Of course, that's only the start of the vintage awesomeness this part of the store has to offer. The deli is the star of the show for the entire store, with its large stained-glass department sign that features stylized depictions of the various foods on offer here and its trio of barrel-vault faux skylights. Maybe it's just me since I didn't live through that time period, but this scene has a real 70s vibe to me more than the 80s look of the rest of the store -- and it wouldn't be surprising if this was carried over from Save Mart's 70s-era design, since after all, the brand-new Safeway we're also looking at right now uses a variation on a decor package from the mid-2010s!
This is awesome! I agree that this is more 1970s looking than 1980s, but the 1970s hung on for a while until the 1980s just as 1960s designs lasted into the 1970s. I guess it happens in all decades to some degree. The fake skylights are kind of a 1970s and 1980s thing. They were used some in the 1970s at grocers like Grand Union, but then they were used until the early 1990s in some places.
ReplyDeleteAs for the coffin coolers, it is surprising to see these survive anywhere at any kind of chain store...except Winn-Dixie where this is a bit expected, lol. I wonder where Save Mart gets the refrigerants to run these ancient coolers since I know some of those older refrigerants have been made illegal now to make. Perhaps they have invested in converting the older equipment to run modern refrigerants, who knows. Anyway, it is neat these have survived especially given what has happened to the stained glass at my local Fiesta Mart which you saw in Je's post.
Those oval signs in the other photos from today remind me of some oval signs Kroger used in the Bauhaus era. Granted, that's when this decor is from!
Maybe Winn-Dixie has been making some extra cash on the side by selling Save Mart their extra refrigerant for these old coolers! :)
DeleteYeah, decades never are clean dividing lines between styles! It's hard for me to think of much right now in 2023 that feels different from, say, 2018, when it comes to design styles. I know Publix used faux skylights (albeit of a significantly different design than what this store has) for a very long time!
DeleteThat is an interesting point about the refrigerants -- I know recovering and recycling them from other systems is still allowed (at least, I don't think there are any types where even that has been banned), but I imagine that will become more and more difficult and expensive as time goes on. Open-air freezers are an extremely rare sight, but there are plenty of stores around here -- especially Safeways -- with cases from the 80s and 90s that probably use refrigerants that can't be produced any longer. I suppose they could convert them, but I imagine for such old cases, it would make more sense to just replace them with modern ones!
A friend and I had a similar conversation about refrigerants a while back, and it seems like he may have mentioned that a). manufacturers produce a stockpile of refrigerants before they become illegal and/or b). new "legal" refrigerants are created that can be retrofitted into older systems. I also remember reviewing some modern Publix plans with him and he said that store used two different types of refrigerants but had a heat exchanger system to "convert" between the two loops. Publix has also begun to use CO₂ as the refrigerant for its cases, which I find fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like what I've heard, too. I don't really know anything about refrigeration, though, so I have no idea how simple or difficult converting systems really is!
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