The pharmacy is in its normal spot in the middle of the back wall, though for some reason, the aisle across from it is not home to health and beauty products but instead holds Safeway's selection of random household products and office supplies. At least the selection (and pricing) seems better than what I'm used to -- I think Safeway stocks more of this stuff in rural areas than they do in urban stores.
I don't know, all of this general merchandise looks like standard fare for a Randall's in Houston! Of course, at one point just before the merger, many of those stationary items would have been OfficeMax branded stuff! The Kroger stores here have quite a bit of this kind of stuff as well.
ReplyDeleteThe location of that pharmacy would absolutely not be standard fare here in Houston except for that one Randall's that Safeway built as a replacement store in 2010 that has the Northwest layout. I still think that location is very strange and I don't know about putting sick people on the rear actionway!
Yeah, I think I'm just used to smaller urban stores these days. I've definitely been to larger Safeways around here that do have a larger general merchandise section, though still generally with absurdly high prices compared to pretty much anywhere else! Really, when it comes to pretty much anything that isn't food (health and beauty, pet products, household products, cookware, any of that), I have no idea why anyone would buy that at Safeways around here because their prices are so much higher than any other store out there (even QFC).
ReplyDeleteThe pharmacy being at the back of the store is pretty common around here, even at stores other than Safeway -- a lot of QFCs (from the pre-Kroger era) have the pharmacy somewhere along the back wall, and I've seen similar layouts in quite a few independent stores that have pharmacies (though there aren't all that many of those left). Drug stores almost always have the pharmacy in the back of the store, so I'm surprised it's so uncommon for grocery stores in most of the country!