New Orleans area updates

[Groceteria]

New Orleans is now updated to include most of the Jefferson Parish suburbs (e.g. Metairie, Gretna, and Kenner, among others). I've also added listings from 1925.

https://www.groceteria.com/place/us-lou ... w-orleans/

[wnetmacman]

I know most of the directories may list Schwegmann stores in 2000, but I'm fairly sure they all closed in 1999. A good number of the stores were purchased by Robert Fresh Market and A&P (to become Sav-A-Centers), but this would have happened before that point.

[Groceteria]

Yeah, i will be adding footnotes and something of a timeline soon. Just haven't gotten it there yet,

[pseudo3d]

There looks like there's a store missing from the list, 5151 Lapalco Boulevard in Marrero. According to "SCHWEGMANN GETS BIDS FOR 7 STORES - LAST 11 OUTLETS MAY BE AUCTIONED May 14, 1999 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)".

One article I read somewhere (Supermarket News I think, don't have it currently) stated that A&P wanted Schwegmann as a chain whole partially to make sure Albertsons was locked out of New Orleans (they had established stores in Slidell and Baton Rouge, and had recently opened a store in Gretna). Instead, the stores went to auction. A&P bought most of them, others closed, but Albertsons made a bid for three Schwegmann stores—8400 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette; 2701 Airline Drive in Metairie; and 5151 Lapalco Blvd. in Marrero.

In the summer of 1999, A&P outbid Albertsons for the package, intending to reopen at 2701 Airline Drive. The other two leases were rejected. The Marrero store was briefly planned to be a call center and by 2004 a building permit was made for an iron fence, and by 2005 it was Fort Knox Self Storage, which it still is today.

Albertsons would ultimately settle in at nearby 1951 Barataria Blvd. in a former Delchamps (I believe the only non-Premier Delchamps Albertsons ever occupied) before leaving the area less than five years later.

Still, the "Albertsonschwegmann" store did get a store number (#2789) based on a few existing records floating around the Internet (including pharmacy records!) despite not actually opening (I don't think Albertsons would've used all 110k square feet), and 5151 Lapalco was indeed a Schwegmann, which seems to be absent from the list.

[wnetmacman]

There looks like there's a store missing from the list, 5151 Lapalco Boulevard in Marrero. According to "SCHWEGMANN GETS BIDS FOR 7 STORES - LAST 11 OUTLETS MAY BE AUCTIONED May 14, 1999 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)".

One article I read somewhere (Supermarket News I think, don't have it currently) stated that A&P wanted Schwegmann as a chain whole partially to make sure Albertsons was locked out of New Orleans (they had established stores in Slidell and Baton Rouge, and had recently opened a store in Gretna). Instead, the stores went to auction. A&P bought most of them, others closed, but Albertsons made a bid for three Schwegmann stores—8400 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette; 2701 Airline Drive in Metairie; and 5151 Lapalco Blvd. in Marrero.

In the summer of 1999, A&P outbid Albertsons for the package, intending to reopen at 2701 Airline Drive. The other two leases were rejected. The Marrero store was briefly planned to be a call center and by 2004 a building permit was made for an iron fence, and by 2005 it was Fort Knox Self Storage, which it still is today.

Albertsons would ultimately settle in at nearby 1951 Barataria Blvd. in a former Delchamps (I believe the only non-Premier Delchamps Albertsons ever occupied) before leaving the area less than five years later.

Still, the "Albertsonschwegmann" store did get a store number (#2789) based on a few existing records floating around the Internet (including pharmacy records!) despite not actually opening (I don't think Albertsons would've used all 110k square feet), and 5151 Lapalco was indeed a Schwegmann, which seems to be absent from the list.

