Las Vegas Sun

November 22, 2009

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THE ECONOMY:

Six Las Vegas grocery stores closing

Albertsons and Lucky stores to close in February

Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 7:18 p.m.

Two Albertsons and four Lucky grocery stores are scheduled to close Feb. 19 in Las Vegas.

The news comes after two Albertsons stores closed last year.

The stores include:

• Albertsons at 2300 E. Tropicana Ave. at Tropicana and Eastern Avenue.

• Albertsons at 6140 W. Lake Mead Blvd. at Lake Mead and Jones Boulevard.

• Lucky at 4801 W. Spring Mountain Road at Spring Mountain and Decatur Boulevard.

• Lucky at 2021 E. Lake Mead Blvd. at Lake Mead and Eastern Avenue.

• Lucky at 2400 E. Bonanza Road at Bonanza and Eastern Avenue.

• Lucky at 1324 Craig Road at Craig and Camino Al Norte.

Albertsons closed two grocery stores in Las Vegas last year, one at Tropicana Avenue and Mountain Vista Street and another at Bonanza and Lamb roads.

"Albertsons and Lucky continuously evaluate their stores to identify opportunities to strengthen their overall business. While the decision to close a store is always difficult -- given the impact on associates and customers -- it is guided by what is best for the company's ongoing success and future growth," an Albertsons news release said.

SUPERVALU, the parent company of Albertsons and Lucky stores, reported closing 25 of its 1,100 stores nationwide last year, according to its third quarter report.

The company, the third-largest national grocery retailer, reported $2.9 billion in losses in its third quarter ending Nov. 29.

The company has said it will help hundreds of displaced employees from the closed stores to find other jobs. Albertsons has 38 stores and about 3,000 employees in Las Vegas.

Discussion: 27 comments so far…

  1. Population loss. Pure and simple.

    These stores are all in working class areas and those were the first people that moved away when construction projects stopped, and manufacturing jobs went away.

    Notice how they aren't closing any in Green Valley or Summerlin.

    I really feel for the employees of these stores because it's really getting hard to find even retail jobs now because that's where everyone else went to work when they lost their casino jobs.

    I love Vegas and it's sad to see it dying like this.

  2. Yes, stevem, it is curious that most of the stores being closed are located in working class areas. And minority areas, too. I live in Green Valley, and the Albertsons around here are always empty-Wal Mart Markets are killing them-but they get enough stupid rich shoppers to let them survive. But I understand Albertsons has been for sale for quite a while-and no takers. Basically, it's going to be Wally and Kroger (Smiths and FFL) here.

  3. Man, I didn't even know there were still Lucky's in town. I thought they went out of business in the 90s.

  4. Las Vegas dying? I think a better concept would be to say it is going through some transitions - slower growth and consolidation are probably better in the long term than the frenzy that has been here for a while. Ok, keep the faith and don't give up the ship!

  5. OMFG Steve ... Las Vegas isn't dying. Dude, check your history - Las Vegas rises and falls and rises above. You moved away, so LET IT GO. We will not only be fine when this is over, we will be better.

  6. ahhh,

    yes...

    RPJ must go from story to story to see which ones i've responded to for him to know that i moved away. that is sad, sad, sad.

    RPJ is in the same crowd that was saying "vegas is recession proof".

    don't worry, RPJ, your job will be coming to an end here shortly.

    vegas will never, ever get back to what it was.

  7. That's terrible these stores are going away like they are. I actually used to be a night clerk at the lake mead store and I'm a regular shopper at another one. What a shame. What's worse is that this is happening all over, all these businesses closing down. I also found out tonight that our Dairy Queen had also gone out of business.

    They're dropping like flies and jobs are getting harder and harder to come by with each passing day. At my current job, several of my co-workers have come back to work because they've gotten laid off at other jobs that they had left the company for. It's only part-time for me (and all reps) but I make more hours than any of the other reps thanks to my work ethics. Right now it's better than nothing and I'm afraid to leave the company with the economy the way it is.

    What sucks worse still is that I've already had my truck repo'd, my checking/savings closed, I'm filing bankruptcy and living with my parents again and using a d*mn bicycle for transportation. And I'm only 32 years old. With the economy spiriling down the way it is, I'm lucky not to be homeless. Now I'm just wondering if/when my store might be next.

  8. The Lucky store closing at Craig was an Albertsons until last year. They did some makeovers and opened as a Lucky. That store and also the Vons across the street are two stores that I would never go to again. Lucky is just crummy and the Vons has put the "crowd control" bars across the entire store. It is very hard for people in wheelchairs or that use a cane (like myself) to even get in. There are much nicer stores to buy groceries within a short distance.

