October 11, 2013
Safeway Gives Up On Chicago
Chicago has been a tough go for Safeway ever since it acquired Dominick’s Finer Foods 15 years ago. Now, Safeway has decided it can no longer continue in the market and has announced it will sell its operations there.
In a conference call yesterday with analysts, Safeway CEO Robert Edwards said the sale of Dominick’s "will eliminate a noticeable drag on our financial results and a significant drain on our resources, allowing us to focus on our remaining operations."
Safeway has indicated that several parties are interested in purchasing its Dominick’s stores. The company announced yesterday that it has reached a deal to sell four units, two in Chicago and two in the suburbs, to Jewel-Osco.
Competition has increased significantly in the Chicagoland market since Safeway first acquired Dominick’s. A whole host of competitors including Aldi, Jewel-Osco, Meijer, Roundy’s, Target and Walmart have expanded in the area while Dominick’s store count has gone from 116 to 72.
Rumors about a sale of Dominick’s have been in the air for years. Back in 2005, in a story on RetailWire about a possible deal by Roundy’s (run by former Dominick’s boss Robert Mariano) to acquire the chain, I wrote, "The Dominick’s purchase has been an unmitigated disaster and while it will require some pride swallowing to sell the business for $325 million (the purported offer price) after buying it for $1.8 billion, it has to be done. Safeway cannot fix Dominick’s."
One hiccup with selling Dominick’s in the past was the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents the chain’s workers. It has been long rumored in the past that former Safeway CEO Steve Burd has had buyers interested in the chain — presumably under more favorable terms — but none could ever work out a deal with the UFCW.
- Safeway Announces the Sale of Four Dominick’s Stores – Safeway Inc./PRNewswire-FirstCall
- Safeway Management Discusses Q3 2013 Results (Earnings Call Transcript) – Seeking Alpha
- Safeway says goodbye to Chicago, profit falls – Reuters
- Safeway Cites ‘Significant Interest’ in Dominick’s – Supermarket News
- Dominick’s a Good Deal if Roundy’s Can Get It – RetailWire
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Discussion Questions
What do you think are the lessons learned from Safeway’s experience in Chicago? What do you expect to happen in the Chicagoland grocery market as a result of the sale?
Poll
So many of us in the industry could have predicted so many years ago that Safeway and Dominick’s were not two brands that were interchangeable. What should be learned from this lesson is that local supermarket chains that have history, ethos, and loyalty will not be successful when their brand is taken over by a national chain that keeps the local brand name in a given market, but converts the store to be more like the national chain that owns it.
First, this will be great for Chicago consumers. Many of these stores will be spun off to much better operators, almost too many to name. Whole Foods, Ultra, Mariano’s, Walmart, all come to mind.
What happened to Safeway is they have learned they really don’t do supermarkets well outside the West Coast. They have been closing stores by the bushel since the early 1980s when they pulled out of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They came back into Texas but I don’t see that for being much longer. They went to Philly and Chicago and it was like Midas in reverse. Lesson learned – don’t make any more acquisitions.
Unfortunately, Dominick’s falls into the pattern of another terrific regional food retailer that Safeway has attempted to integrate into its culture but eventually discarded. In the Philadelphia area, this latest Safeway action follows the demise of Genuardi’s, acquired by Safeway in 2001 and dissolved in 2012.
The concept of a major player, like Safeway, acquiring a strong regional player makes good strategic sense. If the acquiring company makes invisible changes to the acquired company and used its leverage on the invisible cost side of the business, it would be a win-win. I refer to Genuardi’s as being “Safeway-ized.” Genuardi’s, an iconic brand with legions of loyal customers, suffered a myriad of very visible changes that turned off these customers.
Use economies of scale to make the acquiring company more efficient. Be careful what changes will be made that will negatively impact effectiveness and brand image.
Safeway came in and made lots of changes to a store with lots of history and loyal customers. A couple of years after messing with a Chicago icon (pretty much the only alternative to Jewel in most areas), competition arrives and they are not in a position to leverage anything. Surprised it took this long.
Probably a boost for all the non-Jewel alternatives.
When I first moved to Chicago, Dominick’s was our supermarket of choice. The staff were great and the stores had lots of items we didn’t find in their competitors. Once Safeway bought them, all the local flavor and item customization went away. The stores simply became another location of a large chain.
