Former Albertsons #4331 - Melbourne, FL

Albertsons #4331

900 S. Babcock St., Melbourne, FL

     For today's former Albertsons store tour, we're going back to school. Today we feature the former Downtown Melbourne Albertsons, which has since become one of the 15 locations of Fort Lauderdale based Keiser University throughout the state of Florida. As for Albertsons, they first opened here in 1979, in an area that was once the main commercial hub for the city of Melbourne. This stretch of Babcock St. from Hibiscus Boulevard to the north once featured stores such as Sears, Belk, Publix, Woolworth, Zayre, Walgreens, Scotty's Hardware, J.M. Fields, and the Brevard Mall, with JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, Winn-Dixie, McCrory's, and Eckerd as anchors, plus locations for numerous restaurant chains, along with the Albertsons featured here today. As time went on, many of those retailers fell on hard times and closed, and with the opening of Melbourne Square Mall a few miles west on US 192 in 1982, Melbourne's retail hub began to move west, with many of the stores still open in this area relocating to the area surrounding the new mall. As of today, the only ones of those original stores still located on this stretch of Babcock St. are Sears, Publix, and Walgreens (with the latter two relocating to newer buildings nearby in the late 90's). With this stretch of stores located so close to Melbourne International Airport and the many technological companies located around it, as the retail vacated, offices began to repurpose many of these buildings (including the entire Brevard Mall). That was also the case here with the Albertsons. This Albertsons was an early casualty, closing sometime around 1993 or 1994, although I've never been able to pinpoint an exact date. Florida Lottery records show this store sold some winning tickets in 1993, however that's the last record I have of this store in operation. As you'll see below, the 1994 satellite images show some cars in the parking lot, but I'm not sure if that's for Albertsons. I do know Albertsons left before the end of the 90's, because there are signs of a renovation happening here by the 1999 satellite image, but more on that later.   

     Although this building has been extensively renovated since its Albertsons days, it still retains the general look of a Skaggs Model Albertsons store on the exterior. Keiser added in more windows and covered over the original stone paneling with stucco, however, it's still pretty obvious that Albertsons once resided here. The entrance into Keiser is even in the same spot where Albertsons' entrance would have been.   

    Here the Albertsons detailing becomes even clearer. This store would have been an exact copy of the Lake Worth Albertsons (#4328) back in the day.

     Left side detailing.

     Right side detailing. 

     One more look across the front before beginning our look around the side...

     This photo was taken from the parking lot of the abandoned restaurant next door, which had some interesting architecture we'll take a quick look at in a moment. The photos that you're about to see in this post were taken on two different occasions, some from April 2014 and some from April 2015. Some changes happened in that time frame, especially over on this side of the building. The pictures you see now are from April 2014.

     That texturing down the side of the building is 100% original to Albertsons. 

     In the photos from April 2015, this area where I'm standing is going to look completely different. Now around to the left side of the building...

      The former liquor store and side entrance to the main store are located off the to right in this photo, under the long blue awning.

     More original detailing on this side of the building left over from Albertsons.

     That door under the blue semicircle awning, which is an entrance into Keiser's Culinary Arts division, would have originally been an emergency exit back in this building's Albertsons days.

     Now for a closer look at at the liquor store/former side entrance.

     The old liquor store entrance on the left (where that bench is now) in the above photo has since been converted into windows, however the old side entrance into the main store is still pretty much in tact...

     Even the two doors are in the exact spots where Albertsons' doors were, except switched out for manual ones.

     Heading around back, it still looks pretty original here.

      The former receiving area has since been converted into an area for covered outdoor seating.

