Groceteria.com

It was announced last week that the Albertsons-Savon combo in Hemet, CA will be closing it's doors forever at the end of the month. This store was originally built as Smith's Food and Drug in the early 90's during Smith's re-entry (and demise) in the So Cal market, became a Lucky in early 1996 and received the "combo store" treatment in 1997, with a re-grand opening with spokeswoman Stephanie Edwards. With the ABS/ASC "marriage" it became Albertsons in 1998, and with that, suffered from poor management, a declining neighborhood, and high prices. The store never really "evolved" from it's Smith's days. When Lucky took over, the store was remodeled slightly with the Red and teal 1990's Lucky design, and the removal of the large, red lighting monstrosity that hung over the bank of checkouts. The Warehouse Video rental store closed about 2000 and became a Marbles video rental store for a short time before it shuttered and an Albertsons Video rental area was created nearby (albeit, very small compared what was offered before). The Golden Spoon yogurt shop closed not long after Albertsons took over, and was never replaced. Instead, customers were greeted with a closed store front, with stacks of soda set up in an attempt to hide the shuttered store. Most of the Golden Spoon fixtures as well as the red counter top and back area remain in plain view today. The cafe area between the Chinese Food place and the deli had one section closed up during the Lucky's days, only to be blocked off with cardboard chip racks and the tables moved out in front of the deli area. The Bank of America branch tucked away in the corner between the alcohol and the the former video space closed a few years ago (and like everything else, was never completely removed, replaced or even covered up), the customer service counter suddenly disappeared early in 2007 (with the outline of the counter still VERY visible on the floor), and the Dry cleaners was already closed by the time the supermarket strikes of the early 2000's ended.
(the VERY popular China Kitchen relocated outside of the store and about a mile away when Albertsons raised the rent in 2003, it was replaced though, with a remodeled (!), but less popular Chinese takeout, which has since closed)

This was a beautiful store in it's Smiths and Lucky days, but with Albertsons taking over, it was the nail in the coffin. A lot of it had to do with how bad the store looked, it already looked half gutted out 5 years ago... a few months ago, it looked closed at noon with only one checker and the manager at the front. I think if Albertsons had invested a little money here and there to even build an actual wall to cover up the closed store fronts instead of just covering it up with product, the store could have survived. It sadly now looks ran down, and is a shell of its former self. Hopefully something else can go in there. There are rumors that Food 4 Less is interested in the space, as they were originally planning to build a new store in nearby San Jacinto.

Does any of this sound like whats happened to some of the other former Smiths locations? I couldn't find anything about other Albertsons closing, but who knows what the future holds?

http://www.thevalleychronicle.com/artic ... rtsons.txt

I'll try to take some pics of the inside.

And another one bites the dust...

Also, this isn't the first Albertsons in Hemet to close. In the early 1990's, Albertsons had a store that was originally a Market Basket and it shut it's doors without notice. The location sat empty for sometime before becoming a Staples and a 99 cents only store.

The current Albertsons

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1

The original store

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1

As you can see, they did an awful job subdiving the space. Hopefully it gets remodeled like the nearby Target (former Payless Drug) did.

According to the ad that was in my mailbox yesterday for next week (due to Columbus Day),
Hemet is one of 4 stores where the prices are not effective (see the calendar strip on the back side of the large ad). So far since Supervalu acquired the Southern California-Las Vegas division of Albertsons, each month in the weekly, 2-4 stores are listed with "Prices Not Effective At..." . Obviously, this is not a closure for remodeling (stores are always open during major remodel projects), which means they are closing for good. By now, a large handful of Albertsons/Albertsons-Savon bannered stores have closed. The only exception was the ex-Lucky on Wilcox and Via Campo in Montebello where the store simply moved across the street to replace the company-owned Max Foods store.

Another note of interest related to Albertsons store closures:

If an Albertsons-Savon store closes for good, they sell (transfer) the store's Savon prescription files to the nearest major chain drugstore such as CVS or Walgreens. I'm not sure if Supervalu Pharmacies (the subsidiary that operates Savon pharmacies inside Albertsons (west coast) and Acme, Osco in Albertsons (intermountain)/Jewel/Shaws) keeps a backup copy if the customer decides to use a different Savon/Osco pharmacy. Another interesting note is that CVS now owns the Savon Drugs and Osco Drugs prescription files when they were standalone drugstores.

luckysaver

This sounds identical to the Paramount, CA store closure. Some discussion about that is taking place on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2927098475/

Paramount is also a former Smiths turned Lucky then Albertsons.

You mention Food4Less, in two other cases this has indeed happened. The Stanton and Fullerton Smiths stores (Smiths->Lucky->Albertsons) were transferred to Kroger in 2006 and opened soon thereafter as Food4Less. There are other examples of Smiths conversions to Food4Less, but they don't come to mind at the moment. Here's what Fullerton looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/492072097/ I will add these newer conversions usually include a full service bakery/deli and full service meat counter, and they've managed to make them feel less "warehousey." But I digress, that statement is getting too much into current operations.

