Inside the store, we find a very familiar sight -- a standard northwest Safeway with Lifestyle v2 all around. I'm a little surprised this store never got the 2010s Lifestyle refresh, considering it is a large and fairly busy store, but it is located in what is probably the poorest neighborhood in Seattle, at least the poorest neighborhood to have a proper grocery store. Stores like this are why I was so worried about the Kroger-Albertsons merger -- Safeway/Albertsons has long kept stores that I'm sure are marginal but which are keeping food deserts at bay for large areas, both in less desirable urban neighborhoods and in small towns with no other option, while Kroger has a long-running habit of discarding those same stores, including a QFC just a block north of here.
Going along with the differences between Safeway and Kroger theme, there's no way I would have guessed this store is in a poorer neighborhood just by looking at this interior image! It looks like a pretty typical newer Lifestyle-era store. Meanwhile, in Houston at least, if a Kroger is in a poorer area, you can tell that almost immediately even in photographs!
ReplyDeleteOf course, in Houston at least, Safeway really didn't have any Randall's stores in poorer areas. Safeway did have some back during their first run here, but otherwise it is Kroger who is the big chain to serve those areas. Of course, Kroger has also closed some of those stores in recent years!