- Miles driven: 3,531
- Stores visited: 64
- Photos added to the backlog: 2,150 (about a year and a half of content...)
- Total photos taken (including non-retail ones): 2,773
I'm so glad I had my new camera for this vacation, since I've been very impressed with its performance! While I haven't yet looked through all 2,000+ photos on my computer, it seems that virtually none of them turned out unusable due to issues with the camera, something I've never been able to say with my previous cameras. I'm going to start one of these sets tomorrow, but just for a little fun (since it will be many, many years before I post all of the photos from this trip), here's a preview of some (OK, almost all) of my favorite spots I photographed! (I've already posted many of these stores on Discord during the trip, but I'm picking different photos of them for this post... so a double spoiler for some of you!)
I'm glad to hear you had a good time on vacation! In a way, I'm surprised you only visited 64 stores, but then again, it would probably take me three years to visit that many different retailers! These are the first I've seen of your photos and they look great, I'm glad you had your new phone to take those photos.
ReplyDeleteI notice that the favorite photos are a lot more slanted towards Safeway/Albertsons stores rather than Kroger stores. I suppose I can't say that is a big surprise, but hopefully you did visit one of those Ralphs stores with Safeway Lifestyle knockoff decor, lol. Also, it is great seeing those Safeway roundrels...especially that one with the pre-1981 Safeway mosaic sign. I'm not sure which store that Delicatessen sign is from with the fake skylights, but that looks fantastic!
The only store in the favorites where I know for sure where it is and what the story is behind it is the Panorama City Montgomery Ward. The others will be a surprise to me! Of course, with the backlog I suppose it might be a while before we hear about these surprises, lol.
Ha! There were probably nearly that many stores again that I would have liked to visit, but I was already in a serious time crunch since I was vising those stores on top of driving 4-6 hours almost every day and seeing everything else I wanted to see along the way! And while it might not sound like all that much, those 64 stores are roughly 25% of the total number of stores I've photographed ever, after five and a half years of doing this and three previous retail-oriented vacations (though the number of photos taken is well under the 25% mark).
DeleteYeah, what can I say, I'm a Safeway fan! California doesn't have all that many interesting Kroger stores (at least relative to Safeway/Albertsons), and since I had to prioritize what stores to spend my limited time on, they didn't always make the cut. I'd be interested to hear which Kroger decor you're referring to -- I did visit one of the last few remaining Script stores, but I've always thought that package looks more akin to Proto-Lifestyle.
I think we've talked about at least one of the other stores here (the last one) sometime before! The super-retro Save Mart is one that's so cool that I'm hoping to post about it pretty soon... but then again, I could say that about at least half of the stores I visited, so it's hard to say what will actually bubble up to the top of the list!
That last store does look familiar. I reckon it is in Oregon? It probably is something we've discussed before, but I can't remember where it is. Normally I can tell if a store is in the NW or California given how many Subarus are in the parking lot, but this one might be deceiving me, lol.
DeleteThe Ralphs knockoff Safeway Lifestyle decor I'm speaking of actully looks more like Colorful Lifestyle v2 or Lifestyle v3. Here is an example of it at a Ralphs which used to be next to a Vons before the Vons became a Sprouts! I'm not sure how common it has ever been for a Safeway banner to be next to a Kroger banner in the same shopping center! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/A41Z4Sh86YcbXfjA8
Wow, given those numbers, I'm not sure how you're going to manage the backlog, but I guess it is a good problem to have!
Yep, that's the Ashland Safeway, just across the border from California! There may not be any Subarus in the picture, but the old Volvo wagon is a good sign that it's in the Northwest! 😉
DeleteAh yes, Fresh Fare 2.0. That's actually one of my all-time favorite Kroger decor packages, but sadly, it didn't make the cut for this trip (I had way too much to pack into my limited time in the LA area... and also very limited patience for LA traffic!), mostly because I have actually seen it before, at the one local QFC where it was used.
My backlog had been relatively stable and feeling manageable lately, but now it's over 7,000 photos, the longest it's ever been... 😬
Really cool stuff! 64 stores and over 2,000 photos is a lot to see over a span of 2 weeks, probably one of the most intense retail road trips I've heard of. Looking forward to seeing some of these photosets, and I'm glad you had a fun trip!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It definitely was intense, to say the least, but very much worth it in the end!
DeleteGlad to hear it was such a great trip, and that you made it back home safe! Wow -- 3,500 miles is pretty dang close to my entire odometer, lol :P (Granted, that's only because it's the new car -- the old one had something like 27K in less than two years before it was totaled!) These teaser photos look great, and I can't wait to see all these new stores over the next several years! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Ha, my parents just got their new car last July, and between my trip and several big road trips they've taken, we've already pushed it over 15,000 miles! (We're all just happy to have a car that's reliable enough for such long road trips again after several years without one, so we've been doing all the road trips we've been wanting to do for the past few years. I'm certainly not going to be doing such a crazy road trip again anytime soon!)
DeleteSome exotic and cool looking stuff there! I totally agree with what others have said -- 64 stores in two weeks is a ton! First of all, my head would be spinning just trying to keep up with the list of where to go next and second, I would be overwhelmed at the immense backlog I added by the end of the trip. Regardless, can't wait to see more of them!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, overwhelming is definitely one way to put it! 🙂
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