There's still a lot of strangeness here, though. Starting with the ceiling, I can't remember the last time I saw a drywall ceiling in a grocery store -- not a drop ceiling, not an open ceiling, but drywall like you'd see in a residential building. Plus, it's funny to see how whoever installed the new lighting just slapped it right on top of the old ceiling tracks, which now just have a few random spotlights on them! Looking at the cases, they look newer than I would have expected from a store like this, but it appears that the wall cases are still the classic Safeway style and weren't updated in the remodel, and the island case on the right is a very strange design for the produce department, looking more like what Safeway normally uses in the bakery and deli -- I believe these were somewhat common at some point, but virtually every Safeway I've ever been to had them replaced at some point over the years with one of a variety of different designs that look more at home in the produce department.
Supermarkets with drywall ceilings aren't unheard of here in Houston even in current times. The one example that I can think of is the Fiesta Mart in East Houston that is in an old Weingarten. The Weingarten was probably built in the same era that this Safeway was built, but I can't say for sure when it opened off the top of my head. Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail Blog recently did a post about this. Check out the neon in this store! Link: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2022/07/fiesta-mart-i-10-and-lyons-ave.html
ReplyDeleteIn case you're wondering about the first paragraph of Je's post, Je was overrun with requests at the time from Kmart enthusiasts to post photos of Kmarts which he didn't even have in his collection. It was quite a strange thing and Je finally had to tell the Kmart enthusiasts to desist. Hopefully you don't have the same problem!
Hmm, interesting! Now that I look at those pictures, I've seen some older Rite Aids (former Pay N Save/Payless) that have ceilings like that.
DeleteHaha, I don't have enough people reading this blog at all for it to get "overrun" with anything!