tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post6523820010997453870..comments2024-03-28T03:22:39.407-04:00Comments on Albertsons Florida Blog: How Sweet(bay) It Still Is to Shop at Winn-DixieAlbertsons Florida Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-17138308632147649762020-10-21T00:01:34.294-04:002020-10-21T00:01:34.294-04:00The Texas RediClinics were an odd thing because al...The Texas RediClinics were an odd thing because all of them that I saw were located in HEB shopping centers. I'm not sure if they had some kind of agreement with HEB or what.<br /><br />It's a wise move, IMO, for Albertsons and Safeway stores in the same market to run a combined marketing effort. It's funny because at least here in Houston, Randall's/Albertsons has a promotion with Chevron-Texaco gas stations and Chevron and Texaco stations are an example of a 'different name, same game' type retail operation. Granted, such a thing is common in the fuel retail segment.<br /><br />That said, I looked up Tom Thumb and Albertsons ads for stores which are very close to one another in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton. As an aside, Vanilla Ice, who has strong connections to both Florida and Texas, lived in Carrollton for a while during his youth. I'll leave that up to you to judge if that's a good or bad thing, lol. Anyway, the ads for Tom Thumb and Albertsons in Dallas are most certainly not combined when looking at the ads starting on October 21st. The Tom Thumb ad is more than twice as big as the Albertsons ad and the Tom Thumb sale prices are less than or equal to the Albertsons sale prices. For example, both have a sale for 12 oz. packages of raspberries or blackberries, but Tom Thumb's sale is for $2.97 and Albertsons' ad price is $4.99! Yikes! There are some prices which are the same though.<br /><br />Another big difference is that Tom Thumb, like Randall's, requires a card to get most of the sale prices. Albertsons, OTOH, makes no mention of card prices so I assume Albertsons does not use a card system. I know Albertsons didn't have a card when they were here in Houston. Both chains seem to use Safeway's Just for U e-coupon system though, but I reckon Albertsons stores must use phone numbers to access those instead of the card/number system that stores under the Safeway side of the operation use.<br /><br />On the topic of that Pearland Food Town with the Blue and Green Awnings and Kroger 2012 decor, I took a closer look at some of the Google images of the place and it seems that it also has what is clearly a Walmart beverage stand near the pharmacy! So not only does it have some Blue & Green Awnings decor and Kroger 2012 decor, but it also has a Project Impact fixture as well! How strange is that?! Food Towns are a great repository of retail history! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/mbqF6DCfMzKRHt6K8<br /><br />I didn't realize that Kash n' Karry was owned by Lucky California during that time period. That means that KnK would have had a sister (or cousin at least) chain here in Houston since Lucky California operated the Eagle Supermarket stores in Houston which operated from ~the very early 1980s to about 1985. I'm not sure how much KnK and Eagle stores had in common during that time though. Eagle was positioned as a discount grocer with smaller stores than most of the big names in the Houston grocery game at the time. Lucky California also operated GEMCO stores in Houston. I'm not sure if you had those in Florida.<br /><br />I know I read on AFB/MFR that Grand Union had a presence in Florida for a while. Well, Grand Union briefly had a presence in Houston in the early 1980s as well when they purchased the Weingarten's grocery chain that was a prominent grocery chain at the time. Grand Union didn't hold on to Weingarten's for long though as they flipped them to Safeway pretty quickly. Here's what a Grand Union era Weingarten's store looked like, I'd have to assume Florida Grand Unions were pretty similar: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/71/62/16/15147944/3/920x920.jpgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-13163612203404409422020-10-20T21:27:53.987-04:002020-10-20T21:27:53.987-04:00I figured Rite Aid never really ventured much into...I figured Rite Aid never really ventured much into Texas. Geographically, Rite Aid has an odd distribution of locations, with all their stores clustered in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast, and then the stores along the Pacific Coast, leaving a huge gap in the middle of the country (and now the Southeast). K&B seems to be the most likely way Rite Aid could have ever ended up in Texas, even if it was for a very short time. The RediClinic connection is interesting, and I never knew Rite Aid operated freestanding ones, let alone in areas where the company didn't have a presence.