My Eastern Washington trip came when Safeway was in the middle of their original Art of Fresh campaign, which was quickly replaced by Sincerely in early 2023. But the Art of Fresh design seems to have been the winner, at least in the Seattle Division -- I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but around here, most stores only have a few leftover Sincerely signs laying around, with much more emphasis on the Art of Fresh stuff. I'm glad they chose the Art of Fresh over the Art of Puns! 🙂
Fortunately, Sincerely died a pretty quick death around here aside from bags and maybe a few signs here or there. It's still in the digital version of the weekly ads, but I don't see it in the printed versions, at least not in any major way at least. Then again, I don't think they ever used Sincerely themes in the print ads around here.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of bags, I noticed Oregon has passed a bill banning those big, thick plastic bags that Safeway used there back in 2023 when I was there at least. Fred Meyer was using paper bags back then, which presumably would still be allowed as long as they charge for them (Fred Meyer was charging 5 cents for paper and Safeway 10 cents for the thick plastic bags). So, anyway, this bill might have been aimed directly at Albertsons-Safeway, lol. I'm not sure how Washington and California are dealing with the issue. California certainly used those same thick plastic bags at one time, and may still, as I saw someone re-using Vons thick bags at the Culley Neighborhood Albertsons in Portland. Anyway, we'll see if Safeway starts printing up Sincerely paper bags in Oregon now! Of course, it might take some time for the bill to actually go into effect as I don't think it has been signed by the governor yet (not that it is expected to be overturned).
As for Modern here, it is very boring, but at least the store still has a normal drop ceiling and it seems to have floor cover...though it might be boring Modern vinyl. Still better than nothing, but I'm sure this store looked better with Lifestyle! Oh well, it could be worse.
Speaking of boring decor, I went to the Kroger Marketplace closest to me for the first time in a while. Now, granted, I really only spent time in the general merchandise side of the store (mainly because that's where they keep dairy products and that's what I went there for), but it took me a good 15 minutes to notice that it got a remodel! It has Artisan instead of Banner it was built with. Artisan is so boring in that part of the store (just white walls with a plain stripe) that I didn't even notice it until I saw that an aisle marker that obviously was an Artisan one rather than Banner. Of course, on those warehouse stores, the decor gets pretty hidden anyway, especially if it is boring. It is almost like the remodel that many people may not even notice! I'm sure it would be more obvious on the more grocery side of the store, but even then people might not notice, lol.
It's pretty much the same status with Sincerely around here. I suspect the remaining Sincerely things are only there because Safeway doesn't want to pay people to get rid of them! The weekly ads still had Sincerely branding until fairly recently, but it seems like they've switched fully over to Art of Fresh by now.
DeleteInteresting to see Oregon moving ahead of the rest of the west coast to ban those bags! Normally they're the last of the three to move on things like that. Pretty much every store around here still uses those thick plastic bags -- it seems like paper bags are rather unpopular here.
Ugh, Artisan is one of the most boring decors out there. I tend to think Modern looks pretty nice in most stores, but Artisan definitely does not!