Another vacation, another delayed return -- oops! It probably hasn't made the national news due to other crazy weather events, but Seattle has been facing a serious heat wave over the past week or so, including a streak of four days with highs in the 90s (over 100 in some areas)... so I decided to extend my long weekend and stay in Port Angeles, where it's much cooler, for a few more days. But I'm back now (just in time for the long-awaited, dreaded
Albertsons-Kroger merger divestiture/closure list), so let's get back to this (not on the list) store!
It's quite strange to look back from the produce department and see the deli just sitting there. There isn't even really anything to separate the two departments, and the produce departments extend in front of the deli counter. This isn't a particularly uncommon layout in general (the other three major chains locally -- Albertsons, QFC, and Fred Meyer -- all have a similar layout in many of their stores), but it's strange to see with Lifestyle decor!
Ha, I know something about the other crazy weather events! My power went out at around 6:30am Monday morning due to the hurricane and it still isn't back on yet. It probably won't be coming back on tonight so that means maybe tomorrow or Friday. What fun. I wouldn't say we're having a heat wave here as the temperatures are pretty normal for July, maybe even a tad below the norm for the last few years at least, but that is still quite unpleasant without A/C! Also, as you may remember, I also lost power for about three days during the big storm in May which caused me to lose a lot of food in the fridge/freezer and now that's happening again!
ReplyDeleteNow that you mentioned it, I did see the temperatures in Portland this week since it's almost exactly a year since I was there last year and, yeah, it has been quite hot there! Then again, it did get in the mid-90s there last year for a day or two that I was there. The news acted like it was some major disaster, but the drier heat was much more pleasant to deal with than the super humid Houston heat. Anyway, I spent some of the time on the Oregon coast anyway so it wasn't like it was a big deal, lol.
Speaking of the divestiture list and my trip last year, it appears that all three of the Safeway/Albertsons I went to in the Portland area last year are set to become C&S stores if the merger is approved (it probably won't be approved according to all expectations). The funny thing is that two of those three were just renovated to Lifestyle v3 in 2023 and the other one already had Lifestyle v3 anyway. I'm surprised that the list was released like that as these things are usually kept secret, but maybe Kroger is hoping that if the employees are told now that they'll accept their fate and will tell the courts that they do not object. I don't know.
As far as Houston goes, there are only two Randall's on the list. One was completely expected, Galveston, since the Randall's and Kroger are right next door to one another practically. The Memorial & Dairy Ashford 'Handy Randy' (Randall's in a former Handy Andy) is a bit of a surprise at least in the sense that while there is a Kroger across the street, the Kroger is in a former Kroger Superstore I building and the Randall's is the much nicer building with a better location. At least my local Randall's, which is near two Krogers, is not on the list. Of course, like I said earlier, I'm rather skeptical that the merger will be approved anyway. The two Randall's on the divestiture list have both been profiled on HHR if you're interested in seeing them, the Memorial & Dairy Ashford store is one of those really nice gable roof and flagstone ex-Handy Andy locations like my local Randall's.
Now, speaking of Randall's, seeing the deli right in front of produce is hardly remarkable at a Randall's...at least one built before Safeway bought Randall's as Randall's was using a power alley design with the deli, bakery, and produce all together since the 1980s. My local Randall's is like this with the deli and bakery in front of produce just like a common Kroger power alley from the 1990s-2000s.
Yikes, you've been hit by a lot of crazy weather so far this year! We've been having similar temperatures to Houston this past week, and it's definitely a lot worse here since AC is so much less common than elsewhere. Plus, the infrastructure up here just isn't designed to handle such high temperatures -- apparently that's a big problem in Portland, where their light rail network has been having significant difficulties.
DeleteI was surprised by how few stores in Texas were on the sale list, but I guess Kroger and Randall's have stronger competition there (HEB, Walmart, etc.) than they do around here. I'm not expecting the merger to succeed either, but you never know considering all of the wacky court decisions that have happened recently... (But I'm half expecting Jim Pattison to get involved somehow!)
Yeah, I think the whole "produce never goes by the deli" thing is pretty much exclusive to (northwest) Safeways. Most other chains made heavy use of the grand aisle concept, but Safeway seemingly was never interested for some reason.