Groceteria.com

When I last visited the Longview WinCo, I got to thinking about the interior colors. This store is only a few years old, however, it has the same basic interior color package that dates back to the late 80s, during the time the northwest stores were known as Waremart or Cub Foods. I am curious though, if this interior is exclusive to the northwest locations, or, knowing that Cub was actually a franchised name, did this interior originate with Cub Foods before Waremart adopted this format. I have seen a few Cub stores in the midwest near Detroit in the past where the outside looked very similar to a late 80s-build WinCo in Portland.

Could you describe the interior?? This is the interior of their Clovis, Ca store. It opened about 2 1/2 years ago in a former Home Base/House 2 Home store.

That is the interior that I am referring to. Same colors and everything. Even the font of the letters on the walls dates back to the Cub Foods days.

This is the same interior Cub used to use. Cub did a lot of remodeling and other things in the late 90s to try and look less like a warehouse and more like a conventional. Note that Cub has constantly been closing stores since the late 90's.

These WinCo Stores are being run like the older Cub Stores that were successful. The same decor, wall letters, promotional signs, etc.

WinCo has recently cut all ties with Supervalu; they previously sold Flavorite private label items. Supervalu had a stake in WinCo up until a few years ago. WinCo is now selling Hy Top private label.

Hy Top... Who's product is that? I remember Save Mart used that as a house brand before they started the Sunny Select line.

Hy-Top comes from the Federated Group, Arlington Heights, Illinois. They are also the source for Parade and Red & White. Red & White was once a good-sized group of independent grocery stores, usually in rural areas and small towns. There are a few stores still using the name. Some sell the label; some sell others. There seems to be no real unified Red & White store operation anymore.

Aren't those wall letters at WinCo the same font as the Cub Foods logo?

I find it very interesting that a grocery chain can continue to use an interior for nearly 20 years, and still be successful. Yet, if it works, it keeps remodeling costs down, and therefore prices as well. However, I always wondered how WinCo was able to use the Cub interior in stores built after they abandoned the Cub name.

The only real change I have noticed with the newer WinCo stores is the addition of skylights, and the removal of video rental departments. The rest of the interior basically looks just like the first Cub I ever visited in Portland, Oregon around 1989-1990.

WinCo has recently opened two (2) new stores in the High Desert area of Southern California--Apple Valley and Victorville.

They have "stolen" the LUCKY advertising piece of THE LOW PRICE LEADER...by simply altering the phrase to THE SUPERMARKET LOW PRICE LEADER.

Could they have been any more creative?! Ha!

They've advertised as the "supermarket low price leader" for years.

They do maintain these store interiors, too. They repaint the walls, dust the letters/walls, and re-paint the cement floors on a timed basis.

The real Cub doesn't even use this interior anymore. Maybe they just let WinCo have it to use (along with the old Cub format that was so successful in the 90s prior to many changes being made followed by an exit of Cub from most of its markets). Their endcap/display signs also look identical to during the Cub days (with font matching the wall signs).

Historically speaking,

WinCo Foods was one of several franchisers of the Cub Foods chain from Supervalu, since the early 1980's. The name "Cub Foods" is owned by Supervalu. Since WinCo was a franchiser, they had the rights to use the fonts, carry Supervalu (pre-Albertsons) products as their main private label, and of course, set up the interiors to resemble a typical Cub Foods store.

Earlier this year, they ended their private label distribution contract with Supervalu and switched to the Federated Group. Still, WinCo did not change their look - only the house brands changed.

A note of interest:

- Besides Federated's brand Hy-Top and the occasional left over Supervalu brands (Flavorite),
there are original WinCo branded products such as hydrogen peroxide.
- At my local store (Pomona #57), Cascade Pride bread is made by a Safeway plant and distributed by a third party company, not Safeway. (Safeway had a recall two years ago of CP bread).
return, WinCo has in stock Lucerne's yogurt or other dairy products.

luckysaver

ps
Dean,

Stater's slogan is "The low price leader in the Heartland." Like Lucky, Stater added "In the heartland".

Both WinCo and Staters did not steal Lucky's old slogan - its perfectly okay if it is modified by adding just a few more words to make it their own.