Jake Berzon

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    • SuperValu: Super Stock Value
      On Jan 02 03:44 PM CalItalian wrote:

      > I'd like to know where that Beverly Hills area "revived" Lucky was.
      > Lucky never had a store in BH. They briefly had a store in the late
      > 90's on 3rd & Fairfax (was a Ralphs then Lucky now Whole Foods)
      > and in Westwood in the 80's (was a Smiths, then Lucky now Ross Dress
      > For Less). If you lived in Mar Vista, the former Lucky stores, now
      > Albertsons, are in Santa Monica (2) and Culver City (2). No Lucky
      > stores have existed anywhere near West Los Angeles since Albertsons
      > bought them.
      >
      > Albertsons needs to do a much better job of marketing themselves
      > against Vons (Safeway) and Ralphs (Kroger). They could instantly
      > steal customers from them with a good double coupon promotion since
      > both Ralphs and Vons have cut their programs back drastically in
      > a time when coupon usage is up and Southern California is the #1
      > area in the United States for coupon redemption.

      Lots of people have downgraded to store brands and increased their coupon usage already. So, SuperValu stores could win business from competitors by doing "right" things, like aggressive promotions in their Save-a-lot stores and double coupons at Albertson's. Kroger, especially, is a tough competitor and it's not gong to be easy, but still very doable. It would be much tougher for Kroger to win SuperValu customers under current economic conditions, though. This is exactly why, while I recognize that Kroger's stock price demands a premium over SuperValu's, that premium should not be 200%!

      I couldn't find the specific store I mentioned in my reply to you. I do see a Ralph's right around the area where I expected to find that Lucky. Perhaps that was the store that I recall. I have also been to the several Albertson's in the area and know the Ross store you are talking about in Westwood. But, most of the time, I actually went grocery shopping at one of the small stores closest to home.
      Jan 04 03:13 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • SuperValu: Super Stock Value
      On Wednesday, December 31, 2008 I sold my entire WMT position at $55.27/share. I believe that Walmart's wining position in a recessionary market has now been fully priced and that Walmart's stock price will not go anywhere over the next several quarters. I have also recently added SuperValu to my portfolio. I consider my position in SVU entered into at $12.46/share last week to be a much better value and it was intended as a replacement to WMT position in my portfolio. Today's sale of my WMT position completes this portfolio replacement. Accounting for dividends and ignoring commissions, my gain on WMT shares, since I purchased them on August 23, 2007 was 29%.
      Dec 31 11:28 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • SuperValu: Super Stock Value
      Thanks for your comments on SuperValu. It is nice to see people who are passionate and knowledgeable about their grocery stores.

      In the good old times of the heyday of Luckys, I quite enjoyed shopping at my neighborhood Sunnyvale, CA store and was quite disappointed when Albertsons Inc. took it over. Years later, while living in LA's Mar Vista neighborhood, I had many nostalgic chances to shop the nearby revived Lucky in the Beverly Hills area. I found it to fully answer the needs of my discerning and semi-sophisticated pallet.

      In conclusion, I would like to reemphasize that I bought SuperValu because of its incredibly low valuation, which can only go up. Had I had an opportunity to acquire WMT or KR stock at a similar discount, I would have surely opted to go for these sure bet equities instead. Alas, that is not possible and they were trading at at almost 3 times the relative valuations of SVU. Thereby my verdict: SVU had to go up, while its competitors would edge down. So far this is exactly what has happened.
      Dec 31 10:34 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • Generic Drug Price War Ramps Up
      Hillary isn't interested in health care any more - she will have a different job in January. In any case, Obama will surely put health care on the back burner, as he first tries to "save jobs." Interesting how the private sector ingenuity in the end always beats the government zillion $ bureaucracy.
      Dec 25 23:34 pm |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment |View article
    • Walmart: The Perfect Anti-Brand for a Recession?
      I agree, WMT is a clear winner in a recession and that's why I bought it in August of 2007 at $43.56 / share, see stockvalues.org/new-in... , but is it still a good value stock play today? I argue that WMT is already rather richly valued and its stock price will go nowhere from here. On the other hand, taking a chance on SuperValu (SVU) may make a whole lot more sense at this point: seekingalpha.com/artic...
      Dec 24 16:25 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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