Livermore PW Market lost to recession

I blame Bush for the economy that caused this mess.
It had very good prime beef and veal at reasonable prices.

The folks in East Springtown will now be inconvenienced by evening traffic just to get food.

Rite-Aid? You must live in Casa Del Beaner across the street eh?

Eee wrote:

WRRROOOOONNNNG. PW NEVER DID WELL. IT WAS NEVER BUSY. I LOVED PW. BUT ITS CLOSING HAS NOTHING TO DO W/ OUR CURRENT ECONOMY,
THE ONLY ONES TO BLAME ARE THE LOCAL RESIDENTS AND THE FRANKOS FOR HAVING TOO BIG OF A SPACE FOR THE AREA.... U WANNA TRY AGAIN DIPSHT.
WHERE THE HELL IS EAST SPRING TOWN? WTF? U COULD ALWAYS MOVE U BIG WHINER.
PS - RITE AID SELLS SOME FOOD. LOL

Eee-you are so stupid, everyone has a right to their opinion. Quit being such a jerk. You sound like the whiner to me....!

When the promised houses in north Livermore did not get built, the business model for the PW store there collapsed. Yes, all the fault of a former president.

If you're going with the hypothesis that the model was only workable with more residential units, I guess the people to blame are largely the older residents of livermore, the "no growthers" on the City Council (basically just old, South Livermore residents), as well as the out-of-town environmentalists who spent a lot of money to defeat Measure D.

Bush had nothing to do with it.... not an opinion, fact.

Tax Payer wrote:

Bush had nothing to do with it.... not an opinion, fact.

Yes, Bush had nothing to do with it. Bush did nothing as President when the economy started to fall during his presidency.

It's Greenspan's fault which makes it Bush's fault.

actually - it is the fault of greed and people who could not afford their homes to begin with and those over spending and illegals bleeding california's systems - welfare, headstart, section 8, healthcare - damn illegals.

As foe PW specifically, back OT - blame yourself for not shopping there.

Anon wrote:

If you're going with the hypothesis that the model was only workable with more residential units, I guess the people to blame are largely the older residents of livermore, the "no growthers" on the City Council (basically just old, South Livermore residents), as well as the out-of-town environmentalists who spent a lot of money to defeat Measure D.

I am so sick of hearing that the economy affected PW, or the lack of residents and housing to keep it busy...bullshit!!!! They did the market research BEFORE they opened there believe me! There are enough residents to sustain PW or it wouldn't have opened. It was their horrible service, along with higher prices than Safeway, and lack of selection of items. I heard this from the residents that went to that store and that is what I heard over and over. Just look at how crowded Safeway is..Safeway loves it, I hate it. I fear this is our future. Overcrowded, less service in our created monopolies. Too bad you can't get a loan to be an entreprenuer in this country anymore. Some family could put a family owned grocery like knob hill style. But who could get a loan to do so now?? someone rich who already owns a bunch of stores...like some FOODMAX's..

You certainly can't make the argument that the economy DIDN'T adversely impact PW, or that it wouldn't have been helped by MORE housing and more people, so...not sure what you are saying.
If all it takes to survive is low prices, then you have to remember you also need high volume to make up the difference. That's why PW isn't in the "low end" space, and that's why they located where they did. They felt it was an area that would be growing in both prosperity and population and neither assumption turned out to be correct.

I have a hard time believing the problem was service, I always got good service there. As for lack of selection, what is this referring to? I found it perfectly adequate for most needs. I mean, sure there wasn't a "nut bar" like at Safeway , but who in the hell needs something like that? I have never once seen anyone patronizing the nut bar, or the other flukey thing next to it. And yah, they have a starbucks in it, which probably helps little bit. But more than any of the products, the thing that ensures Safeway's success is its location, centrally located within a larger population than PW. However, had the Pardee development gone in, things might have been very different. If the economy were still running strong, then there would be more affluent consumers instead of fewer, less affluent ones who have been pressured to pursue the cheapest possible products.