<br /><br />I know on the West Coast, areas with overlapping Albertsons and Safeway stores sometimes run using a combined ad, essentially removing any differences the stores once had. Tom Thumb is probably falling into a similar situation, although I don't know if Tom Thumb has moved to a combined ad with the local Albertsons stores. Even still, there probably isn't much difference between the two stores anymore, although I know Tom Thumb has opened (or plans to open) a few new stores, so they seem to be holding their own.<br /><br />That's really neat to see that Kroger with the Albertsons signs still up - nearly 20 years later too! That Kroger still has Albertsons' layout in-tact from what I can tell, but everything else has been Kroger-fied. It nice that the exterior signs remained through the recent remodel though. I don't recall seeing that Blue and Green Awnings Food Town before either, but yes, another fun mash-up for sure! Thanks to Food Town, more supermarket relics live on! I've never been to Food Town, but I'm already a fan :)<br /><br />A buyout probably would have been Kroger's best option to enter Florida back in the day. Kash n' Karry would have been a good match for Kroger to get a foothold in Florida had they bought the company in the 1970's or 1980's, but Lucky California (of all chains) ended up buying Kash n' Karry, running them until the late 80's. For whatever reason, Kroger thought designing new Florida-centric chains was their way into the state back then, but none of those stores took off. Publix would never, ever, ever sell out to anyone. Depending on how well SEG can turn themselves around, their current operating area (when taking BI-LO out of the picture) happens to be the one big chunk of the Southeast where neither Kroger or Harris Teeter operate. If SEG can overcome some hurdles and make themselves viable again, Kroger could become interested, but this would probably be a ways out if it were to ever happen.Albertsons Florida Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-15326700935494624832020-10-20T20:38:01.029-04:002020-10-20T20:38:01.029-04:00It's the breakfast of champions right there! :...It's the breakfast of champions right there! :)<br /><br />Hannaford and Sweetbay never directly shared a decor package, but there are some similarities between the two (the bakery decor at that Augusta Hannaford I linked to has a very striking similarity to Sweetbay's decor). Sweetbay's later decor package (the one we'll see about a month from now) took a more radical change from Hannaford, and really tried to give the store a more Floridian spin. These Sweetbay stores are some of Winn-Dixie's most modern locations, and the ones built from scratch as Sweetbay look even better. The flooring is very 90's though. It would have been nice to see that replaced, but very few Kash n' Karry conversions actually went through with replacing the floors.<br /><br />The Augusta Hannaford does look really nice! It looks like an interesting store. There really isn't much coverage of Maine retail, so that will be a fun black of stores when you get to it, so it will be worth the wait!Albertsons Florida Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-55667799702692030142020-10-20T20:24:00.316-04:002020-10-20T20:24:00.316-04:00That Kash n' Karry signage was a complete shoc...That Kash n' Karry signage was a complete shock to me, as usually these conversions were really thorough with removing all of Kash n' Karry's old decor. Seeing that was certainly the highlight of my day! Even with Winn-Dixie's uptick in remodeling recently, I hope they leave some of these ex-Sweetbay stores alone, as most of them are quite nice and still feel modern too. If you liked the decor you saw in here, then you'll really like Sweetbay 2.0!Albertsons Florida Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-43105380543168825642020-10-20T00:53:34.932-04:002020-10-20T00:53:34.932-04:00The Rite Aid in Texas question is a good one. I&#...The Rite Aid in Texas question is a good one. I've never seen Rite Aids in Texas. I certainly have not seen them in Houston. Of course, Texas is a big state though and the retail situation in places like West Texas and the Panhandle up near Oklahoma is really quite different than what it is here in the more populated part of Texas which