Scolaris closing California Stores!

So, on April 13, 2012, a news article came through showing that Scolari's is closing its 4 California Stores. Citing management challenges due to the stores being "400 miles from Nevada and 120 miles apart geographically" and the economy, the stores were sold to real estate developers and will close within 60 days, and complete layoff of all staff will take place.

Scolari's started out in California 60+ years ago, left the region once selling its stores to Lucky in the 80's and taking the proceeds to purchase an existing regional operation in Nevada and had a fairly good ride growing with the Nevada region in the 90's. In the late 80's, Scolari's re-entered California again and although their California store count got up to the 7 or 8 range at one point, and down as low as 3, it settled out at a count of 4 stores. In the late 90's, Scolari's was second highest bidder for acquisition of Albertson's Las Vegas Stores that were for sale in a government ordered store sale resulting from the Albertson's/Lucky purchase, but lost on that bid to Raley's who bought the stores and proceeded to experience very poor results only to sell the pieces to Smith's by 2004, only after watching marketshare decline by more than 50%. So it is probably fortunate Scolari's did not win the bid for the Las Vegas Albertson's Stores. Still, Scolari's  in the mid 00's entered Las Vegas by gaining the rights to the space that previously housed two Grocery Outlet Stores and proceeded to open two Save a Lot (SuperValu) locations in the market. These stores failed and were closed within a few years.

In my view, in Nevada, Scolari's is struggling. Many of their better stores have been in the line of fire of Wal Mart Supercenter competition that has been less than kind to them. They also have 4 stores in very close proximity to Smith's Stores with significantly lower pricing and as of late better quality and mix.

In late 2008, I visited their 4 California Stores and felt they were in better condition than the Nevada operation. In talking to employees in those stores, I was told the stores were being run by the eldest Scolari while his two sons were running the Nevada Stores. The difference in the stores showed. The California operation seemed clean, neatly stocked, had friendly employees, and appeared to have very much of a hometown feel. The Nevada Stores aren't the cleanest, best stocked places; service varies and they largely have a dead feel. Their price scale, relative to most competition in Nevada, is very high. The stores seem to rely on things like postal services, DMV kiosks, utility payments, slot machines, and other activities that do not pertain to selling groceries in hopes that people will come in and buy some groceries while they are using these other services.

Obviously they cannot compete on price with larger chains. But they could compete on quality, service, and selection. They don't do too well on any of those fronts. While they offer Harris Ranch USDA Choice Beef, the product is often not fresh, meat areas ofter have an odor from the seafood, and pricing is very high. While their delis offer Boar's Head product, there is little promotion, no strong sandwich program, service in their delis isn't the best, and many of their stores are not really in neighborhoods that this product makes sense in. Their produce is very weak, as is their bakery. Selection is very limited, prices are high, product freshness isn't great. They put "gates" up over their liquor aisles after 8:00 at night in most of their stores requiring people to go find assistance from a clerk to obtain alcohol (no other chain in this market locks up its liquor at all).

So what exactly will happen next remains to be seen. I certainly have my predictions. I hope they can at least sell some stores off to other operators that will offer continued employment to employees rather than what they have done with the California operation.

In Nevada, last year, Scolari's discontinued its "Friendship Fund" and "Club Card" programs. In 2010, Scolari's sold its distribution center/headquarters building and started to supply its stores through C&S Wholesale, while retaining a small warehouse space to handle certain products. They also relocated their headquarters into an office complex and as of yet they have no signage on their offices, just decals in the windows.

In 2010, Scolari's closed its Carson City, NV Store. In 2011, Scolari's closed the pharmacy in its Reno-Lemmon Valley Store. Scolari's continues to reduce store operating hours and hours of all service departments on a store by store basis.

 Below is a closer look at the California Stores. These photos were taken in late 2008. The California stores for the most part look a lot different than the Nevada ones... which are fairly consistent in shape/size. If it wasn't for the name, I wouldn't know the stores were even related.

Santa Barbara: 222 N. Milpas
This store is a former Safeway. It is unclear if it was something else between Scolari's and Safeway but I would guess it was. Scolari's gained control of this store in 1988.

