The floral department is pretty much exactly the same as Albertsons left it, even down to the ugly wallpaper inside! (That is such a 90s design -- it must have already looked outdated by the time it was installed in 2003.) It doesn't appear that Save Mart is using the service counter as intended, though I'm not sure how much Albertsons used these either since Grocery Palace stores were really their only ones to have a service floral department.
All of the extra service departments in Grocery Palace stores make them feel like Albertsons' version of Safeway's Lifestyle concept, something that Albertsons quickly gave up on while Safeway just kept rolling. It's hard to say who inspired who -- Grocery Palace predates Lifestyle, but Safeway had already started building new stores with near-Lifestyle levels of service departments by the mid 90s (while you hear about Lifestyle bringing an emphasis on service departments to Safeway, it was really only the oldest stores that got major changes in that regard, at least around here). While Albertsons and Safeway had a lot of overlap (and copied off one another from time to time), this was probably more of a general change in the grocery market than anything specific to the two companies -- but it's interesting to think of a store like this as Albertsons' idea of a Lifestyle store!
Huh, I never thought of Grocery Palace and Lifestyle as being similar type of concepts! I guess that is because I always viewed Lifestyle as being a serious, stark change to the rather whimsical and over-the-top decor packages of the late 1990s like Kroger Millennium, Albertsons Awnings, and especially Grocery Palace. I suppose I can see your point though that Grocery Palace (and Awnings in new-build stores at least) put much more of an emphasis on service departments and high profit margin departments than, say, Blue & Grey Market did.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think Lifestyle had a major advantage from a business perspective than Grocery Palace did. Lifestyle, especially v1, were so austere that the spotlighting probably did a lot to make shoppers focus on the products being sold whereas with Grocery Palace, the layout was so confusing and the decor so over the top that shoppers were probably focusing more on the store rather than the products being sold at the store which, in the long-run, probably isn't good for business. Lifestyle v1 probably went too far on the side of austerity and so v2 added a little more pizazz, but I think the idea was to make Safeway feel like a 'serious' store selling high-quality perishables and prepared foods. I think the calming, serious, department store-like higher-end feel of Lifestyle which also put a lot of emphasis on the products being sold explains why Lifestyle is still around 20 years later. OTOH, Grocery Palace didn't last long at all probably because it was expensive (and in Houston, an over-the-top decor package did little to convince people that Albertsons was competitive on pricing) and it focused shoppers' attention on the wrong things as far as selling products goes. Maybe children liked Grocery Palace and sometimes parents go to stores that their kids like, and appealing to children can sometimes alter shopping preferences long-term, but I'm not sure if that is a winning idea from a business perspective.
I kind of get what Albertsons was trying to do with making each service department feel like a specialty store in a shopping village because Fiesta Mart here in Houston was doing the same thing in the late 1980s with their fancier stores, but Fiesta's neon and other special features seemed to age much better than some of the things Albertsons did which, as you say, felt dated even when Grocery Palace was relatively new. In addition to the strange wallpaper, I hated that front island stuff at Grocery Palace stores. It ruined the sightlines to the center aisles (in addition to the confusing cut-throughs). I didn't mind passing through the ornate floral displays at 1990s Randall's and Kroger Signature stores since they were visible from the actionways, but not something causing a barrier to the parts of the store I actually shop in. With Grocery Palace, they were a barrier.
Oh, here is a local Krogertsons Artisan Grocery Palace update! I stopped by the store and the remodel is almost done at this point, as far as I can tell at least, except for the pharmacy which is still using a rather amusing makeshift sign using old Bountiful letters and plywood. It appears that Kroger saved more of the Albertsons floor than I thought they were doing! They've replaced the outer perimeter/actionway flooring with fake wood vinyl like we've discussed before so the old Albertsons fake wood bakery flooring and the strange western design in the dairy/frozen foods area is gone. That said, the center part of the store is still carrying the original Albertsons Grocery Palace vinyl floor. They did take the boulevard and stars out though so everything is just plain greyish white vinyl tiles (I don't know if they retiled those with tiles that looked like what Albertsons used circa 2000 in the non-themed parts of the store or if they were able to peel decals off to reveal the plain flooring below it) except for the beer/wine area which is still carrying the original Albertsons Grocery Palace design for the beer/wine area. At least a little bit of the Albertsons flooring is still living on in the Artisan era!
DeleteIn typical modern Kroger decor fashion, some of the new Artisan aisle markers they put up 2-3 weeks ago are already starting to fall apart! Pretty much every frozen food area aisle marker is crooked in some way. But, hey, it wouldn't be a modern Kroger remodel without decor that is falling apart!
Yeah, style-wise, Grocery Palace and Lifestyle v1 are about as far apart as you can get! But from the perspective of the products and departments they emphasized, I feel like Grocery Palace is as close as Albertsons got to the Lifestyle model. Albertsons certainly went in a more Lifestyle-esque direction decor-wise later in the 00s with the PF&H packages, but that was also during the Supervalu era when they were definitely not interested in being upscale the way Safeway was.
DeleteThe layout was really the weakest part of the Grocery Palace design. I never visited a Grocery Palace store back when they were new, but from what I've read on AFB and Acme Style, they were even crazier originally, before the modifications many stores got later on. This store would have been sold to Save Mart before those changes, but it seems Save Mart removed most of the crazy features of this store.
Oh Kroger, why do you have to be this way?? I've noticed the same things at the remodels that have happened around here in recent years. It seems like they just have no quality control...
Great shot! Also great analysis in your comment, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteYou're welcome!
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