Albertsons has had a long history of opening in places where they had no business operating. They have too strict an operating policy that did not allow local flexibility like a local chain would. They were already operating the meager 7 New Orleans-area stores by 1999. They were already failing. If A&P wanted to lock them out, by that point, Albertsons already was larger than A&P by longshot and could have cleaned their clocks; indeed, part of their reasoning is why many retailers always avoided the city: real estate is a major cost. To get enough land to build a store, they would have had to buy a huge parcel of land covering both the store size and the parking, or build rooftop (Schwegmann had several rooftop parking lots). They did not find it cost-feasible to build there. By 2004 when they sold only four of their 7 sites to A&P, A&P did not rank in the top two - that went to Walmart and Winn Dixie. (Slidell and Covington were also sold to A&P; both are now abandoned.) WD has only been surpassed there by Rouses. And we know how this story may currently play out for WD. Several of the former Schwegmann stores are still unoccupied to this day. A store on Bullard Rd in East NO has never been repaired since Hurricane Katrina. The Gentilly store, one of the largest supermarkets in Louisiana, has never reopened as a supermarket. There was an Albertsons on Tulane that is now Goodwill. Indeed, the aforementioned store at 1951 Barataria (a former Woolco, BTW - Delchamps was originally next door but moved when the space became available) is the one of the only ones still a supermarket today; 2701 Airline is still a Rouses.

Schwegmann was far ahead of their time, but for urban New Orleans, it was the only way to shop, or as the locals say, make groceries, for many years. I contend that had Schwegmann not tried to get National/Canal Villere's New Orleans division and not sold out to KKR, they might still be around. And Albertsons wouldn't have dared approach the area. A&P, however, had one of their last outposts outside NY/NJ/New England there, so they must have understood the city.

[Groceteria]

5151 Lapalco was indeed a Schwegmann, which seems to be absent from the list.

I did miss this one, listed in the 2000 (1999) directory, and not the 1994, which suggests it ether opened after 1994 or was just not included before that for whatever reason. Unfortunately I do not have access to NOLA newspaper archives as a backup source, so I had to rely pretty much exclusively on the directories. This one has been added.

[pseudo3d]

There looks like there's a store missing from the list, 5151 Lapalco Boulevard in Marrero. According to "SCHWEGMANN GETS BIDS FOR 7 STORES - LAST 11 OUTLETS MAY BE AUCTIONED May 14, 1999 | Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)".

One article I read somewhere (Supermarket News I think, don't have it currently) stated that A&P wanted Schwegmann as a chain whole partially to make sure Albertsons was locked out of New Orleans (they had established stores in Slidell and Baton Rouge, and had recently opened a store in Gretna). Instead, the stores went to auction. A&P bought most of them, others closed, but Albertsons made a bid for three Schwegmann stores—8400 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette; 2701 Airline Drive in Metairie; and 5151 Lapalco Blvd. in Marrero.

In the summer of 1999, A&P outbid Albertsons for the package, intending to reopen at 2701 Airline Drive. The other two leases were rejected. The Marrero store was briefly planned to be a call center and by 2004 a building permit was made for an iron fence, and by 2005 it was Fort Knox Self Storage, which it still is today.

Albertsons would ultimately settle in at nearby 1951 Barataria Blvd. in a former Delchamps (I believe the only non-Premier Delchamps Albertsons ever occupied) before leaving the area less than five years later.

Still, the "Albertsonschwegmann" store did get a store number (#2789) based on a few existing records floating around the Internet (including pharmacy records!) despite not actually opening (I don't think Albertsons would've used all 110k square feet), and 5151 Lapalco was indeed a Schwegmann, which seems to be absent from the list.

Albertsons has had a long history of opening in places where they had no business operating. They have too strict an operating policy that did not allow local flexibility like a local chain would. They were already operating the meager 7 New Orleans-area stores by 1999. They were already failing. If A&P wanted to lock them out, by that point, Albertsons already was larger than A&P by longshot and could have cleaned their clocks; indeed, part of their reasoning is why many retailers always avoided the city: real estate is a major cost. To get enough land to build a store, they would have had to buy a huge parcel of land covering both the store size and the parking, or build rooftop (Schwegmann had several rooftop parking lots). They did not find it cost-feasible to build there. By 2004 when they sold only four of their 7 sites to A&P, A&P did not rank in the top two - that went to Walmart and Winn Dixie. (Slidell and Covington were also sold to A&P; both are now abandoned.) WD has only been surpassed there by Rouses. And we know how this story may currently play out for WD. Several of the former Schwegmann stores are still unoccupied to this day. A store on Bullard Rd in East NO has never been repaired since Hurricane Katrina. The Gentilly store, one of the largest supermarkets in Louisiana, has never reopened as a supermarket. There was an Albertsons on Tulane that is now Goodwill. Indeed, the aforementioned store at 1951 Barataria (a former Woolco, BTW - Delchamps was originally next door but moved when the space became available) is the one of the only ones still a supermarket today; 2701 Airline is still a Rouses.

