And to wrap up this set, here's one last picture of the most special part of this store: the neon QFC globe sitting high above. At one point this sign rotated (that's probably why there's a big electrical box within the tower), but it doesn't any longer -- heck, even the LED ad screen below the modern sign hasn't worked for years, so it's no surprise that Kroger isn't bothering to maintain the vintage sign.
Anyway, that's it for this store! Back to something Safeway-ish next week.
I suppose it makes sense that the sign would have rotated at one time as spherical signs usually did rotate. The Union 76 gas station signs would be one example which comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAs strange as it is to think of a spinning Kroger sign, Kroger did use rotating signs in the pre-Superstore era! You can see one at around 1:30 in this 1973 Dallas news clip over at the SMU Jones Film archive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL-Hp7sJ5vs
Given that complaints about spinning and flashing signs weren't uncommon around the time that news clip was made, along with city ordinances prohibiting them, I wonder if the Kroger cube sign was a reaction to that. It would show the Kroger logo in four directions without having the sign spin like before. Maybe that is just a coincidence, but I suppose it is something to think about!
I don't know about where you live, but around here, many businesses have full color LED marquee signs and they are the modern equivalent of those early 1970s signs in terms of being animated and very bright. That said, I can't think of any supermarkets around here who use an LED marquee, even the older monochrome ones like what I assume this QFC has/had. Only a few independents, and usually quite old ones at that, even still use manual marquee signs. I suppose it is something which just hasn't taken off with grocers in modern decades.
Here's an even better video with the same spinning Kroger sign. Hopefully the link goes directly to it, but if not it is at 6:46 in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o93SUPzSo0M&t=406s
DeleteCool! I really don't associate Kroger with spinning signs (the cube signs are their distinctive thing), though spinning signs in general are kind of before my time (and most of the ones that have survived into the present day don't work any longer, like this one). There was one spinning sign in Port Angeles when I was growing up, with one side for Goodwill and the other for Rite Aid (originally Albertsons and Pay n Save, respectively) -- it never worked reliably and at some point after I moved to Seattle they gave up and just put both logos on both sides of the sign.
DeleteUgh, modern LED signs are way more annoying than classic dynamic signs ever were! They're especially annoying at night since so few of them dim appropriately. Luckily, they aren't very common around here and have been banned in a lot of places.
There are a few QFCs out there with either traditional or (older) LED marquee signs, though they tend not to get much use these days. Lots of independent grocery stores around here have them, so the QFC ones are probably a leftover from when they were independent! Lots of drugstores also have them, so I wonder why they were never popular with chain grocery stores.
Great shot!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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