My Trip to the Triple-Decker Target

Today marked the official grand opening of the three-level Target at Glendale Galleria. I visited the store this afternoon and found it crowded with shoppers, bringing additional traffic to the popular mall.

Although it lacks an outdoor garden center, the store features the typical Target merchandise mix, including a large selection of grocery items such as milk, eggs, wine and beer, and frozen foods. The addition of Target makes the Galleria a true "one stop" shopping destination, complementing JCPenney, Macy's, Mervyn's, Nordstrom, and over 200 other stores and restaurants.

Target's building was formerly occupied by a Robinsons-May department store. Its interior has been completely rebuilt to accomodate the big-box retailer's format. An impressive central atrium links the three selling floors with seperate escalators for people and their shopping carts.

More of my photos can be viewed on Flickr

Previously on P.U.

Target Reaches New Heights (7/26/2007)

Target Reaches New Heights

Target opened its first three-level store at the Glendale Galleria yesterday. The 180,000-square-foot emporium replaces a shuttered Robinsons-May department store and is expected to draw additional foot traffic to one of Southern California's most successful shopping malls.

Big-box retailers such as Target have traditionally favored large one-story buildings accompanied by a sprawling parking lot. However, that format is impractical in established neighorboods becuase large tracts of real estate are expensive and difficult to assemble. As big-box retailers move into greater Los Angeles and other urban centers, they have acknowledged this restraint by pursuing multiple-level stores with structured parking as well as locations in traditional shopping malls affected by consolidation among department store chains. The Galleria's new Target exemplifies this trend.

Although Wal-Mart is considered to be less innovative than Target, the nation's largest retailer opened its first three-level store four years ago. It is also located in a Southern California shopping mall, the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in South Los Angeles, replacing Macy's in a building that was originally one of the earliest branches of The Broadway, a local department store chain.

Previously on P.U.

Target Expanding into Glendale and Westminster (7/22/2006)

Who Will Get Lucky?

The Lucky chain began in 1935 with a grocery store in Berkeley, California and grew to become one of the largest supermarket operators in California and Nevada. In 1988, the company was merged into American Stores, a retail conglomerate that ten years later was acquired by Albertsons, then one of the nation's largest grocers. Albertsons retained the ACME and Jewel names in Philadelphia and Chicago, respectively, but in California and Nevada the company decided to retire the Lucky name in favor of its own.

Although Albertsons had operated stores in California and Nevada for decades, some industry observers considered Lucky to be the stronger brand, with a long history and a reputation for low prices. In April 2006, Grocery Outlet, an "extreme value" retailer with "no-frills" stores, decided to resurrect the name, opening a Lucky store in Rocklin, California. A legal battle ensued as Albertsons claimed that it still owned the trademark.

Shortly after Grocery Outlet brought Lucky back, Albertsons was sold to three seperate entities after several years of financial troubles. All of the company's drug stores were acquired by the CVS chain and nearly two-thirds of its supermarkets, including stores in Southern California and Nevada, were acquired by grocer Supervalu. The remaining supermarkets, including the Northern California division, were sold to an investment group led by Cerberus Capital Management.

In July 2006, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco barred Grocery Outlet from using the Lucky name, a decision that was subsequently appealed. Also in July, Supervalu began opening a handful of Lucky stores in Southern California and Las Vegas, confirming speculation that Albertsons had sold its disputed right to use the name in those markets. Supervalu's small Lucky operation is oriented towards the budget-conscious customer.

The Cerberus-owned Albertsons stores in Northern California were sold to Save Mart Supermarkets, a chain based in Modesto, California, in February. Last week Save Mart announced that it would convert 72 Bay Area locations to Lucky, bringing the brand back to its former home turf in a big way. Albertsons signs will vanish from the Bay Area as dozens of former Lucky stores revert to their original name.

Eric Lindberg, co-CEO of Grocery Outlet, responded to Save Mart's announcement by stating his company will prevail in court and be recognized as sole owner of the Lucky trademark. Mr. Linberg claims that Albertsons could not have legally sold rights to the name to Supervalu and Cerberus last year, meaning that the recent transfer from Cerberus to Save Mart is also invalid. If Grocery Outlet wins its court case, the company will force the closure of any Lucky stores owned by Supervalu and Save Mart.

