Albertsons #4320 / Publix #1320
7880 113th Street, Seminole, FL
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| Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail |
With 16 former Albertsons stores in Pinellas County, it seems like it's never long before we end up in the 727 once again. Today's former Albertsons store is another one of the county's long-tenured locations, dating back to the late 1970's when Pinellas was experiencing a large population boom. Former Albertsons #4320 has been through a lot, so let's take a little time to learn more about this store and what it is like today:
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| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
By the time Albertsons #4320 opened on July 13, 1977, Albertsons had already been well established in Pinellas County. Keeping in mind that Albertsons only entered Florida 3 years prior, store #4320 would become Pinellas's 5th Albertsons store (although it was supposed to be the 6th, had #4308 in Belleair Bluffs opened in May 1977 as planned). #4320 would mark the company's entrance to the city of Seminole, one of the suburban towns tucked between St. Petersburg and Clearwater on the Pinellas Peninsula. Not to be confused with Seminole County near Orlando or the Florida State University Seminoles, the City of Seminole is actually Pinellas County's newest city (although it's not very new anymore, as Seminole is old enough to join the AARP now!). Seminole was incorporated in 1970 at a community meeting held at one of the town's most famous destinations (which will get a few mentions later in this post) - the Seminole Mall - which was located directly across the street from the the Albertsons store we'll be touring today.
Our friend the "Man in Gold" invites us to the new Seminole Albertsons to celebrate its grand opening on July 13, 1977, one of the first stores in Florida to open under the "Albertsons Drugs & Foods" name (following the dissolution of the Skaggs-Albertsons partnership earlier in 1977, the partnership that brought Albertsons to Florida in the first place). Also fresh to the Albertsons brand was the company's now-iconic "A-leaf" logo, which debuted just a year earlier in 1976, but only began appearing on the front of Floridian Albertsons stores following the breakup of the Skaggs partnership.
Above is another page from the grand opening ad, but I figured I'd throw this one in as I figured some of you would get a kick out of the electronics deals Albertsons had for their grand opening sale (like the 10 inch diagonal color TV - portable too - which still probably weighed more than a modern 40 inch flat screen!) If you can now buy TVs and garlic bread in a drug store, whatever will they think of next?!
While I don't know what kind of remodeling this store may have gotten in the 1980's or 1990's, the current exterior of the building does give away that Albertsons #4320 had a Grocery Palace remodel in the early 2000's, receiving a similar exterior treatment to store #4307 in Jacksonville (although #4307 is the reverse layout of #4320).
Like all but 2 of the other Albertsons stores in Pinellas County, store #4320 was sold to Publix as part of their deal to buy 49 Albertsons stores throughout Florida in 2008. At the time of the deal, Publix already operated a store across the street from the Albertsons in the Seminole Mall complex. Dating back to 1965, Publix's Seminole Mall store was clearly outdated by Publix standards, and the slightly newer (but larger) Albertsons building across the street was attractive enough to Publix to warrant using it as a replacement for their Seminole Mall location - store #117.
Publix #117 was profiled on My Florida Retail back in that blog's early days in this great post written by duckman66, with some interesting photos of that store through the years. If you want to read more about the Seminole Mall Publix, please take a moment to jump over to duckman66's post, where he does a great job explaining that store's history (in addition to explaining a little history about Seminole Mall too). As I was researching for this post, I did stumble across this neat grand opening ad Publix published in the local paper for #117's grand debut on November 4, 1965, which includes some really nice drawings of a Publix Wing Store and drawings of what various departments within the store looked like. I figured this was a good enough contribution on my part for acknowledging #117's existence without having to rewrite duckman66's post again!
After receiving what a Publix spokeswoman described as "a full remodel" (which I assume was a step above a conversion like this), the new Seminole Publixsons opened on December 17, 2009, with the old store across the street closing the night before. With the closure of the old Publix at Seminole Mall, many felt that was the mall's final nail in the coffin, as the mall had been struggling for much of the 2000's as it began to compete with more modern malls and shopping centers throughout Pinellas County. Sadly, the prediction of most locals came true, as 6 years after Publix closed, the entire Seminole Mall was demolished and redeveloped into a modern outdoor power center.
The photos in the article above show the Seminole Publixsons in its early days, although being in black and white, you can't easily tell the building's original paint scheme by Publix. The particular article above discusses how shortly after Publix opened, the City of Seminole was trying to work with Pinellas County to improve the crosswalks across 113th Street. These improvements were aimed to aid the senior citizens who lived in the apartment complexes behind Seminole Mall who now had to cross the busy road to get to the supermarket following Publix's move.
After having lost one Pinellas County Publixsons store of similar age to this one in 2024 (#4312), and already having lost another (much newer) Publixsons only a month into 2025 also (with another 2025 closure seemingly on track as well), #4320 still stands, and it's certainly one of Publix's more well-kept 1970's Albertsons buildings in the area (although that's not much of a guarantee of anything with Publix). Publix's "full remodel" did change a few things around (which we'll see once we get inside), but there's still plenty of leftovers from Albertsons for us to see in this tour, starting with just about all of the exterior.
