向传统超市挥手告别吧

    Safeway对市场变化的反应一直比克罗格慢半拍。近年来，虽然Safeway通过增加有机和新鲜食品等措施提高了自身门店的吸引力，但行业观察人士指出，当地经营者并没有因此获得足够的空间来适应当地消费者。而且Safeway店铺确实都一模一样：典雅的奥克兰山和旧金山市区的Safeway门店基本上是一个模子里刻出来的。最近，Safeway的最重大战略行动就是剥离资产。去年，这家公司宣布退出芝加哥市场，关闭了当地全部72家Dominick's食杂店。许多店面都转让给了竞争对手，但总的来说这些门店都可以脱手，传统超市面临的挑战由此可见一斑（全食超市买下了部分店铺）。

    去年，Safeway将设在加拿大的1300家门店作价57亿美元转让给了加拿大综合性投资集团Empire Co.。同样是在去年，Safeway让自己的礼品卡子公司Blackhawk Network Holdings首发上市，从而剥离了这项业务。虽然它仍持有Blackhawk公司72%的股权，但最终出售这批股份来换取资金也成了色伯勒斯资本管理公司收购Safeway的一部分。此外，Safeway还打算转让墨西哥食杂连锁店Casa Ley公司 49%的股份。后者拥有185家店铺，从1981年起就是Safeway的子公司。

    虽然有人担心瑟伯勒斯资本管理公司将继续进行这样的拆分和转让，甚至可能对Safeway的核心业务动手，但这样的顾虑大多都没有根据。通常人们都把瑟伯勒斯资本管理公司视为经营者，而不仅仅是注重利润率的投资者。退出股市将让Safeway获得喘息的机会，从而可以采取较为缓慢但更有战略性的方案。在克罗格收购Harris Teeter前，瑟伯勒斯资本管理公司也曾为Harris Teeter费尽心机，表明它想采用和克罗格类似的策略，那就是在一个快速分化的市场中左右逢源。

    这两家公司能否通过这样的措施取得成功仍不得而知。但毫无疑问，直取中路必然会以惨痛的失败而告终。（财富中文网)

    译者：Charlie

    Safeway has been a bit slower than Kroger to respond to a changing market. While it has made its stores more appealing in recent years by, among other things, adding more organic and fresh foods, industry observers say that hasn't given local managers enough leeway to adapt to local consumers. And indeed there is a sameness about Safeway stores: One in the tony Oakland hills is pretty much the same as one in urban San Francisco. Its biggest recent strategic moves have involved shedding assets. Last year it announced it was pulling out of the Chicago market by closing all 72 of its Dominick's stores. Many of the locations were sold to competitors, but the fact that the chain wasn't salable as a whole is a sign of the challenges faced by conventional supermarkets. (Whole Foods purchased some of the stores.)

    Last year, Safeway unloaded its Canadian operations in a $5.7 billion sale of 1,300 stores to Empire Co. Also last year, it spun off its Blackhawk Network Holdings (HAWK) gift-card business in a public offering. Though it retains 72% of Blackhawk, proceeds from the eventual sale of that stake are part of the Cerberus deal. And it is looking to shed its 49% stake in Casa Ley, a 185-store Mexican chain it has owned since 1981.

    While there are worries that Cerberus will continue the slice-and-dice, perhaps cutting into Safeway's core operations, those are mostly unfounded. Cerberus is generally known as an operator, not just a margin-focused financier, and taking Safeway out of public ownership will give it breathing room to take a slower, more strategic approach. The fact that Cerberus made a play for Harris Teeter before Kroger snapped it up is an indication that it wants to pursue a strategy similar to its bigger competitor: playing both ends of a rapidly splitting market.

    Whether either company will succeed this way is still open to question. What's beyond a doubt is that steering a middle course is bound to end in a tragic crash.