Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Not a "Lucky" Break For Florida

Future Lucky's Market - West Melbourne, FL

     Big news for the Floridian grocery scene - Lucky's will be closing 20 of its 21 Florida locations on February 12, 2020, with liquidation sales beginning on Wednesday, January 22, 2020. In addition to this news, Lucky's is closing 32 of the company's 39 stores throughout the USA, and presumably canceling the opening of the 15 stores currently under construction too (the majority of which are in Florida). This news is a huge blow to Florida, as Lucky's was stepping in to fill many vacant grocery boxes throughout the state with their quirky, innovative approach to selling organic foods. These closures are fallout from Kroger backing out of their investment in Lucky's, a partnership that began in 2016. That money was supposedly being used to fuel Lucky's impressive growth, most of which was focused on Florida. Lucky's was really priming themselves to be Florida's largest organic grocery chain, so this is a big shift. After this closure wave, only 1 of Lucky's remaining 7 stores throughout the USA will be left in Florida: the West Melbourne Lucky's, pictured above as it was preparing to open in early 2017. Oddly enough, said Lucky's is my local store, and I shop there all the time. The place is always packed, so I can see why it was kept. However, being a far-flung location of a nearly crippled chain is never a good sign, so I guess I'll have to enjoy Lucky's while I can, a scenario I was never expecting. This news will really shift the organic grocery scene in Florida, and hopefully Sprouts and Greenwise will pick up some of the soon-to-be-vacated Lucky's stores as part of those chain's expansion efforts. Anyway, I'll link to some articles below about this breaking situation below. I plan to cover the closing of at least one of the soon-to-be-former Lucky's stores photographically, and I'll probably present it on the blog before long. I know organic grocery chains aren't usually the focus of my blog posts (unless one happens to find itself taking up residence in a former Albertsons store), but I feel like Lucky's was a different situation. They had such large prospects for Florida, which looked so good, but ultimately crumbled fast like so many others that tried before them. However, we'll discuss that in detail at a later date. Anyway, it's sad to see Lucky's fail like this, but I'll keep everyone posted as news unfolds. For more on the current situation with Lucky's, a few good articles are listed below, and thanks to Reviewer Jay for tipping me off to this news this afternoon!

Lucky's Market Closing Florida Stores - The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Lucky's Market in West Melbourne to Remain Open as Lucky's Stores Close Across Florida - The Florida Today (An interesting look from the perspective of the last Lucky's standing in Florida)

There are lots of articles about this situation online if you want to Google more, as this announcement is grabbing major headlines. However, I feel the three articles above provide a well rounded explanation of what's happening right now, especially from a Floridian view.

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

20 comments:

  1. Reviewer Jay said:

    I personally think either Publix will take these locations for Greenwise or they will be picked up by Amazon for Whole Foods. With Luckys closing so many locations I highly doubt they will be taking the shelving and the cold cases inside leaving whoever takes these locations the opportunity to save money on equipment. It’s also hard to believe they are leaving one location open when that means they will have to run a truck down to service one location since they are closing the Orlando warehouse.

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    1. This is a fantastic opportunity for Publix to expand Greenwise. The new Greenwise seemed to have been modeled on Lucky's format, although leaning a bit more upscale (but still with a laid back feel). I'd be surprised if Publix doesn't cherry pick a few of these sites for their liking. This is certainly an unexpected opportunity for others to expand. I'm surprised they decided to keep that one store too, although Lucky's had a weirdly spaced out footprint to begin with. Being the odd store out is never a good thing, so it will be interesting to see how long the West Melbourne store will last in the current situation.

