I was originally extremely excited to see the bank here (in fact, it's the main reason I chose this to be the Proto-Lifestyle store featured this time) because it fit in with my vague memories of Safeway's self-branded in-store bank from the year 2000, Safeway Select Bank (a name that it took a lot of research for me to rediscover, and while trying to research that back in 2019 when I found it I was convinced I had imagined the whole thing for a long time because it was so hard to find any information without that name). Back in 2019, I was unable to find a single picture of Safeway Select Bank online -- it seems the early 2000s are the most difficult time to find photos, since most websites from that era are dead, online news stories from that long ago rarely still have pictures attached, and the newspaper archives that the local library has switch from scans to plain text without pictures sometime in the late 90s -- but when I went to research for this set I was able to find two photos, plus a diagram even, which sadly, conclusively, show that this is not actually the Safeway Select Bank design (especially since those photos align even better with my vague memories than this one does). Safeway Select Bank, for those who don't know (which seems to be basically everyone since there's hardly any information online about it) was Safeway's failed attempt at making a bank of their own, rather than leasing space to other banks, and was strangely operated by the CIBC from Canada; it also emphasized online and self-service banking well before that became mainstream, and that's probably the only reason I remember it, as preschool-age NWRetail was very interested in the "high-tech" aspects of the operation (I believe they had deposit-taking ATMs, for example, years before I saw those anywhere else) -- I mentioned earlier that one of my earliest, most vivid retail memories was being sad about Proto-Lifestyle going away at one of the Port Angeles Safeways; well, my earliest altogether (though much less vivid) is probably the bank at the other one! Unfortunately, Safeway Select Bank was a bit of a flop and shut down after just a couple years -- I'm guessing it flopped largely due to a combination of the online banking idea being a bit too far ahead of its time (I don't believe my family even had internet or a computer at home until several years later; sure, we're always late adopters, but I don't think that was all that rare in rural areas such as Port Angeles at the time) and the oddness associated with banking somewhere named after a grocery store's store brand (even the logo was designed to look like Safeway Select's packaging at the time -- back then it was their premium brand much like Signature Reserve these days, but still).
I don't think Safeway Select Banks ever made it to Texas. That was early enough after the Randall's buyout that I think Safeway was still a bit unsure how much they could use their name here and get away with it. Also, Randall's stores here would have had in-store banks anyway, it was probably Wells Fargo at that time, so Safeway probably didn't want to break their existing deals.
ReplyDeleteKroger did brand banking services in the early 1980s with their Kroger Financial Center. These probably weren't as self-branded as the Safeway banks though as the operating bank still largely used their name, but there was a lot of Kroger Financial Center signage around the banking area of the store: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1227099/m1/
And even Kmart, The Savings Place, offered investment opportunities in the early 1980s! Link: https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1175842/m1/
Yeah, it doesn't seem that Safeway Select Bank ever made it outside of the original test markets (I keep seeing old articles mentioning that it was only in California and Colorado, but it obviously expanded to Washington at some point).
DeleteI think I've heard of the Kroger Financial Center thing -- seems like that's not all too different than typical in-store banks plus the "money center" services that Kroger and Walmart offer these days. I hadn't realized Kmart got into banking (and apparently insurance too, from that video) way back then, though!