Somehow this store grew by an aisle even with no layout changes

I really don't know how it happened, since the shelving is all exactly the same and they didn't pull any Kroger no-aisle-one tricks, but somehow this store went from 19 to 20 aisles during the remodel. I suspect it's something to do with the weird partial-length, offset aisles of the health and beauty department, but I'm really not sure. Anyway, this picture should do a good job of answering anonymous's question about the floor here -- the original wood-look and plain white flooring was left, with the decorative tan flooring around the perimeter being replaced with more boring white vinyl. I completely hate this decision for several reasons -- first, I'm outspoken in my dislike of white vinyl floors, even compared to plain concrete except in the worst cases; second, the flooring that was replaced was in many cases the stuff that was in the best shape (except in stores that were built with Lifestyle decor, the white vinyl in the center is typically the oldest, predating the Lifestyle remodel, while the fake wood flooring wears much faster than the tan or white vinyl so it looks pretty bad in many stores); and third, they didn't even do a good job of the replacement, leaving ugly seams and misaligned tiles where the new and old white vinyl meet up (something that I've tried and failed to capture in pictures -- the seams between tiles are quite visible in person, but never show up well on camera). Honestly, I think if Safeway did something nice with the flooring, these 2020 remodels would look quite nice, but the flooring just underscores the cheapness of the whole thing.

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  1. Interesting. This does solve the mystery about the flooring changes at this Safeway, thanks. I agree that the old flooring with the tan perimeter looks better than going white everywhere except for the areas with the fake wood. I'm not really sure why Safeway went in that direction other than to perhaps eliminate the tan color that was quite heavily associated with the Lifestyle designs. Since white is the primary color of the 'Modern' design, I suppose the white floor makes sense.

    I know opinions will differ on this, but I think I still prefer the white vinyl over concrete. It's too bad Safeway can't do a better job making a cohesive, good looking white vinyl tile floor though. Perhaps instead of the white vinyl, perhaps Safeway should have gone with some other contrasting shade of fake wood or something.

    Here is a website from a company that makes vinyl flooring where they show some possibilities for supermarket flooring. There are some interesting options here. Perhaps some of these supermarkets should investigate these more seriously.

    https://parterreflooring.com/supermarket-flooring/

    Perhaps some of these floors from the Deco, Tivoli, or Metallon collections would be nice for a supermarket beyond just the wood designs.

    https://parterreflooring.com/store/hardcore.html

    But, of course, some of these might be more expensive than what grocers want to pay and I'm sure concrete floors are cheaper to maintain than vinyl floors so that's why they're so popular.

    The Lifestyle Express lane is quite obvious. I'm not sure if I've ever seen an Express line item count as high as 20! Usually 15 is about the maximum I've seen around here including our Randall's stores. Granted, many years ago, the limit was often around 10 so there has been some Express lane inflation over the years! I wonder if that 20 item limit is just a NW thing or if that's becoming more typical around the country.

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    1. Yeah, I really don't get it either. The Modern decor has the possibility to look fairly high end, but these poorly-done remodels leave it looking rather cheap.

      I'm certainly not a huge fan of concrete floors either -- I just really don't like plain white vinyl. Fancier vinyl flooring would be my preference any day! (I want to like stained concrete too, but that's the worst of both worlds in terms of maintenance, and the worst floor I ever saw in a grocery store was stained concrete.) The best retail flooring I've seen in person is in Rite Aids with the deluxe Circle Decor, with faux-wood for the main actionway and faux-stone for everything else. Time will tell how that holds up, though. (Of course, my favorite overall is Publix's terrazzo -- I love terrazzo, but I'm sure that's way too expensive for most retailers!)

      Honestly, I think a 20-item express lane is just this store's thing (which might be why this sign was left in place, though it's more likely that it was just forgotten about). Safeway's standard is 15 items, which is still a lot -- I only go grocery shopping once a week, and it's still rare that I get over 15 items! (Though I've still gotten dirty looks from clerks when I decide to use the express lane with 10-15 items when the self checkouts are backed up...) Back in the day, many Safeways used to have multiple express lanes with different item limits (I think typically 5 and 15 items), but that was dropped years ago as they started to decrease checkout staff (even before the Albertsons merger, which resulted in serious checkout staff shortages and long lines in all but the emptiest Safeways). That being said, there's at least one other Safeway with express lanes stickered to 20 items (though it's probably gone since that store finally remodeled recently... I'll have to head that way again sometime), along with this now-closed one that was changed to 17 for some reason.

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    2. Yeah, a lot of Krogers around here switched to stained concrete floors during the '2012'/'Bountiful' rollout. They look quite bad, but perhaps in different ways than that QFC. There is a Greenhouse Kroger near me that went with the stained concrete look and it's really bad. It's not as bad as that HEB I shared with you yesterday, but it's up there. Not only does it look bad, but when the store first re-opened with the stained concrete, the floor was very, very slick. My original thought was, "This floor manages to be both very tacky and slick at the same time!"

      https://goo.gl/maps/nv4MrPQWUesyba176

      So, yeah, between HEB and Kroger, we have no shortage of bad concrete floors here in Houston, lol.

      One flooring type which used to annoy me back in the day was that little tiled semi-circle in front of the meat service desk at original Greenhouse Kroger stores. When you took your cart over the tiles, the cart would shake and rattle loudly over the grout lines. It was very annoying. Here's a Kroger which still has those tiles with a concrete floor. This looks very sad!

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/l_dawg2000/49657106246/

      The Northwest Mall, Almeda Mall, and Greenspoint Mall (and maybe some others) Foley's/Macy's here in Houston had a real wood parquet floor that should have looked really neat, but unfortunately they did not maintain it very well. It looked shabby with poor maintenance and it really looked bad when they had to replace some parquet floor squares. The parquet floor was quite squeeky when people walked on it and since some of the wood squares would be loose, it was not uncommon for the floor to move when you stepped on it. All of this is probably due to poor installation or maintenance I'm guessing. I'll share an image below along with Je's blog post about the Greenspoint Foley's/Macy's. That store was very retro and poorly maintained before it closed. The Almeda Mall Macy's is still open, but it was heavily renovated after Hurricane Ike damaged it in 2008 and the parquet floor has been removed from publicly visible parts of the store at least.

      https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ro91HGRiEgA/WkILn7QuIWI/AAAAAAAARjY/xYTBl-eptAkufqegESXNPyoXQXHTWmWXgCLcBGAs/s1600/20170309_203449.jpg

      https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2018/03/goodbye-macys-greenspoint-march-2017.html

      I don't have a photo to share, but some tiles in the derelict (but still open) Greenspoint Mall itself are held in with duct tape, lol.

      As for favorite store flooring, well, that's hard to say. I suppose I have not really thought about it!

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    3. Oof, yeah, looks like your area has some bad luck with concrete floors...

      I remember seeing those pictures of that cool tile floor, but I never thought about how that would cause issues for carts! I should have, though, having dragged rolling suitcases across faux-brick floors a few times (I've never seen it in a grocery-store setting, but faux brick is probably my absolute least favorite type of floor!).

      Wood parquet floors sound cool, but I can see how they would be a maintenance issue. Real wood flooring is another thing I've never seen in person in a store, and I'm particularly surprised it was being used in 70s-era (I'm guessing) stores -- I would have thought that would be limited to very old stores, like from the 20s or 30s!

      I know I've seen duct-taped floor tiles myself before, but I can't remember where, or if it was a store at all. I'm more likely thinking of some of the various run-down buildings at the UW, I suppose!

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    4. Now that I think about it, Foley's was using wood parquet floors even in the 1980s with their West Oaks Mall and Willowbrook Mall locations. The Willowbrook location is my local location (now Macy's, of course), but the store was renovated many years back and so the parquet floor was removed while it was still in good condition.

      The West Oaks Foley's/Macy's was slightly newer than the Willowbrook location, but it had the same design as the Willowbrook store inside and out. It had the wood parquet floor until it closed in 2017. I did visit that location not long before it closed and I don't remember the flooring being in bad shape like the other locations mentioned earlier even though the store was not being maintained very well, but it must have had some rough spots as Je has a picture of it where Macy's was using cardboard taped to the floor as a makeshift repair, lol. That's bad, really, really bad. After Macy's closed at West Oaks, an independent clothing clearance store took over the location so that cardboard floor might still exist.

      https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E1kk77SXXGE/Wtbl9WU3CBI/AAAAAAAATKo/1xB2SGXp4N4N54o0EB-Z51jQCbYKRxsRACLcBGAs/s1600/20170301_134815.jpg

      https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2018/04/rip-macys-west-oaks-houston-texas.html

      Another now-closed Houston retailer which had a really bad floor was the Rice Village Half Price Books store that sadly closed about a year ago. The store had a really neat terrazzo entryway which was original to the original tenant of the store, but the flooring in the store itself was terrible as you can see if these photos from the Houston Historic Retail blog. I know you like bookstores, especially quirky ones, so you'll probably like looking at that one. Fortunately, the other Half Price Books locations in Houston are seemingly staying alive. I think this particular location just got priced out of a lease in a trendy, wealthy area.

      https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2020/03/08/half-price-books-has-left-the-village/

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