Spartan Stores opened two new Valu Land Supermarkets in Warren and Roseville, Mich. last week, MLive reports. The selected locations are dense Detroit suburbs with diverse communities, said Alan Hartline, Spartan Stores executive vice president for merchandising and marketing. Spartan also has Valu Land locations in Lansing, Leslie, Marion, and Clare.
“With the economy as it is, Valu Land is responding to a heightened need for value that shoppers can depend on every day. Convenience is a key factor in terms of finding quality staple items at low prices in an organized store, saving time searching for deals and efficiently navigating the store,” Hartline said at the grand opening.
Spartan Stores expects to open six to eight more of the small discount stores in Metro Detroit in 2013. Spartan is being careful not to select locations that might compete with the grocer’s existing wholesale customers, which includes more than 375 independent grocery locations in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Together, those independent grocers have the largest market share of the city of Detroit when it comes to traditional grocery stores.
Hartline said Spartan was “greeted with open arms” in both Warren and Roseville. The company spent about $1 million in each location renovating an empty storefront and adding 35 new jobs. The new stores feature new white and red signage and a logo of a shopping cart replacing a blue and yellow look.
The 20,000-square-foot stores are about half the size of Spartan’s traditional grocery stores which are operated under the banners of Family Fare, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Supermarket, and Glen’s Market. The limited-assortment stores are designed to compete with Aldi and Sav A Lot by offering a greater selection of national products and more produce than those two retail chains. (Convenience Store News: www.csnews.com)
