Through the tunnel

Therefore, right along the front of the building, there's a funny little hallway that connects the original salesfloor to the expansion area. This was probably part of the back room originally, which still runs along the peninsula between the two salesfloors. I had wondered why they didn't move the stock room to allow the salesfloors to be better connected, but it turns out that's because the loading dock is there, making the expanded building awkwardly U-shaped. I'm a bit surprised Safeway was OK with this weird setup -- this store must be quite profitable for them to go to all this effort and still live with an awkward layout, rather than relocating the store to an easier site. And I'm sure zoning is the reason they didn't go for a mixed-use rebuild, like they've been doing with similar stores in Seattle!