Across the actionway, the LED-lit Coke endcap looks strangely modern in this not-so-modern store! The downlighting really accentuates the scuffs and holes in the vinyl flooring.
It's hard to see in these pictures, but if you zoom way in on the category marker, you can see the odd "Guaranteed Quality by Albertson's" logo like we saw at the Crates store in Bakersfield. I guess the decor designers kept copy-pasting this logo without thinking to remove the apostrophe!
I can't say I've seen lit Coca-Cola displays like that! It does look quite strange in such an old store. Maybe they should have used a warmer color temperature if nothing else. It is also strange that there are Dr. Pepper products in the Coca-Cola display, but then I saw the two liter bottles of Dr. Pepper and they look like they are of the same style as the Coca-Cola ones! Maybe the Coca-Cola bottler in that area also bottles and distributes Dr. Pepper products. That is certainly not the case here, but California might not be the biggest market for Dr. Pepper.
ReplyDeleteAlbertsons was almost certainly intentionally using the Albertson's name during that late 1990s-early 2000s period, though they were doing so inconsistently. I recently unearthed some Albertsons Grocery Palace (or shopping village as they seemed to like to call it) newspaper ads from various Grocery Palace grand openings in Houston, which are full of interesting things so I sent it to AFB for historical analysis, and Albertsons' own ads used Albertson's more often than not even though the store logo was still Albertsons. We know some of Albertsons' store brand products had that fancy script logo that used Albertson's. I don't know! At least when Randall's formally changed their name to Randalls in the early 1990s, they completely changed all references even if I prefer the older Randall's name since that was from the best period of Randall's.
Speaking of Randall's, both Albertsons and Kroger have been closing stores in Texas here recently. There's been a few Kroger klosings in Houston in recent months and a Krogway is closing in a Dallas suburb. Albertsons recently filed a WARN notice indicating they are closing one Dallas area store and one in Houston, the Kosher Randall's which is the last Randall's (I think) in Houston carrying Lifestyle v3. I really like the Kosher Randall's and so it is sad that it is closing. It was one of only two Randall's left in the Houston area, Galveston being the other, which has the classic 1980s Randall's interior design. Oddly enough, I think every Houston Randall's which got Lifestyle v3 ended up closing with Lifestyle v3! I suppose it was a curse in Houston, though maybe you won't complain about that, lol. It was a nice store though, I'm sure you'll agree even if you don't like the Lifestyle v3: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GqChKWRRp7pZ53UPA
Oh, one more bit of random news. Someone in the Houston retail community snapped a photo from their local Kroger (Krogertsons, actually) bakery where the Kroger was using empty cake containers stuffed with colored tissue paper to make it look like their cake display has more cakes than it really does! Now, I can't say I've seen anything similar at the Krogers and Krogertsons near me, but I suppose at least one Kroger is having to resort to such measures! It has the person who saw it a bit fearful that their Kroger might be on the chopping block given the recent announcement that Kroger is looking to close more locations.
The whole Albertsons versus Albertson's thing is weird. The logo hasn't had an apostrophe since the 60s, but the official name didn't change until 2002. I'm pretty sure these Guaranteed Quality logos kept using the apostrophe for some time even after that!
DeleteI've never seen stores around here bother putting in props to fill in their cake displays (or any other displays)... they just leave the empty space empty!
I'm guessing a lot of local stores will be on that closure list, considering all of the bad things we heard about QFC during the merger talks.