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Wegmans not interested in stadium naming rights


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I'll gladly refuse Wegmans and their naming rights, in order to keep them in position as the best grocery store in the USA. And I don't live in WNY. Wish the aisles were wider but they are the best in terms of about everything. Flame me, don't care. 

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2 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:

Delaware North Stadium LOL

 

I think this one is a legit possibility as well. There was some talk about going in on a new stadium with the Pegula's or having a part in it so they could place all their stuff in it.

 

Jacobs worth 3.1 Billion and Delaware North brings in over a Billion plus per year as a company. Makes a lot of sense actually.

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31 minutes ago, Seasons1992 said:

 

Of course it is. Grocery stores are razor-thin margin people...........

It depends on the department.  Center store name brand items?  Yeah, margins are pretty small.  Other places in the store, not so much.  Margins on the things Wegmans is good at like prepared foods are pretty high.  They also have a lot of own brand merch in the center store and fewer national brands by design.  There is much higher margin on own brand stuff so if they carry fewer SKUs of national brands and more of own brand and have a decent quality own brand, they will make more money in the end.  You wouldn't believe the sheer number of different products out there and some stores go crazy with the number of SKUs they have trying to carry all this different stuff.  The ones that make money don't do that.  They have the core national brands or regional brands that customers demand and a solid selection of own brand.

 

My wife was category manager for the produce department and then the seafood department for a major grocery store chain so I assure you I've heard about this enough over the last 20 years and I've double checked more than one P&L sheet over the years.  Margins on individual items may be small if they are on sale but as a department whole they really don't change.  It depends on the store's business model of course, whether it's a "high/low" store that runs a lot of sales and such but then buffers that by having higher margins on other items or if it's an "everyday low price" store that runs less sales across the board.  The margins in the stores are about the same but they get there in different ways.

 

Smart stores will merchandise coordinating items near or with items that are on sale so people pick those up as well when they grab the smoking good deal.  Of course the margin on the coordinating items is usually pretty high so the store makes up the dollars they are losing by putting the other thing on sale.  One thing my wife would do a lot when she was in that role was "meal solutions"  she'd have something like broccoli crowns or halibut (not exciting) that she'd merchandise together with other things so that a customer could walk into a store, see this group of things right next to each other that could easily be built into a meal with a recipe card or something and people would pick up all of the items all the time.  Sure one of the them would be on sale, the other stuff wouldn't be, it would be stuff she got a good cost of goods on so she was able to have a massive margin on those things and she would crush sales on those things for the week.  The next week it would be something different built around what she could get a good cost of goods on, wash/rinse/repeat but to the customer it looks like something new and fresh every week.

 

One thing that used to make her crazy was that consumers tend to judge the overall prices of a store based on the price of bananas.  Hence, there is strong incentive to keep bananas cheap which then, in turn, forces the rest of the prices in the produce department to be higher to support the low banana price.  Whereas if you charged a dime more for bananas everything else could be cheaper.  Customers don't generally see it that way so if you go to a store because they have 49 cent bananas rest assured the other stuff in produce is more expensive.  Wegmans bananas are usually 69 cents and basically never go on sale.  Take from that what you will.

 

Also, there is ZERO ROI in a stadium naming deal. None. It's setting money on fire so the honchos at the company can get their butts kissed by the team and get things like VIP access to stuff and a fancy lux box or two.  That's all it is.  Given the restrictions that will be in place this year that will limit all of that corporate ball washing I'd expect the stadium to go unnamed at least for this year.

Edited by That's No Moon
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5 minutes ago, That's No Moon said:

 One thing my wife would do a lot when she was in that role was "meal solutions"  she'd have something like broccoli crowns or halibut (not exciting) that she'd merchandise together with other things so that a customer could walk into a store, see this group of things right next to each other that could easily be built into a meal with a recipe card or something and people would pick up all of the items all the time. 


This in itself is value add to the consumer. At least, for someone with limited time availability to plan and procure meals.  Which is many of us. 

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59 minutes ago, Seasons1992 said:

I'll gladly refuse Wegmans and their naming rights, in order to keep them in position as the best grocery store in the USA. And I don't live in WNY. Wish the aisles were wider but they are the best in terms of about everything. Flame me, don't care. 

I love Wegmans, but there's a lot of competition out there. Central Market caters a bit more towards the high end market, but it's definitely a better store and I think Publix is really good too. 

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