Something you certainly wouldn't see at a Safeway (from that era or any other) is the wide-open entryway to this store! I'm guessing this isn't original to the store, and was probably added when this store was remodeled sometime in the 2000s, as this sort of open entry with merchandise spilling out to the sidewalk seems to have been a popular feature for a short time in that era. I quite like the arched glulam beam above the entry; I'm guessing the "Northwest Quality and Value" sign is leftover from the Top Foods days since I can't imagine Haggen wanting to emphasize "value" so prominently.
A wide open entryway like that is certainly not something you'd see at a Houston supermarket due to our stores being air conditioned and retailers not wanting the air conditioned air to escape! Also, we have lots of mosquitoes, quite big ones, so having open doors would be like inviting them in.
ReplyDelete'Value' is one of those funny words. Back in the early 1990s when Kroger and Randall's (pre-Safeway Randall's) dominated the scene along with some independents, Food Lion and HEB entered the market with low-price concept stores. Kroger and Randall's tried to engage in a price war, but I think they both knew they couldn't top the prices by HEB especially and later Wal-Mart as well. Randall's responded by changing their slogan from "Your Remarkable Store," which emphasized nice stores and high levels of service, to "Your Remarkable Store for Value." It seemed like an admission that even if Randall's lowered their prices, they wouldn't be the cheapest store. However, they emphasized 'value' to communicate that Randall's offered the best balance of a good shopping experience with decent prices.
So, with that in mind, I do wonder if maybe Haggen/Top Foods was trying to emphasize an overall experience with 'value' rather than simply discussing pricing. I don't know, it's hard to tell. Of course, these days, Haggen and Randall's are under the same umbrella!
Je from the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog posted a new post today with two Houston Fiesta Marts. One is the Astrodome location which I'm sure I've shared with you before. Still, it's an amazing late 1980s store worth seeing again and Je's photos are great. His new camera takes really good photos of the neon. The other store on Wirt is in an old FedMart and it used to be my local Fiesta until some newer locations opened near me in the late 1980s. This store is scheduled to get renovated soon so I'm glad Je photographed that place because there's a good chance all that wonderful earlier 1980s neon is going away soon. But, yeah, I think this post is well worth looking over! Link: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2022/04/two-fiestas-houston-texas-march-2022.html
True, though I believe Winn-Dixie's new-build "Transformational" stores had open entryways, and that seems like an even worse region for that sort of thing!
DeleteYeah, that's possible too. The reason I thought it was a leftover from Top Foods (which I didn't explicitly mention in the post) is that Top Foods was Haggen's attempt at a more mainstream brand, while Haggen was intended to be more upscale.
Those are some very cool stores! I wish there were still neon-heavy stores around here...