Despite the big new pickup setup inside, the pickup spaces were just as deserted as most of the store! Anyway, that's it for this oddball of a retro Albertsons -- I think I just have one more odd retro Albertsons to go from my California trip, and considering how few of them are left anywhere, I don't think I'll be visiting any more stores like this anytime soon. (Which is the main reason I'm running low on interest in retail photography -- I'm running out of interesting stores to visit!)
Ha, those online pickup parking spots are pretty much as empty as what we see here at most of the retailers around here who have these online pickup parking spots! Kroger, Walmart, Target, it doesn't seem to matter. It seems more stark at places like Target which have canopies for their pick-up areas. Maybe HEB is different given the numerous reviews I see of HEB stores where people complain that it takes over 30 minutes to get their pick-up orders taken out to them after they get to the parking spots (and these people often still give 4-5 star reviews, such is the cult that is HEB that people feel honored to receive bad customer service from HEB!). Of course, I don't go to HEB very often, and I try to not even look at them even if I drive by one, lol. I do know that HEB's new stores are switching from drive-up pharmacies to pharmacy park-in canopies kind of like the online pick-up areas. A couple of Krogertsons here even have ATM-style pneumatic delivery tubes for their drive-up pharmacies!
ReplyDeleteAs for Randall's and their online order parking spots, well, I don't know. The Randall's near me has limited parking anyway and so I think they only have a few of these dedicated online order spots. I've seen more personal shoppers at my Randall's in the past six months than I did previously so people must be utilizing that service, but I just don't think it's all that busy in my area. Heck, a lot of the Krogers around here don't even have pickup!
There might be interesting stores still to visit in your area, but they are probably independents or smaller chains rather than Safeway and especially Kroger affiliated things. But, yeah, I understand the feeling! I'm with you on that. At least you have some interesting travel plans to divert your attention away from the current state of retail dullness!
Safeway rarely has a lot of people in its pickup section (probably because they still charge extra for pickup orders...), but Walmart, Target, and Fred Meyer often have lots of people using the pickup section. I often order Target stuff for pickup because it's often cheaper that way, and I know my parents often order Walmart pickup because their store is so inconsistent in actually having stuff in stock and they don't want to drive all the way out there if they can't actually buy what they want.
DeleteYeah, there are some independent stores that are somewhat interesting, but I've always found the big chains to be more interesting from a retail fan perspective. The other problem I'm having these days (and which is even worse at independent/small-chain stores) is that pretty much every store around here has security guards now, and they don't exactly tend to be friendly to people taking pictures!
I suspect most of the retail pictures I take going forward will be much further afield. Whether those will form full sets or just be embedded into blog posts like I did on my last trip is hard to say, but there will definitely be some interesting things there!