Having grown a company principally by acquisition, I am very familiar with the mindset to “make them like us because we acquired them.” We learned early in the growth process that in most cases, we purchased them because they were successful and before we made changes we had best learn from the things they were doing that built their customer base.
One of the issues I noticed is then when a new Mariano’s opens, a Dominick’s is likely to close. Not sure that Roundy’s is a buyer but believe the customers would be happy if they did.
I live in the Chicago area and was a former Dominick’s shopper so I observed the demise first hand.
Dominick’s was once the premier supermarket chain in Chicago. They stocked the major national brands and also carried local favorites. They offered a high service level at competitive prices.
When Safeway bought them, they kept the name but completely revamped the offerings. They changed the focus to their private label, stocking fewer national brands and eliminating the locals. Prices went up and services went down. Most stores became upscale “lifestyle stores” even if the shoppers were not.
The lesson learned from this is you have to give the shoppers what they want, not what you want to sell them. Also, you need to recognize store segments and adjust marketing accordingly.
Safeway brought new ideas to Dominick’s in the form of technology and personalized promotions. But they failed to leverage the Dominick’s brand or capture the customer base.
Lesson 1: Understand what you are buying (this includes union contracts).
Lesson 2: Understand Brand loyalty before you go in and change names or format. Macy’s taught us this lesson in 2005 when they changed the May department stores to Macy’s.
Lesson 3: Understand the market you are looking to enter (including competition) and have a plan ready for how you will grow. No sense buying something you don’t plan to build and protect.
Lesson 4: Build several models (better than expected, as expected and worse than expected). Value the business on the value closer to worse than expected. We all tend to be overly optimistic and pay too much.
All of that said, it’s really easy to tell people what went wrong and how they could have done it differently after it has gone wrong. What we can do is learn form this event and avoid similar mistakes in the future.
What’s next for Chicagoland? I am not a fortune teller, but I can only assume other chains like Jewel-Osco will work to secure their place in the market before their other serious competitors do.
Darn, my money was on Jewel to bow out of the market first.
The lesson is, has been, and will always be the obvious. Dominick’s wasn’t just a middle of the road Safeway. Safeway didn’t understand that Dominick’s customers never wanted just another middle of the road Safeway. Dominick’s customers told Safeway right from the start they didn’t want just another middle of the road Safeway.
Safeway continued to give Dominick’s customers just another middle of the road Safeway.
Dominick’s customers left because middle of the road is found everywhere.
It is surprising that Safeway remains deaf up to and including their announcements to the market and their associates. From the CEO’s letter to associates:
“Over the years we have worked hard to strengthen Dominick’s position in the Chicago market. We have made substantial investments in the store system, with an extensive remodel program and with the opening of a significant number of new stores in the region. We did so in the face of dramatic change in the competitive landscape. While we made some progress, it was not enough to justify further investment, despite the dedicated efforts of our retail and backstage teams to improve the business.”
More clearly stated, despite their efforts to make Dominick’s a Safeway, their customers still wanted Dominick’s.
Safeway bought Dominick’s in the go go days of mergers and acquisitions. In the years they have owned it, all that has been accomplished is closing stores.
I once looked at the company for a client considering its purchase. Safeway had not invested in Dominick’s. The supply chain equipment included 35 foot trailers when the rest of the industry was moving to 52 foot trailers. No new stores were opening and the real estate was old and tired. As people moved around Chicago the chain did not follow. Yes, the union has always been listed as a problem, but Safeway never really worked on this problem.
The future is likely sell off some stores and close down the rest. If there is any lease room, these stores will be sold off, otherwise the balance will likely be put into bankruptcy. A sad ending to what was one of the leading chains in the city.
When Steve Burd retired, both Progressive Grocer and Supermarket News ran long take outs. I was shocked that the PG takeout didn’t mention the billions of dollars in destruction of value with post-acquisition operation of the chains in TX, IL, and PA. I respected SN more for discussing it straightforwardly.
Anyway the speculation in the industry is that Roundy’s could potentially be acquired by Kroger. Kroger could do a venture with Roundy’s and acquire the locations in Chicago that make sense, and work to rebrand and restage them as Mariano’s stores.