The peculiar controversy over the Lucky name highlights the importance of a well-recognized brand. Nearly seven years after Albertsons retired the banner, shoppers throughout California and Nevada hold fond memories of Lucky's past, providing an opportunity for the name to return and be profitable for a new owner. The courts will decide whether that opportunity belongs to Grocery Outlet or Supervalu and Save Mart.

Previously on P.U.

Getting Lucky Again (8/28/2006)

The Malling of Warner Center

While few would consider Southern California to be "under-malled," the Australia-based Westfield Group, owner of many of the region's largest shopping centers, continues to pursue ambitious expansion plans. Last Tuesday, hours before the Santa Clarita City Planning Commission approved Westfield's proposal to enlarge Westfield Valencia Town Center, company officials announced preliminary plans for The Village in Warner Center.

As reported by the Los Angeles Daily News, The Village in Warner Center will be a mixed-use development with a hotel, offices, apartments, and condominiums along with 550,000 square feet of retail and restaurants. The project will link the adjacent Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade malls, creating a massive shopping and entertainment district that will be the undisputed hub of the western San Fernando Valley. At 3.8 million square feet in combined size, the three centers will rival Orange County's South Coast Plaza for regional prominence.

Unlike its neighbors Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade, The Village in Warner Center will not be a traditional enclosed mall with department store anchors. Instead, it will offer an outdoor environment organized around internal streets, a format commonly referred to as a "lifestyle center." The company has not decided on how it will connect the two indoor malls and the proposed outdoor village.

The massive project has the support of Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa but Westfield is in the early stages of the approval process and construction will not begin for at least 2 years. When public hearings begin, City officials and local residents will have an opportunity review and comment on the details of the proposal, including its design and its traffic impacts.

Previously on P.U.

Mind The Gap (6/27/2007)
Westfield Topanaga Expansion Opens October 6 (8/23/2006)

Downtown Ralphs to Open

Photo from Flickr user fridayinla

In most neighborhoods, the opening of a new supermarket isn't a remarkable occurence. However, the arrival of Ralphs Fresh Fare at Ninth and Flower is a seminal event for Downtown Los Angeles.

As reported on the front page of today's Los Angeles Downtown News, the long-awaited Ralphs will open its doors this Friday. The occasion is something of a homecoming for Ralphs, the venerable Southern California grocer that began operations in Downtown in 1873 and pioneered the supermarket concept on the West Coast. More importantly, it is a signal that Downtown has finally arrived as a viable residential community, as the area previously lacked a traditional full-service supermarket.

A Downtown renaissance has been pursued by civic and business leaders for nearly half a century. Once the undisputed capital of Southern California, Downtown steadily lost its prominence as Los Angeles sprawled along its major boulevards and freeways, giving rise to shopping and employment centers with easier access and free parking. After World War II, attempts at redevelopment bolstered Downtown's status as a focal point of government, culture, and commerce, but it never became a desirable location for residents, emptying out on weeknights and weekends.

The City adopted an adaptive reuse ordinance in 1999, encouraging the conversion of vacant office buildings in Downtown's Historic Core into housing units. The ordinance sparked a residential boom that eventually spread from the Historic Core to the South Park district, home to the Staples Center arena and the L.A. Live Project, where developers eagerly snatched up parking lots as sites for new housing developments. In 2003, Ralphs chose South Park as the location for its store, anchoring the ground floor of a mixed-use building known as the Market Lofts.

In recognition of the affluent demographics of Downtown's fledgling residential population, the new Ralphs store will be one of its 25 Fresh Fare units, oriented towards the upscale customer with amenities such as a wine tasting station, a sushi chef, and a cheese and olive bar. While the grocer expects its store to begin making $500,000 in sales each week, it may not have the neighborhood to itself for very long, as the posh Whole Foods chain is rumored to be eyeing a site at the L.A. Central development only a few blocks away.

Ralphs may open a second Downtown store in order to defend its market position and serve more customers in the booming community. The Los Angeles Downtown News reports that the company is eyeing a site in the Grand Avenue Project at Second and Olive, closer to the Historic Core and new residential towers planned for Bunker Hill. As supermarkets join the growing ranks of new shops, restaurants, and bars in Downtown, the neighborhood will become more vibrant and liveable, perhaps regaining its former prominence as the definite urban core of the nation's second-largest metropolis.