Here's a closer view of the right-hand vestibule, with its full-height windows that make it look almost like one of Fred Meyer's glass vestibule entryways. Sticking off to the left of it is one of the bus stop-like canopies that many arch model Walmarts got, a feature I've always found a bit strange. This store also has its department signage next to, rather than above, the entrance, which is something I'm pretty sure is unique to these full-glass arch-model stores.
This looks pretty neat. I would say it actually looks better than some of the Fred Meyers you've posted recently. Perhaps Retail Retell will feel vindicated seeing Walmart score one on Fred Meyer/Kroger here, lol.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of things which look nice in my opinion, but certainly not in your opinion, I visited my first Safeway Lifestyle v3 store today. This was at the Meyerland Randall's here in one of Randall's core areas, the wealthy inner-suburbs of SW Houston. This is also the Randall's that is called the Kosher Randall's due to it being in a heavily Jewish neighborhood. The store has a kosher bakery and also a kosher hot deli that is separate from the regular deli (the regular deli is in front of the produce department like a lot of other Randall's, but the kosher deli is in the back of the produce department next to the meats). I've shared the Google Maps link with you quite some time ago, but I'll do it again here: https://goo.gl/maps/8tbQCjkgaTX21Ng78
The Lifestyle v3 decor looked about what I expected it to look like from the photos. That said, it was interesting to see the scale and 3Dness of it in-person. The 3Dness of it and the typeface does give it a bit of a comical look, but really it looks pretty good. I'm not complaining about it. The store still has earlier Lifestyle flooring and the register lights and signs are still Lifestyle v1 (I think). I might prefer Colorful Lifestyle v2, but I like both. I actually thought about going to a Colorful Lifestyle v2 store near the Kosher Randall's that's in an even more affluent area, but I decided to check out the Lifestyle v3 store instead just to see what it is all about.
One thing about this store is that it still has a very 1980s/early 1990s Randall's layout to it. It had been a long time since I've been in a Randall's that was a Randall's from that era, but the layout and feel of the store felt very familiar. One aspect of that layout is that the produce was somewhat enclosed from the rest of the store. In modern times, Safeway has painted that area mostly off-white which you can see in the photos. That area could use some more color given the colors elsewhere in the store, but it still doesn't look too bad.
Also, although this is not really a small store by the standards of current Houston Randall's, it does not have any self-checkouts. I'm not sure why that is the case. I'm not complaining about that though.
One last note is that the kosher bakery and deli items have stickers on them from a local organization that supervises kosher kitchens. I will say that this store has more bakery items than the typical Randall's, or any grocery store perhaps, due to having some items aimed at the Jewish community. They also have an aisle or two of kosher grocery items.
Honestly, I'd put Walmart and Fred Meyer on about the same level when it comes to store exteriors. (Interiors, merchandise, pricing, and pretty much everything else is a different story!) Both have some really nice stores, and some really ugly stores. Fred Meyer does have a bit of an edge, though, in that their stores tend to be more interesting and less cookie-cutter than the average Walmart.
DeleteIt sounds like we have similar feelings on Lifestyle v3 -- personally, I'd really like it if it wasn't for that font (and also if it wasn't competing with Modern and Heritage [stay tuned for some exciting news about that package], both of which I much prefer). That's why I like Colorful Lifestyle v2 so much -- it's basically Lifestyle v3 without that font!
It's interesting looking at that store -- apart from the decor, it almost feels like a weird hybrid of a 90s Albertsons and a standard northwest Safeway! The lower ceilings around the perimeter remind me of some of the fancier Blue and Grey Market Albertsons stores.
Self checkouts are an odd thing for Safeway. It wasn't until around 2019 that Safeway really pushed to put them in all of their stores around here, and before that there was no apparent pattern -- there were small stores with self checkouts, and large stores without them. Personally, back in those days, I refused to shop in any Safeways that lacked self checkouts!
