That angled wall is partially the start of the deli, and partially there because the building is just shaped that way for some reason. It's funny to see Safeway advertising a comparison to Costco -- they certainly wouldn't do that around here, where Costco has them beat in pretty much every way! The days of Safeway having competitive pricing are over, and the only way they're still hanging on around here is their effective duopoly with Kroger, which also doesn't bother with competitive pricing. My neighbors keep talking about how Safeway is more expensive than Metropolitan Market, basically the local version of Whole Foods, and they're not wrong -- the problem is that Metropolitan Market doesn't sell the low-end stuff I tend to buy (that being said, even the high-end products there are sometimes cheaper than low-end items at Safeway when they aren't on sale).
Anyway, I'm heading out tomorrow for the holiday weekend, so I'll see you all in a week!
Well, to be fair, that sign is referring to pricing on booze. I can't really say if Randall's is price competitive with Costco on booze as it is not legal for grocers to sell hard liquor here in Texas (I'm not sure if Costco can sell it) and, anyway, I don't have a Costco membership so I only go there on rare occasions that I'm with someone else. Even then, the last time I went into one, I was accosted by the 'greeter' because I was 10 steps behind the person I was with who had the card because I had gone to get a cart. Meanwhile, I could replicate the exact same situation at Sam's Club and the greeter wouldn't even give me a second look because they don't check cards at the door at Sam's. In my limited experiences at those two stores in modern times, Sam's Club looks like they have zoomed past Costco in in-store experience.
ReplyDeleteSafeway/Albertsons-era Randall's does sell beer & wine though and, at least with wine, I do think Randall's is pretty competitive on pricing. They also have a better selection than Kroger and I think they put more emphasis on wine than other grocers. With that, it is possible Safeway does enough volume in wine sales that their pricing is competitive. I recently bought some Italian wine from Randall's for Thanksgiving and the sale prices were hard to beat for pretty good quality stuff. Maybe Costco is cheaper, but then you'd have to buy Kirkland wine probably and what kind of chump brings store brand wine to a dinner gathering?!
As far as grocery pricing goes, I'm surprised that you said that there was a time when Safeway wasn't considered an expensive store in your area because Safeway has always been considered expensive here in Houston, whether back in the 1980s or in the Randall's era. Albertsons was considered to be expensive here as well, probably even more so than independent-era Randall's. If anything, in modern times, Randall's is probably as competitive on pricing as they've ever been in the Safeway/Albertsons era. Now, granted, Randall's regular prices are still quite a bit higher than Kroger and HEB, but like Kroger, if one is willing to buy sale items and clip digital coupons, Randall's does have some very good deals. This compares to the heart of the Lifestyle era when Randall's sale prices were often about equal to Kroger's regular prices, lol.
It has been a year or two since I've done a Seattle price comparison, but when I last did one, Fred Meyer's pricing in the Seattle area wasn't too bad. In fact, I think they were cheaper than Kroger in Mississippi (at least Northern MS, I think Central MS was a bit cheaper than Northern MS). However, QFC was even more expensive than Safeway! I think QFC was closer to Safeway than Safeway was to Fred Meyer though. But, yeah, Houston does have more grocery competition than Seattle and Kroger is a bit more serious about discounting here than they probably are in Seattle where their main competition is Safeway.
Totally agree with your assessment of Sam's vs Costco!
DeleteI also feel like the central vs north MS was the other way around but don't quote me...
Good catch, Retail Retell, I found my old price comparison spreadsheet from 2022 and, indeed, the Southaven Stateline Rd. Kroger was cheaper than the Ridgeland Kroger. It seems the differences are mainly on perishables.
DeleteHere's the pricing I had back then (these were regular prices):
Houston Kroger: $44.83
Houston Randall's: $48.23
Seattle (Burien) Fred Meyer: $45.23
Southhaven Kroger: $48.19
Ridgeland Kroger: $48.53
I couldn't do a complete comparison to Safeway in Seattle and QFC in Seattle as both of those didn't have some of the items that were in the list. QFC was missing one item, but even without that item, their total was $51.74. So, yeah, they are waaay more expensive than Fred Meyer even. Just by looking at the items that Safeway in Seattle did have, they're somewhere in between Fred Meyer and QFC.
Maybe one of these days I'll update these listings with current prices.