Grocery Stores

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Rube Dali
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby Rube Dali » July 29th, 2018, 9:49 am

With SuperValu soon to be purchased by a New England firm, who gets Cub?
Buildings, what buildings?

Silophant
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby Silophant » July 29th, 2018, 10:16 am

Hy-Vee would make sense, at least for the corporate-owned stores. I don't believe Hy-Vee franchises, so the Jerry's owned stores would maybe convert back to Rainbows, or to the Jerry's Foods brand?
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xandrex
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby xandrex » July 30th, 2018, 12:33 pm

This could also be a chance for another major chain, like say Kroger, to enter the market.

When this was announced last week, someone on MPR was saying Hy-Vee probably wouldn't be interested in scooping up many Cub stores (but I can't quite remember the explanation).

nordeast homer
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby nordeast homer » July 31st, 2018, 9:51 am

Considering Hy-Vee has yet to start construction on the store in Columbia Heights after it was announced over 2 years ago, I'd find it hard to believe they'd want to scoop up the Cubs.
I think their current expansion grew faster than anticipated and they're finding it hard to keep up. I just don't think they could manage that many more stores coming on board.
I agree with xandrex, I think Kroger could be a player if they wanted to finally enter the market.

amiller92
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby amiller92 » July 31st, 2018, 9:57 am

The answer to "who will buy it" always seems to be private equity.

twincitizen
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby twincitizen » August 28th, 2018, 9:39 pm

The many franchise locations owned by Jerry's Foods wouldn't be changing hands, but there's still uncertainty as to what will happen to the Cub brand name when United Natural Foods eventually divests the Supervalu corporate-owned Cub stores. If someone like Hyvee bought the corporate Cubs, they'd become Hyvees (or close outright if near a newer / better-located Hyvee). In that scenario (or similar) the only Cubs left would be those owned by Jerry's Foods, and they might opt to rebrand them as Jerry's Foods (of which, strangely, there are just 3 metro locations in Edina, EP, and Woodbury).

The ultimate irony would be if Kroger is the buyer, and they opted to go with their regional brand used in WI & IL - Roundy's! Kroger bought Roundy's in 2015, leading to the closure of most Rainbow Foods (which Roundy's acquired years earlier).

However, both Kroger and Hyvee seem like unlikely suitors for the Cub stores, as they both do their own distribution, correct? You'd think it would be in Supervalu/UNF's best interest to sell the stores to an operator who would retain Supervalu as the distributor, and not a competitor with their own distribution channels. So yeah, probably private equity. It would be cool if Jerry's Foods had access to enough capital to buy the rest of the Cub stores they don't already own though.

EDIT: I couldn't find exact numbers, but there are 70-some Cub locations in the state, and one source stated that approximately 50 are corporate stores, with the remaining 20-something being franchisee-owned. Not sure if Jerry's is the only Cub franchisee or if there are others in the mix

LakeCharles
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby LakeCharles » August 29th, 2018, 7:24 am

Their website says that 10 stores are also franchised, but not by Jerry's. They are the ones in Alexandria, Baxter, Brainerd, Buffalo, Coon Rapids, Grand Rapids, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Shakopee and White Bear Lake.

twincitizen
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby twincitizen » October 22nd, 2018, 4:44 pm

Per a family friend who works for Jerry's Foods, they are indeed buying some of the Supervalu-owned Cub Foods locations, but not all of them. He was unsure if Jerry's was in talks to buy the Cub Foods name from Supervalu, or if they would be rebranding all of their stores as Jerry's, in the event the Cub name goes away. The former seems more likely...Cub still has really high brand recognition in the metro area. A rebranding at this time could sink Cub's market share even lower. Switching up the store name on top of all the other turmoil in the industry is the last thing these stores need in the fight against Target/Walmart/Hyvee/Aldi/etc.

Update: Jerry's is in talks to purchase the Cub name/branding. So it seems likely that most Cub locations will remain Cub, except for the ones that get sold to entities other than Jerry's (and other franchisees, who could opt to license the name from Jerry's).

Oreos&Milk
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby Oreos&Milk » October 23rd, 2018, 4:37 pm

I'm surprised L&B isn't involved, they were all in when Rainbow was on the auction block.

mattaudio
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby mattaudio » October 24th, 2018, 8:29 am

Any idea what will happen to the independents operating under the SuperValu banner? I assume they might need to adjust to a new distributor AND a new name.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby FISHMANPET » October 24th, 2018, 9:39 am

Anyway, does anyone know where I can get Broccolini in the city? The Quarry Rainbow had it when it was a Rainbow, but now that it's a Cub they don't have it. I've looked at Whole Foods, Lunds downtown, and Seward Coop (yes, I went into a coop!) and none of them had it. Tracy's gets it from somewhere because they have it on their menu, but I don't know where to find it. Is it a seasonal thing? Does anyone even grow it around here such that I could find it at a farmer's market?
Update: Trader Joe's has "baby broccoli" which looks like broccolini to me.

twincitizen
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby twincitizen » November 6th, 2018, 5:02 pm

Aldi coming to Shops at Lyndale (Lyndale/494): http://www.startribune.com/aldi-and-sie ... 499841601/ Of note, this will be one of the largest Aldi stores.

Fun to be the nameless 'city official' in a news story.

The Strib article about the search for a Cub buyer had some interesting sidebar about other chains that are / aren't expanding. It mentioned that Fresh Thyme specifically is going to slow their expansion here, and not open as many stores as quickly as they had forecasted. It also rules out Hyvee as a likely buyer for Cub locations as they plan to enter our market at a very measured pace. Aldi, on the other hand, is opening stores in MN at a rapid pace and has many more on the way.

twincitizen
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby twincitizen » May 25th, 2021, 8:29 am

Reviving this thread for a Hyvee update: https://www.startribune.com/hy-vee-open ... fresh=true

seanrichardryan
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby seanrichardryan » May 25th, 2021, 8:58 am

'Looted and burned, Northside Cub returns with new grocery store model
Neighborhood leaders praise Cub's CEO for a community-first approach'-

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/loc ... 1d5fe6b58e
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MNdible
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Re: Grocery Stores

Postby MNdible » May 25th, 2021, 9:55 am

Alluded to in the Hy-Vee article, but there is speculation that Amazon Fresh will be opening multiple stores in the metro area in the not too distant future.


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