Are you ready, Santa Fe?
Ready to feel truly pampered as carryout clerks put bags of groceries into your trunk?
Ready for an extraordinary new grocery shopping experience?
Ready for the DeVargas Center Albertsons grocery store to add a bunch of stuff you didn't know you needed, like meal "solutions" made by an executive chef and an on-site adviser to advise you on body care and supplements?
The United Family, the subsidiary which operates the Albertsons Market chain, announced this morning the grocery store on North Guadalupe Street would begin to transition to a Market Street store in early July. The store will mostly stay open while it remodels until the expected grand opening in January 2019, according to the company.
The company says this is the first Market Street outside of Texas, and the only United Family supermarket brand besides Albertsons to open in New Mexico.
United Family Executive Vice President Tony Crumpton says the company pursued the plan because the Albertsons store at the location was already doing well. The Albertsons store at the DeVargas Center has been a staple for wide swath of people, including working-class grocery shoppers, while the Market Street brand appears catered to a more bourgeoisie clientele.
The new store will bring "a multitude of offerings that we don't have available today in the Albertsons format," Crumpton says. "The store has been successful, and we want to bring that plethora of offerings [to] Santa Fe."
Neither Crumpton nor company President Robert Taylor were willing to state clearly whether all the basic staples available at the current store would stick around; a press release from the company says it will sell "organic, natural and gluten-free items across the store as well as traditional everyday products."
The company expects the change to add 100 more jobs through the change. The union representing Albertsons workers at the location, United Food Commercial Workers of New Mexico, says negotiations are "progressing as expected."
"There should not be any bad effects to the workers at all," says Greg Fraizer, president of the local union chapter. "We are seeking some improvements to provide for more full-time jobs, and also some some better pay conditions, but other than that, things are going as expected."
SFR inquired about a possible change to the property value with DeVargas Center and will update if and when we get an answer. Meanwhile, a bowling alley at the center is slated to open in September.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story misnamed the Albertsons subsidiary. We've updated with correct information.
