The entryway vestibule contains this neat mural that's original to the store. This was once the exterior wall of the store, prior to the expansion, but was covered up at some point (multiple sources say 2003, which would make sense for the Lifestyle remodel, but it seems more logical for it to have happened when the store was expanded -- which makes me wonder if I'm completely off on when the expansion happened, and that actually happened in 2003 despite the store having some very 90s design traits on the outside, who knows! Anyways, it was clearly uncovered at some point, but I have no idea when.
Here's a much better picture of the mural (from before this became the floral department),
here's an article on its history, and
here's an amusing blog post that doesn't really add anything but is the perfect stereotype of wealthy suburbia.
These Safeway murals are what gave George Jenkins the inspiration to do the same with his new Publix stores at the time, even hiring one of the artists commissioned by Safeway for the first few Publix tile murals. This is a really neat mural, with the combination of tiles and stones.
ReplyDeleteCool, didn't realize there was actually a connection there! I do wonder how common these were (they certainly don't seem to have been as common as the Publix ones) -- I haven't seen one elsewhere, nor have I come across many pictures online (other than this store and the original Marina location).
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