 Although not the best exterior photo, this sort of shows the exterior. It is a freestanding building. It doesn't really look like a former Safeway.

The bakery/deli part of the store is the front right corner. 

The produce area was the back right area.

The dairy took a portion of the back wall. Meat (not pictured) took the remainder.

This portion on the left side wall housed lunchmeat. Looking at the back left corner is the seafood area.

This is the front end area.

San Luis Obispo, 1321 Johnson Ave. Opened: 1994.

This would appear to be Scolari's next oldest California store, in San Luis Obispo. It is my understanding that they took a prior retail space and either remodeled significantly or expanded significantly that space in 1994 to build this store. This store looks.. nothing even remotely close...  to how the stores Scolari's built in Nevada in 1992 or the mid to late 1990's look. It resembles them in no way whatsoever. Not in layout, appearance, ceiling type... sign...

The logo on this exterior may be a previous logo but was never used in Nevada.

 Bakery and deli were buried on the left side of the store. No Nevada Store has this layout.

 This is the front wall, this decor, floor, ceiling type, lighting type.. unseen in any of the Nevada Stores.

Pismo Beach, 555 Five Cities Dr. Former Vons. Vons abandoned this site when they purchased the Smith's in nearby Grover Beach. It was probably Williams Bros. prior to Vons.

 This was the right side wall.

 This was the middle of the back wall. Very interesting placement. The bakery was up on the front left wall.

 This was another part of the back wall.

 This was the left side. The produce presentation here varied from Nevada as they were using wood tables while the displays in Nevada are all refrigerated cases.

Paso Robles CA, 2121 Spring Street. Opened 2007. This is actually the newest store in the chain. Their last opening in Nevada was in 2006.

This is actually one of the original Scolari's California Stores. It was sold to Lucky in the 80's and operated as Lucky until 1999 at which time it was sold to Ralphs as a government ordered sale when Albertson's purchased Lucky. Ralphs closed this store in 2006. I am of the understanding this store looked like an older Lucky when it was closed by Ralphs. When Ralphs closed, Scolari's announced since they owned the real estate, they would renovate the facility and re-open the store.

Scolari's performed significant work to this facility. The building seems new. Although the inside of the store does not have the same ceiling, interior colors or appearance as one of their Nevada Stores, the layout of the store is somewhat similar to that of one of the Nevada Stores.

 This is placed on the left right wall, identical to the placement in a Nevada Store.

 This is in the back left corner.

Fresh & Easy Brand Trials

So, I'm in a place this week where the primary grocery options are Save Mart, Vons, Food Maxx, and Food 4 Less. Given that I like to get meals at grocery stores, the first option listed is painfully useless for any bakery or deli items or other prepared foods and has a lackluster selection of most other items. The second is inconsistent and so expensive; I went there last time I was faced with these choices, but I wasn't too excited to go back. And the other two... I won't even keep going on that.

But, there are a few Fresh & Easys. I have my reservations about the chain but I figure I might as well try some of their stuff to see how the quality is. I see good strong reviews for them on social networking websites and have heard good things about some of their products from others, and not so good things about some of their products, but overall, I hear positive comments about the quality of products offered at this chain. As far as the Fresh & Easy store base in this market, one has already closed, and it was not open long. I visited a location near a university and found the store to have a marginal flow of traffic, but by no means any crowding, during mid-peak hours on a weeknight.
 
This store is in part of a former Rite Aid (a large format Payless) in the space that I am pretty sure housed a garden center in the building's past life. The co-anchor in the center in the old grocery space was a 99 Cents Only Store.

While browsing the store, I noticed it was, overall, stocked pretty well. One noticeable absence was EatWell items in both prepared ready to heat foods and ready to eat sandwiches: these items were out of stock. The bakery also was pretty poorly stocked (this store did not feature an in-store oven).

The "Kitchen Table" area was still present in this store, but it was void of employees, customers or items. It simply looked like a dead space.

