stevez wrote:

riddlemay wrote:And conversely, if a Mariano's, a Centrella store, a Jewel aren't rushing in to take advantage of a newly-vacant location, doesn't it mean that this location is not capable of delivering a realistic, sustainable profit?

Not necessarily. It could mean that remodeling/developing a new store is not in the budget for this year, or that the long range plan is to take over the store once Safeway leaves the market, thus avoiding the need to pay Safeway anything or it could mean any one of several other things.

This makes sense. I guess that leaves me with the probability that in the medium to long term (but not necessarily the short term), there will be minimal net loss of jobs and minimal net loss of neighborhood-coverage.

Or that the location has too many competitors already, some or all of whom are already owned by the only players looking to expand in this market.

riddlemay wrote:

Siun wrote:Your logic is .... logical but only to a degree. Hedge Funds often require an unrealistic level of profitability so a nicely profitable and sustainable business may simply not return the hyper levels of profit vulture capitalists insist on.

I do get that, Siun. But I'm saying, OK, let's say that Jana Partners demanded an unrealistic level of profitability and forced Safeway's hand into divesting itself of Dominick's. If a given location was capable of delivering a realistic, sustainable amount of profit to a supermarket, why wouldn't a Mariano's, a Centrella store, a Jewel, rush in there to take advantage of the vacuum? (As is happening with many of the locations.) And conversely, if a Mariano's, a Centrella store, a Jewel aren't rushing in to take advantage of a newly-vacant location, doesn't it mean that this location is not capable of delivering a realistic, sustainable profit?

To put it another way, if the question is "can this location support a sustainable supermarket business," isn't the litmus test "does any other supermarket want it"?

We ARE talking about Dominick's here. They were far from competitive before this decision was made. I've been to several over the past few months and was consistently underwhelmed by their produce selection (i.e. lack thereof) and general lack of customers. I have difficulty finding a good parking space near the Jewel in my neighborhood but it's never been a problem at Dominicks.

The grocery world has changed around them. It's not a hedge fund's fault or the customers' fault. They just didn't offer what their competitors do.

spinynorman99 wrote:

riddlemay wrote:To put it another way, if the question is "can this location support a sustainable supermarket business," isn't the litmus test "does any other supermarket want it"?

We ARE talking about Dominick's here. They were far from competitive before this decision was made. I've been to several over the past few months and was consistently underwhelmed by their produce selection (i.e. lack thereof) and general lack of customers. I have difficulty finding a good parking space near the Jewel in my neighborhood but it's never been a problem at Dominicks.

The grocery world has changed around them. It's not a hedge fund's fault or the customers' fault. They just didn't offer what their competitors do.

A perfect example is in Calumet City. Dominicks closed their location there about 4 or 5 years ago. A year or so later Pete's Fresh Market took over and they've been thriving ever since.

Dominick's Worker Suspended on Last Day Over YouTube Video

On the same day Dominick's was set to close dozens of stores in the Chicago area, one suburban employee says he was suspended for posting a YouTube parody on the closings.
The Video titled "Thanks Safeway," was posted to YouTube Friday, just one day before the grocery chain's 72 stores close for good and leave an estimated 6,000 workers without a job. It parodied the closures and showed a sci-fi version of "how it really ends at Dominick's."

The sarcastic "thank you" note to Dominick's parent company Safeway Inc. showed stores exploding, dragons setting fires, helicopters crashing into the building and other sci-fi creatures destroying the store.

“We thought we were safe,” text in the video reads. “Unfortunately, we were wrong, like, Miley Cyrus wrong.”

The video's creator, Steve Yamamoto, said when he showed up to work his last day Saturday at a Glen Ellyn store, he was informed by an apologetic manager that he was suspended.

Hi,

I dropped in the Bannockburn Dominicks to reaffirm WillG's earlier statement its closing has been delayed.

At lunch time there were very few customers, largely because it is assumed it is closed. I visited the pet food area to double check if my cat's favorite food was stocked. I passed a full aisle with Charmin toilet paper filling every shelf, I felt like I was on the set of a commercial.