Schwegmann was far ahead of their time, but for urban New Orleans, it was the only way to shop, or as the locals say, make groceries, for many years. I contend that had Schwegmann not tried to get National/Canal Villere's New Orleans division and not sold out to KKR, they might still be around. And Albertsons wouldn't have dared approach the area. A&P, however, had one of their last outposts outside NY/NJ/New England there, so they must have understood the city.

By 1999 they had just swallowed American Stores and the whole affair, disaster or not, was an enormous expenditure of resources. If they had stayed the course in the markets they already entered and only made smaller acquisitions they might've had been a better place by 2004 when they exited the market for good.

The 2002 market pull-outs in places like Missouri, Tennessee, and Houston were all fairly young markets which didn't get the chance to really develop. San Antonio was the only "legacy" market (well, that and the areas around Houston) and Albertsons ignored that market as H-E-B rolled over them.

If they acted a bit sooner before KKR was ready to dissolve the whole division, they could've snatched up the chain, rebranded all their stores in the area as "Schwegmann by Albertsons" and could've had a real solid base there. But...they didn't.

@Groceteria: I did save a few of the articles I got from Newsbank; please PM me if you would like PDF versions

[wnetmacman]

If they acted a bit sooner before KKR was ready to dissolve the whole division, they could've snatched up the chain, rebranded all their stores in the area as "Schwegmann by Albertsons" and could've had a real solid base there. But...they didn't.

The vast majority of the Schwegmann stores were insanely huge. I'm talking the 70,000-100,000 square foot range. When A&P/Sav-A-Center got their hands on the few they did get, they massively downsized them and passed on a couple of important ones like the Gentilly store that was so insanely popular. I know that I went to the Power Blvd. store in Metairie when it was still S-A-C, and you could obviously see that more than half the store was cut off, and that A&P had no desire to operate the gas pumps, farming that out to a lessee.

I say all of that to say this - in my experience, Albertsons only bought stores that fit the mold. Schwegmann did not fit anyone's mold - they marched to their own beat.

[pseudo3d]

I say all of that to say this - in my experience, Albertsons only bought stores that fit the mold. Schwegmann did not fit anyone's mold - they marched to their own beat.

I would say that was true up until the merger with American Stores; that's when they inherited a bunch of stores that were in the wrong neighborhood and/or too small to run their full Albertsons food and drug concept. That wasn't the only issue, they had a lot of weird acquisitions too. They bought the Des Moines Super One Foods stores and some FoodMax chains in the Nashville—both warehouse-style stores, and converted them to Albertsons while keeping them open initially under those names.

Likewise, they took over the more upscale Seessel's stores around the same time and started to convert them to their model...and while the Springfield MO Smitty's stores (a franchise of the Arizona chain of the same name) had long since gotten rid of their general merchandise selections (if they ever had a big selection) they still kept some of the diner-style restaurants open based on a classified ad I found.

All of this is interesting, but it tended to create a confusing and inconsistent introduction to the new markets, especially if they were used to the way the old stores tended to operate; naturally, these were the first ones to get cut. The real question is if Albertsons could do it. I would say yes, but again, that assumes adequate resources, with trying to choke down ASC, definitely not.

Because of these markets getting cut we'll never know if they would've been long-term stores for the company (some of the former Buttrey stores do all right, and Jewel-Osco, while never changing their name, still does well).

[jleyerle]

Exactly right---Albertsons was best running 55-60k sqft combo stores with split aisles and liberal but not over-the-top general merchandise....like they put into their original areas, Texas/Oklahoma, and Florida. The acquisitions were just too weird to fit into their cookie cutter model (either smaller older rural stores (Northwest/Plains) plus new-build combo stores)