It's August again, and that means that it's my 7th "retail anniversary" today! This hasn't been a particularly great year for me when it comes to retail stuff, with the number of new store visits in the past year being less than what I've done on single days in the past, and I don't really see that changing anytime soon as there simply isn't a ton of interesting stuff left locally and I've even run out of retail-oriented vacations on the horizon, but at least I still have years worth of old content to cover.
This set provides a good time to think about how much things have changed over the past 7 years, especially when it comes to Safeways in my area -- we've gone from almost every store having Lifestyle to that becoming an endangered species, all while Safeway has gone from being the best store around for balancing price and quality to being overpriced and mediocre, much like it was during the Lifestyle area in other parts of the country. We've seen Albertsons go down to just 9 stores in the entire Seattle region, Target go boom and bust, and QFC come up with exciting new concepts and then just completely stagnate. And, most recently, we've seen Rite Aid take over the beloved local chain Bartell and then completely implode. It's hard to imagine myself getting into retail these days -- stores are much less tolerant of people acting outside of the norm (when I started, it was unheard-of for a grocery store to have security guards!) and things just aren't as interesting as they used to be (or maybe that's just a me problem because I have seen pretty much everything locally). But I'm glad I got into it when I did, and I'm glad I have all of you still here after all these years!
I know this isn't the normal positive "retail anniversary" message, but that's just how things are going these days. Hopefully, a year from now things will be looking up for a change.
Part I:
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary! It seems like this blog has been around for more than 7 years, much less what you have on Flickr, but I guess that feeling is not correct! Perhaps the transition away from Lifestyle in your area has made those early photos seem more like a distant memory.
Ha, you're starting to sound like what I was saying about retail 20-25 years ago! Of course, at that time, I was mostly referring to the sad state of malls, department stores, catalog showrooms, and electronics stores. I'm here to tell you that things never did improve and much of those segments are extinct now. I know that is hardly an optimistic statement, lol, so perhaps I'll counter that by saying that at least starting in 2023, and continuing this year, Kroger's operations here in Houston seem a bit smoother than the pitiful state they were in in 2021-2. Now, they're still worse than they were 7 years ago, and I can't say Kroger's decor has improved over that period, but hooray for something meaningful moving in a positive direction. I'm not sure if the same can be said about Kroger in your area given that it seems Kroger has largely given up on QFC and I take it Fred Meyer isn't desirable and/or close to where you live.
If the merger happens, which it probably won't, at least you'll be able to chronicle C&S's efforts! If you have any optimism about that, I'm here to tell you that you should probably pour cold water on that given my experiences with C&S stuff here in Houston, lol. Of course, even if the merger doesn't happen, I have a feeling QFC and Haggen might still be kicked to the curb in some fashion and who knows what might happen to Safeway and Albertsons. Again, it seems I'm not bringing much optimism to this discussion, but unlike with the department stores, I don't think the supermarkets are going to go away in general anytime soon.
I can't say the same thing about pharmacy stores, they seem like they are sinking quickly just like department stores. CVS and Walgreens seem to be throwing mud against walls here in Houston and nothing is sticking.
Given the already negative tone of this post, I should probably avoid discussing Target!
Part II:
DeleteOn the positive side, as far as the blog goes, those vintage Save Mart photos from Fresno (I think?) were awesome and were probably the highlight of the year as far as what was posted this year (I know you made that trip last year). While I might have been the only reader who cared (maybe not!), I really liked the Turkish Airlines review. Since those posts, I had my first two flights on 'current gen' airliners. While the experience on the 737MAX was uninspiring, I blame United's cruddy interiors for that more than anything. As far as 737MAX flights go, any one where something didn't fall of the plane has to be considered a good flight so, well, there you go, lol.
On a much more positive note, the experience on the United A321neo was amazing, what a vastly better interior than the United 737MAX I was on. The large, high-def (or 4K?) touchscreens on all seats are really, really good. I didn't watch anything on them, but I used the flight tracking feature and they had many different views that I had certainly never seen on the older generation PTVs and on in-flight tracking via the onboard Wi-Fi. The virtual window views, and the virtual attitude/altitude/airspeed view which is what I used most of the time (it only works above FL100), telling you what you're flying over is a big improvement over the older systems. The only thing I don't like about such a shiny touchscreen PTV-oriented interior, and the new lighting systems on the A321neo, is that it seems to encourage people to keep their window shades down the entire flight even when the cabin crew asked people to open their windows for the landing (the hot temperatures on the ground at ORD and especially IAH probably helped contribute to that, the United cabin crew on the ALB-ORD leg encouraged people to keep their windows open the whole flight, believe it or not, but that was on a 739ER and the cabin crew looked like a well-experienced pre-merger United crew who was still using the 'Fly the Friendly Skies' slogan which I certainly don't think gets much use these days...and probably no use by the younger crews/legacy Continental crews I'm more used to). Oh, and yes, I did have to use the flashing neon tunnel at ORD between concourses B and C in the United terminal which has variations on Rhapsody in Blue playing in the background. That was a pretty neat way to spend 5 minutes on a moving sidewalk, lol.
