operates 89 stores in AZ. . . .Less than three weeks after the Federal Trade Commission challenged the acquisition on antitrust grounds, Kroger’s proposed plan to purchase 74 Winn-Dixie supermarkets is dead. Winn-Dixie will continue to operate the supermarkets. The FTC had concerns that Kroger’s market share, should it have been permitted to purchase the Winn-Dixie stores, would have been too great to insure fair competition and antitrust compliance. Kroger would have had a market share in the Fort Worth-Arlington, TX market of between 30% and 35% . . . . In Jacksonville, FL, Winn-Dixie is cutting back the number of stores it keeps open for 24 hours a day. The current number of stores open is 30, but after the rollback the company will have only six stores open 24 hours. . . .Save-A-Lot (314-592-9100) plans to open three stores in the Augusta, GA area by year’s end. The company presently operates 15 stores statewide and a total of 850 stores in 36 states. . . .ShopRite (732-906-5235) is planning to close its 70,000 sq.ft. supermarket at Manchester Crossroads in York, PA and opening a replacement store in the former Builders Square building in Northwest Plaza located on Route 30 in York. . . .Sentry Foods is courting Schultz-Sav-O Stores to purchase 34 Sentry Foods supermarkets located in the Milwaukee area and other WI cities. If the deal is completed, Schultz Sav-O would acquire nearly half of the company’s chain of 70 supermarkets. Albertson’s and Safeway have also shown interest in acquiring part of the Sentry chain. . . .Pathmark (732-499-3354) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection recently after 99% of its bondholders agreed to its plan for a prepackaged reorganization. The company had hoped that a proposed $1.75 billion merger with Dutch-based Ahold NV would improve company fortunes, but the deal fizzled last year. Presently, Pathmark is valued at $1.3 billion but has debt of $1.5 billion |