Hannaford

[retailisking]

Hannaford has started replacing its private label products with the My Essentials brand.  The packaging kind of resembles the Great Value brand at Walmart.  Whatever they save on eliminating duplicate packaging for the various Delhaize banners they lose in free advertising for Hannaford in the cupboard and refrigerator.  Not sure if it's a really smart move.  Market Basket, Price Chopper and Stop & Shop must be licking their chops at the opportunity to grab market share.

[Zayre88]

My Essentials sounds lame, bland and cheap...

[retailisking]

That's the impression I got; the bland effect was particularly acute in the bread aisle.  Here's a story about the rollout of the My Essentials brand at sister Delhaize banner Sweetbay:
http://mypbrand.com/2011/03/08/sweetbay-launches-my-essentials/

In a later story on the rollout of My Essentials at its flagship banner Food Lion the coverage shifts towards getting rid of the banner-named products altogether.  On the other hand, I won't miss Smart Option at all; their 3-liter soda was/is disgusting...
http://mypbrand.com/2011/04/26/food-lion-announces-my-essentials/

[powersbt]

That's the impression I got; the bland effect was particularly acute in the bread aisle.  Here's a story about the rollout of the My Essentials brand at sister Delhaize banner Sweetbay:
http://mypbrand.com/2011/03/08/sweetbay-launches-my-essentials/

In a later story on the rollout of My Essentials at its flagship banner Food Lion the coverage shifts towards getting rid of the banner-named products altogether.  On the other hand, I won't miss Smart Option at all; their 3-liter soda was/is disgusting...
http://mypbrand.com/2011/04/26/food-lion-announces-my-essentials/

One of the big purposes of the My Essentials brand is to replace the Smart Option brand. It was a flop right from the beginning, with the exception of cleaning products, and paper towels, which did well from what I saw. It is my understanding that not all of the Hannaford products will be going to my Essentials. Also, a lot of the Smart Option items will not be replaced with My Essential counterparts, thus simply being Discontinued. I too am surprised at the roll out of the My Essentials products to replace the Hannaford brand, as any product within the Delhaize system had identical packaging throughout the banners with the exception of the banner's logo.

[retailisking]

DZA is under pressure from Brussels to grow the market share of private label in its stores.  Some analysts say their goals are unrealistic.
http://supermarketnews.com/viewpoints/delhaize_private_brands_0516/

[powersbt]

DZA is under pressure from Brussels to grow the market share of private label in its stores.  Some analysts say their goals are unrealistic.
http://supermarketnews.com/viewpoints/delhaize_private_brands_0516/

A comment posted from the article that was linked above:

"The rollout of My Essentials at DZA's Hannaford banner is off to a rocky start. Shoppers have noticed, for example, that the 8 ounce light yogurt under the Hannaford brand has been replaced by a 6 ounce My Essentials container with no price change to account for the 25% shrinkage. Additionally, the My Essentials brand de-emphasizes the much-ballyhooed Guiding Stars nutrition labeling program that has been a hallmark of Hannaford branded food products in recent years. If this is typical of DZA's private label push they may face a lot of resistance going forward."

I hadn't noticed that the My Essentials Yogurt had changed Sizes when being converted over. But thinking about it, the poster was correct about that. On the flipside, one example I can give is that the My Essentials Peanut Butter Cookies are now a larger sized package compared to its Smart Option counterpart.

I also hadn't noticed the absense of the Guiding Stars program with the My Essential Products. The Guiding Stars program has been pushed extensively over recent years. Unless they plan on letting it go by the wayside, the only thing that I can think of is that they are temporarily putting it on the backburner , and focusing on pushing the rollout of My Essentials into the stores. Once in place, and the customers grow accustomed to it, return Guiding Stars back.

Personally, I am a fan of NuVal, which I saw that other stores are now picking up besides Price Chopper. It gives a broader, and more defined score to products than Guiding Stars does.

