If you haven't noticed yet, Artisan seems to be on the cheap end for Kroger decor packages (at least for the ones that aren't explicitly intended as cheap decor packages -- I mean, it's no
Remix). Outside of the grand aisle, it seems like Kroger wasn't really interested in quality materials (unlike in Urban Mix, which I've often praised for its build quality). Here, you can see that the zigzag panels are really just cheap wallpaper, with a little strip of trim on the sides to try to make it look like something more than that.
Wow, lol, wow. I'm glad you caught this 'fraudulent' decor from that angle. Wow, that looks really bad. I think they would have been better off with just the wallpaper, but that still would have been pretty bad! I guess it's hard to expect Kroger to put any real money into these remodels given how short Kroger seems to keep these decor packages around these days in at least some markets. Hopefully 2012 sticks around a while here in Houston because I'm not so hot on some of the alternatives (though some look okay if Kroger keeps the actual flooring in place).
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you linked to Retail Retell's gallery of that Stateline Southaven Kroger because I was just looking at his photos of the place about 30 minutes ago! That Kroger has such importance in the history of retail photography on Flickr!
My thought about Remix, at least as it pertains to that store, is that I'm more offended that they pulled the flooring out of that store (and the pill signs!) than I am about the decor itself. The Remix decor is...meh...but that floor! Hideous! It looks like they forgot to finish the remodel! Oh, sure, the back wall looks like it was made by a PowerPoint template designer (which was also my complaint about the Artisan Toy Department signage that I just mentioned elsewhere, lol) and the 'wooden' department signs are so totally fake, but that flooring disgusts me above all else! I'm not even saying this because they sacrificed the vintage floor in that store. Some nice fake wood flooring or something would have looked much better. Maybe you disagree with that, lol.
On the topic of real wood, I recently purchased a newly released classical music CD and it has a surprising NW connection. And, no, I didn't buy the CD from Amazon. That isn't the NW connection, lol. The music is from Italian Baroque cellist Antonio Vandini and it was recorded in Padova, Italy by a Canadian-American cellist and also a cellist from Belgium who teaches at the University of Oregon was involved in the project. That's not quite the NW connection I had in mind either, but it might be connected. One of the instruments used by the Oregon professor is a bass violin (a rare instrument anyway!) made in the early 19th century in New Hampshire (usually those were made in northern Italy) and restored by the David Kerr Violin Shop in Portland, OR. I looked it up and the building the violin shop has looks kind of interesting. I guess it's nothing super special, but I do think they kind of made it look worse recently by painting the whole building black. It looks like it needed a paint job before, but the colors looked good. What do you think?
Before: https://goo.gl/maps/aFZKCcn7JEDK7gqG9
Now: https://goo.gl/maps/GFpVYexXuGmeGrAw7
You never know about violin shops. There's one near me which looks like a very ordinary store in a neighborhood shopping center. Even the main part of the store looks a bit nice, but ordinary. However, check out the inner chamber of this violin shop! It's amazing! I'm sure most people would never guess that was lurking inside such an otherwise ordinary looking shop! https://goo.gl/maps/tyKmCFNrxuQLH5wY9
Well, anyway, hopefully you like this most unexpected off-topic visit to another NW retailer, lol. I'm sure David Kerr uses all real wood unlike Kroger for their decor, lol.
Yeah, it's definitely not a great look. Urban Mix does seem to have a good construction quality to it, though! I quite like that decor.
DeleteFor flooring, I'm always all for fancy vinyl! It's just the plain white stuff that I don't like. And even then, my complaint with its usage in our Safeways is more that their stuff seems to be low quality and poorly installed.
As someone with absolutely no musical talent (my parents really tried when I was a kid, but I didn't like it), I don't think I've ever been in a music store! But painting buildings all black seems to be a trend (at least around here) these days. I'm not a huge fan either.
Thanks for the link! I actually pegged Artisan as a "fancier" décor given the way Kroger seems to be using it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not cheap to produce. In fact I imagine their goal is to try and design using cheaper materials where they can, without sacrificing the actual design integrity -- something I just wrote in a description yesterday, as a matter of fact (that will be uploading next week). Of course, with Artisan it seems we can argue the design integrity was impacted too, but some people think it's a good look, haha! Some people seem to feel the same about Remix (or at least parts of it), too, which is fine... but I'm definitely not one of them, haha.
ReplyDeleteRe: the flooring in the Stateline store, I do want to clarify that in most of those pictures the flooring had yet to be polished. So it wound up looking at least a little bit better than the war zone you see in those pics. I agree that the classic tile wasn't looking too hot either, but ripping it out for the concrete underneath isn't the best result. As for the décor itself, stay tuned for additional photos. It gets worse, lol.
I was mostly talking here about the construction quality rather than the use case. The construction seems to be about on the same level as Neighborhood, which I've always viewed as a cheaper decor even though it wasn't always used as such. The only current Kroger decor that really seems fancy to me is Urban Mix (at least in terms of the ones I know much about -- there's also Fresh Fare 3.0 and I'm guessing that one is also higher end).
DeleteYeah, I know. I was trying to say the same thing but I don't think I did it as well XD Anyway, I think my ultimate point is that even Urban Mix probably uses cheaper materials in places -- they just make it look a heck of a lot better!
DeleteYeah, I'm sure it does! Same goes for Banner, which is probably even cheaper than Artisan (it doesn't have nearly as many 3D elements, and I imagine the banner signs are fairly cheap to make), yet it still looks much better.
DeleteExactly!
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