I would say its a confluence of too small of a market and too poor of a market. If the store were downtown or in Pleasanton, it would probably be doing okay.

Ooookayy Anon - here you go again with your crystal ball... is THIS your public service of the day. How about get out and enjoy the day ya pathetic whiner.

And suck it.

Anon is right. It's not rocket science. Economy, demographics, location, timing.

Still as clueless as ever....

Actually the residents of Livermore who voted down the residential expansion project in Springtown are to blame. The PW was built with that plan in mind and it was shuttered. That cost PW thousands of potential customers. Sure the economy is partly responsible but a quick view shows that Bush inherited problems that began in the Clinton years when he decided that everyone in the US had the right to purchase a home despite their actual earnings. Blame Bush. It's easy to do for the non-thinkers.

QWERTY wrote:

<quoted text>
Yes, Bush had nothing to do with it. Bush did nothing as President when the economy started to fall during his presidency.

Here's another sensible guy who "gets it": Charly. Thank you, Charly. Can also blame the idiots that call themselves the City Council members, as well as the eco-terrorist environmental freaks from out of town who put a lot of money into the campaign against Livermore Trails/ Measure D.

PW rolled the dice and lost. Its unfortunate. I miss my PW friends, the convenience factor of the store, and of course its bad for business for the other merchants in the center as well.

Now, that being said, since they have closed, I have been splitting the marketing between Safeway and TJ's and things have been okay. Safeway however, is not any less expensive, or better, than PW was.$8 for a roasted chicken? The PW chicken was the same price but had a bigger and tastier chicken, as does Costco. Paid $4 for a not very large container of fresh soup, same price as at PW. Sourdough Bread loaf at 2.49, same price as PW. Meats and cheeses same prices for packaged, didn't check the deli counter but I suspect the staple items are comparable. I just don't see the savings at Safeway. Compared to TJ's its way overpriced.$3.99 for milk that isn't even labelled organic? TJ sells organic for 2.79. Dont get me wrong, Safeway is a nice store, a big store, lots of products, but again, the nut bar was staffed and was drawing no customers. Talk about a "nut job".

And I notice they are still referring to customers as "Mister Customer" by reading the info from your credit card. I hate that. They also didn't ask if I wanted paper or plastic. And they didn't scan my coupon that I had thoughtfully pre-peeled from the product and placed on top, so the checker could save time. So where is this better service I keep hearing about?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. PW's downfall was a product of two things:

1. diminishing quality
2. not "high" prices, but "prices that didn't make sense"

PW's quality (vegetables, meats, etc.) took a sharp dip in the last few years and THAT is a big part of why they are out of business. People will look past high prices if they feel they are getting a higher quality of products. But if you offer poor quality goods AND your prices are higher than the competition, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

PW also made poor business decisions. This is what I mean by "prices that didn't make sense". You cannot charge $6 for a loaf of sandwich bread and then complain that the community wouldn't support you. I guarantee you the PW corporation isn't paying $5.50 for that loaf of bread. So why price it so high? They should have used a smaller markup, they would make less per loaf but they would move more product. That's business 101, It's not rocket science.

So what I'm saying is that it is not the fault of the residents of this community, it is the fault of poor management on the part of PW. This community has more than enough residents to support a quality store, assuming that quality store knows how to manage their business!

I've never paid $6 for a loaf of bread at PW. A loaf of fresh sourdough in baguette format was $2.49 last month, have the receipt right here, which is a fairly reasonable price and comparable to Safeway.

Granted they stocked some higher end products, closer to the gourmet line, but they usually offered the house brand or a cheaper national brand in addition to it.

The implication seems to be that "staples" were outrageously expensive. I would disagree and say that if anything, they were marginally more expensive but not abusive. Grocery is a volume business of course, and the more you do, the better your wholesale pricing, so a store like safeway has more pricing power than a place like PW, but you sure wouldn't know it from a lot of the prices particularly on the high margin products like prepared foods and bakery.