Monday, February 29, 2016

From Wings to Rubble



Former Publix #78/Future Publix #1517
2824 US Highway 27 S., Sebring, FL - Southgate Shopping Center

      Today (2/29/16 - leap day) is a bonus day, so why not celebrate with a bonus store?

     It's probably a very large number of shoppers who have passed through the doors of this store over it's last 53 years as a Publix. From the time this store's wings first sprung in 1962, all the many thousands, probably more accurately millions, of people who've stopped by. From the longtime locals doing their weekly shopping here, who the employees began to know by name, to the children riding along in their parents shopping carts. From the travelers and vacationers who may have only ever stopped in once while passing through town, grabbing a few items fast, never to return. From the days where Publix was just an innocent little chain with a few hundred stores dotted across the Florida peninsula, whose stores had charming art deco themed storefronts in the downtowns of Florida, or the much more flamboyant wing tipped ones popping up in the more modern suburban shopping centers that were all the rage. Winn-Dixie was king of the land, and Publix was nothing more than one of the many grocery chains that called Florida home. Now fast forward 53 years, after the days of S&H Greenstamps frenzy, the introduction of UPC scanners, the rise of Walmart, and the fall of Winn-Dixie. Those children riding along in the shopping cart are now all grown up, but shopping here still, now with their children. However, Publix now rules Florida, and they have a reputation for modernization to uphold. Even though this Publix has had it's fair share of modernization over the last 53 years, Publix feels it's finally time to declare this store, one of their oldest ones left operating in it's original building, as obsolete. On December 26, 2015, this store closed so it could be torn down and replaced with a larger, newer store to be built in the same spot as the old one, which is expected to open in the Fall of 2016. 



     Like I mentioned already, this store originally opened as a Wing Store style Publix in 1962. Here's a newspaper article from that era about Publix opening their 75th store, and in the article it mentions the plans for the new Sebring store (this store - in the last section of the article). This store opened as a part of the newly constructed Southgate Shopping Center complex on the south side of the city of Sebring, where the main road that leads into downtown (SR 17 - Lakeside Drive) intersects with US 27, the major artery through the region. This store would have looked just about identical to this store when it first opened, also with an Eckerd Drugs directly next door. Publix had a longtime agreement with Eckerd to open drug stores next door to new build Publix stores through the 60's and even into the 70's I believe. As Publix began to open their own in-store pharmacies beginning in the late 80's, such a partnership began to lose importance. 

     As the decades wore on, this store began to deteriorate. By the time the 90's came around, the building began to fall into disrepair. At the time, it was one of the last Wing Stores in the chain to not have been modernized or replaced in some way. Finally in the late 90's, Publix decided something needed to be done to this store, so they embarked on a complete exterior and interior upgrade of the building. This upgrade included an expansion into the next door space formerly occupied by Eckerd, who had moved into a new freestanding store out in the parking lot in 1997. This expansion nearly doubled the size of this store to 42,000 square feet, and made the store feel more like a modern supermarket (for Publix's 90's standards, that is). This store was upgraded from the 90's Wavy Pastel interior to 1st Generation Classy Market in 2006, and then remodeled once again to 2nd Generation Classy Market in 2010. Other than that, not too much else has happened to this store up to its closure. The new store is going to be 45,000 square feet, expanding upon the old store's footprint into a vacant storefront to the left of the old Publix. Here's a drawing of what the new store will look like. Pretty average looking Publix, and it will have all of the standard modern amenities. 


     When this store was remodeled in the 90's, a new vestibule was added to the front of the building, and the original tile mural was kept:


     Although apparently tile murals make for a great Christmas tree storage space. This mural is the most common one, featuring the orange grove, cornucopia of food, and the wine bottles, all in one large mural located to the left of the entrance. Some stores also got customized murals featuring something of local significance, or just something different for a change I suppose. Unfortunately, this mural is now a pile of tile shards resting in a dump somewhere. A long time ago, I did a post about Publix's famous tile murals, their history, and their rapid disappearance, which you can read here. I just wish the Christmas trees weren't blocking a lot of the mural. 


     The right side entrance into the store. Other than the vestibule that was slapped on in the 90's remodel, much of the original front from the Wing Store remains, including the setup of the windows and the black marble. But we need to step inside those doors to see the best part:


     Other than removing the original doors in that current opening you see, this is exactly what the front of the old Wing Store looked like. Publix just enclosed it with the new vestibule. It's probably doesn't look that interesting or impressive from the photo, but in person it was really neat to see how original all of this was!


