Another way this store has Grocery Palace beat: Its pharmacy is in an even stranger place! I can kind of see what Albertsons was trying to do by putting the pharmacy island right across from the doors and creating a directed traffic flow, but I'm not sure what Yoke's was thinking putting it in the back of the grocery aisles, creating a weird dead spot along the back actionway. If they had integrated it with the dairy or meat department, that could kind of make sense, but instead they just have some shelving along the back wall of the pharmacy holding bottled water. I've been to some stores where the pharmacy was awkwardly tacked in at some point, but I can't think of any that ended up with quite such a strange placement!
"If they had integrated it with the dairy or meat department, that could kind of make sense..."
ReplyDeleteHa, I think this comment only makes sense if someone grew up shopping at a NW Safeway! Integrating a pharmacy with a dairy or meat departments seems just as weird, if not weirder, than what we see at this Yoke's!
That said, this does look pretty weird. I'm not sure what the idea was behind it. It kind of reminds me of Walmarts which have a pharmacy in the center part of the store over between the grocery department, baby goods, and pet food. It seems like a pretty random area for a pharmacy as compared to the front-end locations I'm used to at stores like that.
Ha! Perhaps, but I was just picturing them installing dairy or meat cases on the back of the pharmacy box rather than random shelving. But I am very used to the pharmacy sitting right between those two departments!
DeleteAgree, this is odd! And for that matter, the Walmart layout didn't pan out very well, either -- I know a lot of stores have relocated it back to the front when they've remodeled.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Walmart has gotten rid of most of their pharmacy islands, and so has Albertsons -- definitely seems like a failed concept, for one reason or another.
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