The back wall is quite an unusual location for a Safeway liquor department, but that's just how it goes in such an old store. I wouldn't be surprised if the cases back here were once part of the dairy department and were repurposed for beer in relatively recent times. And something else common for vintage grocery stores -- the restrooms here are in the stockroom, but unlike a lot of other chains, Safeway actually installs signs directing customers to them regardless. (Which is especially surprising these days, after quite a few stores around here decided to use COVID as an excuse to quietly permanently close their customer restrooms!)
On the topic of restrooms, you might have heard last week that Target is shifting to larger stores. The concept larger stores are being tested here in Texas with the first one (I believe) opening this past Friday in the Houston suburb of Katy. A Houston retail enthusiast visited this store and gave us his opinion of it and also took some photos which are on Mike's HHR Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HoustonHistoricRetail/
ReplyDeleteHere is the story about the larger stores: https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/target-unveils-larger-format-store-design
As we guessed, these stores are not much larger feeling than 'normal' Targets. The bulk of the added space must be in the backroom for online order fulfillment purposes. The person who visited the store said the seasonal space seems larger for a Target (so the extra room is for flex space) and the restrooms are unusually large. So, yeah, at least Target hasn't given up on restrooms!
The person who visited the store reported that the lighting in the store, combined with the concrete floors, gives off a harsh tone. He more or less said it's not as comforting as the normal Target look. The Big Target has two sets of registers, but both are quite reliant on self-checkout. Even during the grand opening, they didn't have many manned registers open. The new carts were reported to work quite well though.
Long story short, Big Target isn't much different than regular Targets. Target is starting to get a Kmart-like feel to them and hopefully Big Target (not that Target is calling them that) isn't like Big Kmart! The small City Targets and such have been an epic fail for Target with them getting the worst Google reviews I've seen for any retailer not named Walgreens or CVS. Seriously, check out the reviews for the Portland Bowl-a-rama Target or the Ballard Target. Pathetic. Heck, even the Ballard Walgreens next door has better reviews! Target has been off-target here lately so we'll see if they can get back on track. According to our insider's view of the Katy Big Target, it's a lot of 'meh' aside from the bathrooms and carts, lol.
I was wondering what this had to do with restrooms! 😃 Oddly enough, Target is one of the companies that has closed restrooms at some of their stores around here, though they aren't as bad about that as Kroger.
DeleteI've been feeling lately like Target lacks focus focus. First, they switched away from opening normal stores to their small-format version, and those stores were a bit unfocused themselves, with a strange choice of which departments to include, and while they've gotten quite a bit better about this, they really blew their introduction to the Seattle area with uncompetitive pricing and poor selection in their grocery department. And it seemed like they were moving away from extra-large stores like Super Target, but now they're opening extra-large stores again, except seemingly without any special features. Yeah, I really don't get it. If I had a Walmart that was even somewhat conveniently located, or if Safeway hadn't jacked up their prices to be in the same bracket as QFC/Fred Meyer, I doubt I would bother with Target at all.