On first impressions, this store is pretty boring, with a bland color scheme and not much decor. If I'm remembering correctly, this isn't actually right by the door, since there were employees/security people hanging around there. The local flair sports team "street" signs are a positive sign, even if the design is slightly tacky.
Maybe I view this from a biased perspective as I do not root for any of the local sports teams here in Houston even though I am a native Houstonian and I am a team sports fan. However, I wouldn't like it if stores here named parts of the store after the local sports teams! Maybe fortunately, Houston sports fans are pretty apathetic towards the local teams, like I am, so maybe there isn't too much of a risk of that ever happening. Kroger sponsors the Rockets and Texans, but they really don't have much from either team in the stores.
ReplyDeleteDallas is quite a different story though! Albertsons sponsors the Dallas Cowboys and Albertsons most certainly gets their money worth out of that sponsorship as they have Cowboys stuff up all over Tom Thumb/Albertsons stores in North Texas and they even have team gear shops in a lot of their stores. The Seattle Safeways also seem a bit more enthusiastic about the Seahawks than Kroger is about the Texans, lol. It isn't just a Kroger thing either as I've seen Fred Meyer put Trailblazers logos on price tags and such in the Portland market (and maybe even into Washington these days given that Seattle does not have an NBA team now) and I think I may still have Seattle Mariners points from my 2023 Fred Meyer purchases in the Portland area, lol.
Kroger doesn't have anything like that here, but they do give people a free donut the day following Texans victories. I'm not sure if anyone really gets excited about free Kroger donuts, lol.
Interesting! Yeah, it seems like pretty much every large business around here (and in Vancouver) has some sort of tie-in with local sports teams. Though in recent years the main companies sponsoring Seattle sports teams have been Alaska and Delta as they continue to fight over SeaTac!
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