includes Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and the South Texas region from Corpus Christi down to the Mexican border which includes Brownsville, McAllen, and places like that. For example, Albertsons is huge out in far West Texas, along with Lowe's Market (not to be confused with the Lowes grocery chain in the Carolinas, it's completely different), and they don't even know about HEB over there in the west. <br /><br />All that said, I don't think Rite Aid has done much in Texas. One oddity is that it seems that they own the RediClinic chain of walk-in clinics which had a number of locations next to larger HEBs, including here in Texas, up until August 2020 when it seems Rite Aid pulled the plug on RediClinic. I'm not entirely sure if Rite Aid always owned RediClinic or what. So, yeah, we did indirectly have Rite Aids in that manner.<br /><br />Je of the Louisiana & Texas Retail blog might know more about this because I know he was a fan of the K&B pharmacy chain in Louisiana which got purchased by Rite Aid many years ago. I've heard Je say that K&B had some Texas locations, presumably in east Texas near the Louisiana border, but I don't know if any of those got converted into Rite Aids. If they did, they probably didn't last too long. Je did document some former K&B Rite Aids in the last decade or so and they very much still looked like K&Bs. <br /><br />You're right that Kmart was in many/most major metro areas except in Texas up until recently even if they just had one store in some of them. I suppose a minor presence in some of those areas is still a presence. I do think your listing of current Kmarts in the mainland US is correct, but those things are always fluid.<br /><br />I'm not sure if Albertsons is really doing much to differentiate Tom Thumb (Randall's sister banner in the Dallas area) from regular Albertsons stores in the Dallas market. That must be a rather confusing situation for Tom Thumb and Albertsons shoppers. As an aside, your Randall's Remarkable card that you found at the Fort Pierce Kmart should work at Tom Thumb, but I don't think it'll work at any regular Safeway stores which use discount cards. <br /><br />I did drive by a Krogersons (Krobertsons?) just yesterday in Houston which still has Albertsons signage on the outside of the store, lol. Most of the Krogersons near me have removed the Albertsons signage since 2017 or so, but the Albertsons signage still lingers on in some places! Link: https://goo.gl/maps/QZi9jbVWHRogCvMh7<br /><br />On the topic of Houston area Krogersons, did I ever share with you this Food Town in Pearland which has very well-preserved Albertsons Blue & Green Awnings decor, but also has some Kroger 2012 decor in it as well? I know you love mash-ups like this, lol, but so do I. Isn't Food Town amazing? Link: https://goo.gl/maps/zsWeiTANm6TjGyk9A<br /><br />Kroger's success in Houston might not have happened if Kroger did not buy the Henke & Pillot chain in the 1950s. Henke's was a major local chain here in Houston and Kroger initially kept the Henke's name for a while in Houston and slowly started transitioning towards Kroger name until everything was 100% Kroger. Unfortunately, that's not of much assistance to Kroger in modern times as it relates to Florida because their only options would be to buy out Publix or SEG. Purchasing Publix would be expensive and would risk alienating Floridians and I don't think Kroger really wants any part of potential headaches and probable regret which would come from buying SEG. Who knows though, maybe small improvements made by SEG might make them a more viable takeover candidate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-55224078009126100262020-10-19T21:23:47.854-04:002020-10-19T21:23:47.854-04:00I know Rite Aid had stores in Louisiana until the ...I know Rite Aid had stores in Louisiana until the recent selloff to Walgreens, but was Rite Aid ever in Texas? I don't recall ever seeing references to Rite Aid in Texas before, unless like with Florida, Rite Aid came and went in Texas really quick many years ago. Surprisingly, only until the last 3-4 years, Kmart still had a decent spread of stores across the United States (the only major gap until then being most of Texas, although most major metro areas usually had at least 1 Kmart hanging around somewhere). Kmart airing national ads wasn't too much of a stretch even in the mid-2010's. Now though, the only remaining Kmarts (in the mainland US, anyway) are clustered in South Florida, the Mid-Atlantic/NYC Metro, and California, with single random stores in Montana and Michigan if I remember right, so a national campaign would be completely useless now!