Produce was also one of the few departments to get new fixtures with the conversions, but the cheap-looking pallet fixtures Haggen went with seem like a real downgrade from Lifestyle's fixtures. They were still an upgrade from what Albertsons used in the Supervalu era, though, which is probably why most of the remaining Albertsons stores around here have gotten Lifestyle produce displays following the merger -- I'm surprised that never happened with this store.
I'm guessing this store had Lifestyle v1. While the Lifestyle v1 ovals might be gone, Haggen still has plenty of ovals 'hanging around' here and in the Floral department photo. As far as Lifestyle v1 goes, I think the very plain department signage and the ovals were the worst part of the decor package. The colors were, and still are, quite nice as long as the store isn't super dark and I don't think that is the case here as the store has standard lights instead of the infamous produce spot lights. That said, it does appear the spot lights are there, but they just aren't used. Did Safeway install the regular fluorescent lights or were they designed to co-exist with the spot lights when this store was Lifestyled?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the combination of Lifestyle colors and design elements plus Haggen department signage, minus the Lifestyle v1 ovals, is actually a nice combination I think.
I wouldn't be shocked if this Safeway originally had an enclosed produce department which was later opened up. There's not much evidence of that, but that design was so common in Texas that I'm sure Safeway used it elsewhere even if there are rarely any traces of it left except for Richland, WA. Given how much this has in common with a Houston Safeway of the same era otherwise, I'm willing to say it probably did have an enclosed produce area.
Hey, it looks like it is Haggen O'Clock! Hopefully you got a better photo of that clock, that might be the most amusing Haggen 'conversion' in this store!
I'm pretty sure this store had Lifestyle v2 before Haggen moved in, but I could be misremembering -- it has been over a decade since the last time I visited it as a Safeway! Unfortunately, the conversion removed pretty much everything that differentiated the packages -- even the clock was the same in Lifestyle v1 and v2. (And you know how much I love Safeway clocks -- of course I got a closeup of it!)
DeleteI don't know what the deal is with the lighting here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was already like this when Haggen took over -- Safeway started removing Lifestyle's fancier lighting (including the X-lights in produce) in the years leading up to the merger. It's also possible that Safeway redid it after taking over Haggen, though. The track lights are a bit odd -- normally Lifestyle's track lights were black and better integrated with the X-lights, and they were normally removed when the florescent ceiling fixtures were installed. Maybe these were installed by Haggen, but I really don't know.