I have no clue what this space was formerly used for -- the ugly floor scar looks like normal shelving, but the slatwall on the left is certainly interesting. The only thing I'm used to seeing in an alcove like this in Fred Meyer would be electronics, but this space seems
way too small for that (even the present-day electronics department, likely shrunk during the remodel, is at least twice this size. In a different store, I would have figured it was the old video rental department, but I've never seen a Fred Meyer with one of those (I'm not sure if they did video rental at all; if they did, it was probably out of the electronics department with the for-sale media). So yeah, one last mystery to wrap up the interior portion of this utterly bizarre store.
Video rental certainly would have been my guess. Supermarkets and stores like Phar-Mor (especially Phar-Mor!) took their video rental departments very seriously and they were usually in an enclosed room in a front corner of the store. Pre-Safeway merger Randall's took their video rental departments even more seriously than most supermarkets and theirs rivaled Phar-Mor for glitz and glamor (though Randall's had an edge in the 1980s in that they rented video games, including Sega Master System games, when Phar-Mor was only movies if I remember correctly). I've probably shared this video before, but you can get a taste for a vintage Randall's video rental department in this 1992 Randall's promotional video: https://youtu.be/h-eLf2uurLU
ReplyDeleteOther things that it could be that I can guess are: 1 hour photo lab, arcade, customer service, leased area.
That would make sense, except for the fact that I haven't seen a (former) video rental department like this at any other Fred Meyer! I'm not too young to remember when Albertsons used to have elaborate dedicated video rental departments like that at most of their stores, though they got rid of them relatively early; Safeway's ones around here were much simpler, but stuck around much later. I think a tenant space is the most likely option for this, since it's quite common for Fred Meyer to have those, though it seems like it was converted into something else before becoming the books and magazines department in the most recent remodel.
DeleteSo bizarre...
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