It's not just the wall decor that's elaborate -- the flooring is pretty neat too! It probably doesn't beat Grocery Palace, but still, I really like it. Another thing I love is the huge bakery section, something else that's a common feature among Hispanic-oriented grocery stores! Note how the decor doesn't explicitly show where the deli ends and the bakery begins -- in fact, there's a bigger distinction right in the middle of the bakery, where the green stripe turns into the taller thing with big fake doors above the self-service bakery case.
Hopefully I'm not remembering this old conversation incorrectly, but I believe it was AFB who said that the Hispanic supermarkets in Florida tend not to have much in terms of bakeries. I was a bit surprised about that since the bigger Hispanic supermarkets here do have very elaborate bakeries. I really can't say why there would be a difference between Texas and Florida in terms of Hispanic supermarket bakeries, but it might be down to Texas having more of a Mexican and Central American population while Florida's Hispanic population is more of a mix of Cuban, Caribbean, Mexican, and South American cultures. I'm not sure, but California is probably more like Texas than Florida in terms of Hispanic demographics.
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly a colorful interior here including the floor. Compared to Safeway Modern and a lot of what Kroger is doing these days outside of F4L/Colorful Value, this is almost a 180-degree difference! Certainly Hispanic grocers here use a lot of color, but this doesn't quite look like anything here, especially the floor, so this is pretty neat.
@Anonymous from Houston: You remembered correctly - The big Hispanic grocery chains in Florida (Key Foods, Bravo, Presidente, and Sedano's) all have extremely tiny bakeries that sell mostly prepackaged goods. It's surprising because unlike Key Foods and Bravo (who typically run smaller stores), Sedano's ad Presidente have room for large bakeries but still don't offer much in terms of baked goods outside of the prepackage goods and maybe a small selection of in-house baked breads. I've only been to one Hispanic grocery store in Florida that had a large bakery, and it was this store just outside of Bradenton (which is part of a small 3-location chain): https://myfloridaretail.blogspot.com/2020/11/food-lion-tacos-and-old-mansion.html
DeleteWhy the bakeries at Florida Hispanic grocery stores are so tiny has always been a mystery to me, and I wish I could give an answer to why but I really don't know!
I've always been surprised by the lack of bakeries in Florida's Hispanic grocery stores too! I'll admit that I haven't been to all that many Hispanic grocery stores anywhere, but the ones I have been to around here tend to have significant bakery departments too, along with there being a decent number of standalone Hispanic bakeries.
DeleteHouston's Hispanic grocery stores had some pretty cool designs too, especially Fiesta! This is very much its own design and I've never seen anything quite like Mi Pueblo's decor elsewhere.