The thing that was brimming with goods was the markdown areas. The two designated markdown doors on one of the cold refrigerated aisles were brimming with items all mixed up (lots of packages of pizza dough touching things like raw chicken or raw beef). The most popular markdown item was yogurt, there were at least 50 containers of markdown yogurt in various brands. They also had various markdown items in in-line shelf locations along full price, fresh items. I saw this in frozen, ready to eat, meat, dairy, and produce.I also saw a couple of carts of goods with short dates in random spots in the store that were not yet marked down (produce and bakery).

My interaction with the employees, or lack thereof, was most interesting. The store had 5 employees on duty. I walked past one of them who was redoing an endcap about six times and he said nothing to me. I walked past another who was cleaning refrigerated doors three times and she said nothing to me but looked every time. When I went up to pay for my goods, I started scanning them, and an employee came over and started bagging. She completed bagging as I was running my payment through and moved over to talk to another employee. I walked right past both of them as I left and neither said a word to me. At least a hello or something when she started bagging would have been somewhat expected. I have spoken to others who have had similar service experiences involving the staff in these stores bagging their groceries but not actually saying anything to them.


I purchased a variety of items to try out, a mix of items prepared "for" or "by" or "baked by" Fresh  and Easy.

Fresh and Easy Bakery (off site) Raspberry Crumble $1.99

This raspberry item was really tasty. The graham cracker crust was slightly sweet but very dense, the raspberry itself was very good, tart, and not too sweet. I noticed the package said "keep refrigerated" - I seemed to forget about this so I kept it out for a couple days after buying it, then ate part of it at room temperature and then re-refrigerated it. It tasted better re-refrigerated as it held together better. I'd buy this item again and look for other flavors if they do not exist.

Fresh and Easy Bakery (off site) French Demi Loaf $0.55 (reduced due to short date)

I wasn't too impressed with this. There were no fresh loaves available, only marked down loaves. The bread tasted okay but was pretty dry, the crust not at all crisp, and it was overall not impressive. A bakery roll from any grocer would have been better. 

This store did not have the oven so this was the off site baked product.

Fresh and Easy Mozzarella Tomato Sandwich (ready to eat, part of lunch combo of main+side+drink $6)

This sandwich was actually really good. For a caprese sandwich it was just right. The mozzarella was a very high quality fresh mozzarella; good tasting, not salty. The pesto mayonnaise spread on the sandwich was very lightly applied. The ciabatta like roll was light, airy, and just like proper ciabatta is. The tomato was good, probably hot house variety. I'd buy this item again, and again.

Fresh and Easy Kid's Macaroni and Cheese (heat and eat, fresh) $1.95 (reduced due to short date)

The label explained that there was corn and carrots mixed into the, I presume, cheese sauce. Had I seen this before purchasing, I probably would not have purchased. I thought the corn and carrot graphics on the package were just mascots to appeal to kids (yet this stuff was positioned about four feet up on the shelf with the label facing the ceiling so most kids in the store probably wouldn't have even seen the label, but I digress...) But, I bought it. So I was going to at least try it. This item looked a lot better than it tasted. It really did not taste like macaroni and cheese at all. The sauce just tasted, well, strange. It was not at all salty in flavor but did not taste like cheese. It tasted more like well, corn, and something else. The pasta was fine, properly cooked, and all, but, the flavor just wasn't there. I would not buy this again, nor would I buy it for anyone else (including kids, if I had any).

Fresh and Easy Penne in Creamy Tomato Sauce (heat and eat, fresh) $2 (sale, regular $2.59)

After the macaroni and cheese, when I set out to heat this stuff up the next day, I wasn't too excited. But this one was actually really good. The sauce was just a little bit spicy, and really good. It was sort of like an arribiata sauce but perhaps not quite as spicy as such. The penne was very good, a bit thicker than typical boxed penne is, and cooked just right. The ratio of sauce to pasta was good; the container is easily enough to fill you up or create two smaller/right sized meals. I would definitely buy this one again.

Pint of Blackberries $1.50



The blackberries were a good deal. There were only about four packages on the shelf and two of the packages had a couple of moldy blackberries; my package did not. The berries were very ripe, sweet, juicy. I buy berries frequently and these are some of the best I've purchased and this is about the least I've paid in recent memory. 

