Stepping into the main part of the store, you can see what makes this one special -- it's got the colorful repaint of PF&Hv1! As I discussed when we saw something similar in Gig Harbor, this decor is a complete mystery to me. Both stores started out with normal PF&Hv1, but at some point in the mid-2010s, were repainted to replace the beige walls from the original decor with various colors. And while I'm considering this to be a variation on the same theme, the colors used here are a bit different to those in Gig Harbor.
I have absolutely no clue what the backstory is to this repaint. It happened around the time of the merger, and in the era of Lifestyle v3 at local Safeways (an era which still hasn't ended in Oregon... sigh) which had a similarly colorful paint scheme, but the colors don't match Lifestyle v3 at all (in either store). So far, I've only ever seen it in these two stores, even after looking through pretty much every Albertsons in Washington and Oregon a few years back (though, as I just mentioned, tons of local Albertsons have closed over the last decade or so, so perhaps some more did have this paint job before closing). If anyone has any background on this, or has seen another store with a similar paint job, I'd love to hear about it.
Whoa, actual colors on the wall, actual floor covering, and a drop ceiling! It's nice for Albertsons/Safeway to provide us with a nice diversion from usual Kroger cost-cutting! I'm looking forward to seeing this. Since we have not had Albertsons here in Houston in almost 20 years, I really can't help you much with figuring out the decor!
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with Albertsons' Market Street stores here in North Texas and New Mexico? Market Street is actually a concept from Albertsons' United Supermarkets division that they purchased a few years ago. It seems that United has some autonomy to run the stores under their control, but oddly enough the Dallas Metroplex has the most Market Street stores and that's outside of United's traditional market area since Albertsons has another division for serving the other Albertsons brand stores there.
These stores are somewhat similar in concept to Haggen I suppose. That said, here is a Market Street store in Frisco, TX (Dallas Metroplex) that I believe opened after the Albertsons merger and which has somewhat revised decor from other presumably older Market Street stores. The decor still doesn't look like anything Albertsons or Safeway. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/gTn74eAvjNMW6ek49
The store is pretty nice! The colors in it are a bit bland and the overall decor designs are not overly fancy given the higher-end nature of the store. Haggen might have Market Street beat in that regard at least given my limited knowledge of Haggen, but the store does still look pretty nice. It certainly beats an HEB, but that's not saying much, lol.
Yeah, it is pretty nice! Personally, while I like high drop ceilings, I wish stores like this one with such low ceilings would ditch them so you'd get at least a little bit more ceiling height.
DeleteI've heard of Market Street, but I'm not super familiar since we don't have any in Washington (there is at least one in Idaho, however). The decor is certainly interesting, and that one looks totally different from the Idaho one. Some Haggen stores have also remodeled since they got bought out, but they don't look much like either of those stores.
Honestly, I've never thought Haggen had particularly good decor, either before or after the merger (growing up, one of my relatives lived near a Haggen, so we stopped in there somewhat frequently) -- though looking at pictures online, it looks like some of the ones I've never visited look pretty nice. And as a funny coincidence, Haggen used to brand their prepared foods sections as Market Street Cafe!
Yikes, that tile scar at that Woodinville Haggen looks terrible! That is not an impressive looking store, I can see why you would not like it. For reasons I can't remember, a fellow Houston retail enthusiast and I were recently discussing the Olympia Haggen the other day and we both really liked what we saw in the photos. It's a very nice store. Perhaps not all Haggens are up to the standards of that location, however. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/1y98xHydUZ57FSC86
DeleteI suppose Albertsons has a lot of Market Streets in their portfolio these days even if some of them weren't actually invented by Albertsons! I didn't even know about that Albertsons Market Street in Idaho. In some ways, the Albertsons Market Street and the United (Albertsons) Market Street seem to be trying to fill the same niche in the market, but they're still rather different looking. That Albertsons one in Idaho looks a bit too warehouse-y for my liking. I think I prefer the United Market Street, but it's hard to judge these without actually visiting them.
The ceiling at the Albertsons in the post does seem a bit low. Low drop ceilings can give stores a vintage Kmart-like vibe which is probably not a good thing. OTOH, a low open ceiling can look pretty bad as well so they might be best sticking with the drop ceiling in this case. At least the colorful look of that area does brighten up the space which does perhaps distract from the low ceiling a bit.
Oh, speaking of colors, I happened to find an Albertsons in Los Angeles which was remodeled to have Lifestyle v3 decor. I suppose these Lifestyle Albertsons aren't just an El Paso, TX thing. Check out the exterior of this Albertsons, it's pretty strange! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/1y5Vjsq4DemwXNDdA
Oh, and to add to my above comment about the Los Angeles Albertsons having Lifestyle v3, this Albertsons near Hollywood has Safeway Modern decor! It's a pretty nice implementation of it too from what I can tell. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/NsZpXdTKQNRkpWRv6
DeleteYeah, Olympia's one of the ones that looks quite nice. I think those were built in Haggen's ill-fated expansion push in the 00s (Haggen made a lot of terrible business moves over the years, well before the whole Albertsons/Safeway merger thing). Haggen is a small enough chain that they didn't really have standardized decor packages, and it seems like Albertsons is still largely letting them do their own thing in that regard based on the few post-buyout remodels they've done.
DeleteIn regards to the Albertsons remodels, it seems like Safeway/Albertsons is all over the place these days. Quite a few areas appear to be using both Lifestyle v3 and Modern interchangeably these days, and then there's the Albertsons "Legacy" package, and possibly some other ones that I still haven't figured out how they fit in anywhere. Kroger has been getting mocked lately about having too many decor packages at the same time, but at least we mostly seem to have a handle on what they're doing (except for Ralph's). With Albertsons/Safeway, I'm still super confused about what's going on with their decor packages!