Much like Kroger's Banner decor package, Lifestyle v2 was in continuous active use for so long (nearly a decade!) that it seems to hold endless surprises. I've visited dozens of Lifestyle v2 stores (and probably looked at pictures of hundreds more online), and yet I still keep finding variants and elements that I haven't yet seen. Case in point is the "local growers" sign here -- typically, if a Lifestyle v2 store got a second produce sign, it would be "juices" (which would make sense here, since this is the juice section), or less commonly "fresh picked", but this store got "local growers" instead, something I don't believe I've yet seen anywhere else. This store is, of course, very early Lifestyle v2, and the one linked above is fairly late, but this all still really fascinates me.
Very cool! I find this sort of thing fascinating as well.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I'm familiar with 'Local Growers' either, but most Randall's produce departments aren't big enough to justify two forms of signage. I could be forgetting something though.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, how common are 'Living Well' departments at Safeway? I don't think I've ever seen this before, but it is at this Tom Thumb. I'm not super familiar with Modern though so maybe this is everywhere and I just don't remember it. Link: https://goo.gl/maps/hhBE9znko3Bb9mC96
On another note, do you know anything about the fast food hamburger chain Herfy's that was founded in Everett and is still seemingly around in the Seattle area, but I'm not totally sure how many locations they have. The reason why I ask is because it just came to my attention today that Herfy's had locations in Houston in around 1973-4. They opened around 10 locations and it looks like it was a spectacular failure and they retreated quickly as is often the case when retailers take a shot at the Houston market, lol.
Here's a newspaper ad from 1973 from a local newspaper: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth567187/m1/32/
And some photos from Herfy's from 1974. I don't know if these were taken in the NW or what. Link: https://psyne.co/herfys-burgers-1974/
Anyway, who knew we had a burger chain from the NW!
Yeah, most Safeways don't either (or at least they didn't in the Lifestyle era; Modern includes two department signs (Produce and Organic, the latter of which doesn't seem to be placed with any relation to a specific organic produce department) for most normal stores), though ones from the 00s frequently have a "juices" department within produce.
DeleteI haven't ever seen that wall sign, but Safeway does sometimes use the "Living Well" branding in its sale ads and promotional signage. It's very rare for our Safeways to have health and beauty as a wall department, though there are some Albertsons conversions with a very similar layout which have "Personal Care" signs in place of "Living Well". It's also interesting to see the "Cowboys Fan Shop" getting proper wall signage (with a custom blue background even!) -- some Safeways around here have "fan shops" like that, but I've never seen one get any sort of permanent signage.
I do know of Herfy's, though I've never been to one. If I'm remembering correctly, my mom's first job was at a Herfy's, though it might be a different family member I'm thinking of. They are technically still around, but it looks like a broken chains situation where they're all completely independent (plus, all but one is in a generic strip mall location these days). Seems absolutely bizarre that they had locations in Texas! I wonder if that was an isolated thing or if they were a much larger chain than I ever knew of...
Interesting, I thought that Living Well signage looked a little strange to me! It seems that most Tom Thumbs and Albertsons in the Dallas area have those Cowboys Fan Shops. I do know that Albertsons and Tom Thumb are the official grocer of the Dallas Cowboys and so Albertsons is trying to take advantage of that status. Tom Thumb and Albertsons stores in Dallas have a lot of Cowboys stuff up around their stores as well. In the case of this particular store, it's near Texas Christian University and so the Cowboys Fan Shop also has TCU Horned Frogs (yep, that's their actual name, lol) stuff as well.
DeleteYeah, I have no idea what the story is with those Houston Herfy's locations. Did they have an independent franchisee here or something? I don't know. I guess the NW had a bit more of a history with fast food than we thought! One thing that could explain Herfy's coming to Houston is that McDonald's was a late entrant in the Houston market. I believe there was an issue with their name because there was already a local McDonald's here at the time. I forget the details, but perhaps some of McDonald's competitors thought they could have this market to themselves or at least take advantage of the fact that McDonald's got off to a slow start here. Well, it didn't take McDonald's long to catch up and maybe that left Herfy's in a bad spot. It's hard to say!
Yeah, Safeway has the same advertising deal with the Seahawks up here and most stores have similar "fan shop" setups, just not as permanent-looking (and quite a few stores seem to have lost them lately with Drive Up and Go taking that spot).
DeleteInteresting -- I didn't realize McDonald's was so late to your area! They have certainly been around here for quite a while, so I assume they were here when Herfy's was at its peak. It's too bad that there seems to be virtually no information about Herfy's online.