Looking back

But enough general decor talk! While I was very glad to see that this store had been remodeled and wasn't still stuck with boring Lifestyle v1, the real reason we're here is for the store itself. As the lack of ceiling beams and presence of drop ceiling tiles indicates, the produce department is within the later addition to the store -- the original building ended at that giant column. Still, I'm quite surprised at how large the original store was -- these days, the store is pretty much the size of a typical present-day Safeway despite only having received a small addition; the original building seems to have been around 35,000 square feet, which makes it larger than the 2000s-built Safeway I shop at! Perhaps that's why this place has survived so intact into the present day -- unlike most Marina stores (which were generally around 25,000 square feet, and sometimes far smaller), it wasn't so tiny as to need significant additions (which often came with new facades) or a complete replacement to fit a full suite of modern amenities.