There were seemingly now unemployed Dominicks workers strolling around and chatting with those on the clock. No particular rush with hardly any customers and everyone was going through the motions.

I talked to the manager who advised this location will close January 25th with sales beginning at mid month.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I dropped in the Bannockburn Dominicks to reaffirm WillG's earlier statement its closing has been delayed.

At lunch time there were very few customers, largely because it is assumed it is closed. I visited the pet food area to double check if my cat's favorite food was stocked. I passed a full aisle with Charmin toilet paper filling every shelf, I felt like I was on the set of a commercial.

There were seemingly now unemployed Dominicks workers strolling around and chatting with those on the clock. No particular rush with hardly any customers and everyone was going through the motions.

I talked to the manager who advised this location will close January 25th with sales beginning at mid month.

Regards,

I hear from a pretty reliable source that Sunset Foods is in talks to take over that location.

Hi,

That may be, though it is pretty close to Sunset Lake Forest, which is just a few miles north on Waukegan Road.

Can't wait to see what unfolds next.

Regards,

Hi- I've just found out that if you turn in your Dominick's fresh value card at Whole Foods through 2/15, you can get $15 off any $50 purchase at Whole Foods. This is good at all Chicagoland Whole Foods locations. I am not sure if they are restrictions on what can count towards the $50. At most stores you cannot include milk, liquor or gift cards towards the $50. BTW- If anybody is going to Jewel tonight, you can get 10% off your order there if you hand over your Dominick's there through tonight 12/31. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I've just found out that if you turn in your Dominick's fresh value card at Whole Foods through 2/15, you can get $15 off any $50 purchase at Whole Foods. This is good at all Chicagoland Whole Foods locations. I am not sure if they are restrictions on what can count towards the $50. At most stores you cannot include milk, liquor or gift cards towards the $50. BTW- If anybody is going to Jewel tonight, you can get 10% off your order there if you hand over your Dominick's there through tonight 12/31. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi,

I heard about this Whole Foods discount on the radio today. They mentioned a direct mail coupon you needed to have to make this happen. Or at least that was what I heard while driving, which means I may have missed some relevant detail.

Regards,

Here is the link from WGN.

http://wgntv.com/2013/12/31/whole-foods ... -shoppers/

Apparently you can either present them with the store coupon which they mailed out, but I never received, or you can hand them over your Dominick's card. If you have a fresh values key chain, I assume you can also use that at Whole Foods, and so you could potentially get the savings twice. I rarely spend $50 at Whole Foods. When I was at one of the Whole Foods in New Orleans though a few days before Christmas, I noticed that they had organic turkeys that were already cooked for $50, and none of them were even 10 pounds, and so I could have bought a turkey there with the coupon. BTW- You can give Dominick's your phone number if you want to continue shopping there, and don't have a card anymore.

Cathy2 wrote:

NFriday wrote:Hi- I've just found out that if you turn in your Dominick's fresh value card at Whole Foods through 2/15, you can get $15 off any $50 purchase at Whole Foods. This is good at all Chicagoland Whole Foods locations. I am not sure if they are restrictions on what can count towards the $50. At most stores you cannot include milk, liquor or gift cards towards the $50. BTW- If anybody is going to Jewel tonight, you can get 10% off your order there if you hand over your Dominick's there through tonight 12/31. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi,

I heard about this Whole Foods discount on the radio today. They mentioned a direct mail coupon you needed to have to make this happen. Or at least that was what I heard while driving, which means I may have missed some relevant detail.

Regards,

I got the Whole Foods flyer in the mail (they are marketing the new store here in Park Ridge quite heavily), so I just looked at the offer -- you can either bring in your Dominick's card, or use the coupon on the flyer to receive $15 off your "basket" of $50 or more. Since I already turned in my card at Jewel for the above-mentioned 10 percent discount, I will find a way to use the coupon.

Happy New Year, everyone!

What a pity that I threw out my Dominick's card right after they announced they were closing.

I think I'll stick my Dominick's card into my journal/scrapbook. I'm willing to forego $15 off at Whole Foods for that. Actually, it's my mother's card. She was born in 1929 and passed away in 1997, but as far as Safeway knows, she kept buying diapers and Spaghetti-O's and weird Asian foodstuffs and Louisiana hot sauces well into her 80's. I am sorry to have seen the decline and fall of the Dominick's I used to know, but I don't mind at all having messed with Safeway's database in the meantime.