[MikeRa]

That's the impression I got; the bland effect was particularly acute in the bread aisle.  Here's a story about the rollout of the My Essentials brand at sister Delhaize banner Sweetbay:
http://mypbrand.com/2011/03/08/sweetbay-launches-my-essentials/

In a later story on the rollout of My Essentials at its flagship banner Food Lion the coverage shifts towards getting rid of the banner-named products altogether.  On the other hand, I won't miss Smart Option at all; their 3-liter soda was/is disgusting...
http://mypbrand.com/2011/04/26/food-lion-announces-my-essentials/

One of the big purposes of the My Essentials brand is to replace the Smart Option brand. It was a flop right from the beginning, with the exception of cleaning products, and paper towels, which did well from what I saw. It is my understanding that not all of the Hannaford products will be going to my Essentials. Also, a lot of the Smart Option items will not be replaced with My Essential counterparts, thus simply being Discontinued. I too am surprised at the roll out of the My Essentials products to replace the Hannaford brand, as any product within the Delhaize system had identical packaging throughout the banners with the exception of the banner's logo.

The "Hannaford" brand is also slowly being phased out right now at the Bottom Dollard Food that's near me in PA

[retailisking]

A hometown look at Hannaford's operations, focusing on the South Portland, ME distribution center.  And yes, the Press Herald under current ownership is big on boosterism...
http://www.pressherald.com/business/picking-up-groceries_2011-07-03.html

[retailisking]

Hannaford opened in West Lebanon, NH Saturday.  The Upper Valley is an interesting market, with two Shaw's and two Price Choppers in close proximity (but no Walmart Supercenter - yet - and no Target, even without fresh grocery.)  Gonna be interesting to see if one of the Shaw's or Price Choppers close.  And I wonder if Market Basket has designs on the immediate area - they're already in Claremont, as is a Walmart Supercenter...

[Zayre88]

Hannaford opened in West Lebanon, NH Saturday.  The Upper Valley is an interesting market, with two Shaw's and two Price Choppers in close proximity (but no Walmart Supercenter - yet - and no Target, even without fresh grocery.)  Gonna be interesting to see if one of the Shaw's or Price Choppers close.  And I wonder if Market Basket has designs on the immediate area - they're already in Claremont, as is a Walmart Supercenter...

Interesting story!

[TRJ_22487]

What plaza is that in? A new standalone one? Did everything in West Lebanon eventually reopen after the flooding from the hurricane?

[vwnut13]

I am not sure if any of the stores in either the Kohls Plaza or the Kmart Plaza are open yet.

[vwnut13]

Hannaford opened in West Lebanon, NH Saturday.  The Upper Valley is an interesting market, with two Shaw's and two Price Choppers in close proximity (but no Walmart Supercenter - yet - and no Target, even without fresh grocery.)  Gonna be interesting to see if one of the Shaw's or Price Choppers close.  And I wonder if Market Basket has designs on the immediate area - they're already in Claremont, as is a Walmart Supercenter...

Interesting story!

By "close proximity" he means "All four grocery stores are within 8/10 of a mile of each other"

Hannafords is the furthest north.  Drive 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your left.  Drive another 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your right.  Continue south and in 4/10 of a mile you will see Price Chopper on your left.

Grocery Store overkill.

[amesman]

Originally posted by BillyGr
That sure does look like most of the new Stop & Shops - however it seems to be a strange spot for one.

S&S has only 6 stores in New Hampshire, and all of those are less than 20 miles from the NH/MA border, none of which are further than about 60 miles from the coast and 5 of the 6 (Bedford, Manchester x 2, Hudson and Milford) are within 10-15 miles of each other - the 6th is Exeter, closer to the coast but still not far from MA.  They also have only one listing in ME (Kennebunk, which isn't too far into ME from NH and probably only 25-30 miles (ish) from Exeter.

They have no stores in Vermont, which means that this store would be a good 70 miles from their nearest store (North Adams, Massachusetts), 1/2 or so of that via 2 lane roads with many towns to travel through, so probably a 1 1/2-2 hour trip each way to supply it.  Seem that if they wanted to move into Vermont, they would try a place like Bennington, or even Brattleboro on the other side, neither of which is more than 10 or 20 miles from their Massachusetts base.

Which leads me to this:

Not knowing when the store started being built, it is possible that the plan was for it to be a Tops Market?  Since Ahold owned Tops for a while, and they had that bunch of old Grand Union stores on the NY side of the border (the one in Whitehall, NY would have been only 25 miles +/- from Rutland), maybe they were thinking of expanding from that direction, and since being co-owned would have used the existing prototype store from S&S?

P.S. - I saw the Rio Grande one and thought that looked like a Stop & Shop also.  Was that a totally new store, or a replacement for one that had been part of the Giant (MD) chain when they converted those over to S&S?