<br /><br />That's probably weird hearing the Albertsons references again in Houston, but with Randalls getting merged in with Albertsons, I guess before long references to the new parent company would begin popping up.<br /><br />Publix has a really strong and fiercely loyal following in Florida, which has certainly helped with the demise of many of Publix's former competitors. Publix has definitely taken a toll on Winn-Dixie, but the company keeps bouncing back. If Winn-Dixie were go out of business completely, that would leave most of Florida without another traditional grocery chain besides Publix, so it's really important that Winn-Dixie finds a way to keep going! I really think that Florida has room for another major grocery chain if someone wanted to put in the effort, but Publix is such a behemoth here, most outside chains don't even want to bother. However, Kroger could never figure out how to appeal to Floridians and Albertsons got squeezed out, so there really aren't many other options for a new competitor for Publix, unless something really crazy happens.<br /><br />At least you found that tape. It would have been fun if you found some historic Floridian retail footage on there, but at least you were able to solve the mystery of the hotel by rewatching the tape!Albertsons Florida Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-4977673280262702842020-10-19T21:17:23.192-04:002020-10-19T21:17:23.192-04:00No better way to start your morning than a nice ho...No better way to start your morning than a nice hot bowl of Froot Loops. Sounds like some disgusting college student invention!<br /><br />Fascinating to see this conversion. I don't think this decor ever exactly made its way up to Hannaford, but I'm familiar with the general look of the interior. And honestly, it looks pretty good today, considering the age of the decor and the multiple changes in ownership. The floor does need an update more than the decor.<br /><br />I'm much more familiar with the decor package you linked in the Augusta, ME Hannaford. By the way, that store is absolutely stunning in person and the pictures don't really show how beautiful it is. I find the decor to be a bit flat but the facility is just gorgeous in that location. It was a new-build store a few years ago for a 1950s (maybe) era store a few blocks away. I photographed it last summer and I'll post it on The Market Report when we get around to covering Maine, which is, you know, 2022 at the earliest. Can't wait to see more Sweetbay stuff!Zacharyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13474240202879870641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-265623019641054492020-10-19T03:09:31.949-04:002020-10-19T03:09:31.949-04:00It's entirely possible that Winn-Dixie was spo...It's entirely possible that Winn-Dixie was sponsoring an event I was watching on TV and that's why we got the commercial for them here in Houston. It could have been a stock car race or something which has a traditionally Southeastern US audience, but it's hard to say now how I saw those Winn-Dixie commercials.<br /><br />A Rite Aid commercial in Houston would be similarly strange, if not even more strange, but I can't say I've seen them advertise here. We would get Kmart ads here on TV and radio for many years up until maybe 2017 or 2018 even. Of course, we have not had Kmarts here in the Houston area since 2002-3! I can only assume that Kmart paid for a national advertising campaign, but that might have been silly given their major holes on the map where they no longer had stores. Of course, those holes have only become larger here in recent times!<br /><br />Quite interestingly, Randall's has a new radio ad campaign and they aren't hiding that they are under the Albertsons umbrella at all in it. The ad is promoting Randall's fuel points program that they have with Chevron/Texaco stations. The ad reads out an Albertsons URL to learn more about the program! I never thought I'd hear Albertsons mentioned in a Houston radio ad after 2003 or so, but here we are!<br /><br />69 cents/pound for bananas! That's, well, bananas! Most grocers here, even Randall's who is hardly considered the low price leader, charges that much for organic bananas and much less for regular ones. It's really quite surprising that Publix can charge so much and still have such successful stores. It makes me wonder if there is room in the Florida market for a grocer who charges somewhere in between Aldi/Walmart level prices and Publix prices while still maintaining some standard of service. Winn-Dixie may serve that role now, but as you mention, they have a lot to overcome even with their recent efforts. It's rather surprising that nobody was more successful in putting Winn-Dixie out of their misery during their nadir and taking their marketshare while perhaps also trying to shave a little bit off of Publix's lead.