What initially drew me to this store -- years before I actually photographed it, and maybe even before I really got into retail -- was the exterior facade. I've always had a sweet spot for Safeway's 90s "brick and block" store designs, and this one, with its multiple gables and lattice pattern made of multiple shades of decorative CMU block, is likely my favorite example of the type.
1990s Safeways are a bit of a mystery to me as that was the decade that Safeway was absent from Texas. It seems we missed their nice stores! I liked their 1980s stores well enough. The brick pattern here does look nice and, in some ways, makes the store look newer than it really is. Around here at least, this was the time that Krogers started getting quite big. Krogers from that era look fine now, but this looks nicer and less stereotypically 1990s than the Kroger stores from ~1993 like this one near me: https://goo.gl/maps/Kimx93gSAF7FrhGHA
ReplyDeleteYeah, at least when it comes to the exterior, I think Safeway's 90s stores are the nicest ones they've built since the Marina era! I quite like those 90s brick Krogers too, though you're right that a lot of those are really showing their age these days.
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