The kosher section is certainly interesting. I don't think there are any major stores around here with dedicated kosher departments (QFC formerly had them in some stores, but they all seem to have been removed over time). Of course, that store is a good bit larger than most grocery stores around here!
Oddly enough, there are quite a few similarities between Safeway's layouts (at least here in Houston) from the 1970s and early 1980s and those 1980s-early 1990s Randall's layouts. They're not exactly the same, and Randall's stores certainly would have had higher-end fixtures and some specialty departments like a cosmetics counter than a Safeway of that era wouldn't have had, but the general layout is quite similar.
DeleteAlso, I did sense some similarities between the Kosher Randall's and some of the Albertsons you've posted recently. Oddly enough, there are some Lifestyle v2 Randall's in town in old Albertsons, but they don't feel like Albertsons at all in modern times. This Kosher Randall's was never a Albertsons, but yet it kind of sort of feels like one. I suppose the store really does represent it's lineage with the classic Randall's, Safeway, and Albertsons feel to it!
For a long time, Randall's and the independent grocer Belden's competed for kosher food sales in that area. There's a Kroger right by that Randall's, but they don't have the same kosher reputation as those other two. Unfortunately, HEB built a new two-story store nearby and they copied some of the kosher strategies that Randall's has been using for a while now. As a result, Belden's decided to give up and they shut down their business. I'm sure the Randall's has seen a decline in sales as well, but hopefully they still have enough local supporters in the Jewish community and otherwise to keep the store going. It's certainly a nicer looking store than the HEB, easier to shop at due it being one-story and smaller than the HEB, and it's less crowded (for better or for worse).
Oddly enough, the Kosher Randall's shares a shopping center with a non-Supercenter Wal-Mart (a pretty rare thing around here in modern times, I think the Walmart does have a shrunken grocery department) and the HEB shares a shopping center with a Target that used to be a Venture and a Kmart. HEB seems like a better match with Walmart and Target with Randall's, but that's not how things worked out there. I'm not really sure if Walmart and HEB would want each other as neighbors since they are 1 and 2 in marketshare in Houston now and both stores would surely be madhouses that I would like to avoid, lol.
Randall's had self-checkouts in the early 2010s, but then took them out before returning them in around 2019 like you said. I'm not sure what the deal with that was. Unlike Walmart and even Kroger to some extent, the Randall's that have self-checkouts seem to still be more oriented towards the manned checkouts. But, anyway, I suppose at least you can understand the oddity of some Safeways/Randall's having self-checkouts and others not having them!
Although Lifestyle v3 most certainly feels like a 21st century decor package, that kosher Randall's does have a retro feel to it with the older Randall's building features/layout, more of an emphasis on service departments than other grocers including other Randall's, and no self-checkouts. Maybe I just caught them at a good time, but they also seemed to have pretty significant staffing for a modern grocer especially given that the crowd of shoppers wasn't too big. Oh well, I'm not complaining, it is nice shopping at a store that is more customer-oriented!
Wow, that's a lot of grocery stores in a small area!
DeleteAlbertsons did the same thing as Randall's with self checkouts (oddly enough). I'm not aware of any Safeways around here that removed self checkouts, but they seemed to stop installing them for most of the 2010s until the big push to put them in every store. But like you said, Safeway doesn't seem particularly focused on self checkouts -- their stores seem to have significantly fewer than, say, QFC (probably the most comparable other chain these days), and my parents have said that when they shop at weird times, Safeway will shut down the self checkouts (unlike Kroger's brands, which go to self checkout only at night). Unfortunately, Safeway locally is very bad about staffing their stores post-Albertsons merger, so even lower-volume stores tend to have long lines for both regular and self checkout. (I feel like Albertsons and Safeway really competed on service pre-merger, since they had similar prices... that's all out the window now that they are so dominant post-merger.)
Kroger here also goes self-checkout only during the evenings and it's quite annoying. The odd thing is that so many people buy beer and wine at night that some employee has to go around checking IDs anyway. I'd obviously much rather a store go manned checkout-only at night than self-checkout only at night.
