And here's a straighter-on side view, which I admit is pretty redundant to the last picture, but I couldn't choose between the two so here we are. And I really don't have anything else to say here, other than to mention the surprise news that
Rite Aid is buying the local Bartell Drugs chain, which is already causing a lot of consternation locally, and which really surprised me since Rite Aid has been having so many issues of its own lately, and closing bunches of stores... which doesn't bode well for what will happen to the current Bartell locations.
It's a shame that your area is losing a respected local pharmacy chain. I'm quite surprised Rite Aid has the resources for acquisitions like that even if it is a small one. Hopefully that's not an example of Rite Aid over-extending themselves. That's caused the demise of many a retailer over the years.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that it's quite strange seeing some of the cars in this photo and one of the other ones you posted today. Here we see a very rare Volvo V40 station wagon, a Subaru Impreza wagon, an older Subaru Outback back when Outbacks were more of a wagon than they were SUVs, and there is a red VW Golf/Jetta wagon in the other photo parked in front of the Rite Aid. I suppose I can't say I'm surprised to see so many Subarus in Washington. The people who bought Volvos in the 1980s buy Subarus these days.
Still, seeing four station wagons parked around this Rite Aid is quite surprising. I can go several days without seeing so many station wagons here in Houston or in most of the country really. As someone who likes wagons and not SUVs, that neat for you guys and not-so-neat for us. I can't even remember the last time I saw a Volvo S40 (the sedan version of that Volvo), much less a V40.
You probably weren't expecting an analysis of the cars parked in the parking lot, but there you go, lol.
Yeah, that's my concern with Rite Aid too. Bartell certainly isn't huge compared to Rite Aid, but it's still weird at this point in time. Plus, it seems like companies should know better than to buy out a much-loved local chain in this area -- just ask Macy's and Kroger how that turned out! (Though, admittedly, Rite Aid is fairly well ingrained in this area itself in large part because of their buyout of Payless years ago, and they did well for themselves for quite a while.)
DeleteHa, definitely wasn't expecting so much car talk, and even less so what you're saying! I guess I've never really thought about that having lived around here my whole life. There certainly are a lot of wagon-type cars around here still, particularly Subarus, though Volvos aren't that odd either. The stereotype of northwesterners loving their Subarus is certainly true! My parents still have their 2002 Forester, from back when they were still more of a wagon type, and those were some of the most common cars in Port Angeles back in the day. Of course, these days, people seem to be much more interested in larger SUVs like in most of the country, with the new, much larger Foresters and the Rav4 being super popular. Personally, I like the smaller wagon style -- we have a Chevy Bolt at work, which is just a little bit smaller than the old Foresters, and I quite like that car. However, I'm still rather stubborn about not wanting a car of my own!
It's interesting what happens when popular retailers in the community get bought out by another chain. You mentioned Macy's. We had Macy's here in the Houston area in the 1980s-1990s, but it was mostly a failed chain here. They left town except for one store which remained in The Galleria area. When the Macy's name replaced the much-loved Foley's name around the time all the other Federated department stores took the Macy's name, there was outrage. Macy's probably still doesn't have the popularity that Foley's had ~15 years ago, but the general malaise of the Macy's chain isn't helping matters.
DeleteOTOH, Kroger bought their way into the Houston market by buying the local Henke & Pillot grocery chain in the 1950s. Henke's was a large local chain. I certainly wasn't around at the time, lol, but I think Kroger's buyout was largely successful. One thing which helped is that they kept the Henke & Pillot name around for a while and slowly integrated Kroger aspects until the stores became 100% Kroger. Even when I was younger, I don't remember people pining for Henke's so I consider that a success. I take it that Kroger's purchase of Fred Meyer was not as well received?
We really don't have any beloved local drug store chains here in Houston that I know of. Eckerd was much loved, but they were hardly a local chain. CVS, which took over the Eckerd stores here, is not loved. CVS stores are all over the place around here just as Walgreens stores are so I suppose they are tolerated, but neither are Eckerd.
There is a neat drug store chain in Texas called Drug Emporium. They had locations in Houston, but they closed in the late 1990s and I assumed they all closed until Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog posted some images of a store elsewhere in the state. Drug Emporium embraces retro looks. They recently renovated many of their stores, but kept them looking like they are straight out of 1993. Here's a recent commercial they made showing their 'renovated' store:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYND261WSnk
And here is one of Je's posts showing a pre-renovation store: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2015/05/drug-emporium-waco-tx.html
The 1993 look might not be for everyone, but I love it. I'd probably shop there all the time if they still had stores in Houston. Drug Emporium would probably be popular in Port Angeles because they are a bit retro in their technology. They didn't start accepting credit cards until around 2018 or so. But, yet, they get high customer reviews and most of their stores are around colleges so they must attract the Subaru-Volvo crowd of shoppers. They do sell a lot of natural food products.
Interestingly enough, I had a family member who almost bought a 2002 Subaru Forester back in 2001, but decided to buy a 2002 VW Passat Wagon instead. Passat Wagons have been discontinued in the US for many years now and the Forester is basically an SUV now like the Outback unfortunately. Subarus have not been popular here in Texas since their all-wheel drive system is not really of any benefit here, but they are becoming more popular in recent years.
I reckon you can probably get away without having a car where you live, but it's hard to do much without a car here in Houston as you can probably imagine. I much prefer sedans and wagons over SUVs, but finding proper new wagons these days is a bit like finding a Kmart.