The front facade of this Albertsons store was mostly overhauled during the Grocery Palace remodel, with the entry and exit doors reconfigured to be more Grocery Palace-like and a modernized exterior to compliment that change.
Heading into the store, we begin to see some of Publix's extensive touches from their remodels to this building over the last 16 years. Entering the store, we're greeted by this "Welcome to Publix" wall, complete with the older Publix box logo (which was most likely installed when this store first opened in 2009) on a sea of green tile (another Publix touch, as even with plenty of funky tile patterns, Grocery Palace never used that shade of green!).
Albertsons most likely had a wall of some kind to my left, creating a small vestibule for storing shopping carts with the customary "Albertsons Reading Center" on the opposite side of that wall facing the salesfloor. Publix typically removed that wall for a more open-air vestibule in the Grocery Palace stores they converted. Another fairly major change made by Publix was the removal of the Pharmacy island, which would have been located where the service desk island is now. Publix chose to move the pharmacy to the side wall, opening up the salesfloor for the service desk and the BOGO bins.
Turning our attention to the front right corner of the building, we find the deli department (with a little bit of the bakery peeking out to our left).
The deli and bakery retained their original placements from when Albertsons first opened in 1977, with these departments primarily receiving equipment upgrades and small expansions in the Grocery Palace remodel. Publix chose to keep the placement of these departments as-is too, but these departments have since been remodeled to better match the design of these departments in a newbuild Publix store.
The bakery is certainly one of the more striking examples of Publix's remodeling efforts, with the customary curved lower ceiling and blue tile backdrop typical of Publix designs of the 2010's.
In addition to the bakery and deli (which is a bit obstructed by the pumpkin patch and Halloween balloons), we can see part of the store's floral department, which was moved to the start of aisle 1 following the deconstruction of the pharmacy island where that once lived.
The new floral island marks our entrance into the produce department, with its prominent placement adding a touch of color as we work our way deeper into the store's grand aisle.
Produce occupies the remainder of the right side of the building, taking us toward the back right corner of the store.
It was hard for me to produce a photo of the produce department that wasn't full of people, but I have to do what I can sometimes.
Reaching the back wall of the store, we find the meat coolers, with the meat and seafood service counter located about halfway down the store's back wall.
While Captain Fear may have been giving me looks from his pirate ship as I took this picture, trying to scare off any would-be supermarket photographers, I persisted to bring you this look down aisle 2, with the store's main entrance visible in the background. Thankfully I didn't have to walk the plank afterward!
Leaving aisle 2, here's a look across the front of the store from the inner portion of the store's dual front actionway, a common trait in older Publixsons buildings.
Here's a photo taken from a similar vantage point, just moved up to the outer front actionway that runs alongside the check lanes.
One way to tell if Publix gave an old Albertsons building (or any other building that didn't begin its life as a Publix) a much nicer than average remodel is to look at the floor. If the store got faux terrazzo (like this one did), that meant Publix dumped a lot more money into it compared to the stores that got the checkered tile pattern, meaning this store really did get the "full remodel" treatment.
Returning to the back wall, we can see where the meats meet seafood as the wall color transitions from red to green. The service counter is located a little further down under the green portion of the wall, where that little piece of blue wall is poking out in the distance.
With the dual front actionway set-up, this store's aisle markers are positioned further back to align with the main grocery aisles, which looks somewhat strange from a perspective like this one.
Returning to the inner front actionway, we have a few short aisles of non-foods to my left, with the pharmacy counter becoming much more visible in the distance.
In addition to the floors, the lighting in this building is all Publix-issued as well, with Publix's traditional square lights offering a much calmer and soothing lighting environment compared to Albertsons' fluorescent tube strips.
Looks like someone wiped out all the caffeine free Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew that was on sale when I visited. I'd certainly be whining in this aisle if I needed those two items and saw that big empty hole!
As we continue to zig-zag through the grocery aisles, here's a look at one of the short aisles between the two parts of the front actionway. Nearing the pharmacy, this short aisle was home to vitamins and supplements.
Moving further along toward the pharmacy, the next short aisle was home to shampoo and deodorants (and if that wasn't enough to stop the stench, you could grab a Glade fall scented candle while in that aisle too).
Getting closer to the left side of the store, we find the pharmacy counter protruding into the salesfloor from the left wall, with the entrance to the dairy department off to its side.
Publix moved the pharmacy to the left wall from Albertsons' old island by the front doors. With the pharmacy moving to this spot, that created an odd channel into the dairy department, as well as a new hallway to access the side door to the counter's left. In addition to the salesfloor quirks stemming from the pharmacy's move, we also see in this photo the goat milk soap display (off to the left, the gray table with the goat statue on it, which I also believe is carved out of said soap). While that seems like a strange thing for me to point out, I've been told the presence of that goat soap display is an easy way to tell if a Publix store is considered one of the company's higher-volume or higher-end locations.
