Today marks 4 years since I embarked on this little journey to explore the former Albertsons stores of Florida, in addition to the other supermarkets and supermarket oddities to be found across this crazy but great state in which I call home. Where else but Florida would you find a Publix in a former Food Lion, or a Winn-Dixie in a former Kroger-owned building? Florida is an interesting place for retail history, and we've only scratched the surface of it so far here on AFB. Thanks to all of the long-time followers and new friends to the blog that have joined in the last year. AFB is now 231,000 pageviews strong, a number which keeps growing faster than I ever would have anticipated four years ago today! I have plenty of good stuff lined up for 2018, from the always interesting supermarket reuses, to former Albertsons stores, and maybe even a few surprises from supermarkets past to throw in too. There's always something new (or old!) to find out there...
The Florida supermarket scene in 2017 hasn't been too terribly turbulent. The biggest thing this year was the expansion of SEG's Harvey's and Fresco y Mas stores throughout more of Florida. Coming up in the new year AFB will take a tour of one of those new Harvey's stores, as I've had some interest come in on what those stores are like. Still no new news out of Albertsons on what their ultimate plans for Safeway in Florida are, so the waiting game there continues. Those three stores all seem to be holding their own a year and a half in. Other than the issues with the flooring at the Altamonte Springs Safeway reported earlier this year (which have since been resolved), the Florida Safeway stores seem to be doing rather well. All three of the locations have hundreds of positive online reviews, and someone told me that the Safeway stores were exceeding sales expectations according to an employee they spoke with in Altamonte Springs. Will 2018 bring us some answers to what's going on with Safeway Florida? We'll just have to wait and see.
Thank you everyone for another great year on the blog! Next year will be AFB's 5th year online. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long to me since I started! As you keep scrolling down you'll see the usual stats from our AFB year in review, as well as the year's last feature post from an abandoned Albertsons store with a rare for Florida interior! Enjoy the post, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! New AFB blog posts will resume in January.
So until the next time,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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The year in review (and some random stats):
Albertsons Stores Covered:
#4303 - Winter Park, FL (Semoran & Aloma)
#4347 - Orlando, FL (S. Semoran)
#4355 - Panama City, FL (The most popular feature post of the year)
#4357 - Vero Beach, FL (Update)
#4359 - Apopka, FL (Semoran)
#4415 - Ocoee, FL
#4423 - Winter Park, FL (Full Sail)
#4425 - Callaway, FL
#4438 - Orlando, FL (Union Park)
#4463 - Orlando, FL (Windermere) (The third most popular post of the year)
#4495 - Orlando, FL (Curry Ford & Dean)
#4498 - Apopka, FL (Rock Springs)
Bonus Buy Stores Featured:
The Last Gooding's - Gooding's of Lake Buena Vista (The second most popular post of the year)
Publix #219 - Lake Placid, FL
Publix #1102 - Fort Pierce, FL (The Pub Lion)
Winn-Dixie #221 / Xtra Super Food Center - West Palm Beach, FL
Winn-Dixie #2325 - Cocoa Beach, FL
Winn-Dixie #2383 / Florida Choice - Winter Park, FL
Safeway Florida Store Count: 3 (No change from 2016)
Additionally, 2017 also marked the launch of the AFB Florida Retail Database. Be sure to check that out too if you haven't!
I always that maybe they were hanging onto the Albertsons Florida stores in case they could buy some off of Winn-Dixie. Basically my dream scenario for Florida is Albertsons makes a deal with Lone Star Funds to buy SEG in exchange for a share of the company to LSF. They make money on disassembling SEG, including selling BI-LO and closing down Harveys/Fresco y Mas. They then restructure what's left of the stores and making them more "Safeway-like". Finally, the Winn-Dixie name is officially retired in favor of Safeway.
ReplyDeleteWith SEG's debt payments coming up next year, I wouldn't doubt they'd consider selling off a chunk of their stores to Albertsons or someone else to raise money (whether in Florida or elsewhere). I'd like to see that "dream scenario" happen too, as it would help both companies (even though it is at the expense of Winn-Dixie).
DeleteCongrats on four years, AFB! Looking forward to many more. Happy holidays!
ReplyDeleteThanks, and I have plenty more to share! Happy holidays to you too!
DeleteFour years - wow! Congrats! Like you said, it sounds like a long time, but it really doesn't feel like it (hard to believe I'll be starting my fourth year on flickr come January!). Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well, and looking forward to all you have in store for 2018!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It really doesn't feel like four years at all. I'm really amazed at how fast time has gone by on here! Congrats to making it to your fourth year on here as well (well, come January that is!). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too!
DeleteYou're welcome, and thanks!
DeleteFour years already? Wow! I remember when I first came to your site when it first started-- I really loved the content you had! Glad I'm still a reader today :). Congrats AFB!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Happy Holidays!
Thanks! It really doesn't feel like it has been 4 years. Glad to see you've stuck around for all this time! Happy Holidays to you too!
DeleteHey there AFB, happy holidays! Have you heard about Albertsons' new convenience store? I just saw this article on Supermarket News: http://www.supermarketnews.com/news/albertsons-debuts-new-c-store-concept Interesting idea. I just wonder if they can differentiate themselves enough from all the other millions of convenience stores out there!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty interesting! Thanks for sharing that - I hadn't seen that article yet! Albertsons Express pretty much died during the Supervalu/Cerberus madness in the late 2000s, so it's nice to see it making a comeback. I like the look and design of the new convenience store. It looks nice, and it seems like they're trying to use the "classy" modern convenience store prototype with prepared foods and such (like what you'd find at Wawa). Out west they'd probably do well with that prototype, as I don't think they have as many "classy" convince store chains out that way (unlike out East, where we have places like Wawa, Sheetz, Cumberland Farms, RaceTrac/RaceWay, etc. all trying out concepts like that). It will be interesting to see if they continue to expand this further.
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