     Now stepping into the main store, with the entryway to the left in this picture. The registers are to the right behind the Santa hats, and behind me is where traffic is directed as you would first walk into the store, into an area filled with the weekly sales merchandise, specials, and some seasonal items, eventually leading you into the bakery. But before we jump over to the bakery, let me first point out this store is one of the rare times where a Publix built Publix has plain floor tiles throughout rather than terrazzo. The original Wing Store portion of the building did have the typical green and white striped terrazzo stores of those era were built with (see here for an example). However, the old terrazzo floors in this store were in such poor shape and so badly cracked (according to a friend of AFB that's very familiar with this store, and provided me with much of the information you read previously), that when the store was remodeled in the late 90's, the gray and while tiles were put in throughout the old and new portions of the store to conceal the old terrazzo.


     Now entering the portion of the store that was formerly the Eckerd space. The 90's expansion portion of the store includes the Bakery, Deli, and Produce departments. When the expansion was done, the departments were rearranged into a fairly typical late 90's/early 2000's Publix layout. The bakery is located in the front right corner of the store. Also, if I recall correctly, this will be the first time the 2nd Generation Classy Market interior is featured extensively on the blog. This decor only came out in 2009, and already it's becoming rare! The most notable differences between the 2nd and 3rd Generation interiors is that the signage is a little different, and there may be a few slight color differences in the departments.


     And next to the bakery, going down the right side wall, is the Deli. This store was very busy the day I was here, and it was a weekday afternoon after the lunch rush (and it wasn't as close to Christmas as all the Chrstmas stuff may seem to imply!). In order to tear down and rebuild this store from scratch, Publix is going to lose 9 months of business. I'm sure they're going to try very hard to get this place open as fast as they possibly can, as Sebring isn't like the coastal cities where there's a Publix on every other corner you can go to as an alternative. The next closest Publix to this location is the one in the former Albertsons (#4418) that we looked at earlier in February, located 6 miles to the north. There is a Winn-Dixie next door to this Publix though, and I'm sure they're going to be loving the 9 months this Publix is closed for construction.


     Looking back toward the Bakery and Deli from Produce, located in the back right corner of the store.


     And a much better look at the produce department itself.




     Now leaving produce and entering the grocery aisles. Here in aisle 2, those giant columns you see on the left are the dividing line between the old Eckerd and the original Publix. At least they thought through it enough to not have the giant columns directly in the middle of the aisle (which I have seen before elsewhere).  


     The main front aisle of the store. Also note the 1st Generation Classy Market style aisle signs. The 2nd Generation ones looked basically the same, but only with a slight subtle difference.


     And moving on over to aisle 3.


     The original Publix building goes back further than the old Eckerd portion of the building does, which is why the back wall dips like this.


     Another common feature of 80's and 90's Publix stores is that the ceiling over the majority of the grocery aisles is raised up higher than the ceiling around the perimeter of the store. I believe this effect was added here during the 1997 remodel, as I don't believe that was a typical characteristic of original Wing Stores. 


      Looking down the back wall of the store, home to the dairy department. Meats and Seafood is located further down the wall.

     And a few more random grocery aisle scenes before jumping on over to the Meat department:




     The Meat department, which has a large window looking into the meat prep area.


     And to the left of the Meat department is Seafood and the seafood counter. 


     And a better picture of the Seafood counter, without that pesky pole in the way. This is the back left corner of the store, and you can see the transition into the Meat department to the right of the Seafood sign.


     And Frozen Foods took the the leftmost aisle of the store, aisle 15. I can't remember if aisle 14 had Frozen Foods as well.


     The customer service desk was located in the front left corner of the store. The space in front of the customer service desk was used as home to the organic foods department (aka Publix GreenWise Market).


     Well, I guess it's time to leave...


     I don't know if it's just me, but there's a strange feeling involved when looking at pictures of these places while they're still open and going strong after the store closes, or in this case, after the building has been wiped away completely. 


     Looking toward the left side of the plaza. The new store will be taking over that empty storefront between the old Publix structure and Beall's Outlet off in the distance. The space in question goes from the right side of the darker yellow decorative facade with the Beall's Outlet sign on it, to where the red minivan is parked. That empty space was most recently a Boost Mobile store, and previously it was home to All Star Video store and Cindy's Gifts (owned by the local Hallmark store owner), and probably quite a few other things since this place was first built.

