This store had a cute old-fashioned readerboard on its road sign, something that seems particularly old-fashioned on a chain grocery store. This is another thing that surprises me now that I know that this store only opened as a QFC in 2000 -- I wonder if they intentionally added this, or just left it behind from the former tenants. Off in the background is the Wedgwood Rite Aid (it's hard to see in this picture, but the truss above the Rite Aid sign says "Wedgwood" in cursive script) -- amusingly, at over 20,000 square feet, that store is quite a bit larger than the QFC! That's just one of those weird Northwest things -- I know of several situations where there was once a drugstore (generally a former Pay 'n Save/Payless) right next to a grocery store, and the drugstore was the larger of the two. Sadly, I don't believe there are any left where both of the two are still open, at least at their original sizes.
It is a bit odd to see one of those message signs on a chain supermarket like that. If nothing else, most businesses around here have replaced such signs with digital LED boards, but even then, it's unusual for supermarkets to have those even. At least that's the case around here. There is a Food Town in this area in an old Food Lion where Food Town is using Food Lion's own message sign: https://goo.gl/maps/P91sG5hsnidjvRmQA
ReplyDeleteIs the QFC Advantage card the same thing as a Kroger Plus card? Does Fred Meyer use the same card? Are they all interchangeable?
Believe it or not, it was not uncommon for drug stores and supermarkets to be around the same size even here in Houston. For example, when the Hedwig Village Safeway (27k) opened in 1973, the neighboring Sav-On Drugs (25k) was nearly the same size. The Safeway is now the Kroger of the Villages and the Sav-On is a Walgreens, but the Kroger is much larger than the Walgreens now so some room must have shifted over to the Kroger even though Kroger is using the Safeway shell for most of their space. Of course, drug stores taking up something like 25k here, or even 20k, is unheard of in modern times as the run of the mill CVS/Walgreens is about as big as it gets around here now.
Agreed, digital readerboards are much more common around here too these days. It's not too rare for small, independent grocery stores (particularly vintage ones) to have some sort of readerboard, but it's quite strange for a chain store to have one!
DeleteYeah, QFC and Fred Meyer each have their own branded card, but they're definitely interchangeable with one another and I'm sure all of the different Kroger branded cards are. I know Safeway works that way too (though it can be a little weird with Just for U).
Interesting! I guess the small grocery stores of the Northwest weren't that weird historically, and they just haven't grown at the same rate since then.