<br /><br />I figured you'd like those Lake Jackson Albertsons photos from the 1980s and I wanted to make sure you were able to see them! I found my VHS tape from my 1988 Florida trip and went through it. The amount of retail on the tape is mostly limited to footage of an interesting looking Orlando Pizza Hut, if you even count that as retail, but that Pizza Hut rather amazingly allowed me to fill in a lot of gaps about my trip. I put something on the MFR Kmart post about that since the rest of that conversation was over there. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-72067851353596901872020-10-19T01:12:59.602-04:002020-10-19T01:12:59.602-04:00I completely agree with you that it's always f...I completely agree with you that it's always fun seeing supermarket décor left over from a former tenant survive in the new tenant's occupancy. Even better is the old décor inception found at this store, with old Kash n' Karry stuff surviving first into Sweetbay's reign, and then all of that surviving under Winn-Dixie! I would've been fooled by that old Kash n' Karry signage as well, because it does indeed blend in quite well with the newer Sweetbay stuff. But it's definitely cool that it survived, and that Winn-Dixie barely changed anything, for that matter. Even the tiny bit they did change -- adding in "The Beef People" -- was done with great attention to detail, which I love to see. Looking forward to seeing "Sweetbay 2.0" in the second half of this series!Retail Retellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12636351832804174132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-53166884882023050932020-10-18T23:04:05.392-04:002020-10-18T23:04:05.392-04:00Of the three big grocery chains founded in Florida...Of the three big grocery chains founded in Florida (Publix, Winn-Dixie, and Kash n' Karry), Kash n' Karry was the only one that never ventured outside of the state, never making it too far from Florida's West Coast either. Living on Florida's East Coast, I never got to experience much of Kash n' Karry or Sweetbay myself, so seeing these Sweetbay stores in nearly original form is an experience for me too! I do know what Winn-Dixie you're taking about by the beach in Daytona. I have a photoset from there to post eventually, although as you saw, the store was remodeled in 2014. That remodel cleaned up the store a bit, but it feels like an older Winn-Dixie inside.<br /><br />That's weird Winn-Dixie was playing ads in Houston, especially since they never had much (or any) presence in the area. Similarly to the Winn-Dixie ads in Houston, a few years ago, one of our local radio stations kept playing ads for Rite Aid here. That was strange to me, as Rite Aid left Florida in 1995! I really can't explain that one.<br /><br />Since the 1990's at least, Winn-Dixie has been struggling with an image of being a dumpy chain. They've tried to reverse that image after the 2005 bankruptcy with a surge in store remodels and the "getting better all the time" ad campaign, but Winn-Dixie has had so many problems committing to anything, even today that reputation still haunts them. I was reading an article about the new Winn-Dixie stores opening later this year, and even Winn-Dixie's current CEO seemed to admit Winn-Dixie's connotation as a dumpy store is still out there, but it's something he wants to overcome, stating the upcoming new stores (on top of the recent remodels) will be ways to re-introduce shoppers to a revamped Winn-Dixie that will get people back. No matter what Winn-Dixie does they'll never beat Publix, but I have to give them credit these last few years for trying really hard to turn their reputation around.<br /><br />All of these Sweetbay stores Winn-Dixie inherited were remodeled within the ten years prior to Winn-Dixie getting them, so they were all in pretty nice shape at the time of the acquisition (unlike the Winn-Dixie stores still floating out there that haven't seen a remodel since the 1990's). And yes, 65 cents/pound is Winn-Dixie's usual price for bananas (give or take a few pennies from store to store). Publix's usual price is 69 cents/pound (again, give or take a few pennies depending on the location). Winn-Dixie and Publix are pricey for bananas, which is why I buy mine at either Super Target or Aldi, where bananas are always 45 cents/pound. You just have to search harder for banana deals here!