Safeway has become a poor, very high priced operator. They cannot stand up to competitors outside their northern California base and the only reason they stand up to those competitors is because those competitors operate even poorer, more overpriced and poorly merchandised stores than Safeway. Yes it is possible. Go see a Save Mart.
Thousands of “Field’s Fans” hearts were probably lifted with this announcement, with the hope that this means the Macy’s era will end there as well (sadly for them, I don’t think this is true).
Anyway, there’s not much I can add: mergers can work, but occupations seldom go well, and from what I’ve heard, Safeway made every mistake in the book…if they missed one, it’s probably because they weren’t aware of it.
With regard to the comments about Safeway only being successful in Northern California, as a customer-observer in the DC market, I don’t think that is entirely true. They seem to do reasonably well in Portland and Seattle also.
In the DC market, Safeway is still a higher-priced option. But their stores are much better, their private label program much better, the selection not having been decimated by SKU rationalization compared to Giant (Royal Ahold) the other major traditional operator in the market.
Of course, maybe it’s the comparison set in this particular market. Giant has lost as much market share post Ahold ownership as Dominick’s has in the Chicago market.
Safeway has been reasonably aggressive in allowing their single use sites to be part of redevelopment schemes that keep the store on the site, and build housing above, and/or they’ve gone into mixed use sites where they hadn’t been previously.
I think that they’d be that much better if they would “go back to the future” and open up the facade of stores to the street, more like what Whole Foods is inching towards, and was typical of the old days. That’s still the missing element in the Lifestyle model (which I first saw in Portland in 2005).
I’ve written about that here.
And yes, they still have the price issue, and because of the relative strength of this market, other companies, Whole Foods (starting by their acquisition of a competitor in this market called Fresh Fields) and the comparatively recent entries of Harris Teeter and Wegmans, plus the increased footprint of Walmart in higher income sections of the region, it’s not getting any easier for them.
In the early 80s I worked in Chicago on Kroger’s broadcast advertising campaign. I was and remain a supermarket guy, and so immersed myself in Chicago’s rich supermarket history. The story that impressed me the most was that of Dominick’s Finer Foods, founded by Dominick DiMatteo in 1918 and continued by Dominick, Jr. Chicagoland shoppers absolutely revered the family and the chain, which enjoyed high market share and a reputation for supporting local people and causes, as iconic as the Wrigley Company and Marshall Field’s. Dominick’s was the quintessential hometown market, and nearly everyone knew someone who knew somebody who knew Dominick, Jr.
Dominick’s reputation was handed down through generations of shoppers until, with the passage of time and inevitable changes in the marketplace, it just wasn’t true anymore. Customers began to drift away as the chain cast about for ways to retain its good name, but it wasn’t to be and culminated in the sale to Safeway in ’98.
Chicago will miss the Dominick’s name, as they have been missing Dominick’s customer-centric culture since ’93 when Dominick, Jr. died. Now faded in the fabric of Chicagoland, may it be remembered fondly.
I suppose I have been a little harsh. Safeway at its heart still has a good quality fresh program and has a lot of good marketing and merchandising ideas when it comes to its fresh departments. But in-store labor has really hurt execution on those departments, and low volume stores where product does not turn over has caused freshness issues in a number of places.
But on the negativity, it is something about shopping Safeway. It is such a hassle. Like tonight’s experience trying to buy a 2/$1.00 (said the sign in the bakery…) concha “hispanic pastry” from one of the NorCal Stores but no PLU code on the bag, in their code book, or programmed into self checkout for “hispanic pastry.” This turned into a 7 minute episode of the clerk trying other bakery item codes (all were the wrong price), the clerk at one point telling me the only code for a “pastry” was coming up 1.19 each so I had to pay 1.19, followed by the manager putting the plu code in for “bolillo bulk .25” and getting the concha to price out that way.
The real issue is Safeway has lost a ton of marketshare in virtually every one of its markets in the past decade. I’m not sure if there is one market they’ve gained share in.
