That led to the pharmacy being plopped down right in the middle of the front end, which is a very unusual sight at Safeway, or really any store around here other than Fred Meyer. This is where ex-Grocery Palaces normally have their customer service counter (which, as we saw at the start of the tour, is just a little island in this store). It's strange to see the health and beauty shelving right next to the row of checkouts, and for the checkouts to be right in front of the pharmacy!
Huh, this is odd. It is actually not a bad position for a pharmacy, but aside from Fred Meyer as you say, it is unusual for the pharmacy to be right up front like that. I thought the positioning of the pharmacy was strange when I was at Fred Meyer last summer!
ReplyDeleteI'm almost certain that when my local Grocery Palace Krogertsons opened as a Kroger, Kroger retained the customer service/pharmacy island and everything else Albertsons orginially had including the bank/video/photo area on the front end and the garden center (yes, garden center!) on the far front corner. After a few years, I suppose when the bank closed and when Kroger finally figured they weren't going to use the garden center space (they were using it for a Kroger dollar store for a while), they removed the island, put the customer service desk up front in a normal looking spot where the bank/video/photo area was, and moved the pharmacy to the far front corner. It all looks so natural that only Albertsons enthusiasts would know this wasn't the original layout, lol. Anyway, with the pharmacy now in the corner (where the liquor department is in this store), the HBA aisles do run up near the checkouts, but they aren't as close as what we see here.
The arrangement you described sounds a lot like what most ex-Grocery Palace stores I've seen have. Generally, the pharmacy box is basically where the liquor department is here, with a small health and beauty section (generally involving sideways aisles) out front, and the liquor department remaining in the center of the store (just without the beer walk-in). I've also seen some Arizona stores that were built with garden centers end up with the liquor department in the old garden center space!
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