<br /><br />I just responded to the comment on MFR about the Lake Jackson Albertsons (sorry about that, but sometimes it takes me a while to get around to responding to comments). It really is a great photoset you found!Albertsons Florida Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17350708223049245195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-628100700550321985.post-47528636742662270802020-10-18T20:32:45.632-04:002020-10-18T20:32:45.632-04:00Stores like this a bit interesting for me to look ...Stores like this a bit interesting for me to look at since we didn't have Kash n' Karry/Sweetbay stores here in the Houston area and I know very little about them. We also don't have Winn-Dixie stores. Maybe we did at one time, that's a bit unclear to me, but if we did, I don't know where they would have been. I did shop at least one Winn-Dixie in Florida during my visits there. I'm thinking my visit to Winn-Dixie might have been during my trip to Orlando and Volusha County in 1997 (I don't think I went to a Winn-Dixie in 1988, but I did go to an Albertsons of course). I'm thinking it might have been at Daytona Beach. I was staying at the Pirate's Cove Hotel, which was under the Howard Johnson banner at the time, and that hotel had kitchenettes which I seem to remember using. There's a Winn-Dixie down a road from that hotel a bit. It has a modern facade now, but Google shows a picture of it having an older facade in 2014 so maybe it was around in 1997. Maybe not.<br /><br />Even though we didn't have Winn-Dixies here in the 1990s, they did run TV commercials here for a while for some reason. Maybe they were testing the market or maybe they were sponsoring some program that I was watching at the time? Anyway, I thus knew about 'The Beef People' and Chek Colas. My expectations were that Winn-Dixies would be nice, but I must admit that the Winn-Dixie I went to, wherever in Florida it was, did not meet the expectations. In fact, it was an utter failure. I remember very specifically seeing mold or mildew on produce and just a general sense of malaise. Although the Daytona Winn-Dixie seems to get Google ratings fairly similar to the nearby Publix stores, it does seem that Floridians seem to prefer Publix over Winn-Dixie by a pretty fair margin.<br /><br />Judging by the photos in your post, it seems that this Winn-Dixie is better than what I remember from my visit many years ago. It's no Publix, that's for sure, but it seems pleasant enough. I wouldn't have a problem shopping there regularly I don't think. One thing I evaluate when looking at grocery store photos is to see the price of bananas. It sort of tells me what the prices are like at the supermarket in general. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong sign, but it appears bananas are 65 cents/lb. Is that a common price for bananas at Florida supermarkets? Here at supermarkets like Kroger in Houston, the regular price for bananas is usually 49 cents/lb. I suppose it's good to be in Houston!<br /><br />One thing I remember about the Pirate's Cove Hotel since I brought that up earlier is that there was a Burger King near it which looked particularly vintage even in 1997. It looks like there is still a BK with a vintage exterior nearby. That must be the same BK, but it looks like the interior was renovated at least. It's funny that I remember that Burger King so well! At least in 1997, the Pirate's Cove was not expensive, but it was pretty nice and we had private access to the beach there which proved to be a very quiet way to get to the beach. I very much liked that!<br /><br />I'm not sure if you had a chance to look at the recent comment I made on the My Florida Retail Vero Beach Kmart post, but I found some great interior photos of the Lake Jackson, TX Albertsons in 1987 which had the Colorful Transition Market decor (I suppose, you'd have to take a look at it). I think you'll love those photos. The manager there was looking to promote the store and decided to hold a wedding there which was well-photographed by the Houston Chronicle newspaper and posted to their site in a 2017 blog post. If you're wanting high-res interior shots of a 1980s Albertsons, that might be what you're looking for. Even if you aren't, the whole concept of Albertsons holding weddings is quite bizarre and worth a look, lol. That Lake Jackson store was probably Albertsons' first real nibble at the Houston market before they fully jumped in some years later.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com