I doubt Paramount will go to Kroger, since they operate a Food4Less nearby that is in fine condition... but I could be wrong.

More importantly on the history front, Albertsons/Supervalu seems to be in a store closing mood again, at least here in SoCal. I doubt they are done.

J-Mac wrote:More importantly on the history front, Albertsons/Supervalu seems to be in a store closing mood again, at least here in SoCal. I doubt they are done.

They are in a closing/cost cutting mood in the Northwest too. In addition to a recently closed store in The Dalles, Oregon, I happened to see that the Vancouver, WA Fisher's Landing store recently closed as well.

In the Albertsons stores I have visited recently in Portland & Vancouver that were not closing, I have noticed that every single one of them, regardless of age, has had some of the lightbulbs removed from the fixtures.

Where is Fisher's Landing?

Not off of Padden Pkwy I hope?

storewanderer wrote:Where is Fisher's Landing?

Not off of Padden Pkwy I hope?

The closed store I am referring to is at 164th Avenue & McGillvray. It was built, along with the strip mall it was in, around 1994-95, along with a new Fred Meyer across 164th. I was kinda surprised this store closed due to the fact that growth in this area of Vancouver EXPLODED in the last ten years. The Fred Meyer there does very well these days.

I once lived less than a mile from the Padden Parkway store, and never really cared for that one. It replaced the Orchards store (now Jo-Ann & Petco), which was actually built a year or two AFTER the Fisher's Landing location.

Super S wrote:

J-Mac wrote:More importantly on the history front, Albertsons/Supervalu seems to be in a store closing mood again, at least here in SoCal. I doubt they are done.

They are in a closing/cost cutting mood in the Northwest too. In addition to a recently closed store in The Dalles, Oregon, I happened to see that the Vancouver, WA Fisher's Landing store recently closed as well.

In the Albertsons stores I have visited recently in Portland & Vancouver that were not closing, I have noticed that every single one of them, regardless of age, has had some of the lightbulbs removed from the fixtures.

Up here where I live, there have been several Albertsons which have closed in the last few years as well. The Crossroads (Bellevue) location closed back in the early part of the decade and sat vacant for a couple of years before being turned into a Bartell Drugs and Ace Hardware, and the Albertsons in Issaquah closed down just a few months ago, and is currently vacant.

Oh. I was in that Albertsons at Fisher's Landing... I seem to recall it having a recently remodeled interior, but I can't remember specifics. It was the 1995 era floorplan. Very nice Fred Meyer across the road.

The Padden one had a Jewel interior and looked to have opened around 2005. The exterior also looks like a Jewel.







http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... en%20Pkwy/

I left Vancouver in 2005, and the Padden store opened not long before I moved, but I seem to think it may have opened in 2004. Worth noting is that at first it did not have any Sav-On signage, this was added later.

I personally thought this store had one of the worst interior layouts Albertsons ever used...the store was actually larger than the one it replaced but felt smaller, parts of it were downright cramped, especially around the video rental area at the front. I visited this one about two months ago, and like others, this one is like a cave inside with half of the fluorescent tubes removed.

The layout isn't great. It is identical to some Luckys that were opened in the late 90s, but felt smaller. The Luckys also typically (though the ones with this decor did not..) had a split down the middle of the aisles, which this store did not have (or did they have it along the two or three drug aisles...?).

You're right about the general lack of space around video, dairy, and pharmacy. I breezed through this store pretty fast, shocked to find this interior in WA.

There is a newer Albertsons a few miles outside of Grants Pass, OR that also had this layout, but did not have this decor. I seem to recall an Albertsons somewhere in Spokane that was a clone of the one in Grants Pass.

Drove by the Hemet Albertsons tonight, which closes next week, and all of the front windows and doors (minus the main entry) were already boarded up. Sad sight indeed.

ieguy441 : thank you for the great history of the Albertson's shopping center. My buddy knew the owners of the Chinese restaurant inside so we took a drive to Hemet two weeks ago and were both shocked when we saw the entire store closing. I've never seen a major supermarket with empty shelves before, very surreal. We also spotted plastic green Lucky's packaging boxes in one corner of the store!

By the way, do you know if the center was used prior to the early 1990s? The lamp fixtures in the parking lot suggest that it may have been built earlier. I'm not from Hemet so I'm not savvy on the dates.

Here are two photos we took inside the Albertson's during our visit. I'm not sure if any of the Lucky's-era signage or layout inside still remain, but I found some of the typography to be reminiscent of the mid-90's.

that is so strange, two different packages in one store, it had the teal scheme and then a whole another scheme where the pharmacy is...

lvkewlkid wrote:that is so strange, two different packages in one store, it had the teal scheme and then a whole another scheme where the pharmacy is...

The Pharmacy decor was part of the "Sav•On" package, common to Lucky/Sav•On combo stores.