     Now for some satellite views. Since Bing Maps doesn't have any Bird's Eye images from this area, we'll just jump into the historic aerials courtesy of Google Earth:


Publix #78 - 2014 - The Publix is located in the center portion of the larger building at the top of the image, although the larger building and the smaller building off to the right are all considered a part of the Southgate Shopping Center. Also, in the left center is the new home of the Eckerd (now CVS) whose former space Publix expanded into.


Publix #78 - 2006 - What was going on here this day? The parking lot is pretty much filled!


Publix #78 - 1999


Publix #78 - 1994 - This image was taken prior to the store's expansion. It looks like a restaurant(?) was torn down to make room for the new Eckerd.


     Hopefully the new Publix will be able to stay at this site for another 53 years, much like the original store did. With the way Publix is these days, 53 years from now, they'll have torn down and rebuilt this store two more times by then! I'll leave everybody with this last look at store #78. Hopefully by now, two full months after the original store's closure, something has begun to rise from the rubble, as this store begins its transition from rubble, back to wings (metaphorically this time).

So until the next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Thursday, February 25, 2016

The Safeway Florida Decor Is Revealed!

     Thanks to new AFB contributor Dave M., we now have a sneak peek of what the interior of the new Safeway Florida stores will look like. I know there are some who have been waiting to see what it would look like (as well as myself), so here it is:



     Yes, it's nothing at all like anything Safeway or Albertsons are currently using. These two renderings were posted on an easel inside the Largo Albertsons for shoppers to look at, which you can see below in the zoomed out pictures. I looked all over online, and I couldn't find any other Safeways or even Albertsons with this interior. All the new Safeways I was finding had the Colorful Lifestyle interior. Maybe someone else out there has seen this look before, but I'm pretty convinced Florida will be this decor's debut. It's a very modern look (as was promised in the original announcement of these remodels), and, at least to me, it seems to share some similarity to Winn-Dixie's new "Down Down" interior that debuted back in January. My only criticism of this new Safeway interior is that it looks like a large overuse of brown. Brown walls, brown floors, brown displays. All of the dark colors of the store do make the colors of the merchandise stand out more, which is probably what they were going for. But other than that, I kind of like the look of it. It's a big jump for these three Albertsons to be going from neglected 90's interiors to this.


     A brand new shopping experience indeed. The photos above and below show the easels these pictures were displayed on. Also in the background you can see the new wood grain/wood grain style flooring, part of the new salad bar, and what I believe is (or will be) the new home of the deli.



     And finally, a look at the new aisle signs. These are basically a new spin on the old Lifestyle ones, which you can see an example of here. Another interesting thing is that under the numbers, each aisle is given the name of a local street. Aisle 4 is "Hercules Avenue", which is a fairly major north-south road in Clearwater, and Aisle 3 is "Forest Parkway", which is a residential street in Largo that loops around a neighborhood a little to the north of this store. Presumably all of the other aisles have a corresponding street name as well. I saw this concept of giving the aisles the names of local streets at an independent supermarket once, and thought it was a neat local touch.

     Hopefully in the coming weeks, we'll be seeing more of this new "Brown Lifestyle" interior take shape at these three Albertsons stores. The remodels are coming along nicely, and in the next month or two, the Safeway name will probably be made official.

     Thanks again Dave for sending in those pictures, and I'll try my best to keep everyone updated on the remodels as I receive new pictures and information. I have a new store post going up this coming Monday (not Sunday, as posts are usually scheduled), so be sure to come back and check that out then! 

So until the next time, 

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Albertsons Florida Remodel Updates - February 2016

     Today AFB presents another update on the remodels of the last three Florida Albertsons stores as they transition into their new life as Safeway stores. Thanks to AFB contributor Ross T. for sending in some photos showing how the construction has been progressing recently at the Largo Albertsons:


     As we will see in a moment, the outer perimeter walls have been mostly repainted. The deli island currently has the last remaining traces of the old pink textured walls from the Blue and Green Awning decor. Since this is the case, I have a feeling the deli will probably be moved out from this island by the end of the remodel, and this will be removed, but I'm not sure.


     Looking into the back right corner of the store. Here's our first glimpse at the new tan/brown/gray color scheme that's been put in place, which we will see more of in a moment. Ross also mentioned that the aisles and some products have been continually getting moved around as the remodel continues to enter different phases. 


     The new Starbucks has been mostly completed, and the signage for it has been installed. This photos also shows some of the new wood grain flooring that these stores are getting.


