Beyond its cool design (I love the massively oversized canopy above the main entrance), this store has one big oddity -- it's still, to this day, open 24 hours! Not only is it the only Haggen to be open all night, I believe it's the only grocery store owned by a major chain to be open 24/7 anywhere in the region at this point -- Albertsons/Safeway, Fred Meyer/QFC, Walmart, and Walgreens all used to have a lot of 24-hour stores, but they all started phasing that out in the late 2010s and COVID killed off the rest. Except, for some reason, this one single store. I have no clue what made this store so special -- the only thing I can think of is that maybe there's some sort of lease requirement. I don't know how likely that is, but I know it's a common thing to blame for stores making seemingly inexplicable decisions...
Wow, that's surprising that this Haggen is open 24 hours. Maybe they couldn't figure out what to do since they don't have doors, lol. Is there any major employer in the area which is known for having hours working odd hours like hospitals?
ReplyDeleteMost WinCo stores are open 24 hours still, but someone would have to be pretty desperate to want to shop at WinCo! I certainly don't blame you for overlooking WinCo's existence, lol. But, yeah, because of that, Seattle has way more 24 hour supermarkets than Houston has at this point which is, I believe, zero.
I don't think there are any major employers around this store period, let alone any that would have people coming and going at weird hours!
DeleteI hadn't even thought about WinCo, mostly because their stores are all quite a ways from Seattle proper! The local Saar's chain also still has most stores open 24 hours, so the Seattle region does have a good number of 24-hour grocery stores, though a small fraction of what we had 5 or 10 years ago -- I don't believe there are any in Seattle city limits, though.
Besides Walmart, 24-hour supermarkets were never a big thing here in Florida, at least over the last 25 years or so. Albertsons phased out most 24-hour operations here by the early 2000's to 6am-Midnight or 6am-2am at most stores before they began their great retraction. Publix has never operated a 24 hour store, and if Winn-Dixie ever did, it was a really long time ago, as I don't ever recall seeing one that was. Still, it certainly is unusual to see anything outside of a convenience store open 24 hours these days!
ReplyDeleteI never realized Albertsons had 24-hour stores before the merger! They probably got rid of that around here before I started paying attention. It was a big thing for basically every other chain until recently, though.
DeleteI remember reading that the Blue Angel Parkway Winn-Dixie in Pensacola that I covered a few months back was originally open 24-hours, as were many of the Food Lions from the 1990's; however, like AFB mentioned, it hasn't been a thing in the Southeast for a very long time. I think there are only 5 Publix stores that are even open until 11 PM (four around Disney World and a lonely, but massive, store in Atlanta).
Delete