     We'll come back for one last look at the Albertsons building in a moment, but just a quick look at the neighbors:

      First off is that interesting looking restaurant I mentioned earlier. What first drew my attention to this building as I was photographing the former Albertsons back in April 2014 was the strange barn theme the building seemed to be designed with. Then when I saw it was abandoned, it became even more interesting. This turned out to be a former location of Barnhill's Buffet (which explained the whole barn thing). Barnhill's Buffet was a restaurant chain that once had locations throughout the Southeast, featuring Southern style specialties. However around 2006, Barnhill's began to fall on hard financial times and they were sold to a new operator after their founder sold off the chain, just for the company to fall into bankruptcy about a year later. This location was one of the bankruptcy casualties, closing around 2007. The 16 remaining Barnhill's locations that survived the bankruptcy have slowly closed over the last few years, to the point where I'm not sure if there are any Barnhill's locations remaining. (UPDATE 8/9/15: There's actually only one Barnhill's remaining, located in Jonesboro, AR - Thanks Retail Retell for finding that!). Since the closing of the restaurant, it was primarily used as overflow parking for Keiser until March 2015, when Keiser took over this property and tore down the Barnhill's building in order to expand their Melbourne campus, which I have some photos of below, and explains why I returned for a few more photos in April 2015.    

      Barnhill's logo still remaining on the door. 

     Back of the Barnhill's building. 

      Close-up of some of the barn door detailing.

     Now for a quick look at the other former neighbor of this Albertsons, on the other side of the building. 

      This patch of grass you see above was the site of a former Scotty's Hardware store which closed a long time ago. Scotty's was a chain of hardware stores that had locations all over Florida until they went out of business in 2005 due to increased competition from Home Depot and Lowe's. All I know about this particular site was this sat abandoned for a while, and was later used for storage before being torn down in 2006.  

      There's that Sears I mentioned earlier in the background of the former Scotty's site. 

       One last view of the Scotty's site and the back of the Albertsons building, along with a preview of some of that new 2015 construction I mentioned.

       Site layout for reference. The former Scotty's was made out of two buildings that sat in those two grass patches above and to the right of the words 'Scotty's site'. 

      And a quick jump a year into the future to April 2015 for a quick look at some of the construction going on at this former Albertsons, along with a few extra exterior views.

      The new building being constructed on the former Barnhill's site. While this building won't be connected to the former Albertsons building, I read in an article about the groundbreaking of this building that the exterior of the former Albertsons was going to be altered and updated as a part of the construction and expansion, prompting me to make a quick return trip before any Albertsons traces are wiped away forever.

     This is where the former Barnhill's building would have stood. This area is going to be the parking lot for the new building.

     Keiser's road sign, which I don't believe is original to Albertsons.

     Aerial Time:

     First, Historic Aerials courtesy of Google Earth:

Former Albertsons #4331 - 2014

Former Albertsons #4331 - 2005 - The Scotty's building is still standing here.

Former Albertsons #4331 - 1999 - Keiser may have just moved in here at this time. The parking lot is full and it looks like new blacktop was recently put on it.

Albertsons #4331? - 1994 - While Scotty's looks to be gone, I'm not entirely sure if Albertsons is yet. It looks like there's a bit of a crowd in front of the store.

     Now for Bird's Eye Aerial Imagery courtesy of Bing Maps:

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side

     While I'm sure there are absolutely no traces left of Albertsons on the inside of this place, the exterior still has some pretty obvious clues remaining. So everyone, that wraps up this post.

Until next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

A&P Forever

   

A former A&P Centennial store located at 1515 Sarno Road in Melbourne, FL, re-purposed as offices for Brevard County. After all these years, the building still retains its distinctive cupola on the roof.

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P)

1859-2015

     

     While A&P hasn't operated in Florida since 1987, I feel the need to write this post as the 156 year old chain, the first true supermarket chain in the nation founded in 1859, meets its end as they declare their second bankruptcy and announce the sale of their assets. While A&P has been having problems due to overexpansion for many years now and shrinking their footprint, the last decade has been especially hard on them after many attempts at refreshing their image, modernization, and some botched acquisitions. A&P had over 15,000 stores across the country at one point, the title of the #1 chain store in the nation, and an empire from coast to coast that would slowly crumble as time went on. A&P has touched many people across the country, not just in their current territory in Greater NYC and Philadelphia. They created many famous brands such as Ann Page and Jane Parker, and even spun off some brands that are now household staples, such as Eight O'Clock Coffee and Woman's Day magazine. They even had what could be considered the most famous supermarket design ever, the Centennial store, introduced as their prototype in 1959 to celebrate their first 100 years of existence, dotting landscapes and shopping centers across the country. Many of these Centennial stores still exist in various forms of modification today, like the one pictured above, as A&P built new stores and left certain markets. A&P was an American icon, and a model for many supermarket chains. 

