My guess is that 99 Ranch is initially trying out a smaller space on the Westside to “test the waters”, to see if the Westside is a viable venture for them (both financially, and from the HR side). If the area proves successful, then they may choose to expand to a standard supermarket space. (I had been emailing Dawa/99 Ranch incessantly over the last 2 years to take over the old Albertson space on Palms and Sepulveda)… Again, these are just my hunches.
when they converted a ralph’s (or was it a von’s?) in alhambra to a ranch 99 in the last five years, they took care to hire a number of workers who spoke english (most of them are gone now, as there was very little crossover of the former non-asian customers). perhaps they may do the same in this case, hoping to make a breakthrough in the customer demographics.
If you had succeeded in getting them to do that, I would have been kneeling at your feet and singing your praises .
That is just such a great spot for a market for so many reasons. We had talked about a 99 there ever since Haggen (spits curse at their name) left. I had also hoped for maybe a Jon’s or Super King.
Boy do i wish i still lived on Holman! It would be great to be able to walk there. I’m guessing they are going to be very busy. Street parking isn’t that bad at the moment. But it can get ugly normally.
This is really great news for the area. With so many Asians at UCLA and also in the area, there is a severe lack of Chinese groceries on the West side. Closest is Van Nuys or trying your luck at Japanese and Korean markets. Parking will be a problem, but there are lots of buses that go up and down Westwood Blvd. I really hope they have a deli area with hot food selection and BBQ meats. Also, it will be interesting to see the layout as the foot space is not that big for a grocery store but it is two stories.
I haven’t been able to confirm whether it’s off or not. I actually tried calling their corporate office real estate department but it didn’t get answered.
Ok, so I called 99 Ranch corporate again and the lady who answered said that the Westwood location was still going to be opened, but didn’t have a timeframe. So hopefully it was a false alarm.