Maybe I can clear up some of the questions. Stop and Shop indeed had planned to expand into Vermont, by first opening this store and following with more, although I don't know the locations off the top of my head. I would guess Bennington, maybe even Burlington. Anyway, the store was finished, the signs put up, and then Stop and Shop decided at the last minute to pull out and cease their expansion. So the store never opened, and about a month later, Hannaford moved in.

While digging through some old pictures, I found a picture of the Rutland store back when they were preparing it for Stop & Shop.

[TRJ_22487]

Hannaford opened in West Lebanon, NH Saturday.  The Upper Valley is an interesting market, with two Shaw's and two Price Choppers in close proximity (but no Walmart Supercenter - yet - and no Target, even without fresh grocery.)  Gonna be interesting to see if one of the Shaw's or Price Choppers close.  And I wonder if Market Basket has designs on the immediate area - they're already in Claremont, as is a Walmart Supercenter...

Interesting story!

By "close proximity" he means "All four grocery stores are within 8/10 of a mile of each other"

Hannafords is the furthest north.  Drive 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your left.  Drive another 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your right.  Continue south and in 4/10 of a mile you will see Price Chopper on your left.

Grocery Store overkill.

The secondary Shaws in the old Rich's plaza used to be a Purity Supreme. There used to be two Grand Unions back in the day, one in the Kmart plaza, one by the movie theaters, and even a third across the river by White River Junction, now they are all long gone

[vwnut13]

Hannaford opened in West Lebanon, NH Saturday.  The Upper Valley is an interesting market, with two Shaw's and two Price Choppers in close proximity (but no Walmart Supercenter - yet - and no Target, even without fresh grocery.)  Gonna be interesting to see if one of the Shaw's or Price Choppers close.  And I wonder if Market Basket has designs on the immediate area - they're already in Claremont, as is a Walmart Supercenter...

Interesting story!

By "close proximity" he means "All four grocery stores are within 8/10 of a mile of each other"

Hannafords is the furthest north.  Drive 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your left.  Drive another 2/10 of a mile south and there is Shaws on your right.  Continue south and in 4/10 of a mile you will see Price Chopper on your left.

Grocery Store overkill.

The secondary Shaws in the old Rich's plaza used to be a Purity Supreme. There used to be two Grand Unions back in the day, one in the Kmart plaza, one by the movie theaters, and even a third across the river by White River Junction, now they are all long gone

Come to think of it, there is a Price Chopper up by those movie theatres now.  That can't be any more than two miles away from the other one.

[nysw3636]

News about a planned Hannaford in Walden, NY. Thruway Shopping Center has been there since 1955.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120809/BIZ/208090351

[retailisking]

Interesting admission by former Hannaford President Ron Hodge in Delhaize Group's latest earnings conference call about the short-term impact Market Basket and ShopRite are having on Hannaford in Manchester, NH and Albany, NY:

"Ronald C. Hodge â€" EVP and CEO, Delhaize America: I’ll take the first one about Hannaford sales. We had had competitive openings in two of our three major markets Albany, New York and Manchester, New Hampshire, two market basket stores in Manchester, two ShopRite stores in Albany. All four of these stores are very large, high volume units. For instance any one of these stores would equal having 10 all these open against this. So there is a significant sales impact when they come into these two marketplaces. I think we are dealing with it reasonably well. In fact in Q2 our market share has actually increased across the Hannaford territory. So I’d like to see the overall sales performing at a better level but these things take a little bit of time and responding to price competitors in major marketplaces is a long-term event horizon for us and we are focused on building our sales back in those markets."

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/delhaize-group-earnings-call-insights-comparable-sales-growth-hannaford-sales.html/

[retailisking]

And wouldn't you know it - just a few days after that uncomfortable disclosure,  Ron Hodge is on his way out as CEO of Delhaize America. It's been a rough year for Hodge - Hannaford taking it on the chin in Albany and Manchester, Bloom shuttered, Food Lion exiting Florida, Bottom Dollar losing money. But Hodge can point to some successes during his 30 years there - his crowning achievement undoubtedly being the acquisition of Hannaford ( one could question whether that was beneficial to Hannaford shoppers, but whatever.)

[retailisking]

Delhaize has taken a meat axe to its executive ranks. The new CEO works out of Salisbury, not Scarborough, so does this signal North Carolina calling more of the shots at Hannaford?

