Major Retail Chains That "Skipped" Your Area, Past or Present?

[thenetwork]

I think Kroger's owns Harris Teeter in the same way they own Frys, Ralph's, and Dillion's. 

You think Kroger's what owns them?

I've been assured that the chain is called "Kroger's" because there are more than one of them.

Kroger just announced today they are buying the Safeway/Albertson family of grocery stores, bringing their total number of stores to near 5,000 across the country.  That number will likely drop a bit as some Safeways are practically neighbors with Kroger stores, and will probably consolidate locations.

I wonder if this would give Walmart an opportunity to take some of the throwaway locations and turn them into Neighborhood Markets?

[bwana39]

Richmond has no Albertsons-owned grocery stores. Safeway left the area around 1990, and has never returned despite a presence around the DC area ever since.

Safeway left everywhere east of the Rockies in the late 80's early 90's,then built back out some (Randalls / Tom Thumb among others) before the Albertson's merger.

[plain]

Until this year, Royal Farms skipped the Richmond area, with locations in Nova and Hampton Roads, but one opened up here a few months ago and another is scheduled to be built next year.

Where's the second location going to be?

River's Bend in Chester.

Richmond BizSense posted an article this morning detailing Royal Farms' latest plans for the metro.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/10/17/new-to-market-royal-farms-buys-two-more-sites-in-chesterfield/

[Takumi]

Until this year, Royal Farms skipped the Richmond area, with locations in Nova and Hampton Roads, but one opened up here a few months ago and another is scheduled to be built next year.

Where's the second location going to be?

River’s Bend in Chester.

Richmond BizSense posted an article this morning detailing Royal Farms' latest plans for the metro.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2022/10/17/new-to-market-royal-farms-buys-two-more-sites-in-chesterfield/

Wow, they’re going all in. The Indian Hill spot will do very, very well, because it’s the first sight off I-95 southbound at the Walthall exit.

(Also, you’re an old-time Richmonder if you remember both when it was spelled Indian Hills, and when it connected to 1/301.

[bing101]

Aldi Stores for now does not exist in Northern California.  For now Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose areas are some of the largest cities in the USA without an Aldi Store,  Once I looked closely Washington State, Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho are some of the other regions without an Aldi chain for now. They are a major chain in other parts of the USA.






https://stores.aldi.us/ca


https://stores.aldi.us/


https://stores.aldi.us/tx

[ibthebigd]

Casey's bought several smaller format Pilot stations giving them a presence in Knoxville skipping right over Central/Eastern Kentucky.

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[Sctvhound]

G.D. Ritzy's is closing permanently. https://www.wsaz.com/2023/05/30/gd-ritzys-close-permanently/

SM-G998U

[CapeCodder]

Partially growing up in New England and St. Louis exposed me to the many quirks of "Retail Geography." The nearest Kroger stores to us, when I lived in the St. Louis area were in Lincoln and Warren Counties. They stopped at the St. Charles County line. Schnucks made sure of that.

Cape Cod used to have Red Lobster and Chili's. The Red Lobster became Olive Garden. The Chili's is now a "park" at the Airport Rotary.

[hotdogPi]

Partially growing up in New England and St. Louis exposed me to the many quirks of "Retail Geography." The nearest Kroger stores to us, when I lived in the St. Louis area were in Lincoln and Warren Counties. They stopped at the St. Charles County line. Schnucks made sure of that.

Cape Cod used to have Red Lobster and Chili's. The Red Lobster became Olive Garden. The Chili's is now a "park" at the Airport Rotary.

I live in New England and haven't noticed this. While Stop & Shop doesn't go into New Hampshire anymore, it's a fairly recent change. Market Basket has no clearly defined boundary. Similarly, Big Y has a location in Peabody, MA, which is outside its base. While the tip of Cape Cod doesn't have any Dunkins, it's definitely not applicable to all of Cape Cod. Honeydew Donuts and Five Guys expanded from Stoneham MA farther north about five years ago. Bertucci's, Friendly's, and UNO, all Massachusetts-based restaurants, don't care about geography even when closures happen.

There's one thing that I do notice, but it's much more local: Lawrence MA, which is largely Hispanic and poorer than surrounding areas, has a much higher ratio of small local businesses, many of which are multiservices, salon/haircut/spa/etc., corner grocery stores, and auto repair. Certain parts (very small, like 1/4 mile × 1/4 mile) of Lowell and Haverhill (I believe the demographically similar to Lawrence parts) feel like Lawrence in this regard.

[roadman65]

Kroger skipped most of Florida, yet are strong in Georgia.  I'm guessing they're afraid to compete with Publix is my guess.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Partially growing up in New England and St. Louis exposed me to the many quirks of "Retail Geography." The nearest Kroger stores to us, when I lived in the St. Louis area were in Lincoln and Warren Counties. They stopped at the St. Charles County line. Schnucks made sure of that.

Cape Cod used to have Red Lobster and Chili's. The Red Lobster became Olive Garden. The Chili's is now a "park" at the Airport Rotary.

I live in New England and haven't noticed this. While Stop & Shop doesn't go into New Hampshire anymore, it's a fairly recent change. Market Basket has no clearly defined boundary. Similarly, Big Y has a location in Peabody, MA, which is outside its base. While the tip of Cape Cod doesn't have any Dunkins, it's definitely not applicable to all of Cape Cod. Honeydew Donuts and Five Guys expanded from Stoneham MA farther north about five years ago. Bertucci's, Friendly's, and UNO, all Massachusetts-based restaurants, don't care about geography even when closures happen.

