Old Albertsons store brands

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pseudo3d
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Old Albertsons store brands

Post by pseudo3d »

One of the reasons why (I think) Albertsons bought Safeway was to gain access to their store brands, since SuperValu had killed most of the brands and kept others (like Wild Harvest). What were some of the store brands Albertsons used pre-2006?

The Wikipedia article mentions "Good Day, Village Market, A+, Master's Choice, and Janet Lee", of those, I only remember Good Day, which was what was used on the low-end brand store milk (much like the Springdale brand vs. the Kroger brand for milk) and also used for the plastic gallons of the cheapest ice cream. I don't know what the others were used for or if there were others.
wnetmacman
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by wnetmacman »

Good Day and Janet Lee went far beyond just a few items. When Albertsons did its own distribution, both brands could be found on many multiple items throughout the store. Good Day was the more generic lower end, while Janet Lee was the mainstream, higher quality brand.

Good Day could be equated with Scotch Buy at Safeway, Cost Cutter at Kroger, and Thrifty Maid at Winn Dixie. Janet Lee was similar to the Kroger and Winn-Dixie brands.
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by KrogerTexas »

One of the reasons why (I think) Albertsons bought Safeway was to gain access to their store brands, since SuperValu had killed most of the brands and kept others (like Wild Harvest).
If it was a reason to me it would be at the bottom. When Albertson's split I don't know which company (Celebrus or SuperValu) got to keep the private labels or if they shared them Either way it became a mute point when Celebrus bought back the Albertson's stores (plus other chains) that were split off in the first transaction.

I think that Safeway's manufacturing arm was of greater value in the deal than the private labels. With all the different companies now owned I would not be surprised if they adopt a new private label theme as Kroger has done with some of their labels - ie PSSST. Of course they have kept some of the banner labels, but most are ending up with the Kroger name on them. Avondale used to be a private label brand of Kroger as well.
pseudo3d
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by pseudo3d »

If it was a reason to me it would be at the bottom. When Albertson's split I don't know which company (Celebrus or SuperValu) got to keep the private labels or if they shared them Either way it became a mute point when Celebrus bought back the Albertson's stores (plus other chains) that were split off in the first transaction.

I think that Safeway's manufacturing arm was of greater value in the deal than the private labels. With all the different companies now owned I would not be surprised if they adopt a new private label theme as Kroger has done with some of their labels - ie PSSST. Of course they have kept some of the banner labels, but most are ending up with the Kroger name on them. Avondale used to be a private label brand of Kroger as well.
When the company split, SuperValu got the "better" divisions, the store brands, and most of the debt (which would be a problem later). Cerberus got the "worse" divisions, and began to turn it around. They got rid of Dallas/Fort Worth's distribution center, the Northern California division, and most of the Florida division. For a time, most of the stores in the DFW division got AWG's store brands, though the Louisiana stores were switched out to a SuperValu warehouse. Before SuperValu sold out, Cerberus was beginning to (though no stores got this on the outside) rebrand their stores as "Albertsons Market".

Meanwhile, SuperValu had gotten rid of many existing brand names (including most items bearing the ACME, Albertsons, Shaw's, or Jewel-Osco names) with Essential Everyday. When the company reunited, SVU held much of the backoffice support and had all the store brands (like Wild Harvest, which it distributed to its own network). The distribution centers were also largely operated by SuperValu. In all, the reunited Albertsons was not the same, even if it hadn't lost 40% of its supermarkets in the last 7 years. If you had (past tense) an Albertsons store in your town, it was probably lost between 2006 and 2013.

With Safeway, Albertsons gained a pre-existing palette of store brands it can use exclusively for its own stores (O Organics, Mom to Mom, Refreshe), and while the manufacturing facilities are a nice bonus, there's none for stores outside the West Coast area (Texas, Chicago, the Northeast). (More likely, Safeway's infrastructure, like their accounting department, was a plus). It's a win/win situation because Albertsons now has a complete exclusive store brand line and Safeway shoppers can keep their store brands (a very rare situation in most cases, usually the acquired company sees their generic product line vanish). For the first time in a decade, Albertsons can present itself a unified company ready to take on Kroger and the rest...but it just is not the same anymore.

