The strangeness just keeps coming -- I'm pretty sure this is the only Albertsons I've ever seen with a one-way turnstile at the entrance! Next to that is a strange cart pass-through thing (including a large line of uncontained carts sticking out into the salesfloor). This whole thing seems rather old-fashioned (electronic swinging entrance gates were already present, and quite common in other countries, by 2003), and while this is probably somewhat harder to defeat than those gates, I'm also pretty sure it isn't ADA compliant, and there is no alternative way to access the salesfloor other than going the wrong way through the checkouts.
That may look like concrete flooring on the right, but it's actually just extremely worn-out grey vinyl.
Huh, the turnstiles are very strange at supermarkets! Kroger has been adding electronic gates here lately, but those are new and they are gates so they are easier to go through. My local Fiesta Mart also recently added gates, but manual ones which you have to open yourself or push a car through. Actual turnstiles at supermarkets though? Strange!
ReplyDeleteOther retailers had turnstiles though. Walgreens used to have them (I don't think they still do?) and I think I remember Phar-Mor having them. Sports Town USA had them as well, but the latter two have not been around since the early-to-mid 1990s so that was quite some time ago! I guess Albertsons thought it was a good idea just as others were dumping them.
This is a very strange decor package! Not only have I not seen it before, but I didn't even know about it. This store must have opened around the time Albertsons left Houston, but I doubt they would have used this package around here anyway.
I don't think I've ever seen another store with turnstiles like this in person! Definitely not in the US at least... maybe in Europe, but gates (both the automatic and manual kinds) are what I remember. The closest thing I've seen are the transit-style ones at Bass Pro Shops, but they have gates right next to them which are often propped open, completely defeating the point. (I'm not entirely sure what the point of the manual gates is either, since it seems like it shouldn't be all that difficult to pull them open from the wrong side -- at least the automatic ones have alarms to discourage that.)
DeleteAs far as I can tell, the Acme Style post is the only real documentation of this decor package online, until now! This is the only store that I'm aware of that still has it, but I'm pretty surprised none of the California-based retail fans on Flickr seem to have ever covered it (most aren't active any longer, but this still seems like it would have been a curiosity back when they were).