The back side of the directory was just full of more useless lists of items. Perhaps they were just trying to correlate items with the department names that they're part of, but it seems like the lists of things go into way more detail than you'd need for that.
Well, at least we know where audio tape, video tape, and film are located! Or maybe not since they don't have aisle numbers, lol. Some of those categories might have been outdated even by 2007. They may still sell film though. It's still possible to buy that from drug stores and some supermarkets. Some CVS and Walgreens stores still sell Maxell blank audio cassettes as well and I'm not sure if Walmart is still selling their own brand, Onn, audio cassettes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how much you'll like this, but I'm sure Retail Retell will love this. South Texas Retail just pointed this out to me. In Dallas, there is a fried chicken chain called Williams Chicken. Their headquarters are located in an old mansard roof McDonald's. If you've seen an old McDonald's, you know they had their logos in black frames below the windows. Well, Williams Chicken kept the McDonald's golden aches below the windows, but they reversed them so now they are golden Ws. Wow, this is awesome! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/8B8Rf1j7vfuqDXb49
Of more interest to NW Retail, if you spin that Google View 180 degrees, I'm almost positive that AutoZone/Family Dollar is an old Safeway.
Some of those things seem like they might have been more out of place in 2007 than they are today, honestly! Though I think my family was still using all three of those things in 2007. We might have had a digital camera by then, though... not sure.
DeleteI think I might have seen that ex-McDonalds on "Nonstandard McDonalds" on Twitter, unless there's another ex-McDonalds with upside-down Ms like that! And that old building makes me think of Albertsons, with the trapezoidal roofline, but those two chains extensively "borrowed" design ideas from each other, so it wouldn't surprise me if Safeway used the same design! Anyways, you know grocery stores of your area way better than I do, obviously!
There are some Albertsons/ex-Albertsons with that trapezoidal design here in Texas, but I think that design is much newer than what that old Safeway would be. In that regard, maybe Albertsons stole that design idea from Safeway! It seems that Safeway where the AutoZone/Family Dollar is now was a short-lived location that operated from 1970-1976 according to some information I just got from a fellow Houston retail enthusiast and was long-gone before Safeway left Dallas in 1987.
DeleteAs for Albertsons of that design, here is a HEB in Kerrville, TX that is in an old Albertsons with that design. HEB kept the exterior intact, but the interior is a typical HEB disaster (though it does somewhat mix their layout with Albertsons'). Link: https://goo.gl/maps/Ps32rxash7ixzb6A7
Funny! Not entirely surprising either, seeing as Albertsons totally stole Safeway's Marina design too. And actually, that Marina Albertsons we were just looking at has the trapezoid design I was thinking of too, from its 70s expansion -- so not too long after that Safeway was built.
DeleteAh, I hadn't realized that all the useless product categories were at least organized on the directory by department. That makes this thing at least marginally less pointless, haha! Still, though, one would definitely expect aisle numbers to follow at the end of those rows of ellipses...
ReplyDeleteAlso, yeah, I feel like I've seen that McDonald's before too, unless there are more with upside-down M's like Northwest Retail said. Still cool though!
Yeah, that's the only possible use for this thing. Unfortunately, Fred Meyers didn't have aisle numbers outside of the grocery department until just a few years ago, so there's really no way they could have made this useful... which makes me wonder what the point even was.
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