     A&P stores existed in Florida since the early part of the 20th Century, primarily locating in storefronts in downtown areas. They then joined suit like the other chain stores and began relocating to modern, standalone buildings and shopping centers by the 1950's, only to pull out of Florida by the 1970's. In the early 80's, A&P decided to come back to Florida, but this time under the Family Mart name. These new A&P Family Mart stores were nothing like the small stores A&P left behind in Florida. The Family Mart stores were close to 55,000 square feet in size, and were similar to the Albertsons stores being built in Florida at the time, featuring a wide selection of general merchandise products as well as groceries and full service departments. However, the reborn Florida A&P division was a short lived venture. A&P closed all of their Florida Family Mart stores in 1987, selling most of the locations off to Kash n' Karry and Kroger's Florida Choice division, ending A&P's presence in Florida. 

     While I've never been to an A&P personally, it's really sad to see an iconic brand fade away, especially since A&P was the company that originated the modern supermarket chain. However, out of all of this, Albertsons' Acme division will gain 76 stores from A&P, which you can read more about here on the Acme Style blog.

Anyway, more Albertsons coming to the blog on August 8th. 

Until then,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Summer Break

     Posting to resume August 8th. I changed my mind about having a June post, and I decided it would just be better to postpone it until August. Anyway, have a great summer everyone and safe travels! 

AlbFLBlog

Goodbye, Clearwater

DC

Albertsons #4301

2170 Gulf to Bay Boulevard, Clearwater, FL

10/9/1974 - 5/30/2015

     Here it is! The new and improved Clearwater Albertsons post. And a big thanks to all who sent in pictures of this store!

     After over 40 years in business, the original Florida Albertsons in Clearwater served its last shoppers today, May 30, 2015, two days later than originally planned (the original predicted final day was May 28th). For now, the future of this site is unknown. However, contributors David C. and Ross T. kindly sent in to us some photos of the interior and exterior of this store, including the one above, for your viewing pleasure:  

DC

     As you'll see in the following pictures, this store is really beginning to show its age. Now that I really think about it, I feel this store's closing had more to do with the fact it would cost Albertsons too much money to update this store, and that it would be more cost effective to just close it and put the money into updating the other three stores, which Albertsons announced they would do in the days following the announcement of this store's closure. And I'm sure that new Walmart across the street didn't help business much here either.  

DC

    What looks like funny looking texturing along the front of the store are actually painted over windows, which was probably done as a way to increase sales space. Those old windows were painted gray until recently (as can be seen in the aerials below).

DC

     And heading around to the right side of the building. The entrance to the liquor store is under the liquor sign, tucked into the alcove, and that's a side entrance into the store just to the left of that. 

DC

     Looking back toward the liquor store.

DC

     The Albertsons sign on the east side of the building facing Belcher Road. It looks like some of the letters were replaced over time, since the l and the n don't match the others.

     Now let's go inside to take a closer look at the unique interior. While this store had the standard Blue and Gray Market interior for many years, it was transformed into the "Yellow and Green Market" interior in 2006, according to commentor Mark P. over on my original post announcing this store's closure. He informed us that this new paint scheme was supposed to resemble the color scheme Publix was using in their stores at the time. It's pretty close to the color scheme of Publix's 1st Generation Classy Market interior, and I think this color scheme compliments this decor pretty well. Now for the pictures:

DC

      First stop is the back left corner of the store, home to the bakery (which is actually stuffed into the corner) and the deli, which is to the left of the bakery along the side wall. All but one of these interior photos you're about to see were taken on May 27th and May 28th, not long before the store was completely cleaned out. Here the bakery and deli are blocked off by these tables of random knickknacks, looking mostly like decorative floral leftovers. I remember when my old Albertsons was closing, the bakery, and just about all of the service departments actually, were still fully functional until only a week or two before the very end.  