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  2. I finally got my account to work where I can post. So I went to Luckys today and I got some gossip from the employees. The rumor is that Kroger pulled out of the stores and since Kroger was the investor the stores are leased under the Kroger company’s name. Luckys was forced to close. It starts to make sense when you look at which stores are staying open and that those are the ones that have been open longer and may be leased under Luckys name. The rumor is Kroger may take control of these buildings including the ones under construction for their use when their warehouse opens in Florida next year. The employees said Melbourne is staying open but the busiest store is Clermont and that one is closing so it doesn’t make sense why Luckys would close that one unless they had to. The distribution center in Orlando which is also closing is leased under the Kroger Co. Kroger could easily reopen these stores under a new banner for organic food. Again this is all speculation but when you start putting the pieces together it really makes it look like something else is going on. Only time will tell.

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    1. I visited a few of the closing Lucky's stores today and was told basically the same thing about the leases, so I believe there is some merit to that claim. I pulled up a few leases online and Kroger is listed as the grantor on pretty much every lease, so they were in control of those. I wonder how the West Melbourne store managed to have its lease not fall into Kroger's hands. The employees I spoke to today were also very bitter toward Kroger, blaming them for this entire mess. I can't blame them for being bitter though, as Lucky's got a raw deal at the end of this when Kroger pulled out, and the decision effects a lot of people. The stores I went to were very picked over for only two days into the closure process too, and many shoppers were extremely upset the stores were closing. It will be interesting to see what comes of the former Lucky's stores, and if the company is able to rebound from the post-Kroger fallout.

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  3. RIP Luckys Market Florida ???? - 2020 except for Melbourne store

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    1. Florida's first Lucky's opened in 2016, so they really weren't here for long.

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  4. I went to our Gainesville Lucky's Wednesday night and as soon as we walked in we saw huge lines for checkout backing up into the grocery aisles. We turned right around and left. At the rate they're liquidating, they may be closed before Feb. 12. Although the higher prices Apothecary items will probably take that long to liquidate.

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    1. I visited a few closing Lucky's stores around Orlando, and even two days into the closing they were looking quite picked over. I agree, these liquidations will probably end sooner than expected.

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  5. Lucky’s Market has filed for bankruptcy and is in the process of selling six of its Florida locations to Aldi.

    None of the stores in the ongoing Aldi deal are in Tampa Bay. Court bankruptcy filings show Aldi will likely take over the Lucky’s properties in Gainesville, Neptune Beach, Naples, Clermont, Orlando and Ormond Beach. In total, 32 Lucky’s Markets are closing.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. There is conflicting information now. Publix is now saying they have the Orlando Colonial location, Neptune Beach, Naples, Ormond Beach, and Clermont location not Aldi. Not sure who is claiming Gainesville now, Hopefully they sort it out tomorrow.

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  6. 5 locations (not yet disclosed) are sold to Publix for what is believed to be for Greenwise.

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    1. I think a Greenwise Market would do good in the Gainesville Lucky's space, although I feel that Gainesville is pretty Publixed-out. I'd be much happier with a Sprouts, but it doesn't seem that they're participating in this Lucky's downfall.

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    2. To clarify who's getting what, Publix will be getting the Lucky's stores in Ormond Beach, Clermont, SoDo Orlando, Neptune Beach, and one of the Naples stores. Aldi will be getting the stores in Sarasota, Oakland Park, Coral Springs, Orlando Vineland Pointe, Orlando Colonial Landing, and an unfinished store in Venice. Unfortunately, that leaves Gainesville's fate up in the air for now.

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  7. I heard Winn Dixie was possibly looking into taking over a few of the locations too.

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    1. That would be an interesting development should it happen, as I don't know what Winn-Dixie would do with such small stores.

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  8. Here is the article I heard it from

    https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/winn-dixie-parent-looking-at-acquiring-luckys-market-locations

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  9. I wonder who'll take over the Brandon Lucky's store. They were building it on the site of the old K-Mart.

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  10. Aand now that store is reverting back to SEG...

    https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-luckys-market-confirms-its-leaving-florida-completely-20200205-u6i6uvyjhza4viwkbywyeiezdi-story.html

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  11. The Safeway and Albertsons leaving Florida 2.0

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