Bill,
I think we continue to read the same facts a bit differently. I tend to go for a bigger picture. Others tend to obsess over technicalities and the immediate (and I do not mean you necessarily). It is true that the hedge fund had ulterior motives in shutting down Dominick's, but the reason they (i.e., activist investors) were able to do so is that Dominick's was not doing well in the Chicago market in the recent years. So, the real question is why. The continuing existence of Jewel is not the proof that "all is well in the state of... Illinois" either, and that somehow only Dominick's screwed up. For decades, the same market was able to sustain those two chains. It is the demise of the middle class that shrank the market to the point that only one can survive. Jewel had a stronger presence anyway and is also local, not subject to the whims of corporate headquarters from across the continent.
For years I had the two just across from each other in my neighborhood, and I always preferred Dominic's to Jewel for its cleanness, good lighting, specious and well-organized shelves, freshness of fruits and vegetables, lack of crowds and generally "upscale" atmosphere. Funny, but in my suburb (again, an affluent, middle-class one), Dominick's was for years perceived as the upscale choice (only recently we got the Whole Foods). And I was willing and happy to pay a premium for that experience. Me and many others. It is the demise of my own purchasing power, as well as the general demise of the middle class in my community, that sealed their fate. They were different (better, for me) than Jewel, they charged a premium, and I was willing to pay it. Until I couldn't.