The fact that this section exists at all is strange enough to almost make me overlook the weirdness that is having electronic price tags here -- I would have thought that water and electronics wouldn't go together, but who knows!
The fact that this section exists at all is strange enough to almost make me overlook the weirdness that is having electronic price tags here -- I would have thought that water and electronics wouldn't go together, but who knows!
At one time, large seafood departments were not unusual at larger supermarkets in Houston. Auchan certainly had a large seafood department with a large lobster tank and the bigger Fiesta Marts had (and some may still have) large seafood departments. In fact, until it was renovated recently, my local Fiesta Mart had a large enclosed seafood room with lobster tanks built into the front walls of it which separated the seafood room from the rest of the store.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that live lobster has fallen out of favor as a regular supermarket type of item and I'm sure lobster falling out of favor has also hurt the Red Lobster restaurants. Granted, I'm sure in places like Maine and the rest of New England, they are probably still pretty common! That is lobster in general, not Red Lobster which I'm sure the people in New England shun, lol.
This is a bit off-topic, but check out this Dallas area Tom Thumb in a former Albertsons Grocery Palace that was converted to a Tom Thumb in the early days of the merger. There are some unusual Safeway Modern elements here including fake concrete vinyl tiles as opposed to plain white vinyl tiles (or tile-scarred real concrete) and that strange seating area up front called 'The Nickelville Cafe'. I'm sure you've never seen a Modern decor element like that! It looks like that is some kind of local flair reference. Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wb7TsZEdshamEgXW6
It's pretty common to see large seafood sections at stores around here too, especially upscale ones (including QFC), just not live seafood! I'm guessing it's just too much effort for big stores to bother with these days.
DeleteYep, that's definitely a very early Modern store! Those local flair seating areas were a feature of the very first Modern stores (the Florida locations), and the first one in the Northwest (Snoqualmie Ridge) has it too. Modern originally had a lot of local flair -- it's too bad that went away as it became a more widespread package. Still, there's a lot of weirdness there -- the flooring is something I've never seen at Safeways around here (I've seen it somewhere, but I can't remember where), the aisle markers are sideways, and the "discover the goodness" decor over by produce looks like something from Fred Meyer circa 2010!
Yep, that is an early Modern installation there. In fact, that store, along with a Colorful Lifestyle v2 store, are scheduled for renovations this year. I'm guessing those stores are getting the Pavilions decor, but I don't know! These are the first Modern/Colorful Lifestyle v2 stores I know of to be updated from those decor packages.
DeleteIt's crazy how fast some regions are when it comes to remodeling stores when compared to the northwest! Safeway remodeling away from Modern is just as crazy as Kroger remodeling away from Banner, and yet there are some Krogers out there that are on their second remodel post-Bountiful (a package that hasn't been removed from a single QFC)!
DeleteI think Albertsons is rather unusually putting a lot of money into the North Texas part of the Southern Division right now. They're building a lot of new stores, including that Oklahoma Albertsons, they are expanding their infrastructure in North Texas, and they are renovating a lot of stores including with the Pavilions decor. I'm not sure if this is a response to HEB's new presence in Dallas, a response to Kroger's lack of investment in Texas over the last few years even with the high population growth, or what. But, yeah, with all the money Albertsons is spending in North Texas, I guess that explains some of the unexpectedly quick renovations at Tom Thumb stores!
ReplyDeleteKroger, OTOH, is probably even slower with remodels here than they are in the Northwest. We're finally seeing some Bountiful stores being Remixed. Yippie, lol. Some of the Kroger Marketplace Banner stores are supposedly getting cheap remodels as well, but it is hard to tell what's even new at those locations sometimes.