The register lights (and other checkout fixtures) are the same through all three versions of Lifestyle, so it seems like Safeway could have just left them as is here, but no -- for some reason, Safeway decided to rearrange them to reverse the direction that the checkout numbers count up. Off in the background is the customer service sign again, which seems to be significantly larger than the v2 version.
One thing that I do like about Lifestyle v3 is that it does at least follow standardized capitalization norms! The all lowercase Lifestyle v2 department names are a bit strange and I always thought it looked especially strange with the "poetry in bloom" title. This looks more visually pleasing at least as far as the capitalization goes, lol.
ReplyDeleteSomeone at Retail Watchers posted something interesting this week about my local Randall's. They found a brochure promoting the sale of the shopping center that the Randall's is in and the main promotional point the seller is pushing is that Randall's 50 year lease is going to expire in April 2024 and they don't have any remaining options. That actually probably would have been Handy Andy's 50 year lease that Randall's picked up in around 1980 after Handy Andy left town. Anyway, the seller points out that Randall's is paying far below market value in rent and that a new lease agreement with Randall's or someone else could yield significantly more in rent. Link: https://res.cloudinary.com/jll-global-cmg/image/upload/v1636478049/IC/Img/Original/tb9ioe0vvaq6xrpzowuw.pdf
It'll be interesting to see what happens. The center has a good location near a very wealthy neighborhood and few nearby competitors (there is a nice Kroger on the other less travelled end of the wealthy neighborhood). That said, it does have some vacancies and the age/size of the building, along with the limited parking around the Randall's building by modern supermarket standards, might mean that it would be difficult for the center to find another grocer to fill that spot unless maybe Trader Joe's wants in the area. Aside from that possibility, the center's new owners might be best off making a good deal with Randall's to stay to ensure the smaller tenants don't leave.
We'll have to see what happens, but hopefully Randall's is able to renew the lease there. The fact that the store still has Lifestyle v2 decor could be a sign that Randall's is evaluating their commitment to the location before investing in it, but the Lifestyle v2 decor still looks good there so I don't think they need to be in any rush to replace it. Besides that, Colorful Lifestyle v2 is really the only realistic option they can renovate to due to the extremely small walls in most departments which only permit very small signage which you've seen before in photos of this store.
Agreed -- and I think this is about the only Safeway decor package in the recent past to use title case instead of all uppercase or all lowercase!
DeleteThat will be interesting. I have to wonder if Randall's might also be considering upgrading themselves to a new store, since that one looks to be relatively old and outdated.
Some older/low-ceiling local Safeways have been remodeled to Modern Decor lately, and actually look pretty nice with it! Not perfect, but certainly better than ones with Lifestyle v2. Not sure if any of them have quite such low ceilings as your Randall's, though! That store makes even QFC's ceiling heights look reasonable.
Randall's replacing this store (Champions Forest) with a new store is not entirely inconceivable. The Champions Forest store had a sister store that started out as a Handy Andy at Westheimer & Gessner that was torn down and replaced with a new location at the same site about a decade ago (this is the Lifestyle v2 store with the tan Lifestyle v3 aisle markers that I shared with you the other day). Also, the Champions Village shopping center the Randall's is in has an underutilized part of the shopping center next which is underutilized because it is kind of hidden that could be torn down quite easily to make room for an expanded new supermarket.
DeleteThat said, I think that Randall's is best suited to serving a 'neighborhood' role rather than a 'regional supermarket' role since most of the shoppers for this store are going to be from the high-income neighborhoods immediately around the store. Given that, sticking with the older, smaller store might be the best option for Randall's. The Champions Randall's has another ex-Handy Andy sister store with a similar design on Memorial & Dairy Ashford where Randall's recently renovated the store to Colorful Lifestyle v2 and I think that's probably the best way to upgrade the Champions store if it does get upgraded. I suppose a miniaturized version of Modern might work, but I would think Lifestyle v3 is certainly out of the question at a store like the Champions one!
Although a new Randall's opened in Austin a couple of years ago, and although Randall's has been updating a lot of their Houston stores to Colorful Lifestyle v2 and Lifestyle v3, Randall's as a whole has been closing more stores in Austin and Houston than expanding. It seems like every time Randall's closes some more stores here and people think Safeway/Albertsons is finally throwing in the towel (again) in Houston, Randall's renovates some of their other stores and goes on a marketing campaign which indicates that they do wish to stick around. As we can see with the card situation, Albertsons is willing to try some unexpected things to try to stay competitive in this region!
As for the Champions Randall's, one of the exterior sides of the store actually has a gable roof! If it wasn't for the presence of a drive-thru pharmacy on that side of the store, someone could easily confuse this for being a large house instead of a supermarket! It's certainly a neat looking side to my local Randall's: https://goo.gl/maps/EbJChV9yn4kZPjzB9