There's one thing that I do notice, but it's much more local: Lawrence MA, which is largely Hispanic and poorer than surrounding areas, has a much higher ratio of small local businesses, many of which are multiservices, salon/haircut/spa/etc., corner grocery stores, and auto repair. Certain parts (very small, like 1/4 mile × 1/4 mile) of Lowell and Haverhill (I believe the demographically similar to Lawrence parts) feel like Lawrence in this regard.

Big Y does have some stores in eastern MA, mostly south and east of 128/95. Not sure if they're new stores, or just replacing closed units of other stores. As for Market Basket, I'm continually amazed that they can keep opening new stores without really respecting geographic boundaries (although their presence in NH-ME balances out their MA stores). After their debilitating strike and management-induced turmoil in 2014, they actually attracted new shoppers (myself included after they opened a store near me that same year). As for Stop & Shop, I am wondering if they have too many stores with too many items such that they will eventually need to cut back, given the high cost, low margin industry they are in. 

Agree about Lawrence. As for Lowell, it is more Asian (specifically Cambodian). I'm guessing Haverhill also has a growing Hispanic population.

[Sctvhound]

Same in South Carolina. Kroger owns Harris Teeter now, but they pulled out of the Charleston market in the late 1980s, before Publix came into the market.

You don't have to go very far to see them. Hilton Head and Bluffton have Kroger, along with Murrells Inlet (Horry County).

Harris Teeter completely pulled out of Columbia and Myrtle Beach about 20 years ago. They have one oddball location in Florence, but pack the Charleston and Wilmington markets with locations.

HT has 3 locations within 2 miles of UNCW in Wilmington.

They only go in areas with very high income (like over $75K average). Mount Pleasant has 6 locations (the highest income part of the Charleston area), plus one on Isle of Palms, while North Charleston, Hanahan and Goose Creek don't have one.

Same with Publix. The only Publix in North Charleston, the 3rd most populous city in SC is on the more affluent Dorchester County side.

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[abefroman329]

I'm guessing they're afraid to compete with Publix is my guess.

If they did, it wouldn't be a difficult competition for Publix.

[Big John]

I'm guessing they're afraid to compete with Publix is my guess.

If they did, it wouldn't be a difficult competition for Publix.

They compete against other in Georgia.

[Ted$8roadFan]

I'm guessing they're afraid to compete with Publix is my guess.

If they did, it wouldn't be a difficult competition for Publix.

They compete against other in Georgia.

Also in Tennessee and (soon) the Louisville, KY area.

[GCrites]

G.D. Ritzy's is closing permanently. https://www.wsaz.com/2023/05/30/gd-ritzys-close-permanently/

SM-G998U

There will be one newer Ritzy's left open in Columbus Ohio. It opened about 5 years ago.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ritzy's/@40.0565186,-83.022293,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x88388d77be6cc227:0x892ad0bb5942c2c7!8m2!3d40.0565186!4d-83.0201043!16s%2Fg%2F11gmb1f2hr?entry=ttu

[ibthebigd]

Evansville IN and Owensboro KY still have a few locations

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[formulanone]

Same with Publix. The only Publix in North Charleston, the 3rd most populous city in SC is on the more affluent Dorchester County side.

That seems to be Publix Supermarkets' strategy outside of the southern 2/3 of Florida; set up in the more affluent and/or larger population areas, usually in newly-constructed areas. Overall, they charge a bit more than their competitors but sometimes you can really clean up on the weekly specials.

For the bulk of Florida, there's locations in some small towns but I think Okeechobee might be still the smallest city or micropolitan area with a Publix. Usually 25K-30K population and up seems to be the bar, and higher outside the state.

[SSOWorld]

To this day there is no Costco in Dubuque #NotCaturday.

[Sctvhound]

Publix and Harris Teeter basically have the same strategy. Fight over the high-income areas while the middle and lower-income areas get Food Lion or whatever other chains are in the area.

Food Lion completely pulled out of the Mount Pleasant area as they weren't making much money. Walmart I think is the dominant grocer here in the suburban areas of Berkeley and Dorchester Counties.

[golden eagle]

Jackson, MS never had a Pep Boys, Staples or a Red Robin. In fact, neither one have been anywhere in the state.

[skluth]

Despite the ubiquity of In-N-Out in California, there still isn't one in the West Coachella Valley. The nearest one when I moved here five years ago was in La Quinta which is a half hour away. There is now one near I-10 in Palm Desert and another in Rancho Mirage but those are still ten miles away from me. No idea why. We have every other fast food joint that tourists expect, from Del Taco to Five Guys. Isn't there some sort of California requirement of one In-N-Out for every 100K people? There is also no In-N-Out anywhere near Joshua Tree which helps explain why the one along I-10 in Cabazon may be the busiest In-N-Out I've seen.

[Bruce]

Sam's Club pulled out of the Seattle area a few years ago. One of their former stores is slated to become Seattle proper's second Costco (took them long enough to do it).

[Big John]

Staples has a distribution center in the Green Bay area but no stores.

[gonealookin]

Carl's Jr. used to have a restaurant in Carson City but it disappeared about 10 years ago when that shopping center was reconfigured.  They have some places in Reno and Sparks, but according to the list on their web site the next closest one in Nevada is out in Winnemucca.  There's none in the California part of the Tahoe Basin either.

The Colonel lost his lease to serve his delicious blend of herbs and spices in South Lake Tahoe a few years ago, so there's no longer any KFC in the Tahoe Basin.  Those do exist in Carson City and Gardnerville.  As to Popeye's, they have just two locations in Reno/Sparks and no others in Nevada outside of the Vegas area.