07.18.07
At last, shoppers get Lucky again.
First we had Lucky Stores, then they got taken over by Albertson’s and all of Northern California growned… but eventually we had to eat so many of us still shopped there. Then some of these stores became SaveMart.. and no one noticed or cared.. and we weren’t about to go into such a lower class chain with a very old style pedantic name.
Finally.. someone with money and branding brains shows up, and now 
eight stores a week are going back to the future. And the Lucky store brand will be seen again. Welcome back.. a name and a brand we loved passionately returns. A brand that had grown to have some personality.
But does name recycling work? Yes, in particular if it fixes an error. NCR became a successful high tech company again after escaping the grips of the awful AT&T GIS systems moniker. Nation Wide bank took over Bank of American and wisely didn’t enforce the name of the conqueror. When the acquired company has a better name, why not capitalize on it?
P.S. Of course, the big name out here in supermarkets is Safeway and they are busy expanding into the restaurant business, with the awfully named Citrine bistros. Ouch. See the name critic’s review of this name.