Oregon and Washington have been two markets where they’ve had some of the largest marketshare declines, as they at one time had a very strong leadership position in both markets. Their success in Oregon and Washington can be attributed more to having some excellent locations as opposed to their really being all that great of a grocer. Conversely during that period Kroger Fred Meyer has gained a good chunk of that share Safeway has lost (Kroger QFC has steadily been losing share too but that is a much smaller piece of the pie than either Safeway or Fred Meyer).
Safeway purchased a well-liked local store, with specialness and local “centricity” in the early ’90s and was the big strong store that seemingly knew better and was simply taking an opportunity to expand. They did not seem to want to understand Dominick’s or understand the way Dominick’s did business because they were Safeway and they also knew how to do business and they were big.
That is how I see it, and in their “we know what we are doing” attitude proceeded to dismantle and destroy a beloved local institution. They could have studied this institution and learned from it in order to better some of their other operations, i.e. other localities. Obviously with their utter misunderstanding of Genuardi’s and the destruction of that popular chain, they did NOT learn their lesson. At one time, Dominick’s was REALLY terrific and special. Reminds me also of the dismantling and middle-market remaking of the Marshall Field’s stores by Macy’s.
Dominick’s is an excellent chain but most of their Safeway products are inferior to brand names. This is one reason that thrifty shoppers may not wish to shop there.
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So many of us in the industry could have predicted so many years ago that Safeway and Dominick’s were not two brands that were interchangeable. What should be learned from this lesson is that local supermarket chains that have history, ethos, and loyalty will not be successful when their brand is taken over by a national chain that keeps the local brand name in a given market, but converts the store to be more like the national chain that owns it.
First, this will be great for Chicago consumers. Many of these stores will be spun off to much better operators, almost too many to name. Whole Foods, Ultra, Mariano’s, Walmart, all come to mind.
What happened to Safeway is they have learned they really don’t do supermarkets well outside the West Coast. They have been closing stores by the bushel since the early 1980s when they pulled out of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They came back into Texas but I don’t see that for being much longer. They went to Philly and Chicago and it was like Midas in reverse. Lesson learned – don’t make any more acquisitions.
Unfortunately, Dominick’s falls into the pattern of another terrific regional food retailer that Safeway has attempted to integrate into its culture but eventually discarded. In the Philadelphia area, this latest Safeway action follows the demise of Genuardi’s, acquired by Safeway in 2001 and dissolved in 2012.
The concept of a major player, like Safeway, acquiring a strong regional player makes good strategic sense. If the acquiring company makes invisible changes to the acquired company and used its leverage on the invisible cost side of the business, it would be a win-win. I refer to Genuardi’s as being “Safeway-ized.” Genuardi’s, an iconic brand with legions of loyal customers, suffered a myriad of very visible changes that turned off these customers.
Use economies of scale to make the acquiring company more efficient. Be careful what changes will be made that will negatively impact effectiveness and brand image.
Safeway came in and made lots of changes to a store with lots of history and loyal customers. A couple of years after messing with a Chicago icon (pretty much the only alternative to Jewel in most areas), competition arrives and they are not in a position to leverage anything. Surprised it took this long.
Probably a boost for all the non-Jewel alternatives.
When I first moved to Chicago, Dominick’s was our supermarket of choice. The staff were great and the stores had lots of items we didn’t find in their competitors. Once Safeway bought them, all the local flavor and item customization went away. The stores simply became another location of a large chain.
Having grown a company principally by acquisition, I am very familiar with the mindset to “make them like us because we acquired them.” We learned early in the growth process that in most cases, we purchased them because they were successful and before we made changes we had best learn from the things they were doing that built their customer base.
One of the issues I noticed is then when a new Mariano’s opens, a Dominick’s is likely to close. Not sure that Roundy’s is a buyer but believe the customers would be happy if they did.
I live in the Chicago area and was a former Dominick’s shopper so I observed the demise first hand.
Dominick’s was once the premier supermarket chain in Chicago. They stocked the major national brands and also carried local favorites. They offered a high service level at competitive prices.
When Safeway bought them, they kept the name but completely revamped the offerings. They changed the focus to their private label, stocking fewer national brands and eliminating the locals. Prices went up and services went down. Most stores became upscale “lifestyle stores” even if the shoppers were not.
The lesson learned from this is you have to give the shoppers what they want, not what you want to sell them. Also, you need to recognize store segments and adjust marketing accordingly.
Safeway brought new ideas to Dominick’s in the form of technology and personalized promotions. But they failed to leverage the Dominick’s brand or capture the customer base.
Lesson 1: Understand what you are buying (this includes union contracts).
Lesson 2: Understand Brand loyalty before you go in and change names or format. Macy’s taught us this lesson in 2005 when they changed the May department stores to Macy’s.
Lesson 3: Understand the market you are looking to enter (including competition) and have a plan ready for how you will grow. No sense buying something you don’t plan to build and protect.
Lesson 4: Build several models (better than expected, as expected and worse than expected). Value the business on the value closer to worse than expected. We all tend to be overly optimistic and pay too much.
All of that said, it’s really easy to tell people what went wrong and how they could have done it differently after it has gone wrong. What we can do is learn form this event and avoid similar mistakes in the future.
What’s next for Chicagoland? I am not a fortune teller, but I can only assume other chains like Jewel-Osco will work to secure their place in the market before their other serious competitors do.
Darn, my money was on Jewel to bow out of the market first.
The lesson is, has been, and will always be the obvious. Dominick’s wasn’t just a middle of the road Safeway. Safeway didn’t understand that Dominick’s customers never wanted just another middle of the road Safeway. Dominick’s customers told Safeway right from the start they didn’t want just another middle of the road Safeway.
Safeway continued to give Dominick’s customers just another middle of the road Safeway.
Dominick’s customers left because middle of the road is found everywhere.
It is surprising that Safeway remains deaf up to and including their announcements to the market and their associates. From the CEO’s letter to associates:
“Over the years we have worked hard to strengthen Dominick’s position in the Chicago market. We have made substantial investments in the store system, with an extensive remodel program and with the opening of a significant number of new stores in the region. We did so in the face of dramatic change in the competitive landscape. While we made some progress, it was not enough to justify further investment, despite the dedicated efforts of our retail and backstage teams to improve the business.”
More clearly stated, despite their efforts to make Dominick’s a Safeway, their customers still wanted Dominick’s.
Safeway bought Dominick’s in the go go days of mergers and acquisitions. In the years they have owned it, all that has been accomplished is closing stores.
I once looked at the company for a client considering its purchase. Safeway had not invested in Dominick’s. The supply chain equipment included 35 foot trailers when the rest of the industry was moving to 52 foot trailers. No new stores were opening and the real estate was old and tired. As people moved around Chicago the chain did not follow. Yes, the union has always been listed as a problem, but Safeway never really worked on this problem.
The future is likely sell off some stores and close down the rest. If there is any lease room, these stores will be sold off, otherwise the balance will likely be put into bankruptcy. A sad ending to what was one of the leading chains in the city.
When Steve Burd retired, both Progressive Grocer and Supermarket News ran long take outs. I was shocked that the PG takeout didn’t mention the billions of dollars in destruction of value with post-acquisition operation of the chains in TX, IL, and PA. I respected SN more for discussing it straightforwardly.
Anyway the speculation in the industry is that Roundy’s could potentially be acquired by Kroger. Kroger could do a venture with Roundy’s and acquire the locations in Chicago that make sense, and work to rebrand and restage them as Mariano’s stores.
Safeway has become a poor, very high priced operator. They cannot stand up to competitors outside their northern California base and the only reason they stand up to those competitors is because those competitors operate even poorer, more overpriced and poorly merchandised stores than Safeway. Yes it is possible. Go see a Save Mart.
Thousands of “Field’s Fans” hearts were probably lifted with this announcement, with the hope that this means the Macy’s era will end there as well (sadly for them, I don’t think this is true).
Anyway, there’s not much I can add: mergers can work, but occupations seldom go well, and from what I’ve heard, Safeway made every mistake in the book…if they missed one, it’s probably because they weren’t aware of it.
With regard to the comments about Safeway only being successful in Northern California, as a customer-observer in the DC market, I don’t think that is entirely true. They seem to do reasonably well in Portland and Seattle also.
In the DC market, Safeway is still a higher-priced option. But their stores are much better, their private label program much better, the selection not having been decimated by SKU rationalization compared to Giant (Royal Ahold) the other major traditional operator in the market.
Of course, maybe it’s the comparison set in this particular market. Giant has lost as much market share post Ahold ownership as Dominick’s has in the Chicago market.
Safeway has been reasonably aggressive in allowing their single use sites to be part of redevelopment schemes that keep the store on the site, and build housing above, and/or they’ve gone into mixed use sites where they hadn’t been previously.
I think that they’d be that much better if they would “go back to the future” and open up the facade of stores to the street, more like what Whole Foods is inching towards, and was typical of the old days. That’s still the missing element in the Lifestyle model (which I first saw in Portland in 2005).
I’ve written about that here.
And yes, they still have the price issue, and because of the relative strength of this market, other companies, Whole Foods (starting by their acquisition of a competitor in this market called Fresh Fields) and the comparatively recent entries of Harris Teeter and Wegmans, plus the increased footprint of Walmart in higher income sections of the region, it’s not getting any easier for them.
In the early 80s I worked in Chicago on Kroger’s broadcast advertising campaign. I was and remain a supermarket guy, and so immersed myself in Chicago’s rich supermarket history. The story that impressed me the most was that of Dominick’s Finer Foods, founded by Dominick DiMatteo in 1918 and continued by Dominick, Jr. Chicagoland shoppers absolutely revered the family and the chain, which enjoyed high market share and a reputation for supporting local people and causes, as iconic as the Wrigley Company and Marshall Field’s. Dominick’s was the quintessential hometown market, and nearly everyone knew someone who knew somebody who knew Dominick, Jr.
Dominick’s reputation was handed down through generations of shoppers until, with the passage of time and inevitable changes in the marketplace, it just wasn’t true anymore. Customers began to drift away as the chain cast about for ways to retain its good name, but it wasn’t to be and culminated in the sale to Safeway in ’98.
Chicago will miss the Dominick’s name, as they have been missing Dominick’s customer-centric culture since ’93 when Dominick, Jr. died. Now faded in the fabric of Chicagoland, may it be remembered fondly.
I suppose I have been a little harsh. Safeway at its heart still has a good quality fresh program and has a lot of good marketing and merchandising ideas when it comes to its fresh departments. But in-store labor has really hurt execution on those departments, and low volume stores where product does not turn over has caused freshness issues in a number of places.
But on the negativity, it is something about shopping Safeway. It is such a hassle. Like tonight’s experience trying to buy a 2/$1.00 (said the sign in the bakery…) concha “hispanic pastry” from one of the NorCal Stores but no PLU code on the bag, in their code book, or programmed into self checkout for “hispanic pastry.” This turned into a 7 minute episode of the clerk trying other bakery item codes (all were the wrong price), the clerk at one point telling me the only code for a “pastry” was coming up 1.19 each so I had to pay 1.19, followed by the manager putting the plu code in for “bolillo bulk .25” and getting the concha to price out that way.
The real issue is Safeway has lost a ton of marketshare in virtually every one of its markets in the past decade. I’m not sure if there is one market they’ve gained share in.
Oregon and Washington have been two markets where they’ve had some of the largest marketshare declines, as they at one time had a very strong leadership position in both markets. Their success in Oregon and Washington can be attributed more to having some excellent locations as opposed to their really being all that great of a grocer. Conversely during that period Kroger Fred Meyer has gained a good chunk of that share Safeway has lost (Kroger QFC has steadily been losing share too but that is a much smaller piece of the pie than either Safeway or Fred Meyer).
Safeway purchased a well-liked local store, with specialness and local “centricity” in the early ’90s and was the big strong store that seemingly knew better and was simply taking an opportunity to expand. They did not seem to want to understand Dominick’s or understand the way Dominick’s did business because they were Safeway and they also knew how to do business and they were big.
That is how I see it, and in their “we know what we are doing” attitude proceeded to dismantle and destroy a beloved local institution. They could have studied this institution and learned from it in order to better some of their other operations, i.e. other localities. Obviously with their utter misunderstanding of Genuardi’s and the destruction of that popular chain, they did NOT learn their lesson. At one time, Dominick’s was REALLY terrific and special. Reminds me also of the dismantling and middle-market remaking of the Marshall Field’s stores by Macy’s.
Dominick’s is an excellent chain but most of their Safeway products are inferior to brand names. This is one reason that thrifty shoppers may not wish to shop there.