Lucky Stores Cut Prices in Bid for Market Share : Retailing: Reductions on 2,500 items are being promoted as a way to help shoppers hurt by recession.

Lucky Stores said Thursday that it has cut prices on more than 2,500 items in its Southern California supermarkets as a way of helping recession-shocked shoppers--not to mention ringing up a few more sales along the way in an extremely competitive market.

The supermarket chain has launched an aggressive advertising campaign featuring its chief executive, Larry Del Santo, and the slogan: “Times are tough. So we got tougher.” In the print, television and newspaper ads, Del Santo explains that Lucky has “turned our supermarkets upside down” to cut costs and reinvest the savings in lower prices.

“Business as usual just won’t cut it anymore,” Del Santo says in one ad. “Families can’t afford it.”

But the move is also calculated to boost market share and net income, although Lucky’s parent, Salt Lake City-based American Stores, said the price-slashing will “impact first-quarter profits.” Company officials declined to be more specific about the cost of the program or advertising expenditures.

The program is in force at 222 Southern California Lucky stores, as well as 30 in Sacramento and 20 in Las Vegas. Lucky, based in Dublin, Calif., operates 431 stores in California and Nevada.

“This reinforces our long-term commitment to low-price strategy, which has been our market thrust in Southern California for over 30 years,” said Robert P. Hermanns, executive vice president and general manager of the Southern California grocery division, which is based in Buena Park. “It recognizes that Southern California hasn’t come out of the squeeze of the economic consequences of the recession.”

Lucky, the region’s third-largest supermarket operator, has been losing shoppers to No. 1 Vons as well as to other competitors.

A survey of shoppers last year by the Los Angeles Times marketing research department found that 13% said Lucky was the supermarket at which they shop most, compared to 18% in 1991. In contrast, 23% of shoppers picked Vons/Pavilions, up from 21%.

If a price war is brewing, Vons, for one, was not about to tip its hand. “We don’t comment on our competitors’ marketing strategies, nor do we comment in advance on any plans we might have,” Vons spokeswoman Mary McAboy said.

Lucky has cut costs in the last year by, among other things, centralizing buying, carrying less inventory and reducing the number of stores that are open 24 hours, spokeswoman Judith Decker said.

In his small-screen debut, Del Santo said that Lucky “is taking the lead in California, in effect establishing a partnership with the millions of California consumers who need help.”

The 59-year-old Del Santo reportedly was a reluctant follower in the corporate-promotional ways of former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca and Bill Davila, president emeritus of Vons.

Del Santo, the father of 12, who only last Monday was promoted to chairman and chief executive of all of American Stores’ grocery operations, had never appeared in a company advertisement before, Decker said. “We had to bend his arm a little bit,” Decker said. “Since the commitment for this program comes from the top, we thought it should be communicated by our chairman and chief executive officer.”