Socks and crackers - I'd have to say that was a first for me to see in the same aisle at a Publix!
Nearing the left side of the store, we find ourselves in the dairy department. The dairy department begins along the back wall following the Seafood counter and wraps along the left wall before ending at the pharmacy counter.
In typical Grocery Palace fashion, this store's frozen food aisles were moved over to the far left side of the building from their original home in the center of the salesfloor. However, without the curved ceiling above, the feeling just isn't the same.
Frozen foods begin in aisle 11, where one side of the coolers was frozen foods, while the other side was home to the beer coolers. Picture above is aisle 12, which was entirely home to frozen foods.
Aisle 13, the store's last, was also split in two, with the last of the frozen foods to my left and the remainder of dairy to my right. Aisle 13 ends at the side of the pharmacy counter, at which point shoppers have to turn left to return to the main salesfloor.
Exiting aisle 13, this is what we see - a nice overview of the store's front end looking back toward the bakery and deli departments (where we started our tour).
From what I can tell, this store had 8 staffed check lanes, 2 staffed express lanes (plus another 2 staffed express lanes by the side door) and a bank of 5 self-checkouts - that's a lot of check lanes for a Publix, which I believe is another sign this is a fairly high-volume location for the company. Not all of those lanes were open when I was here (I think 4 were on this particular afternoon, plus the self-checkouts), but I'm sure they all get some good use on a Saturday afternoon.
While most of this seems to flow fine in its current incarnation as a Publix, one of the few awkward quirks of this store's recycled nature are these support poles along the (somewhat cramped) front end. I'm sure if the lines at the check lanes begin to back up, those poles don't make the situation any better!
I decided to exit this store through the side door, which now sits at the end of this odd corridor created when the pharmacy was moved to the left wall. The 2 (closed at the time of my visit) express lanes for the side door are visible to my right, with beach supplies and a random display of chips and soda also relegated to this corridor.
Back outside, here's a look at the side entrance as well as the liquor store. As usual, the liquor store was tucked into the left side of the building and is still in its original location from when this Albertsons was built in 1977.
Unlike the front of the building, the sides of the building still retain the original river rock panels from the 1970's. While some new accent paint has been added in recent times, it's nice to see those rocks still left in their original form.
A few of those river rock panels even managed to slip by the front's remodel too, with a few of those visible behind the palm trees lining the store's facade.
Taking a quick look at the right side of the building, we find the store's emergency generator and the loading docks. Since this building was built right against the back property line, all these typical "back of the building" features were instead relegated to this side where there was more room to work with.
With all the work this building has received through the years from both Albertsons and Publix, this nearly 50 year old structure still looks pretty good for its age, doesn't it? As far as I'm aware, as of early 2025, this store is still holding onto its Classy Market 3.0/Sienna decor from the mid-2010's that we just saw, which appears to have received a refresh in the 2019-2020 timeframe when the self-checkouts were added. While you never know with Publix, I want to say this store will most likely be an Evergreen remodel candidate considering all the work Publix has done to this place over the last 16 years. Hopefully that will be the case, as Pinellas County has been on a bad roll with losing Publixsons stores of late!
Facing 113th Street is this road sign, which while seemingly Albertsons-esque in styling, was actually installed by Publix ca. 2017 to replace Albertsons' original sign structure.
Now that we've completed our tour, let's take to the skies and look at some aerial images, starting with some Bird's Eye aerial images coming to you courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:
Former Albertsons #4320 - 2023 - 113th Street is the big road running north-south in the above image, with that big crossroad coming in on the angle being Park Boulevard. The old Albertsons is the large building on the west side of 113th Street, with the large shopping center across the street being the current incarnation of the former Seminole Mall - an open-air big box center called Seminole City Center.
Former Albertsons #4320 - 2023 - Zoomed in
Former Albertsons #4320 - 2010
Former Albertsons #4320 - 2010 - Another look at the old Albertsons in comparison to the Seminole Mall site, but this time with the original mall structure still standing. I marked the location of the original Publix store in the mall complex too. The strip with the Publix facing Park Boulevard was originally constructed as the open-air Seminole Center in 1965, with the mall structure being built behind Seminole Center in 1970 (and creating access from the original strip to the new mall via a small courtyard to the left of the Publix) .
Albertsons #4320 - 2008 - The store as it was right before closing.
Albertsons #4320 - 2002
Albertsons #4320 - 1995 - Seen as it was before the Grocery Palace-era exterior modifications.
Albertsons #4320 - 1984
Future Albertsons #4320 - 1971 - The Albertsons site was still an empty lot at this time, but the Seminole Mall, only a year old at this time, was quite the hopping place! If you zoom into the above aerial image, you can even make out Publix's Wings at Seminole Mall.
With that, we'll conclude the story of former Albertsons #4320, which leaves me with 3 more Pinellas County Albertsons stores to write about out of those 16 that once dotted this county. We'll take a short break from Pinellas County for a bit though, but we'll be back here eventually after we check in with some other parts of Florida for a little bit!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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