Another sign Safeway seems to have considered this a decently-preforming store: the cases in frozen look to have been replaced (or at least considerably upgraded) fairly recently, something that's unusual for Safeways in general, let alone ones that are closing! It also got the full cube sign and color-coded strips treatment, probably my favorite thing about the Lifestyle v3-era refresh. I wouldn't be surprised if these cases end up in some other remodeled store eventually -- I've seen plans indicating that at least some of the other cases are ending up in converted Albertsons, and many stores on both sides of the merger have much older frozen cases than these.
I'm beginning to wonder if this store was actually doing well, but the mall just wanted Safeway out and chose not to renew the lease. From what I understand the mall is planning to do some renovations/redevelopment, so I can see that being a very likely scenario.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly a possibility too, especially since that was expected to happen in the late-2000s redevelopment plans. However, the first phase (which is the only one that seems to be anywhere near construction at this point) doesn't appear to touch the mall building itself, so the timing seems a little odd for that. But the mall's owners haven't exactly shown clear direction with this whole redevelopment thing, so who knows...
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