     The photos above and below show the new brown/tan/gray color scheme currently in the store as construction progresses. Based off of how neat this paint job looks, I'm not sure if this is a primer coat or a final coat. This color scheme doesn't really match the current Albertsons "Quality Built" (as referred to by Acme Style) interior, or the "Lifestyle 2.0" interior that was used at the most recently opened Safeway in Rockville, MD. Although, now that I've looked over pictures of both interiors closer, the way the gray/brown/tan patches on the walls are spread out, they may just be primers for the Lifestyle 2.0 colors, but I guess time will tell what the new interior will look like. 


     So that wraps up our little look at the progression of the remodel at the Largo store for now. Thanks again Ross T. for sending in those pictures and for keeping us updated as the construction continues. 

     Also, I was looking around online the other day, and I found some pictures of the construction progress at the Altamonte Springs Albertsons taken back in late January, which you can view here (scroll to the right for more once the first image loads). Similar situation to what we saw at the Largo store, with a similar current color scheme on the perimeter walls. Produce there has been moved (temporarily, I assume) to a very long case in aisle 4, and there are also some pictures of the new flooring and equipment. For an extensive look at the Altamonte Springs Albertsons, click here.

That's all for now, but I have more coming next Sunday!

So until the next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Former Albertsons #4418 - Sebring, FL


Albertsons #4418/Publix #1347
3610 US Highway 27 North, Sebring, FL - Fairmont Plaza (which is technically next door, but that's what Publix goes by)

     Outside of Orlando and the rest of the I-4 corridor, most of the central, inland portions of the Florida peninsula remain in their longtime natural state as rural farms and forests, and swamps and grasslands. Cattle farms and orange groves dot the landscape, and you can go for many miles without seeing a building of any type. However, there are many thousands of lakes and springs out in this area, including Florida's largest and most famous lake: Lake Okeechobee. Around these lakes grew some towns, one of which ended up becoming the most populous town in this region between the coasts and south of Orlando: Sebring, a town of 10,000, and the county seat of mostly rural Highlands County. As the most populous town in this region, Sebring became home to most of the region's retail needs, including a regional mall, and even adding some stores that are usually associated with larger cities, such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Ross Dress for Less, Petco, Famous Footwear, Micheals, and many others. Sebring was even able to attract Albertsons, another store usually associated with larger urban areas. Albertsons began to plan a Sebring store in the mid-90's, although after a mysterious delay in construction, the Sebring Albertsons didn't open until approximately 1997 or so on the northern edge of town. The Sebring Albertsons was a standard Pre-Plaza Albertsons, and also included an Albertsons Express gas station out front.  


     Albertsons had a good 10 year run in Sebring before finally selling this store to Publix in 2008 as one of the 49 Albertsons stores Publix acquired that year. After some minor upgrades by Publix and some new decor, Publix opened their new store at this location, which was to become the second Publix in Sebring. The opening of this store also led to the indirect replacement of the Avon Park Publix about 5 miles to the north of here (more on that story later though). Publix remodeled the interior of this store again around 2013, upgrading the interior from 2nd Generation Classy Market to 3rd Generation Classy Market, and added all the typical elements that come with that (which we will see shortly), along with adding a drive thru pharmacy to the right side of the building.


     Before entering the store, we see the typical windowed in Pre-Plaza cart storage area next to the entrance.


     Walking into the store and looking at a small piece of the Publix-ified front end. The old swing doors were replaced when Publix first moved in, but Publix didn't add the second set of doors like we saw at the Jupiter Albertsons (#4446), or close in the unused space between the entryway and the customer service desk.

     As far as Albertsons' original decor, this store opened with the Blue and Gray Market interior, and kept that for it's entire life as Albertsons. When Publix first took over many of these stores that previously had the Blue and Grey Market interior, they tended to leave traces of the old decor on the wall, like in this amusing photo from an Albertsons/Publix conversion in Pensacola. I'm not sure if that was the case here, but any remaining traces of Albertsons decor in here would have been removed when Publix remodeled this store again around 2013.


     Floral is located to the left of the entrance as you walk in. Publix left all of Albertsons original layout in tact.


     The bakery in the front left corner, with the new curved front added by Publix a few years ago. 


     A better view under the bakery ceiling.


     And between the bakery and deli departments is produce.


     The deli was extremely busy the afternoon I was here, although, it's pretty rare to see the Publix deli not busy. Publix redid the tile backsplash behind the deli counter during their 2013 remodel of this store.


     Our first look at one of the grocery aisles.


     The main front aisle that runs along the front end, connecting the bakery to the pharmacy (which you can see part of in the background).


     And some more grocery aisles...