Katie wrote:I think I'll stick my Dominick's card into my journal/scrapbook. I'm willing to forego $15 off at Whole Foods for that. Actually, it's my mother's card. She was born in 1929 and passed away in 1997, but as far as Safeway knows, she kept buying diapers and Spaghetti-O's and weird Asian foodstuffs and Louisiana hot sauces well into her 80's. I am sorry to have seen the decline and fall of the Dominick's I used to know, but I don't mind at all having messed with Safeway's database in the meantime.

And of course, they are still being accepted at all Safeway stores, including the one that I shopped at yesterday.

Artie wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:

riddlemay wrote:To put it another way, if the question is "can this location support a sustainable supermarket business," isn't the litmus test "does any other supermarket want it"?

We ARE talking about Dominick's here. They were far from competitive before this decision was made. I've been to several over the past few months and was consistently underwhelmed by their produce selection (i.e. lack thereof) and general lack of customers. I have difficulty finding a good parking space near the Jewel in my neighborhood but it's never been a problem at Dominicks.

The grocery world has changed around them. It's not a hedge fund's fault or the customers' fault. They just didn't offer what their competitors do.

A perfect example is in Calumet City. Dominicks closed their location there about 4 or 5 years ago. A year or so later Pete's Fresh Market took over and they've been thriving ever since.

There's no question Safeway's top management made a total mess of Dominick's, but that hardly absolves Jana Partners who exemplify Wall Street's short-term thinking -- do a deal, take what you can, go on to the next deal and never mind what's left behind.

Before the closing I wandered into some Dominick's stores, and talked to people. A person in management told me of being shocked at the closing news. It seems that for the 12 weeks immediately before the closing announcement, the division had been in the black. In other words, there was no financial pressure to close the stores so suddenly. Just extortion from some hedge fund.

Sounds like the Safeway suits said to themselves, "let's give these ##&@??!!s from Jana what they want and get them off our backs." So they closed Dominick's as fast as they could which also gave them the worst possible outcome -- only the prime locations went and Safeway is stuck with leases for 50+ closed stores. If they had taken their time and continued operating they probably could have worked out better deals overall.

It gave a short-term boost to the shares, which is what Jana wanted, but didn't do any favors to anyone else.

Hi- I don't understand if they only owned 6.5% of the stock of the company, how they could put pressure on Safeway to close the stores.? They should have at least been given a chance to find buyers for the stores.

BTW- For those people who live near a Joe Caputo's, they are giving you 10% off your purchase if you present them with your Dominick's card, and don't forget you can also turn in your key chain card. I am not sure when that offer ends. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I don't understand if they only owned 6.5% of the stock of the company, how they could put pressure on Safeway to close the stores.? They should have at least been given a chance to find buyers for the stores.

BTW- For those people who live near a Joe Caputo's, they are giving you 10% off your purchase if you present them with your Dominick's card, and don't forget you can also turn in your key chain card. I am not sure when that offer ends. Hope this helps, Nancy

Frankly, I have a bit of trouble understanding that also. I think it's because most share owners are pretty passive, so a small, but determined, percentage can stir things up. Management of big corporations typically owns a small amount -- often less than one percent.

Dissident shareholders can threaten proxy battles, law suits, etc., all of which take up management time and don't bring any benefit to management. In a worst case scenario [for management], it results in losing their high-paying jobs.

Also, an activist investor like Jana will draw interest from others like it -- think of sharks smelling blood in the water.

As a side note, according to Forbes Magazine, Jana's founding partner got his start "working for corporate raider Asher Edelman, an inspiration for Wall Street villain Gordon Gecko." http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Barry-Rosenstein_D4O4.html

George R wrote:Before the closing I wandered into some Dominick's stores, and talked to people. A person in management told me of being shocked at the closing news. It seems that for the 12 weeks immediately before the closing announcement, the division had been in the black. In other words, there was no financial pressure to close the stores so suddenly. Just extortion from some hedge fund.

