Vying for a Piece of County’s Megastore Pie

If bigger means better, county grocery shoppers should be ecstatic.

On Wednesday, Lucky and Vons opened superstores--each with more floor space than a football field and featuring everything from Oriental snacks to such exotic items as suckling pigs.

The newest Lucky Food Center in Fullerton--unofficially dubbed its “efficient shopper, one-stop shop” is the first of its kind for the chain, which is owned by American Stores of Irvine.

For Vons, the new Pavilions store in Mission Viejo is the chain’s 15th megastore and its fourth in the county.

$20 Billion at Stake

Both new stores are the latest entries in an intensifying effort by major grocery chains to grab a bigger share of food sales, estimated at $20 billion in the United States last year.

Nearly twice the size of typical supermarkets, the megastores appeal to shoppers’ desire for convenience and variety.

Besides the new Lucky store and Vons’ Pavilions, Ralphs has 15 Giant stores and Albertson’s operates a group of Grocery Warehouses.

In San Diego, Lucky operates a single Advantage market, which has a different layout and merchandise selection than the “efficient-shopper” store in Fullerton.

In the Fullerton market, “we take Lucky’s low prices and apply them to meet the needs of the specific community,” said William E. Yingling III, president of the Southern California division of Lucky Stores.

The new store, for example, features organically grown vegetables, health foods, varied breads and a big selection of ethnic foods--all requested by focus groups of Fullerton-area shoppers.

Although the Advantage store in San Diego and Lucky’s latest Orange County store are both large enough to be considered superstores, the new market in Fullerton has some key differences, said Brian Carter, a Lucky vice president and grocery specialist.

The Fullerton store “is laid out in a way that we think makes it more efficient,” Carter said.

Prices are the same as in regular Lucky supermarkets, he said, but once inside, “you wouldn’t realize that you’re in a Lucky store.”

The store, which has 51,000 square feet of selling space, contains nine “one-stop shops” featuring refrigerated and frozen specialty items.

These sections, amid rows of canned and bottled merchandise, are designed to group together menu-related products--increasing the convenience factor for hurried shoppers and also conveying a subtle sales pitch.

Nearly Everything for Tacos

For example, next to shelves full of taco shells and taco sauce is a refrigerated “Fiesta Favorites” compartment with Mexican beer, cheese, lettuce, avocados and frozen churros --everything that goes with a taco meal except the meat.

The store is on North Harbor Boulevard, on the boundary between Fullerton and La Habra. Yingling said more “efficient shopper” stores are being built in Huntington Beach, Riverside and Bellflower, and “hopefully there will be more.”

Vons Targets Same Market

El Monte-based Vons, meanwhile, is aiming at the same expanded market with its latest Pavilions store, at the Mission Viejo Marketplace at Marguerite and Oso parkways.

The 55,000-square-foot store features innovations for the Vons chain, such as a shop where sausage is stuffed and smoked, a coffee-grinding corner featuring to 33 types of coffee beans, and a greenhouse with a complete line of floral services.

Since opening the first Pavilions in Garden Grove three years ago, Vons has added the megastores throughout Southern California. Most of the stores include hot bakeries, service delis, wine cellars, sushi bars and kitchen shops.

The Mission Viejo store, which employs about 250 workers, is the first in south Orange County.