DeleteIt's a bit odd, but I actually think the freshness and supply of products at Randall's and also the staffing has improved since the merger has matured than prior to the merger and during the early days of the merger. It's hard to explain that especially given that the Houston distribution center was closed recently and now everything is coming from Dallas! Since Houston's stores are also now run out of Dallas instead of Houston, it's possible the management in Dallas is just better than Randall's management here in Houston was. I don't know. Tom Thumb-Albertsons certainly has a larger presence in Dallas than Randall's does here so maybe they have better regional managers there. It's hard to say.
I think some of the worst stores for staffing and inventory have been the locations that Randall's has closed in recent years. Since some of those were stores I shopped at, it's possible that Randall's just gave up on some locations when they knew internally that they were going to close them. The survivors might be the better stores in the chain and so maybe they get more attention.
Albertsons-Safeway-Haggen has so much market share in the NW that maybe their is less pressure to compete. Most of the markets that Albertsons/Safeway competes in are not as competitive as what we have here in Texas.
Interesting -- around here, it's quite noticeable that things have gone downhill for Safeway since the merger, particularly when it comes to staffing levels (something I've whined about plenty of times on here), but also when it comes to product selection (in particular, Safeway store brand items were always very good before the merger, but they have very much gone downhill in quality). But at least inventory isn't too bad at Safeway around here (compared to most other chains, which seem to have significant challenges), apart from the usual COVID-related supply issues that have been impacting everyone.
DeleteI agree with you about the decline in Safeway's store brands during the switch from Safeway Select to Signature Select. That is perhaps the most noticeable decline I've seen in Randall's since the Albertsons merger. I don't know if Safeway switched to Albertsons' suppliers for some products or what. Some items are still okay, but it's rather iffy.
DeleteI rate modern Signature Select products behind HEB's store brand products and Kroger's store brand products. HEB's store brand products are one of the few things I give them credit for. Their store brands are often better than national brands at a lower cost. This has actually turned into a bit of a negative even for HEB-loving Texans (of which I'm absolutely not part of, lol). Perhaps due to the popularity of HEB's brands, they have eliminated some popular national brand products on their shelves. In many cases, shoppers aren't missing anything by not having those brands, but people like variety and HEB doesn't always offer it even with their massively-sized stores.
Kroger's store brand products are not as good as HEB's, but they are still very good. I have no problem buying Kroger brands over national brands.
Safeway would be wise to improve their store brand quality back at least to where it was pre-merger. Safeway/Randall's stores tend to be smaller than their competitors and so that naturally leads to less shelf space for all the national brands. Since the store brands are going to get their shelf space, Safeway needs to make sure the quality is good enough to make people not miss the national brands.
Randall's tends to have issues keeping sale items in-stock around here. Randall's prices are not very competitive in general, but their sale prices are often as good as any of their competitors. Thus, there can be runs on sale products. I actually think the inventory issue has become less of an issue here recently than it was a few years ago.
One Randall's annoyance is that they pretty often advertise items that smaller Randall's stores don't even sell. However, a pretty large percentage of the remaining Randall's are on the smaller side, like my local store which is almost 50 years old, and so Randall's probably ought to advertise items that all stores sell. It's not like there are a lot of Randall's in Houston so that seems like a strange thing to have an issue with (though it's possible Houston Randall's have the same ad as Austin's Randall's and Austin's Randall's might be bigger on average than Houston's Randall's...I'm not sure about that).
Interesting about the store brands -- I haven't tried many Kroger store brand things, but I haven't been impressed by the ones I tried. Perhaps I should try some more, but their prices certainly aren't as good as Safeway's (as odd as I'm sure that sounds to you!). I know what you're saying about small stores, though -- my current Safeway is on the small side (even for northwest Safeways!), and there are certainly some categories where I'd love to see more variety rather than having the store be so dominated by Safeway brands.
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