Fresh and Easy Oro Dulce Grape Tomatoes $1.10 (reduced due to short date)

These were just really, really good grape tomatoes. The taste was exceptional. Sweet, uniform in size, nice looking, good juice level. For the price, even had they been full price, these were just an excellent value. I'd buy these again.

Fresh and Easy Iced Green Tea Pint (part of lunch combo of main+side+drink $6)

This tea is made by Fresh and Easy. It was a very lightly sweetened green tea (20 calories per 8 ounce serving). The tea had a good taste, as it was sweetened with actual sugar. The sweetness was light. The item was good and I'd purchase it again but I'd prefer an unsweetened option of some kind in this size. 

Fresh and Easy Iced Black Tea, liter bottle $1.69

This tea is made by some vendor. I thought it was the same stuff as Tejava, but while similar, I'm not real sure it is. I think Tejava may be stronger. Anyway this stuff is fine, but, considering the price, and considering you can get Tejava for less money at various sources, I would probably only buy this stuff again in a pinch (or if they sold it cold, which they do not). 

Fresh and Easy Coconut Water $0.99

These flavored waters they carry are really good, albeit a bit expensive. This was my first time trying the Coconut but it is great, and they have it cold. I'd buy again but wish they had a lower cost option or some sort of package deal (4 for $3 or similar).

Fresh and Easy 6 oz Melon Mix (part of lunch combo of main+side+drink $6)

 This melon cup was pretty simple with 4 honeydew cubes and 4 cantaloupe cubes. It sells individually for $1.29, is 6 ounces, and is displayed in a front wall facing endcap cooler along with the sandwiches and drinks. It is somewhat curious over in the produce aisle they have identical looking 10 ounce melon cups at the $2.99 price point. The melon... was fine. Not great. The honeydew was not ripe. The cantaloupe was closer to ripe but not quite there.

Fresh and Easy 6 oz Pine Berry Mix

This was a simple mixed fruit cup and just how it sounds: 4 large pineapple cubes, 4 strawberries, of varying sizes, and nothing else. The label noted that it "may contain strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries" in addition to the pineapple. The fruit was perfect. The strawberries were sweet and tasted good, the pineapple was properly cubed, and seemed just right in terms of ripeness, there were no leaves or other debris in the cup. Overall, very good.

In looking at the ingredient labels on all of these things I bought, I was really happy with what I saw. Items are not preserved, ingredients are generally simple, good, kitchen stock type ingredients. I didn't see anything I couldn't pronounce or stuff I didn't quite know what exactly it was. Ingredient lists were generally short.

I am beginning to better understand the concept here. I think this is actually a good store concept. It was just approached in the wrong way, so horribly wrong. The wrong locations, too many of them, too quickly, with weak operational knowledge continue to plague this chain. Whether or not they can right their path remains to be seen, given the number of dead spaces they continue to pay rent on, odd locations they selected, and other problems. But I believe they have a viable concept, for certain locations...

The other issue I see here is much of the store is just not great. Their dry grocery area, while with much better variety than the stores had initially, is still not that well assorted and very high priced. I think the chain could cut out much of the dry grocery area and not miss many sales at all.

My other thought is when they opened these stores they were issuing $5 off $20 coupons in a massive manner. Rather than this approach, a better approach may have been coupons for some free prepared food item, buy one get one free on various prepared food items, etc. in an effort to get the customer to try these items and find stuff they liked. Different people have different tastes and maybe some people may not like the first item they try but with a free coupon could try a second item, like it, and become a customer. But that first time trial customer who doesn't like the one item they try may never try anything else due to that one negative experience without the coupon.

Another thought is they should have microwaves in the store for customers to heat up items.

Another thought is they may need to do something to address what appears to be a slight blandness to the food. Perhaps seasoning packets or some other sort of enhancement that would allow customers to better customize the items would help address this.

In any case, my experience with these products was good overall and I am open to trying more of the items from this chain.