Sounds like the Safeway suits said to themselves, "let's give these ##&@??!!s from Jana what they want and get them off our backs." So they closed Dominick's as fast as they could which also gave them the worst possible outcome -- only the prime locations went and Safeway is stuck with leases for 50+ closed stores. If they had taken their time and continued operating they probably could have worked out better deals overall.

It gave a short-term boost to the shares, which is what Jana wanted, but didn't do any favors to anyone else.

I do not see how ANYONE connected with Dominick's could NOT SEE this coming as Safeway has been shopping the Dominick's stores for since at least 2007 and it has been heavily rumored for years in many supermarket publications that Safeway wanted to divest both Dominicks and Randalls in Texas.

I do NOT believe for a minute that the stores are profitable given that their labor costs were substantially higher than other UNION markets like Jewel and Meijer and the volume of customers in the store were a fraction of those in Jewel in the areas that they were directly competitive. For example, in Crystal Lake, Jewel has a minimum of 5-6 cashiers at 12 Noon and 5 PM while the Dominick's stores had two. In the grocery business, volume is everything.

jlawrence01 wrote:

Katie wrote:I think I'll stick my Dominick's card into my journal/scrapbook...

And of course, they are still being accepted at all Safeway stores, including the one that I shopped at yesterday.

Can you tell me where that was? The store locator function on the Safeway website doesn't show any stores within a hundred miles of where I live. But if there are Safeway stores around here or downstate, I'll hold on to the card for road trips.

Hi- As far as I know Meijer's employees are not union, and they are paid way less than what Dominick's employees are. I know that was part of the problem they had selling off Dominick's. They had a few perspective buyers who did not want to take over the union contract. Maybe I am wrong, but I thought that Mariano's sometime last year, offered to take over some of the Dominick's stores, and they were turned down by Safeway.

I think part of Dominick's undoing was the expired food issue. The Green Bay store I shopped at seemed to do more business than the Dempster Dodge store, and I did not see nearly as much reduced dairy at that store as I did the Dempster/Dodge store. It seemed like every time I went in the Dempster/Dodge store, they had lots of dairy that was getting ready to expire that they had reduced 50%, which I am sure means that they were losing money on it. They also had lots of meat 50% off. I would go to the Dempster/Dodge store occasionally after 9:00 pm, and they would always have just one cashier on duty, who was overseeing the self checkout, and so you were forced to go to the self checkout, which I normally don't mind doing. When I buy something that is reduced though, I would prefer to go through the regular checkout.

I felt that with their J4U program, Dominick's was cheaper than Jewel, and a lot of the people that post on the couponing blogs agreed with me. I was surprised though how many people I knew were not familiar with the program. The program though penalized people that were not computer literate, or did not have a computer, which includes a lot of seniors and people in poorer neighborhoods.

I really miss the quick stop for staples at Dominick's with its beautiful wide open parking lots. Went to Whole Foods in Lincoln Park on New Year's Eve day, and there was no way to get into their parking lot without being tremendously patient and wasting a lot of time. I gave up and drove to Plum market on Wells Street. Liked their bacon selection much better than Whole Foods and the maple Niman Ranch bacon was super delicious for our New Year's Day brunch. There was not more than one person in any checkout line, which is great from the customer perspective but makes you wonder about how the store is doing. I asked the gal at the register if they had seen their business pick up since Dominick's closed and she said not at all, which frankly surprises me. Have most of the Dominick's customers in the Old Town area really switched up to Whole Foods?

Hi- Here are the list of Dominick's that are still open until 1/25.

Bsnnockburn, Westchester, Buffalo Grove, Gurnee, Shorewood, and 3145 S. Ashland in the city.

1340 S. Canal, 2550 N. Clybourn, Glenview and Home Glen are the stores being acquired by Jewel, and those stores will close on 1/12, and then reopen on 1/15 as Jewel stores, and yes Jewel is taking over the store inventory at those stores, and so there will be no 75% off before Jewel takes over. I don't know what Jewel is going to do with all the Dominick's store brand items when it takes over the four stores. Maybe they are going to clearance the items. BTW-I found the list on mashupmom which is a local couponing blog.

