Sav-A-Center

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Sav-A-Center was an A&P-owned chain of 20 supermarkets in the greater New Orleans, Louisiana metropolitan-area. The division operated locations throughout Louisiana and had 2 stores in Mississippi. (Three additional stores in the Sav-A-Center area still operated as A&Ps, including a small nonstandard "corner grocery" in the French Quarter.)

By August 2005, the chain operated primarily in the Baton Rouge and the New Orleans metro areas and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Many stores sustained some level of damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Twenty-one stores reopened within a few months of the storm and two others following necessary remodeling to repair flood damage. Five stores were closed permanently due to severe damage to the stores and the markets they served. In April, 2007, the chain exited the Baton Rouge market, closing its locations there. On May 30, 2007, A&P confirmed that it was planning to exit the New Orleans market and is actively seeking buyers for its 20 remaining Sav-A-Center stores. In A&P's statement, the company cited its decision to focus on its remaining operations in the Northeast, where it operates the majority of its stores. It was announced in September that the remaining operations in the region would be sold to the locally owned Rouses chain, a total of 20 stores. Rouses will continue to operate 16 of the stores, 14 in metro New Orleans and two in Mississippi, sell one to another local chain, Breaux Mart, and close three others.

Contents

[edit] Former Sav-A-Center Locations

  1. 4 and #10 in Baton Rouge (closed 2007, previous locations, once branded as SuperFresh, closed earlier)
  2. 42, #47, #81, #82, #83 on the North Shore of metro New Orleans in Slidell, Mandeville, and Covington, LA- (purchased by Rouses, two locations to be closed)
  3. 107 and #128 in Ocean Springs and Gulfport, Mississippi (purchased by Rouses)
  4. 56 on Clearview (purchased by Rouses)
  5. 60 on Veterans Highway (purchased by Rouses)
  6. 68 on West Esplanade (purchased by Rouses)
  7. 74 on Terry Parkway (operated as A&P; closed after purchase by Rouses)
  8. 84 Belle Chase Highway (purchased by Rouses)
  9. 85 Belle Chase Highway (purchased by Rouses)
  10. 211 on Power Boulevard (former Schwegmann location, purchased A&P then by Rouses)
  11. 62 on General DeGaulle (purchased by Rouses)
  12. 71 on Royal Street ("corner grocery" in French Quarter operated as A&P)
  13. 69 on Magazine St. (operated as an A&P; purchased by Breaux Mart)
  14. 216 on Franklin at the lake front (former Schwegmann location, purchased by A&P, now Rouses)
  15. 231 on Tchoupitoulas (former Real Superstore location then Schwegmann location, purchased by A&P, now Rouses)

Reopened after extensive remodeling following Hurricane Katrina:

  1. 75 on Carrolton Avenue (reopened March 06, purchased by Rouses)
  2. 76 on Airline Highway (on site of former Schwegmann location, reopened March 06, purchased by Rouses)

Closed after Katrina:

  1. 55 in Meraux, LA
  2. 58 in Chalmette, LA
  3. 110 in Waveland, MS
  4. 112 in Long Beach, MS
  5. 215 on Bullard Ave in New Orleans

[edit] A&P Sav-A-Center

The Sav-A-Center name was also added to many of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company's northeastern and Mid-South Atlantic stores in the mid-1980s, shortly after A&P purchased Stop & Shop's NYC-Metro division. Many of these Stop & Shop stores had previously been part of their supercenter program, where Stop & Shop paired its Bradlees discount department stores with its Stop & Shop supermarkets to form early supercenters. When the stores were sold to A&P, a common wall was built, and two separate stores were formed. In other areas, such as Tidewater/Hampton Roads, VA and North Carolina, traditional A&P Stores were remodeled as Sav-A-Centers and the traditional A&P sign's orange, red and yellow colors were all turned shades of kelly green.

In the Northeast, the purchased Stop & Shop stores were newer and larger than most of the traditional A&P stores, and the company tried to use the Sav-A-Center conversion as a part of their "We've Built a Proud New Feeling" campaign, which was created in an attempt to shed the company's high-price, stodgy perception. The campaign featured images of larger, cleaner, modern-style stores and happy, upscale-looking shoppers and friendly, cooperative staff. (It was during this time that A&P debuted its legendary A&P Future Stores.) The Sav-A-Center stores were completely renovated with oversized graphics of fresh-looking produce and baked goods and were outfitted with IBM-POS checkouts. But A&P had a hard time shedding its high-price perception and year after year, the low-volume Sav-A-Centers lost sales and shoppers to stores such as Pathmark and NYC area-leader ShopRite (Wakefern retailers' cooperative). Some of the stronger stores survived wave-after-wave of store closings and re-organizations, but many eventually closed or were re-branded in the mid-to-late 90's as A&P Food Market. In the case of A&P's Southeastern and Carolina Divisions, they were sold in 1998, and in the case of some of the smaller New York metro area stores that hadn't closed, they were rebranded beginning in 2001 as Food Basics.

[edit] Former A&P Sav-A-Center Locations

An A&P Sav-A-Center store
An A&P Sav-A-Center store

[edit] Kohl's Sav-A-Center

In addition, after A&P purchased the Kohl's Food Stores chain in Wisconsin, a few of the stores were re-branded as Kohl's Sav-A-Center. These stores were later re-branded as Kohl's Food Market or Kohl's Food Emporium before the chain shut down.

[edit] Dominion Save-A-Centre

Beginning in the late 1980s, A&P Canada opened several stores in the Toronto area under the Save-A-Centre name. Their logo was the same as their American counterparts, with the exception of being red rather than green. In the late 1990s, these stores were rebranded as Dominion Save-A-Centre (Dominion is another Canadian supermarket chain originated by A&P) and some are still in operation today.

[edit] PathMark Sav-A-Center

A&P is once again reviving the Sav-A-Center name, this time on newly remodeled PathMark locations in Irvington and Edison, New Jersey. [1]