Maybe all of this is my way of saying that maybe if retail gets a bit dull for you, you could always do more aviation posts and I wouldn't mind, lol. The new PDX redesign is about to open I think...not that you're probably that likely to fly to/from PDX when you live relatively close to it!
It sure feels like a long time, and it feels like a lot more than 9 years since I moved to Seattle, but I tend to blame that on my bad memory! Only one of my sets (the Port Angeles Haggen closing) dates back to before August 2017. Another part of it (when it comes to the blog) is that I tend to stick to old technology, meaning all of my photos from before 2023 were taken on severely outdated cameras that probably make the pictures look older than they are!
DeleteI didn't really talk about malls, department stores, and that whole side of retail because (as you've surely noticed by now) I don't find them anywhere near as interesting as the grocery/big box/drugstore side, but things haven't gone well there either over the past few years, with Seattle proper going from one to zero proper malls and half a dozen down to one proper department store. But, of course, that isn't a trend that's exclusive to Seattle either, with the big department store chains all circling the drain in the same way as the big drugstore chains.
Yeah, if the whole Albertsons/Kroger/C&S deal goes through, that will definitely provide some content, but probably not in a good way! I much prefer visiting and posting about stores that are actually successful, popular, and nice-looking, and I doubt we'd get very much of that from C&S (or Kroger). Grocery stores may not be going away, but they're definitely going downhill and reducing in numbers.
That Save Mart set was a whole year ago (it fell on my retail anniversary last year), but it was definitely a highlight for me too -- that's one of the most interesting stores I've ever visited! Save Mart was a last-minute thing I ended up researching while I was on that vacation, but they ended up having a ton of super interesting stores. This year's highlight was definitely my Italy trip, and the Eataly tour that I had been dreaming of making since before I had even started this blog.
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the travel content -- I don't think anyone else paid attention, but it took a lot more work than a typical retail set for me! I'm definitely hoping to do another big vacation (to parts of Italy you're more familiar with) early next year, but I haven't been able to book anything yet -- I won't know for a few months if I'm actually going to have a job next year, so I can't really spend that sort of money at this point. I'm still planning on a Vancouver trip this fall (a bus ticket is much cheaper than a business class flight 😃), but I haven't been able to schedule that either because I keep running into scheduling conflicts. (Once that finally happens, I'll have a bit of new retail content, finally!). Travel won't be able to replace retail content fully, though -- I only get enough vacation time for two big trips a year, maybe three if I really stretch it. (Plus, I'm not an airline reviewer!)
Sounds like you had a good trip, even if things didn't really go according to plan with your flights. I haven't yet flown on either a Max or a Neo, so you're ahead of me there! I've heard really good things about United's Neos. Sadly, they don't have much of a presence at Seattle, and definitely never seem to have good prices on flights out of Seattle!
Happy 7th Retailversary! Even out here on the opposite side of the country from you, I can't say the outlook for supermarkets has been any more positive, with Publix continuing to get rid of all their older, more interesting stores, Aldi slowly leaking which Winn-Dixies will convert, and the overall incompetance plaguing most retail chains in general. From what you and others have been saying, Albertsons and Kroger seem to be too busy tring to push through this ill-fated merger to really care about their stores or doing much for the consumer, losing a lot of the appeal those chains once had. I remember a time when people were hoping Kroger would come to Florida, but now it seems like Kroger makes some Walmart stores look like a joy to shop at!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, in a more positive light, I enjoyed seeing some of those funky older Albertsons stores down in CA like the Save Mart Grocery Palace and the Crates and Stripes store, and I look forward to seeing what more you may have too (as I believe you have some Blue & Green Awnings coverage that's yet to be posted). Keep up the good work!
Yeah, that whole Winn Dixie-Aldi thing seems like a mess, and it's too bad to hear that about Publix too. "Overall incompetence" seems like a good way to put it -- it's hard to find any retail chains these days that seem to actually be successful right now, at least in this part of the country. It's certainly been a frustrating few years, going back probably all the way to the Albertsons-Safeway merger, and Albertsons-Kroger only stands to make things worse.
DeleteI still have a lot of cool California stores to post! The Blue & Green Awnings store was a bit of a bust, but it will be showing up some day too. And thanks!
Congrats on 7 years!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteYou're welcome!
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