  9. i know your pain, eagle.

    i really do.

    i had to leave las vegas myself a few months ago after i couldn't find a job anywhere. i really miss it and my friends. i was there for 7 years!

    if i could find a job there again i'd be in the car going back today.

  10. They closed the ones where the leases where up. It makes sense that the older stores leases are up. I bet if more leases where up then you would see more closers. Business is bad just awful. I have never seen it so slow in retail in my life.

  11. As a supervalue employee. we were told 350+ employees will be layed off. The stores have just started rehiring the layed off workers from the last closing. Don't be fooled people will be layed off. It is sad that some people will lose thier jobs & prolly not return. If you care about our union employess & the businesses. Plz shop union. :)

  12. It is so scary what is going on in our town. I lost my job at the Venetian one month ago and there is no end in sight. I shopped at the Decatur Lucky's 30 years ago when all of the apartment complexes on Twain were built. Very sad times here just praying that I can find something soon before I lose my Condo and Car....

  13. stevem "...vegas will never, ever get back to what it was."

    That's quite a prediction. One would think with that kind of amazing foresight you would be rich. And yet, we know that is not the case. :)

  14. I do agree it might be many years before our economy recovers. I believe it will be it will be 4 to 5 years before we see a boom cycle again. This year most likely will be another down year. Hopefully, next year we will stabilized at the bottom of this cycle.

    It took over 20 years plus for the US to fully recover from the Great Depression despite all the deficit spending make works programs by FDR. It was not until after WWII did the economy truly recovered. Currently, our economy is nowhere like the Great Depression. Cross our fingers that we will not have to experience that.

    The US probably has some more boom cycles in her.

    I expect one day that the boom cycle will again be in Vegas.

  15. Well, johnvegas...

    Will there be 15 - 20% home value increases each year ever again?

    I doubt it.

    Endless new construction projects from new casinos being built?

    I doubt it.

    There's simply not enough useable land in Las Vegas for it to ever provide the construction jobs, Realtor jobs, escrow transactions, retail jobs from new store openings, new jobs at the power and gas companies to support those new homes and stores, etc.

    Now combine that with the rise in casinos in Southern California and the millions of baby boomers that WOULD have retired in the next year that would have vacationed in Vegas that now have to work another year or two AND the fact Nevada has dropped to #8 in population growth ( when it was #1 or #2 for years ).

    In that way, Vegas will never be what it was from 2001 - 2007.

    Will it get better? Yes, probably in 3 - 4 years, but it will never be what it was over the last few years. That time period is over and done.

  16. Steve, you kill me. You really do. I read the same stories you do, and I comment because I resent the Internet allowing misguided and uniformed comments to be Googled as fact.

    "Will there be 15 - 20% home value increases each year ever again?"

    No. We had 40+ YEARS of 4% annual appreciation. That is normal and healthy. What happened in 2003-2006 was driven by speculation, and not just in Las Vegas, but in a lot of housing markets. That speculation was driven by no-doc loans - housewives and salesmen buying four or five houses to flip them, all without proof of income. Fools suffer. Oh, well. Buh-bye!

    "Endless new construction projects from new casinos being built?

    The building boom hasn't always appeared "endless". Las Vegas had an almost 20 year drought of new resort construction until the Mirage project in 1989 - about the time you were born, I suspect. That being said, there are plenty of moldy old properties waiting to be swallowed up by reinvention, plenty of land to be built upon, imploded, and rebuilt. Forever.

    "There's simply not enough useable land in Las Vegas for it to ever provide the construction jobs, Realtor jobs, escrow transactions ... BLAH BLAH BLAH ... AND the fact Nevada has dropped to #8 in population growth ( when it was #1 or #2 for years )."

    No useable land? Have you ever heard of the BLM and the relationship Nevada has with it? Besides, so what? Las Vegas was a much better place to live about 15 years ago. I'm not afraid of population shrinkage, and the only ones who are are the ones who hang on the coattails of flush prosperity without having to prove themselves. When Vegas loses the bottom 20 percent, we'll all be the better for it. Besides, Las Vegas wasn't built on waiters-turned-real-estate-agents and escrow transactions.

    "In that way, Vegas will never be what it was from 2001 - 2007."

    Again ... And? So what? We had a great standard of living here in the 1970s and 1980s - and far less people.

    "Will it get better? Yes, probably in 3 - 4 years, but it will never be what it was over the last few years. That time period is over and done."

    Whatever is "over and done" for Las Vegas is "over and done" for the United States at large. History has proven, as goes Las Vegas, so goes the country.

    "RPJ is in the same crowd that was saying "vegas is recession proof".

