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Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 13 May 2017 00:27
by pseudo3d
There has been a lot of consolidation in the grocery store industry, that's for sure, and many stores have been reflagged under new corporate owners. In general I've found there are three types of conversions.

"Rebrand" Conversions - The store is slowly converted over to the new brand. Usually décor does not change, perishable programs change over time, and employees generally keep their jobs. The store is ultimately re-flagged over the course of a few weeks or months.
"Reset" Conversions - The store is closed temporarily to fully convert to the new brand. Décor usually sees mild changes but may not change at all except covering up old brands. Employees usually keep their jobs after re-applying and re-training.
"Rebuild" Conversions - The store is closed for weeks to fully convert to the new brand. Décor is brand new. Employees have to re-apply for their jobs but the company makes no promises.

Publix and Ahold did "rebuild" conversions when they take over stores, and all stores today do "reset" when its a market pull out.

To my knowledge, these are the "Rebrand" conversions:
- Generally any Albertsons takeover in the 1990s (Lucky, Super One Foods in Des Moines, Smitty's-MO, Seessel's, likely Buttrey)
- Jitney Jungle to Winn-Dixie (as well as older Winn-Dixie conversions, like Buddies)
- Any Safeway division spinoffs prior to the early 1990s (Houston - to AppleTree, New York - to Finast-Safeway, etc.)
- Tom Thumb to Randalls (in the Austin market)
- Kroger takeovers in the 1950s
- Rouses and LeBlanc's (a more modern example)
- Auchan to Omni (the Chicago store, not the Houston one)
- American Fare to Cub Foods (the grocery side only--at least that was the impression I got from articles)
- Generally anything where a larger company buys a smaller company wholesale (Kroger, A&P, Safeway, Albertsons) but keeps the name

Reset:
- All Albertsons takeovers after 2006 (A&P, Paul's, G&G)
- Modern Kroger takeovers maybe with the exception of Scott's (and even that I don't know)
- Sweetbay to Winn-Dixie
- Schwegmann to A&P (though was planned to be Rebrand before Schwegmann's 1999 bankruptcy)
- Anything that involves a market pullout without a shut down (generally), namely Albertsons and Houston

So that's my list so far--definitely seems to be more "resets" these days, but are there other semi-contemporary examples of doing a "rebrand" without closing the store for a period of time?

Re: Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 13 May 2017 13:11
by BillyGr
One odd exception to the Albertsons "resets" would be the former A&P in Boonton, NJ that is now an Acme.

Unlike the rest of the A&P brands/Acme stores, this store was originally going to close, and was just a day or two from finishing it's going out of business sales when Acme decided to pick it up.

It was closed for quite a long time (months) before Acme reopened it.

I believe most of the old Grand Union conversions up here in NY were the reset type (though a few stores had pharmacies and those were kept open/accessible while the rest of the store was closed) - not sure if any of the ones elsewhere were different, though (since they were going to different chains rather than the Price Chopper/Hannaford ones here).

Re: Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 17 May 2017 12:13
by Super S
I don't know if this still happens, but do remember when Albertsons took over the Safeway at Overland & Vista in Boise. (after Safeway had pulled out of Boise proper, but still had stores in Mountain Home, Nampa, and other surrounding towns) After Albertsons took over, the store operated as an Albertsons for a year or two with much of the Safeway interior still intact, even keeping what I presumed was Safeway's Datachecker cash register system. (Albertsons, at least in Boise, used NCR). Albertsons did eventually do a pretty thorough remodel to the old building in the mid-80s, but it has since been replaced by a new building at the same site.

Re: Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 17 May 2017 15:55
by wnetmacman
pseudo3d wrote:"Rebrand" Conversions - The store is slowly converted over to the new brand. Usually décor does not change, perishable programs change over time, and employees generally keep their jobs. The store is ultimately re-flagged over the course of a few weeks or months.
"Reset" Conversions - The store is closed temporarily to fully convert to the new brand. Décor usually sees mild changes but may not change at all except covering up old brands. Employees usually keep their jobs after re-applying and re-training.
"Rebuild" Conversions - The store is closed for weeks to fully convert to the new brand. Décor is brand new. Employees have to re-apply for their jobs but the company makes no promises.
In 1987, when Safeway pulled out of Dallas, almost none of the stores Kroger or Brookshire took over did anything beyond a basic Reset: The stores closed on Tuesday, restocked, and reopened on Friday under their new brand. Henderson, TX (Kroger takeover) wasn't remodeled completely until almost 2000, which put the Safeway layout and decor at 20 years old.

I know that two of the stores were rebuilds; both were in Longview. One was the city's first Super 1 Foods, and they almost gutted it, but kept it basically intact enough to reopen within 3 months. The other opened just a month later as a County Market, but later became a Super 1 Foods (under a reset/rebuild combo) with 5 days between closing and reopening, with the same layout, but a new decor package and paint.

Rouses Markets, when they've taken over stores anywhere, takes the time to completely renovate and rebuild, closing stores for months while they bring it in line with the rest of their stores. For instance, if it was built a WD, you won't know it going in after. An exception to this rule has been their recent takeover of the 9 LeBlanc's stores, because they were really close in ideas and layouts. These were more of what you're referring to as the Rebrand.

Re: Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 24 May 2017 15:12
by Ephrata1966
BillyGr wrote:One odd exception to the Albertsons "resets" would be the former A&P in Boonton, NJ that is now an Acme.

Unlike the rest of the A&P brands/Acme stores, this store was originally going to close, and was just a day or two from finishing it's going out of business sales when Acme decided to pick it up.

It was closed for quite a long time (months) before Acme reopened it.

I believe most of the old Grand Union conversions up here in NY were the reset type (though a few stores had pharmacies and those were kept open/accessible while the rest of the store was closed) - not sure if any of the ones elsewhere were different, though (since they were going to different chains rather than the Price Chopper/Hannaford ones here).
The story of that A&P to Acme conversion in Boonton reminds me of something else. Even though Giant (Carlisle) bought about 15 Genuardi's stores from Safeway in summer 2012, closing them for only about two weeks each for the conversion process, Giant also made a really strange decision. In late 2013, they opened at the site of the former Genuardi's in Newtown Square, PA that had closed in summer 2010 and had sat empty for three years. It really makes no sense at all. This former Genuardi's was quite small (only about 40,000 square feet) and had no pharmacy, bank, or any other amenities. It was so small that the selection was very limited compared to other Genuardi's. And the store was very dead as a Genuardi's in its last few years as one. Not surprisingly, Safeway never bothered to remodel it to the Lifestyle package.

Even though they had plenty of time to do it, Giant barely remodeled this store when they took it over. All they did was replace the decor, repaint, replace the flooring, and replace the lighting.

Re: Reset conversions vs. Rebrand conversions

Posted: 15 Oct 2017 22:23
by MikeRa
BillyGr wrote:One odd exception to the Albertsons "resets" would be the former A&P in Boonton, NJ that is now an Acme.

Unlike the rest of the A&P brands/Acme stores, this store was originally going to close, and was just a day or two from finishing it's going out of business sales when Acme decided to pick it up.

It was closed for quite a long time (months) before Acme reopened it.

I believe most of the old Grand Union conversions up here in NY were the reset type (though a few stores had pharmacies and those were kept open/accessible while the rest of the store was closed) - not sure if any of the ones elsewhere were different, though (since they were going to different chains rather than the Price Chopper/Hannaford ones here).
This Acme store (former A&P) opened with the "quality Build" decor package