Concerning Plum Market, I cannot see most Dominick's shoppers switching over to Plum Market, because from what I understand it is a whole lot more expensive. Aren't there any Jewel's or Treasure Island's in the neighborhood? There is also a new Mrs. Green's in the neighborhood too I believe. A friend of mine that lives near the merchandise mart, shopped at Plum Market when she had a coupon for the store, but she decided that it was too expensive to shop there all the time, and no she does not shop at Whole Foods that much.

Have most of the Dominick's customers in the Old Town area really switched up to Whole Foods?

Aren't there any Jewel's or Treasure Island's in the neighborhood?

Yup. There's a TI just north of North Ave. at 1639 N. Wells St., across the street from Piper's Alley.

The TI on Wells is my standard - gave up hitting Dominicks when I got rid of my car and Plum is way too pricey and has an odd selection to my taste. I hit Whole Foods off and on but the Wells St TI is one of the nicer ones and has lovely produce plus good delivery service.

Katie wrote:

jlawrence01 wrote:

Katie wrote:I think I'll stick my Dominick's card into my journal/scrapbook...

And of course, they are still being accepted at all Safeway stores, including the one that I shopped at yesterday.

Can you tell me where that was? The store locator function on the Safeway website doesn't show any stores within a hundred miles of where I live. But if there are Safeway stores around here or downstate, I'll hold on to the card for road trips.

Tucson, Phoenix, AZ

===========

Many of the Meijer employees wear UFCW pins on-duty. They are represented by UFCW Local 881.

Was talking to the produce manager @ the Jewel on Ashland and Blackhawk. Said he's ordering just short of double since Dominick's closed. On New Years Eve the check out lines were 1/2 way down the aisles. Best thing that ever happened to Jewel.

I don't know if it was early storm buying or the closing of the Dominick's across the street, but the Jewel on Rte 59 at 95th Street this afternoon seemed really short on product, with lots of sparse shelves. It was pretty crowded, so it could be storm related buying and supply problems due to the storm.

NFriday wrote:Here is the link from WGN.

http://wgntv.com/2013/12/31/whole-foods ... -shoppers/

Apparently you can either present them with the store coupon which they mailed out, but I never received, or you can hand them over your Dominick's card. If you have a fresh values key chain, I assume you can also use that at Whole Foods, and so you could potentially get the savings twice. I rarely spend $50 at Whole Foods.

Thanks for that tip. I also hardly ever set foot in Whole Foods. I notice that some of the store-brand items are reasonably priced, and they do have a lot of fabulous cheese and such that one doesn't see everywhere, but the vast bulk of our regular shopping is at Costco, Fresh Farms, and the occasional neighborhood or specialty place. Any suggestions on what things are decent values at Whole Foods and/or difficult to find elsewhere? I mean I do love me some overpriced fancy cheese, but there's only so much of that sort of thing that the budget will justify...

Hi- I buy my olive oil at Whole Foods. I buy the 365 store brand and it is $5.95 for a large bottle. I also buy most of my spices from the bulk section there, and occasionally buy other stuff from the bulk section there., as well as King Arthur flour. Sometimes Whole Foods has good three day sales, where two or three items are anywhere from 25% to 50% off. You can usually find out what is on sale usually from Friday through Sunday at each stores facebook page. It is usually seafood, poultry and beef that is on sale. One time they had Alaskan salmon 50% off. When I got there they had run out of the salmon that was supposed to be on sale. They let me purchase some king salmon for the same price.

The whole deal coupons are store coupons which you can combine with manufactures coupons. Recently there was a $3 coupon for spectrum mayonnaise which was available on line, and there was also a $3 spectrum coupon in last month's whole deal coupon book which is available at the store. The coupon book also contained a $1 coupon for Imagine soup, and there was a printable $1 coupon on line too, and it was on sale for $2. Both the mayo and soup were free with coupon stacking.

Yes, you can spend a lot of money at Whole Foods if you are not careful, but if you are selective about what you buy and hit the sales and use coupons, it is not that expensive. Hope this helps, Nancy