    You are incorrect.

    "don't worry, RPJ, your job will be coming to an end here shortly."

    I haven't worked for anyone since 1992. I own a business that gainfully employs many people and, thereby, support their families. And you?

    "vegas will never, ever get back to what it was."

    I have to agree with johnevegas here. If you were Nostradamus, you wouldn't have left Vegas with your tail between your legs, you would have used your prognostication skills to great advantage at the casinos.

    Good luck, and LET VEGAS GO Steve!

  17. Old timers will recall it took a decade to recover from the downturn in the late 60's

  18. I thought this was the USA and "freedom of speech". I think Steven has a right to say it like it is or the way he sees it.

  19. RPJ owns a pawnshop and Johnevegas is a drug dealer. Good for you, business is up. But a lot of people in town are struggling. I believe the town will bounce back eventually but not if the Feds are allowed to print money till it's worthless.

  20. "...Johnevegas is a drug dealer."

    Hardly a drug dealer my friend. I sell private lodging. All but sold out for CES. Actually close to 95%. No markups this year, but no discounts either.

    Sorry things are so bad for you. Trying seeing success and opportunity first (i.e. before you have concrete evidence) and maybe things will change for you. Read and follow "The Secret". You can Google that. It works! But you have to believe it first.

  21. Ys, these stores are in low income areas-the greatest hardship(besides the price gouge these stores heap on poor people-is that most shoppers are without cars. The store on Eastern and Bonanza is next to public housing. How will these families manage?

  22. i love how RPJ is the holder and distributor and defender of all things factual on the internet.

    i'll sleep better tonight.

    i like how he goes back to the pre-Mirage days to fight me, yet i was clearly talking about the 2001 - 2007 period.

    talking about "we had 40 years of..." and "we had a great standard of living in the 1970s and 1980s".

    i wasn't talking about THOSE years, you moronic old fossil.

    and yes, i DO know what the BLM is. there's physically not enough land in the VALLEY for it to generate the boom we had from 2001 - 2007.

    "diminishing returns" if there were 1,000 acres of land that COULD be built on and you used 800 of it from 2001 - 2007 and now you only have 200 of it left, there's no way to generate the jobs that you got from building on the 800.

    you don't have to be nostradomus to figure that out.

    and i love how RPJ owns a business, yet he never wants to tell us what he does.

  23. Better do a little more research folks, the influx of californians is going to grow, from their new 10 percent plus retail tax and lack of jobs., las vegas still has major projects ]that demand employment, house values here are attractive, taxes here aree attractive.
    Or maybe you think people are going to move to detroit or mississippi? maybe iowa, or minnesota. do you research when things begin to re-bound we'll know it here first. the last seven years is a baromter for nothing but a moron.
    Nevada will set a great example, not without a little pain of course but mor luch than other areas of this country.,
    and buy the way if you voted for obama you should be high fiving it with your neigbor because you just got an 80.00 deuction per month for your taxes, now, you can spend it at applebees or olive garden, or usen it to pay down that mrtgage tou are upside down 100k or more, when obama's spproval rating is worse than bush's in 6 months you'll have your own naivity
    and cult like attitude to blame, maybe everyone who voted for him will pull a "jim jones" and we can start to get this country back to normal again.

  24. also funny; "Las vegas will never, ever get back to what it was"
    hmmmmmm...... I don't think i have ever seen anything get back to what it was, how could that be healthy? gee, i want to be what everything was twenty years ago? Grab on and get ready the bumble bee flies not because scientists told him his wings are to small for his body, he flies because no-one told him he could'nt fly.

  25. "...when obama's spproval rating is worse than bush's in 6 months you'll have your own naivity
    and cult like attitude to blame..."

    I'll take that bet! Even with hefty odds, I'll take that bet!

  26. Maybe they should hire anyone who applies for
    a job there. Maybe forget the thesis from Yale?
    Move up the current employees. Maybe try to clear
    the want ads in the town? Maybe the local companies could stimulate the economy?

  27. There are 2 Albertsons and 1 Luckys that had a Post Office in them. It was there for 12 and a half years. Now they are closing .So sad. Have a friend that lives 2 blocks from the Luckys on Bonanza and Eastern. One is a handicapped man. How will he get his shopping done when he needs milk, bread, etc. Well, we should all protest on East Tropicana of the closing. They are Albertsons (True Value) red-lining the community. First of all Albertsons prices are ridulously high. They want 2 for 6 when i can get the same thing in a union store at 2 for 5. like orange juice etc. the people of summerlin will always look for cheaper stuff too that's why they have money. By the way a Hispanic store is opening in its place--of course non-union.

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