     And a cameo appearance by the Publix pilgrim pair on this store's clearance table, which was oddly located in the middle of the pet supply and hardware aisles.


     Frozen foods is located in the center portion of the store, as it was in the Albertsons days. These coolers are also original to when Albertsons first opened.


     And the next aisle over was beer, lunch meats, cheeses, and some overflow from frozen foods.


     And a quick side trip over to the front right corner of the store to see the pharmacy, which is in it original location from Albertsons, although extensively remodeled during the 2013 interior upgrades, which included the addition of a pharmacy drive thru window. The same Jupiter Albertsons I mentioned before has a better preserved pharmacy counter, which would have looked similar to the one this store used to have.


     Now getting back over to the grocery aisles...



     Meats counter in the back right corner of the store...


     ....with the Seafood counter located right next to it. Albertsons would have had both the Meats and Seafood counter combined where Publix currently has the Seafood counter. The current Publix Meats counter was carved out of a portion of the back wall.


      I like the fancy tile work Publix added back here during the most recent remodel.


     Sodas and wine in the last aisle, aisle 17, complete with a barrel to add to the effect (there was another barrel behind me as well).


     Another look across the front end, this time toward the bakery, as we prepare to leave this store...


     The customer service desk and the registers.


     Time to go...


     Back outside once again for a few last exterior photos. This is looking toward the cart storage area from the front sidewalk.


     And a quick look at Publix's new pharmacy drive through. At least Publix didn't have to tear down or reconfigure part of the building to put this in, as all they had to do was put a hole in the wall.




     And the typical Albertsons liquor store over on the left side of the building, now a Publix Liquors location.

     One more thing to look at though before we leave...


     Yep, the Albertsons Express gas station out front. The gas station closed with the store in 2008, which was not too long before Albertsons got rid of all the remaining Albertsons Express locations at their remaining Florida stores.


     The one nice thing about these former Albertsons Express locations is that the majority of them transferred to independent ownership after Albertsons closed them, meaning the conversions were usually on the cheap side, and many artifacts tended to remain. All the signage on the front of the convenience store is from Albertsons except for the Citgo logo, which was placed on top of an old Albertsons leaf logo shaped sign holder!


     And a quick look at the old Albertsons road sign next to the convenience store. Back to the gas station though...


     Blank Express. Still not fooling me though. These were ads placed on a garbage can/squeegee holder next to the gas pumps.


     I see Albertsons poking out from under there. Try as hard as you might, but even without the sad attempt to blotch out all the Albertsons logos, this place still has Albertsons relics seeping out of every square inch of it. I believe the sign says 'Need Great Meal Ideas' under the blotch now hiding the wrong part of the sign.


     And the gas station's road sign, also all original to Albertsons with the exception of the Citgo logo. Albertsons was even the one to install the digital price display. And in case you were wondering, next to the sign is the Car Wash installed by the current owner of this gas station, which consisted of that canopy, the supply shed, and a lady sitting in a lawn chair waiting for a car to pull in.

     UPDATE 2/24/16: Commentor Pseudo3D found some pictures of the Albertsons Express gas station at this store taken in 2005, which you can see here.


     Now that we've covered all the main points of the former Sebring Albertsons, remember how earlier I mentioned that the opening of the Publix that currently occupies the former Albertsons indirectly replaced the Avon Park Publix a little further to the north?...




Publix #321/Save A Lot #792
1020 US Highway 27 South, Avon Park, FL - Highlands Plaza

     Publix opened at this location in March 1987, and closed on May 2, 2009, a few months after the new North Sebring Publix opened in the old Albertsons. According to Publix, the new North Sebring store was stealing many of the shoppers from this older store, so much so that Publix decided to just close this store outright, one of the very rare times Publix has ever done such a thing (although you can argue that the North Sebring store was this store's replacement, which I why I call this situation "indirect replacement" - when a store of the same chain opens a new location without the intent of an older, already existing location closing, although an older store ends up closing due to the new store's opening after the fact.) It's surprising that the residents of Avon Park would rather drive the extra five miles to North Sebring to shop at Publix, rather than support their own local store. However, a Publix spokeswoman made this rather interesting statement regarding the closing of this store: "It doesn't make sense to have two locations so close together.". Remember, this is coming from a company that has and does operate two stores directly across the street from each other, and has many stores within a mile of another Publix. According to rumor, the Avon Park Publix was one of the worst performing stores in the chain for a very long time, so the recent opening of the North Sebring store may have given Publix the excuse to finally rid themselves of this store, because it seemed like locals really liked this store from what I read. Anyway, this store ended up sitting empty until 2012, when the right half of the former Publix space became a Save A Lot, while the left half of the building remains empty.


