Fifty years ago there were several major grocery chains here in Chicago. Jewel-Oslo. Dominicks. Aldi. And there were dozens of small, independent stores and small chains.
Now Walmart and Target have gotten into the grocery biz. And there’s also Whole Foods. But most of the small independents have vanished.
Back in 1999 Albertson’s acquired Jewel-Osco. A dozen or so years ago Bob Mariano left Fazio Foods (Dominicks) and started Mariano’s. Then Fazio Foods shut down the Dominicks chain. It wasn’t acquired. They just shut it down. A couple of years ago the Mariano’s stores were acquired by Kroger.
The big news here is that Kroger is acquiring Albertson’s. Unless they close some stores (I assume they will) that means that they’ll have several hundred stores in the Chicago area, dwarfing everybody else. Indeed, probably more than all of the others combined.
So instead of having two mediocre major chains (Albertsons’s and Kroger), we’ll have one superchain which I assume will be worse than mediocre. I honestly don’t see how that would pass antitrust muster.
Update
Consumer Reports’s reviews of supermarket chains and, sure enough, they echoed my views of both Kroger’s and Alberton’s—they’re both mediocre. Trader Joe’s is one of their top-rated picks. Sadly, none are convenient to me but I shop at Trader Joe’s occasionally. They also seem to like Aldi’s which is convenient to me. I guess I’ll need to give Aldi’s another chance. I was unimpressed the only time I shopped in one. Besides I’m wary of multi-national chains (Aldi’s is actually ALDI’s and it’s a German chain).
So what happened to CUB? My wife and I shopped there, along with Jewel. Of course, that was in the late ’90’s.
It’s complicated but the short version is that all of the Chicago area stores closed.
Mariano’s was a quality chain, comparable to Dierberg’s or Trader Joe’s. Then it was acquired by Kroger’s and, predictably, it deteriorated.
Give Aldi’s another try. I was not impressed when we first went so we didnt go back for a few years. Then the wife tried it again and likes it. Still prefers Wegmans but goes to Aldi pretty regularly for some stuff.
Steve
Just curious. What did Consumer Reports have to say about HEB? Kroger has never entered Austin, and I doubt they’ve ever been in San Antonio for any length of time. HEB dominates Central Texas; does the CR have any comment on that?
If the merger is allowed, Kroger’s will now have a presence in Austin, as a regional chain called Randall’s (Albertson’s) has been here for years. I don’t expect Kroger’s to do any better here than Randall’s has.
The best chain I’ve ever seen is Publix. Oddly, they monopolize FL, and a lot of the southeast.
Kroger. Not so much.
Is Moo and Oink still in Chicago?
CR likes HEB. Rated same as Dierberg’s but below Trader Joe’s.
Moo & Oink, sadly,is no more.
Publix was good. Wegmans is better. That is where we do the bulk of our shopping but we go to 5 or 6 different places depending on what we need. As noted in the article Whole Foods is expensive so we arent doing major shopping there but their meats and fish are very good. Even the local mediocre chain is worth going to on occasion as it has a really good bakery.
Steve
Here in CA I shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Smart and Final, in that order of frequency. I know Whole Foods is more expensive, but they are walking distance from my home, which is a plus. Also, their 365 brand is priced more competitively. Trader is a favorite for the uniqueness of their product, homey newsletter, and assortment of flowers (a real weakness of mine). Smart and Final is a good store to buy food in bulk.
For buying gallons of mayonnaise Costco can’t be beat. I tend not to consume in bulk so buying in bulk would be wasteful. I do, however, buy rice in bulk. Some I buy at Costco but I buy brown rice 15 pounds at a time from the enormous Pinoy market not far from my home (it’s higher quality than the brown rice sold at Costco).
Trader Joe’s runs tiny little hole-in-the-wall shops. It’s basically a truck stop convenience store.
I disagree that Kroger is mediocre. They are a full-spectrum grocery store, with a significant number ethnic products (Jewish, Italian, Mexican…). Consumer Reports (no longer reliable) once said the Kroger brand pasta was among the best available. Their produce is among the best available in my area.
I would prefer Giant Eagle, but my town is too small for three large grocery stores.
I’m sure these views are all situational. Strongly a function of local management.
The Kroger here has godawful (inedible) produce and spotty inventory. The Wegmans I was in, in VA, this summer was pedestrian. The Whole Foods on HHI, is more like a Jewel, and the Trader Joe’s in Naperville was just average.
The only chain that I have had a uniformly good experience is Publix.
Locally, I think we’ve had a complete turnover in grocery stores around fifteen years ago. Kroger, Eagles, National, Cub, Shop ‘n Save and Jewel have left. In their place are Schnucks (St. Louis), Hy-Vee ( Des Moines) and County Market (franchise operated by Quincy, IL company). The trend has been fewer, larger and slightly more-upmarket stores. (I’m not including WalMarts, Target and Meijer, which are mixed retailers).
Where I grew up, Aldi was the store next to a public housing project that sold mainly canned / boxed foods with unknown brand names. When my wife first went to one here, she turned around and left when she discovered she had to pay a deposit for the shopping cart. My impression is that a lot of that has changed and in some places have developed a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with Walmart.
My local supermarket is a Kroger (King Soopers here in Colorado) and it’s meh. There are some great Kroger locations, but a lot of them are average at best.
We do have Trader Joes and it is excellent, but I can’t justify the expense except for a few niche items. The prices are pretty ridiculous.
I lived in Florida and Texas and really like Publix and HEB. Both were much better than any other markets I’ve been too. Steve mentioned Wegmans – I’ve heard great things about that, but haven’t lived near one before.
We also use Costco a lot. Bulk is good for us with three kids, three cats, and two dogs.
Aldi was founded in Germany by two brothers. When they disagreed about something, I think it was whether to sell cigarettes, they split Germany and the company in two: Aldi Nord went to one brother and Aldi Sud to the other. The US is the only other country where both operate, Sud as Aldi and Nord as Trader Joe (which it purchased).
The Aldi’s in my town is really low end. Bring your own bags. And it has limited inventory.
Trader Joe’s has a very limited inventory. The one in Columbus is truly a hole in the wall. It cannot have more than 1500 sq ft of floor space.
Again, the Kroger in my town has good produce and meats. It has a huge wine selection, running from $100 bottles down to essentially Ripple.
I have allowed my subscription to Consumer Reports to lapse, because I no longer trust them.