Stater Bros. Markets, BB #:111865 Colton, CA, has grown from about 100 stores in the late 1990s to 170-plus stores in 2023, all within its core area of trade in Southern California.
Most of its recent openings have been in the 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot range, largely meant to replace nearby stores that are shuttering.
In the second half of 2022, the retailer opened a 49,480-square-foot store in Riverside and a 44,378-square-foot location in Whittier.
Plans were also announced for a new 46,109-square-foot location in Chino, with a late winter 2023 opening planned. Meanwhile, the Escondido store was closed in January 2023. The company also completed a flurry of remodel projects in and around 2018.
Most of the chains operating in Southern California have stores in the Inland Empire, with Ralphs and Vons among the closest competitors faced by Stater Bros., along with other independents and smaller upscale chains such as Bristol Farms.
Among the other banners in the area are a mix of local, regional, and national brands at all price tiers, including Food 4 Less, Goodwin’s Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Jensen’s Foods, Aldi, WinCo Foods, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Albertsons.
The region offers room for growth, says Phil Lempert, the voice and mind behind Santa Monica, CA’s The Supermarket Guru, due to big changes occurring over the last two to three years.
“Prepandemic, it was overstored,” Lempert observes. “In the last two years there’s been a huge increase in the population living there full time. In the past, you had snowbirds in Palm Springs, and the rest of the year you could roll a bowling ball down the street—now there are constant traffic jams.”
Operators such as Ralphs and Vons are remodeling stores in the area, Aldi and Jensen’s have opened some locations, and Whole Foods has been expanding there in the last three to four years.
Lempert believes the timing of the ambitious rebrand was spot-on, pointing out that the Kroger-Albertsons merger, which could be approved and finalized in the coming year, would lead to the divestiture of hundreds of stores in Southern California.
“The timing is good to get some new customers before that happens,” he states.
Carol Spieckerman, president of Spieckerman Retail in Bentonville, AR, explains that the company has been cautious about expanding into new formats, but she’s watching to see whether its foray into smaller-sized stores might signal future activity.
In April 2022, timed to the launch of its rebrand, Stater Bros. announced it would test a smaller format store with what it called “an improved fresh experience,” building on its established reputation in that department.
This is an excerpt from the May/June 2023 issue of Produce Blueprints Magazine’s California Supplement.