     This store was built during the time Publix was transitioning from the 80's model stores to the 90's models stores, although the layout and design of this building leans more toward the 90's design. The main difference between the two styles of stores was that the 90's stores were slightly larger, and had the side entryways broken into two vestibules, rather than both side entrances sharing the same glass vestibule. Since this was a transition era store, it has a slightly different design, mostly with the doors being on a diagonal rather than perpendicular to the front of the building, and a slightly different but unique exterior design that features arches over the entryway on a diagonal as well.  

     And yes, that blotch you see on the front of the building is the labelscar from where Publix's sign used to be. With the way Save A Lot placed their sign on the building, the labelscar just looks really strange in that place now.


     Let's see what's going on over in the Save A Lot portion of the building first...


     The only real trace of Publix in here is the fact that Save A Lot left Publix's original terrazzo floor uncovered and intact.


     Looking toward the back of the store.


     Not much else to see over on this side of the building, so let's go back outside...


     The abandoned half of the store lies straight ahead.


     The exterior of the Save A Lot side of the building would have been a mirror image of this side of the building back when Publix was still here. Save A Lot removed this arch and modified the exterior a bit to their liking. This is also that "unique design characteristic arch" I mentioned earlier in case it was hard to visualize it by my description (the satellite images below will clear things up even more about the unique traits of this style store as well).


       Save A Lot also replaced the door on their side of the building as well, as this is what an original Publix one would have looked like.


     Looking inside the abandoned vestibule. But wait!! Do you see what I see?!?!


     Yep, it's a rare last trace of Publix's old Wavy Pastel interior! For those of you who don't know, Wavy Pastel is the name I gave to Publix's 90's interior (and it was my favorite Publix interior so far), with the name based off of the shape and color scheme of the department signs. Here's one of the few pictures I know to exist online of this interior to give you a quick glimpse at it. Publix just about killed off every last trace of that interior in favor of some variant of their current Classy Market interior by 2010, although I was informed that one store in Gainesville may have kept it's original Wavy Pastel interior all the way through 2014. I know it's just a faded labelscar, but it's rare to find any remaining traces of Wavy Pastel in any Publix, live or dead. 


     Closeup of the words on the side wall, which say "Variety ♦ Value ♦ Quality ♦ Service", in the Wavy Pastel font.


     This one is slightly harder to see. This labelscar was on the back wall of the vestibule, and says "Welcome to Publix". Here's a (slightly blocked) picture of a variant of this sign with the diamonds between the words, from the same person who took that picture I linked to above. Below is another picture of the same thing, but I wasn't sure which would make it easier to see the labelscar:



     And a look through the front window into the main part of the store. I didn't see any other traces of Wavy Pastel in here, but you can see part of the giant angled inlayed light Publix used over their registers to the right, one of the really neat design features Publix used in their 90's stores. I believe the bakery was located under that lower portion of the ceiling to the left side of this photo.


     The Avon Park Publix was a nice surprise, as I wasn't expecting it to be this exciting. I was originally just going to pull into the parking lot and get a quick picture of the exterior, but I'm glad I changed my mind at the last second!

     Now it's satellite image time. Since Big Maps doesn't have Bird's Eye imagery available for this area, I only have the following historic aerial images from Google Earth to share this time.

    First, a quick overview of the former Avon Park Publix while that's fresh in everyone's mind:


Former Publix #321 - 2014 - Save A Lot is already in the right portion of the building, as the red paint over there probably gives away. From above, the distinct look of these style Publix stores is much easier to see.


Publix #321 - 2008 - And the store back when Publix was still open

     And now back to the former Albertsons for some satellite images:


Former Albertsons #4418 - 2014


Albertsons #4418 - 2008


Albertsons #4418 - 2004


Albertsons #4418 - 1999


Future Albertsons #4418 - 1994 - Still in the planning process at this time.


     While we may have finished our tour of the Sebring Albertsons, there's still some other interesting places to see in this town that I will be featuring as Bonus Buy stores in the future (and possibly, the near future). I included this map to show the location of the Albertsons/Publix we just looked at in relation to Publix's original, longtime Sebring location on the south side of town. That store dates back to the Wing Store era, and has existed in the same (but modified) building since 1962! Well, it did until 2015 anyway...

And I'll leave it at that for now. So until the next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger