MNB reader Rich Heiland had a thought about out continuing conversation about CVS’s shortcomings:
I consider drug stores a commodity. None of them do anything to distinguish themselves from one another in any significant way. I live in a downtown area. There is a Rite-Aid a block or so away. I go there. If there was a CVS a half-block away, I’d go there. As a senior citizen I get my prescriptions on-line through my AARP Medicare supplement so I only use the drug store for short-term prescriptions. Other stuff, I can get at a grocery store, Walmart, Target or on-line. I used to tell clients that if they come to be seen as a commodity, then in the eyes of consumers “any place will do.” There is no loyalty. And, no real future.
Got the following email about the Kroger-Albertsons deal, one MNB reader wrote:
Regarding the 413 (and possibly many more) C&S acquisition locations, obviously Kroger, Albertsons, C&S and the gaggle of government agencies have seen “The List”, but what about the other interested stakeholders that arguably would be even more impacted by this deal? Namely, the customers and employees of these stores.
I acknowledge that the various unions involved may have access to the list, and perhaps that is why some are selectively supporting the deal. However, if I am a tenured, career employee in any of these impacted banners, especially in the PNW and SoCal, I might be dusting off my resume, just in case. If there is no rock-solid guarantee that these C&S stores, wherever they may be, are mandated to stay open, then there may be some strong employee opposition and huge morale issues waiting in the wings. I wouldn’t be surprised to see visible organized protests at locations on the list.
Perhaps an even bigger blockade may be presented by the customers in the local communities surrounding those stores set to change hands. When my wife finds out one day, that her long-time local grocery store is now going to go through a change of hands, she will be hypersensitive to any changes and will jump ship immediately. It may have been a while back, but I recall that the local community took to the streets in opposition to some of the individual store banner changes related to the Fred Meyer purchase of Ralphs in the late 90’s.
The Haggen fiasco is still a recent memory, and the rearview mirror is always clearer than a cloudy windshield.
From another reader:
It remains to be seen whether or not Kroger and Albertsons/Safeway will be foisted on their own petard (how often does somebody get to use that phrase in polite company).
Meaning these two companies each with over 2,000 stores need to merge to create a company with over 5,000 stores combined to be able to compete. But, spinning off stores piecemeal to an entity that will have a mere 413 stores spread out over the entire country will somehow preserve
Competition? By their expressed logic on which the merger is premised such an entity will not be able to survive, let alone compete.
C&S has no long established track record of continued, or even any for that matter, success in retail. Southeastern Grocers and/or Southern Family Markets and their involvement in such ring a bell?
They currently operate 13 Grand Union stores in upstate NY that seem to keep getting passed around to/from Tops, etc. They like most wholesalers operate stores as the operator of last resort until they can do something else with them. This is like Haggen on the west coast went from about two dozen stores to twelve dozen, and out of business in a year or two. With the stores either closing or going back to the big guys for the most part. C&S is a wholesaling powerhouse to be sure, but like most wholesalers does not do retail well. Even Wakefern which is a powerhouse itself struggles with retail (recently closing 5 stores in upstate NY after years of trying to make them work). C&S will spin the stores off, offer them to retailers to get their business or find better/other uses and sell and/or sublet them. (first sale will be the DC area stores to Giant/Ahold, more than likely). The big will get bigger, the small will get crushed and the consumer and the workers will be out of luck.
This madness of big everything must stop. This merger must not be allowed and Amazon, Wal-Mart and others need to be broken up as monopolies and manufacturers must be held to account under Robinson-Patman and other existing fair competitive practices laws. None of these mergers benefit anyone other than the bankers, advisors, lawyers, wall street elite, and c-suite executives. Bring back Glass-Steagall for the banks while they are at it.
I am all for capitalism and free enterprise, but unfettered anything, be it an economy, government, labor, courts, unions or anything else for that matter never ends well and only ends up as crony-ism. Fair competition means just that, a level playing field. Some will play better, just like the Chiefs, but the Forty-Niners are not a bunch of losers, they got paid pretty well too. We cannot be fooled into thinking everything is a zero sum game.
On another subject, one MNB reader wrote:
I work in the produce industry and regularly visit Walmart’s and Walmart Neighborhood Markets. I am usually appalled by all of the out-of-stocks in the produce department. Yet, there are order fulfillers putting together on-line orders everywhere in the store, including the produce department, but no one seemingly responsible for refilling out-of-stocks on the shelf. I know WM runs extremely tight inventory control and many stores get daily deliveries of produce, but I am thankful I don’t have to shop there. I think it is disrespectful to their customers to have such high out-of-stocks. I have heard WM employees tell customers that an out-of-stock item will be in tomorrow. I am hoping to be there when a customer says, “but I am here today and I won’t be coming back tomorrow!”
I don’t understand why they build these behemoth stores, but don’t want to keep them fully stocked.
Regarding Marc Lore’s new Wonder ghost kitchens, now being tested in select Walmarts, one MNB reader wrote:
They tried Mr. Lore’s Food Hall (new) Concept in Orlando FL, still in business…yet still ‘struggling.
And from another reader:
I don’t see the overlap between the “average” Walmart customer and the “average” ghost kitchen fare – ? –
(But my professional focus is not retail – I just occasionally shop my neighborhood Walmart …)
And finally, last week we took note of a New York Times report that a California woman is suing the Simpson Imports tomato company, saying that its packaging misleads consumers into believing that they are San Marzano tomatoes, when in fact the tomatoes are San Merican tomatoes.
As a user of those tomatoes, I actually was able to verify the complaint. And MNB reader Carl Jorgensen wrote:
So glad someone has finally called these folks out. However, don’t despair, an even better canned tomato experience awaits you: Bianco & DiNapoli canned tomatoes. They are the brainchild of Chris Bianco, the famed pizza chef who was featured on Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” series. His fanatical search for the perfect tomatoes for his pizza led him to a grower in California that produced tomatoes that met his specifications. They are organic, sweet, and can be applied to the pizza straight from the can before baking, just the way artisan pizza makers do it. Chris decided to go into business with the grower and sell his own canned tomatoes. Go to top pizza makers around the country, and you will see cans with the Bianco & DiNapoli label. L’Industrie in Brooklyn is a great example. Available at your Darien Whole Foods.
Good to know. I will definitely put them on my shopping list.
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