Grocery Outlet Raises Big Bucks In IPO!

Grocery Outlet announced that it will price it’s initial public offering at $22 a share. It will offer 17,187,500 shares, raising $378 million dollars and valuing it at $1.9 billion dollars.

Not Bad For A Discount Grocery Store!

According to the latest Bizjournals article, Grocery Outlet was founded in 1946 and had $2.3 billion in sales last year. They currently have over 300 stores and are peppered throughout the Bay Area in cities like San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Pacifica, and South San Francisco.

Just like McDonalds, they operate with a franchise model. Each store is independently operated.

People Actually Shop Here?

I’m actually very surprised. I’ve personally been hating on Grocery Outlet ever since they took over the spot in Milpitas where Save Mart used to reside. Save Mart used to be the place where my Mom and I would go to buy groceries and water.

Maybe I was too young to remember, but I thought the selection and quality of the goods at Save Mart were better than those at Grocery Outlet. When I walk into the Grocery Outlet, I just feel like the neighborhood has gone down.

The prices don’t even feel that much cheaper. So ultimately I’m left with a ‘bargain market’ that has lower quality goods for a similar price than other stores.

I may be wrong and it could feel more expensive because of inflation. But I rarely shop there. If I need something, I’ll go to Safeway for their goods. If I need something exotic, I’ll go to the Ranch 99 (can you tell I’m from Norcal?).

Congratulations on your success Grocery Outlet! If you’re worth over $2 billion then you must be providing immense value to the communities you belong in! I’m not a patron but there must be tons of people who enjoy purchasing from your stores.

If you want to buy some Grocery Outlet stock, they’re trading under the ticker symbol ‘GO’.

Here’s a link to the original article on the bizjournal: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2019/06/19/no-discount-on-grocery-outlets-ipo-as-it-tops.html

What are your thoughts about the grocery outlet? Leave a comment below!