Ballard Fred Meyer update, November 16th

 I took lots of pictures today, so I'm trying something different with this post -- more of a blog-style format, so that I (at least in theory) won't feel the need to write so much about every picture. We'll see how that works out! First up, here's a rather blurry photo stepping inside -- it's always hard to get these pictures at this store now that there's almost always a security guard standing around this spot, plus I was holding the camera up high to try to capture Kroger's new "Fresh for Everyone" posters. I had been worried about showing up on the surveillance monitor, but this picture turned out a bit too blurry for that to be an issue... if you zoom way in, though, you can see my blurry outline walking in the left door, holding my iPod over my head to get this picture!

 Have a seat -- Northwest Style! The decor on the bulkhead leading to the clothing department has finally been installed (though the "have a seat" part is really glared out in this picture), along with the fancy new seating area next to the deli. As far as I can tell, the mezzanine seating area has remained untouched for now.

 Heading back to the entryway, here's a better view of the produce department, showing that the produce trellis decor is finally up, making it likely the last department to get its new Marketplace decor. Another late arrival is the floral decor, for the new home of floral over by the grocery entrance. Is it just me, or does the "fresh flowers" lettering look awkwardly cramped on that single trellis element? I have to wonder if it was designed to be installed on a 2x2 grid of trellis things instead -- at least, I feel like it would look better that way.

 The less attractive (and less common) cousin to the dairy sunrise banner is making an appearance in the deli meats department. On the whole, the meat color scheme is my least favorite in the Marketplace decor package, though I'd still take unattractive colors over plain beige or grey any day! Also, I still think it's crazy that Aisle 12 has moved from being the very last aisle of the grocery section (and therefore the highest numbered aisle in the store) to being one of the first real aisles...

Throughout the store, many of the smaller decor elements have finally been installed over the last couple weeks, like the swirls on the dairy wall. This area's also home to another large collection of the "fresh for everyone" posters, which I actually thought looked a lot better than I was expecting, and which seem to go well with the Marketplace decor package. (They probably don't look so good with Fred Meyer's older decor packages, not that there are many stores with them still out there; meanwhile, QFC is reportedly skipping this ad campaign for the time being.)

 Remember those odd one-sided aisle markers that I talked about so much at the start of this remodel? Well, they've all been rotated 90 degrees sometime in the last couple weeks, so they're now perpendicular to the central actionway. They certainly look better now than they did before, but I still don't get why they didn't just use the same tri-siders that Fred Meyer has used everywhere else.

 Also in small decor items, the Fred Meyer 💛's Ballard sign has also finally been installed! In contrast to QFC's recent decor packages (Fresh and Local, as well as Urban Mix), this is about the only spot of local flair you'll find in the Marketplace decor, and it's pretty generic at that. Fred Meyer's older decor packages were typically similarly lacking in local flair, but this store did actually have a little bit, all of which was sadly lost in the remodel. This is also the former home of the Playland kid's area, which was replaced with, well, pretty much nothing. What I'm getting at here is that while the new decor is certainly nice, it's hard for this remodel to not feel like something of a downgrade for this store.

Here's my attempt at a picture of the new garden department decor, spoiled by the tall shelving piled high with (way too early!) Christmas stuff. The decor back here is actually quite nice, with a big wooden decor piece on the wall off to the right. This department filled in aisles 93-96, meaning that there's pretty much no chance at this point of going past aisle 114.

 The Krogi, they're everywhere! I actually bought some stuff at this store today (way out of character for me), so I ran into the new self checkout welcome screen, featuring more of the little figures that feature prominently in the new ad campaign. I'm still torn between considering them cute or dumb! Anyways, while the new graphics and slogan were everywhere, I didn't see the new Kroger logo anywhere -- while promotional signage sometimes featured it in the past, the "fresh for everyone" signage notably doesn't have any logos (Kroger, Fred Meyer, or otherwise) on it, and the Kroger-branded products I saw all still had the old logo. Not surprising, I suppose, since that just came out a week or so ago!

Heading out, here's a look at the new "Welcome to Freddy's" sign on the non-grocery vestibule. It looks like whoever installed or removed the stencil didn't do a very good job of protecting the paint! In the foreground, you can see what I'm talking about when I say that this store has a hodgepodge fleet of carts (the green handles are the newest ones, the teal handles somewhat older -- perhaps from the 2009 remodel, and the white handled one on the far right may just be original to this store, as it has an older version of the logo... and there are several variants that aren't obvious here, including some black ones that look like they were repurposed from QFC)! And yes, that is the outside world through the windows in the top right of this picture -- it's already to that time of year when it's pitch black out by 5 PM, when I took this picture!

Anyways, let me know if you have any feelings about the format of this post... I feel like it's what I should have been doing for these remodel updates all along, though it clearly didn't get me to stop writing too much! Back to my normal content and format tomorrow...