The Impermanence of Urban Grocery Retail

Ralphs is GOATED

Ralphs is goated. Ralphs is the $148 Billion revenue (2023) quintessential Kroger-owned Southern California grocery chain whose one-hundred and fifty-one-year history reads like a national park brochure.  Besides being the oldest continually operating grocery chain west of the Mississippi, Ralphs has spawned a multitude of pop cultural appearances including movies like “The Big Lebowski” where the Malibu police referenced “The Dude’s” Ralph’s Card with, “Is this your only form of ID?” to appearances in countless other films from “Forever Young'' to Repo Man, Ralph's star power shines bright.  I would be remiss without sharing Cardi B. shopping at a Ralph’s in a bathrobe and slippers on TikTok.  Ralphs is embedded in pop culture.

In its earliest incarnations, Ralphs was embedded in architecture.  In the earliest part of its 151-year history, Ralphs was known for hiring accomplished architects to design its stores. This included Ralph’s Westwood Village, Los Angeles store.  A store that was so architecturally significant it attracted famed nature photographer Ansel Adams to include it in one of his photographic series and the same store was featured in a 1968 painting by photorealist Robert Cottingham called “Ralph’s II”.  How many grocery store chains have their own photorealist painting hanging in a nationally recognized art museum (the Milwaukee Art Museum)?  Goated.

Seeking Ralphs

Living in Southern California for the past two years, it is hard to avoid the grocery market leader Ralph’s. I have been familiar with the downtown San Diego Ralphs Signature store for over thirteen years.  I first visited Ralphs as a tourist with my family in tow.  I was emboldened by finding a store less than three blocks from our hotel with free underground garage parking.  We were on our way to the San Diego Zoo Safari Wildlife Park and as a Dad who meticulously planned out a week-long itinerary of Southern California classic touristy highlights from Disneyland to Santa Monica pier there is nothing more rewarding than finding an upscale grocery store with free parking.  We quickly filled a basket with snacks, food and beverages to go.  It was August and the temps were a subtle seventy-five degrees and sunny every day.  Weather was our motivation for coming to California in August.  It was an alternative to a hot and muggy late summer East/Southern Coast family vacation.  Great weather without humidity and finding Ralph’s with free parking was GOATED!

RALPHS TODAY

Fast forward thirteen years and the downtown San Diego Ralphs is now my store.  Less than two blocks from my home, it is my go-to for everything from groceries to sushi, which says a lot in a town with not one, but two Michelin-starred sushi joints. To be clear, Ralphs is only one part of the formulae as my wife and I run a circuit between Lazy Acres Natural Foods Market (mostly for takeout hot foods), Trader Joe, and the occasional stop at Vons for their quick serve crack, Mango Habanero baked chicken.  Ralphs is still the mainstay because it's within walking distance and we go two to three times a week.

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO GROCERY RETAIL INCURSION

Shortly, downtown San Diegans could be walking to more than Ralphs.  The downtown San Diego Ralphs is facing its first new incursion in years.   While there is an Albertson’s and Grocery Outlet store each several blocks away, a Sprouts ($6.8 Billion 2022 Revenue) is opening across the street and Whole Foods is opening within blocks of the store.  As a result, I decided to investigate what changes Ralphs was making in anticipation of the new competition.

Despite the high-profile departure of a Walmart Neighborhood market on the fringe of downtown and Target opting out of a newly leased site in the base of the new 22-story Radian downtown residential high-rise, downtown San Diego is in the midst of a massive building boom of residential, commercial, and office space.  The new Whole Foods will be built on the first floor of a new 34-story, 343-foot-tall high rise.  

The Future of Downtown Grocery Retailing

The Sprouts will take residency directly across from Ralphs in the newly minted “The Campus at Horton” mixed-use development.  The word “Horton” is a nod to the former “Horton Plaza” five-story outdoor shopping mall that was previously located on the site until it closed in 2020 following several years of decline.  The death of Horton Plaza was exacerbated by the departure of downtown San Diego’s only Nordstrom store, leaving downtowners to schlep by car an extra 13 minutes or 5.8 miles to Nordstrom in the high-fashion, Fashion Valley center.  Now the Campus at Horton is the largest adaptive reuse project in the U.S. targeting biotech and high-technology firms to customize their offices, research labs, and residencies within its 10-acre urban footprint.  Sprouts will be in good company with other Campus at Horton announced tenants including Sweetgreens and Shake Shack.  With all the incursion, the question is how will the venerable downtown Ralphs respond to the new competition.   

RALPHS IN TRANSITION

The 2010 downtown San Diego Ralph’s store I first visited was the epitome of luxe grocery.  Opened in 1996, it was more Whole Foods versus your typical suburban Kroger and it was ahead of its time as an urban grocery store pioneer.  This store featured “stone pizza made in a “brick” fired oven and California-style grilled tri-tip steaks to go.  

RALPHS FORWARD

Nine years later in late 2019 when my wife and I decided to spend more time in our condo two blocks from Ralphs, I noticed the store was not as premium luxe as I had remembered in 2010.  The store experienced a remodel in 2017 that made it look generic like a suburban Kroger.  While the store still has the premium Murray’s Cheese store-within-a-store, the brick oven pizza is gone.

The Ralphs store facade and windows still advertised “Brick Oven Pizza” and “Tri-Tip” stenciled in large letters until April 2024.  Recently, Ralphs removed the lettering and replaced a side-facing mural with a new one, and added signage calling out the store’s local connection inside and outside just above the main entranceway.  The produce department was provided new fresh signage calling out the store's California connections including photos of local farmers.  Overall the store has transitioned to the “local” package featuring more signage calling out Ralphs local roots and connections.  This is a step in the right direction.

I still liked the old Ralphs store better and wished they would revive some of the premium touches that made it so appealing the first time I visited in 2010.  I am surprised at how little Ralphs has done to prepare for the coming competition.   This store is a staple in the neighborhood and should weather any incursion well, but the new stores will pull away some business as residents and tourists alike seek alternatives for perceived freshness.

"Ralphs Goated"

The downtown Ralphs San Diego store is still dubbed a “Signature” store based on the exterior signage.  When I investigated what “Signature” means, I learned the “Signature” moniker was developed in Kroger’s Houston Southwest division in 1993.   The Signature” concept was that Kroger polled residents via focus groups about the “merchandise, services and even layout preferences they most wanted” in their supermarket.   According to this 1998 Supermarket News article, the survey results were then reviewed and incorporated into the final design of the store.  Now if I could only find out if any of my neighbors were part of the original Signature “survey” for our local Ralphs.  If there was a survey and Ralphs were to do it again preceding the new incursion, I would add my opinion that Ralphs should add back the stone-fired brick pizzas and re-sign and rebrand the store from “Ralphs Signature” to “Ralphs Goated”.

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