Wayne Heaton is VP and general manager of the Pavilions banner for Albertsons, which also owns Pavilions’ sister banner Vons.
Heaton has enjoyed a long history in the grocery industry, starting as a courtesy clerk “pushing carts” in 1987. He came up through the ranks at Albertsons and served as a store director for many years before being promoted to numerous operations roles. He was tapped to lead the Pavilions banner five years ago.
A graduate of the USC Food Industry Management program, Heaton manages merchandising, marketing and operations for the 31 Pavilions stores in Southern California. He reports to Kevin Curry, president of the Southern California division of Albertsons.
Heaton spoke to Bob Reeves of The Shelby Report in May at the Pavilions grand reopening in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. It is one of three stores that will be converted from the Vons banner to Pavilions this year.
Where did the need for a new upscale format for Vons originate?
We saw an opportunity in Southern California to create a more upscale shopping experience.
We took the core grocery store and expanded specialty and ethnic items, along with an expanded service deli with chefs. We also added hyper-local produce offerings, created a local bakery feel and expanded our wine and specialty beer assortment.
How long was the planning phase before it was launched in 1985?
The company spent several years developing the concept for Pavilions. We decided to develop a core in the center of the store that would feature service departments, including a service deli, bakery, seafood, produce and The Juice Bar, where we cut melons and fresh-squeeze juice. This created an open market feel for our customers.
I believe the original concept was to have that natural/healthy/organic variety for guests. When you look back at it, from 1985 and where we are today, Pavilions still stands apart with that variety.
The goal of Pavilions back then was to have a full basket shop – you could get your full list that you came in for. And that’s my goal today – to make sure that a guest comes in here, they could find a 12-pack of Diet Coke, or they could find the organic products and produce, or the special varieties of cheeses in our delis. That is my goal – to make it a one-stop shop for every guest that comes in here.
Tell us about the first year. How many Pavilions were launched and what stood out in your learnings during this time?
We opened a few stores a year until our major expansion in 1988, after Vons had purchased the Safeway stores in Southern California. We took our key learnings from Pavilions – particularly in fresh, specialty products and customer service – and strategically applied them to the Vons banner.
How would you best describe the Pavilions format?
Our new format offers guests an expanded variety in all fresh departments, focused on entertaining at home.
Our scratch in-house bakeries allow us to offer high quality, scratch-made product that dazzles our guests.
Our fine wine program is unmatched in the grocery space with wine cellars in 28 of the 31 stores.
Lastly, guests can do a full-basket shop with traditional offerings in grocery, frozen and dairy while still being able to purchase a great Wagyu ribeye with a fantastic bottle of wine.
Understanding the importance of location, location, location, can you expand on where the Pavilions format has had the greatest success, and what do you think contributed to that success? How did the ever-changing marketplace and economy affect the look and operation of a Pavilions store?
Our stores are very successful and satisfy each guest differently in each location. For example, I might enjoy the family shopping environment in South Pasadena and Santa Monica, but the urban professional enjoys splurging in West Hollywood.
In the tourist-heavy beach areas, guests can have their order delivered by a service or personal delivery from our stores.
We make sure that we are right with selection in each individual store, focusing on satisfying the multicultural needs of each neighborhood we operate in.
Will there be new Pavilions stores opening in 2025? If so, where and when? Are there plans to open more Pavilions in 2026?
We are converting three stores from Vons to a Pavilions in 2025 – Mission Hills, Carlsbad and Hermosa Beach. We are always looking for opportunities to expand and grow our store presence.
Pavilions is part of the nationwide Albertsons Companies brand. Have you opened Pavilions outside of Southern California? If so, where?
Pavilions is only located in Southern California. We have 31 stores, from Montecito to Mission Hills.
Which departments have become the signature “must shops” for Pavilions customers?
Our signature departments include produce, with over 500 organic items; deli/prepared food with a cheese shop staffed by an experienced cheese specialist; and a scratch bakery with 47 scratch breads baked daily and doughnuts made fresh each day.
Our butcher blocks with premium cuts and premium seafood are also popular, along with our liquor departments that feature fine wine, imports, hard-to-find bourbons and multicultural offerings.
Can you expand on the importance of omnichannel, social media and community engagement to Pavilions?
Pavilions is a very forward-thinking banner that invests and values omnichannel, social media and community engagement.
All 31 stores offer Drive Up and Go, as well as delivery services through our Pavilions mobile app.
We are environmentally conscious; hence, our weekly ad is digital and is posted on social media sites as well as on our mobile app.
We frequently use social media to announce events, celebrations and celebrity visits. We are very involved in the communities we serve, catering community events, sponsoring local school events, volunteer work with local food banks, direct involvement and support with City of Hope, Olive Crest and any need that arises from a natural disaster.
Any plans to tap into trends like EV charging, grab-and-go, full-service deli, wine tasting, beverage stations, sushi, delivery, dedicated pickup parking locations, you get the idea. Thoughts on new trends?
Our goal is to stay ahead of trends and make it easy for our guests to shop.
We do offer many EV charging stations in our parking lots. Our delis are a huge focus for us and offer many meal ideas and products for our guests to enjoy. We want to help provide and help make that tough decision – what’s for dinner tonight? – for every guest.
Our wine club is 15,000-plus members strong, and our concierge team sends offers and announces wine tastings, as well as informs our members of our celebrity bottle signings that we frequently support.
We offer wine tasting in the majority of our stores weekly, with experts describing the attributes of the wine as well as [food] pairing suggestions. We have spirits tastings, too.
All 31 stores offer drive-up-and-go dedicated parking spots, and our team members bring the orders out and load the guests’ cars with the order. We also offer delivery through our mobile app.
Going back to our concierges, we have 22 concierges that run our special programs, our wine clubs, our catering/delivery. And when we do get a product request, it’s managed right away so we can get it into that guest’s hands as fast as we can. And if it’s a substantial item that we get a lot of requests for, hey, it’ll be on the shelf tomorrow.
What suggestions and/or recommendations do you have for the vendor community that think they have items that would benefit Pavilions? Do you have a separate buying staff? What are the top boxes that need to be checked for consideration for distribution and promotional support?
Our vendor relationships are very important to the success of Pavilions. We partner with fresh suppliers on social media, new item launches and in-store execution.
I have the honor and pleasure to lead both the marketing/merchandising side, as well as the operations for Pavilions. We are a dedicated team of fresh sales managers in deli, bakery, produce and meat/seafood as well as dedicated grocery/liquor/GM sales managers.
We run a separate weekly ad from Albertsons and Vons because our products are different. We promote, invest and have different schematics than Albertsons and Vons.
We are very nimble and welcome new emerging brands, as we can get them to the shelf faster than a traditional grocer. We pull from our local distribution centers in Irvine and Brea, we use KeHE in all our departments and we have a very dynamic DSD program. We welcome the vendor community to invest in Pavilions.
Any other keys to success at Pavilions?
The true success of Pavilions comes from our team members. We have nearly 4,000 passionate, caring and invested team members who are proud of their stores, jobs and the services they provide to our guests.
We offer educational programs to help our team members succeed both personally and professionally – WAFC, cheese specialist training, wine education, concierge training and, most importantly, service classes that specialize in taking care of every guest’s needs that comes through our doors. Our team is the secret sauce.