Anyway, P$$T and Check This Out are the "super low end" items, usually what they'd put on things like the brand of chocolate chips that are actually just chocolate-flavored sugar, or the small packages of single-ply toilet paper, and Safeway does have something like that, Value Red, which it introduced a few years ago. (There's a blog post with a mayonnaise jar with just the logo and the word "MAYONNAISE", generic packaging at its finest).
pseudo3d
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by pseudo3d »

For what it's worth, I did see a gallon of Good Day milk at a Lafayette Albertsons, though it was distributed by SVU and getting phased out in favor of Pantry Essentials. I think that may be the only place it's found though.
TonyG
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by TonyG »

kg4peq wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:One of the reasons why (I think) Albertsons bought Safeway was to gain access to their store brands, since SuperValu had killed most of the brands and kept others (like Wild Harvest).
You may be right. I live about two hours from the closest Safeway, and I took a stroll through the Culpeper, VA store last night. I noticed the Safeway branding is being stripped from most of the store-brand items. Safeway Select is now Select Kitchens, the Refreshe soft drinks no longer have the Safeway logo on them, the Safeway "Snack Artist" nuts and chips have lost the Safeway branding as well, all rolled under the umbrella of an apparently-new "Better Living Brands, LLC." Some of the packages have a reference to betterlivingbrandsllc.com, which is simply a redirect to Safeway.com.

I don't even know how many hours/states away the closest Albertson's is for me here in Richmond, VA., and it's not a chain I've ever paid much attention to, but I have to wonder if Albertson's will also kill off long-running, well-known brands like Lucerne, or if they'll start to show up in Albertson's stores.

But, back to your original post... I suspect you're right. They seem to be wasting no time scrubbing Safeway off the store brands and making them much more generic.
Lucerne, Refershe, Snack Artist, and the Signature line of Safeway store brands have made it to Albertsons bannered stores. Probably the closest Albertsons stores to you (in terms of the "old" Albertsons) are the ACME stores in DL/MD/NJ/PA that weren't purchased from A&P.
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote:One of the reasons why (I think) Albertsons bought Safeway was to gain access to their store brands, since SuperValu had killed most of the brands and kept others (like Wild Harvest). What were some of the store brands Albertsons used pre-2006?

The Wikipedia article mentions "Good Day, Village Market, A+, Master's Choice, and Janet Lee", of those, I only remember Good Day, which was what was used on the low-end brand store milk (much like the Springdale brand vs. the Kroger brand for milk) and also used for the plastic gallons of the cheapest ice cream. I don't know what the others were used for or if there were others.
Village Market was actually a Lucky/American Stores brand. I remember it used explicitly on fresh meat (chicken) and some deli items, maybe also meats. It was not extensively used.

Good Day was used on a ton of items in Albertsons as a budget brand. Milk, ice cream, cheap bad bread, paper products, big cans of watery canned fruit that may have had some pits inside, etc.

A+ was used on soda at Albertsons and I want to say was designed to be a premium private label comparable to, at the time, Safeway Select or President's Choice. I don't think it ever really got off the ground past soda...

Master's Choice was a pet food brand used in the early to mid 1990's but phased out in favor of something else.

Janet Lee was a common everyday grocery private label present throughout the store. But there were always some Albertsons brand items scattered in too.
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terryinokc
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by terryinokc »

Albertsons used to have their brand of dog food called "Happy Tails"...that was probably 10 or so years ago.
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Re: Old Albertsons store brands

Post by MikeRa »

2 of Acme Markets' brands are now part of Better Living Brands/Lucerne Foods Inc. they are: Lancaster Brand Meats, and Ivin's. They both pre-date the albertsons acquiring American Stores, Skagg's acquiring legacy American Stores Company [Philadelphia], and legacy American Stores Company acquiring Alpha Beta.
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