Food 4 Less & Fleming Cos./Food 4 Less history
Posted: 24 Mar 2021 08:01
There's a former mall (de-malled in the early 2000s) in my town, Manor East Mall (the DeadMalls.com entry was written a long time ago by me and frankly I'm embarrassed that it's so amateurish). In the late 1980s it featured a Food 4 Less store, and according to tax records, was owned by Falley's Inc. (the original concept of the brand) themselves. Falley's was acquired in Yucaipa Cos. and opened the first SoCal store in 1990, starting the process that would ultimately get Ralphs (having rebranded a number of legacy supermarkets Yucaipa had picked up, including Alpha Beta, Boys, etc.) and Food 4 Less bought by Kroger.
So what about Fleming? The two Super Saver stores that Albertsons kept after the LLC breakup (and didn't immediately close) were not poorly-performing Albertsons that had been converted into the format (mostly in TX and FL), they were from when Fleming sold them the Food 4 Less stores. Just a few years earlier (2000), [url=https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive ... less-units]Fleming was prepared to quadruple their Food 4 Less stores. So how did Fleming get a large jump on the territory? Falley's operated as far south as Texas, and Fleming appeared to have a large territory, and when Fleming went under, these territories (NorCal especially) did not revert back to Kroger.
Furthermore, Fleming's spread appeared to be in the western United States where Falley's probably would never have gotten to, but it was Yucaipa that opened first in 1990, and by 2000, it strikes me as odd that they were still gung-ho about expansion even though whatever agreement they had with Falley's was still being honored by Kroger or couldn't be touched. That seems to be the case even now as one Food 4 Less (with the same logo) exists in Woodland, California owned by Nugget Markets, but unlike Fleming, they can't expand it.
So what happened exactly with Fleming and Falley's? I'm confused.
So what about Fleming? The two Super Saver stores that Albertsons kept after the LLC breakup (and didn't immediately close) were not poorly-performing Albertsons that had been converted into the format (mostly in TX and FL), they were from when Fleming sold them the Food 4 Less stores. Just a few years earlier (2000), [url=https://www.supermarketnews.com/archive ... less-units]Fleming was prepared to quadruple their Food 4 Less stores. So how did Fleming get a large jump on the territory? Falley's operated as far south as Texas, and Fleming appeared to have a large territory, and when Fleming went under, these territories (NorCal especially) did not revert back to Kroger.
Furthermore, Fleming's spread appeared to be in the western United States where Falley's probably would never have gotten to, but it was Yucaipa that opened first in 1990, and by 2000, it strikes me as odd that they were still gung-ho about expansion even though whatever agreement they had with Falley's was still being honored by Kroger or couldn't be touched. That seems to be the case even now as one Food 4 Less (with the same logo) exists in Woodland, California owned by Nugget Markets, but unlike Fleming, they can't expand it.
So what happened exactly with Fleming and Falley's? I'm confused.