[retailisking]

Here's a wild thought: Could Hannaford be sold? Delhaize has its hands full turning around Food Lion, and Ahold is looking for acquisitions. Hannaford could fetch a princely sum, as it's one of the healthiest banners in the business. That money could come in handy for investing in Food Lion. There isn't too much overlap between Stop & Shop and Hannaford. See where I'm going with this?

[Zayre88]

Here's a wild thought: Could Hannaford be sold? Delhaize has its hands full turning around Food Lion, and Ahold is looking for acquisitions. Hannaford could fetch a princely sum, as it's one of the healthiest banners in the business. That money could come in handy for investing in Food Lion. There isn't too much overlap between Stop & Shop and Hannaford. See where I'm going with this?

It would be a perfect fit for Stop& Shop, so far they struggle to expand in Maine and NH, getting Hannaford would solve this problem.

[JimSawhill]

Here's a wild thought: Could Hannaford be sold? Delhaize has its hands full turning around Food Lion, and Ahold is looking for acquisitions. Hannaford could fetch a princely sum, as it's one of the healthiest banners in the business. That money could come in handy for investing in Food Lion. There isn't too much overlap between Stop & Shop and Hannaford. See where I'm going with this?

I would love to see Hannaford - and Sweetbay - get spun off. The news here - in Florida -
is that Sweetbay may not make it. It is being squeezed by Publix and Wal-Mart (getting 70% of the market share in the Tampa Bay region) on the mainstream stores, getting squeezed by The Fresh Market and Whole Foods in upscale shoppers and in discounters, by Family Dollar, Dollar General and Deals/Dollar Tree.

Sweetbay might become a Latino-themed Supermarket. (Rumors is that PUBLIX Sabor (the latino themed Publix) might buy some of the soon to be closed Sweetbays.

[BillyGr]

Hannaford's preemptive strike against Market Basket?
http://www.wlbz2.com/news/article/246954/3/As-daily-costs-rise-one-grocery-store-is-lowering-their-prices

They are also advertising that on the ad (new lower prices across the store) here in the Albany (NY) area, which could mean it's a more widespread thing or could just be because of the recent return of ShopRite to this area (even though the ad includes stores in several areas that are a bit away from the ShopRite locations).

[retailisking]

Delhaize cited the entry of ShopRite in Albany and Market Basket in Manchester for negative comps at its Hannaford banner in those markets. In my very anecdotal experience, these price cuts are very selective.

[standa]

Hannaford will open in the former Exeter, NH Stop & Shop

www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20131220-NEWS-131229987

[retailisking]

I predicted this! The Exeter-Stratham market is one that they haven't been in, and the Hampton store really doesn't cover it. I thought they would grab the Milford store, too; I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hannaford has also acquired the Bedford lease, not surprising as they fought hard in court against the large Market Basket that opened recently and are stuck with a smaller store across town.

[retailisking]

Hannaford worked fast, beating their Spring 2014 deadline by several weeks. See if you can spot any remaining Stop & Shop design elements...
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140307-NEWS-403070374

[retailisking]

This is a former Victory Supermarket; Hannaford bought the 20-store Leominister, MA-based chain in 2004. The store is tiny, rundown and has a peculiar shape; I'm surprised they held on to it for this long.

http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_26885284/ayer-hannaford-store-close-january

[HannafordHearts]

This is a former Victory Supermarket; Hannaford bought the 20-store Leominister, MA-based chain in 2004. The store is tiny, rundown and has a peculiar shape; I'm surprised they held on to it for this long.

http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_26885284/ayer-hannaford-store-close-january

I would have liked to see the interior of that store. Tiny stores like that make me excited for some reason :P

Anyway, as you can tell by my name, I love Hannaford. It's one of my favorite grocery stores, and I know its three main decor schemes going back to the 90's.

Here is a photoset of a Hannaford in New Hartford, NY: https://www.flickr.com/photos/56907148@N03/sets/72157645924451722/

It was built in 1990 as a Shop 'n Save and later became Hannaford, with the 90's interior. (big blue line on the wall, with red letters and neon signs) It received an extensive interior and exterior remodel in 2014, and now features the most current Hannaford look, featured in the aforementioned photoset.

What's interesting about this remodel is that the store actually downsized; a portion of the store was separated by a wall during the remodel and it now may be leasing as space for another tenant.