The giant wall of windows make for a very open and airy front end, even with their heavy tint! That certainly drew my attention, but there's something else interesting going on here: The register lights! I knew I had seen them somewhere before, but it took me quite a while to realize that they're the same ones that Safeway used in the oddball Woodgrain Lifestyle v3 stores! Their rustic look definitely makes them fit in better there than they do with Ultra-Premium, but I'm not sure which package had them first since the two seem to have appeared around the same time. This just adds another layer of mystery to Woodgrain Lifestyle, a decor that always brings more questions than answers.
On a side note, is it just me, or does that "relax and enjoy it" slogan on the banner sound a bit... off? Sounds like something that someone would say about something that's known to be unpleasant, like a long flight or a dental procedure.
'Relax and enjoy it' is certainly a strange slogan of sorts! It certainly doesn't roll off the tongue quite like 'Where Shopping is a Pleasure,' but I think this front end is hard to top even compared to what we see in photos of Publix stores. It is nice and bright, aided by the big windows, there are fancy tiles, the banners add some color, many lanes are open, and the lines are short. It is too bad Safeway doesn't replicate this experience everywhere! I suppose some Randall's here aren't too bad, but this seems like a big upgrade over the Safeways in the Seattle area at the very least.
ReplyDeleteYeah, these Pavilions stores (and really, most of the Safeway/Albertsons stores I visited in California) really remind me of how Safeway used to be. Proper staffing, better selection, reasonable pricing (admittedly, those last two are mostly about the service departments since I didn't pay that much attention to the rest of the store)... yeah, I really wish the Seattle Division did things more like this!
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