Welcome to your Albertson(')s

 If you haven't yet guessed what this store's super-rare decor is, you should be able to tell now: It's the much-unloved Crates package (originally called "Crates & Stripes" by Acme Style), perhaps Albertsons' most infamous package. (Or should that be "Albertson's"? For some reason, this store can't make up its mind on whether or not to include the apostrophe, which had been officially removed from the name in 2002, just before this store's construction.) Thankfully, this store looks quite different from that Acme, and while I still don't think it looks particularly good, it is at least a little bit better!

No one seems to quite know what the history is when it comes to this decor package. Some people say it was the final decor package designed by American Stores (which owned Lucky in California at that point), while others say it was a pure Albertsons design (and the amount of Albertsons branding in this store makes me lean towards the latter, along with the fact that it only appeared in 2002-2003, several years after the merger). I've also heard rumors that this package was specifically designed for stores in rural areas (especially farming areas), which would make sense for the three locations that were ever known to have this package (this store and the two Acmes), and lines up with something that Sammi on Discord dug up that indicated that during this era, Albertsons had multiple decor packages that they allowed stores to choose between in some way. In the end, I doubt we'll ever know anything for certain, but it was still cool to see this store in person!