RT

      The former pastry cases all cleaned out. It doesn't seem like this store had a very big bakery, since most of this "Bakery Shop" corner was actually home to the deli!

RT

     And there's the deli in the background, also all cleaned out. This photo was taken from produce, which was also located in the back left corner of the store. That's a pretty sizable amount of produce left for this late into the closure.

DC

     The deli signage under the bakery awning.

DC

      Heading over to dairy and lunch meats, all the cases are now covered over as the merchandise is depleted. The Seafood and Meats service counter is in the background, also closed now. Those windows above the Seafood and Meats signs are for management's offices. After the Skaggs model Albertsons stores are retired in the early 80's in favor of the Superstore model stores, these windows are moved to overlook the front of the store instead of the back.
   

RT

      The closed Seafood and Meats counter, along with an empty aisle.

DC

     Closeup of one of the aisle markers. I've never seen this style aisle marker before. Albertsons current interior uses ones that look like this. My guess is that these were probably put in around 2006 when the rest of the store was repainted, because the original blue ones would have looked really out of place in the new sea of green and yellow. 

DC

      The center aisle that runs down the middle of the store. This photo also gives us a good look at the original Blue and Gray Market flooring pattern.

DC 

     Heading over to the back right corner of the store where Health and Beauty and the pharmacy were located. This store topped out at 16 aisles. 

DC

     Health and Beauty signage along the right side wall.

DC

     This photo of the pharmacy, and a very well stocked store, was taken back at the end of April. According to David C., the pharmacy was shut down just days after this photo was taken at the beginning of the closure and the Pharmacy sign removed promptly after that. 

DC

      Jumping back up to the front of the store for a quick look at the customer service counter, and it's sign, which looks to be from the Theme Park/Grocery Palace interior.That sign probably came from another closed store in the area. It's hard to see, but in the green part of the wall above the counter is a labelscar that reads "Film and Developing", as noted by David C.  

DC

     The front end. 11 registers total, and it looks like there were 3 open on this day. The side entrance into the store is in the far left background.

DC

     Signage over the side entrance. All it says is "Thank you for shopping". The word Albertsons wasn't clipped out of the picture, or on the wall at all. I guess they assumed you knew what store you were about to leave, although it seems really abrupt to just say "Thank you for shopping".  

DC

      At least they have the word Albertsons for the thank you sign over the front entrance.

RT

     And a quick look at the front vestibule before we leave this store for good.

RT

     Night shot.

DC

     And finally the parking lot sign facing Gulf to Bay Boulevard, which in 24 hours, will probably be painted over in black.

Let's do some aerials to finish out this post:

First up, historic aerials courtesy of Google Earth and HistoricAerials.com:

Albertsons #4301 - 2014 - Not a bad crowd in the parking lot, and this image was taken after the new Walmart Neighborhood Market across the street opened.

Albertsons #4301 - 2004

Albertsons #4301 - 1994

Future Albertsons #4301 - 1971 - In three years Florida's first Albertsons will appear here. 40 years and 7 months after that, Florida's first Albertsons will close here. That little gas station right on the corner in this aerial is still standing to this day (you can see the same building outline in the 2014 aerial) although everything else you see here is gone.

Now for Bird's Eye images from Bing Maps:

Front

Right Side

Back, complete with Albertsons truck unloading.

Left Side

UPDATE 5/31/2015: I found this video on YouTube that features some interior and exterior views of this Albertsons, taken back in 2013. The part with Albertsons goes from a few seconds after the beginning until approx. 3:30:

     Well Clearwater, you had a good run. You lasted over 40 years and made it to the Final Four. Not many stores make it that long, especially in a chain that's been fighting a losing battle for 15 years now in Florida. I wish all the employees at this store the best, and I hope everybody enjoyed this new extended look at the closing of the Clearwater Albertsons. 

Anyway, until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger