Albertsons #4419 / Publix #1348
1075 Pasadena Avenue South, South Pasadena, FL
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| Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail |
Over the years I've been to Hollywood, Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Palm Springs, Orange County, and South Pasadena, and I never had to leave Florida to see any of them! While there are a lot of city names that get duplicated around the country, Florida and California seem to have a lot of overlap when it comes to that. However, while it's a nice little town in Broward County, Hollywood, Florida isn't quite as star-studded as its California counterpart (although it is the hometown of Victoria Justice), and Beverly Hills, Florida is nothing more than a quiet retirement community in Citrus County, where the shopping doesn't get too ritzy beyond the town's Winn-Dixie! As for South Pasadena, Florida and South Pasadena, California, those two do have a bit more in common than some of those other similarly named cities shared between the two states. While South Pasadena, Florida is only a third the size of its California counterpart, both South Pasadenas are famous for being home to numerous retirees, and both had or have a presence from Albertsons in some form (with South Pasadena, California currently home to an Albertsons-owned Pavilions store, and South Pasadena, Florida currently home to our own modern Floridian take on Albertsons, the Publixsons). However, before Publix got their little green hands on this building, Albertsons had to win over a large number of the retirees who call this town home to get this store built in the first place. A little bit of backstory to go into today, so let's get started and learn a little more about former Albertsons #4419:
Tucked into a tiny corner of Pinellas County on the main route to St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, South Pasadena is one of the many small municipalities that lives in the shadows of Pinellas's larger cities like St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Largo. Originally a portion of St. Petersburg's Pasadena on the Gulf neighborhood that decided to go independent in 1955, it didn't take long before the small town's location led it to grow a small retail hub of its own at the busy intersection of Pasadena Avenue and Gulfport Boulevard. Opening in 1959 at that intersection, the Pasadena Shopping Center brought to the area Publix, Eckerd, and S.S. Kresge stores as anchors, the start of the little cluster of retail and supermarkets to call this town home. Other stores eventually built on the parcels around that shopping center as years went on, with The Family Mart's first Florida location opening across the street from Pasadena Shopping Center in 1978, and a Kmart building next door to that a few years later in 1981. For the people living on the barrier island and in nearby Gulfport (another small Pinellas County municipality), South Pasadena was a convenient retail hub for the basics of shopping without having to drive further out into St. Petersburg for more variety. Albertsons was a late addition to the South Pasadena retail scene, with plans for a new Albertsons store not appearing until late 1993. Albertsons saw South Pasadena as a "hole in our trade area" according to one article I read, one of the last remaining portions of Pinellas County that lacked an Albertsons store (and interestingly enough, this would end up being the last new Albertsons store to open in Pinellas County as well). Albertsons #4419 would have opened somewhere in the 1994 timeframe as the second-to-last new Albertsons store in Pinellas County if all went as planned, but some angry residents in the retirement condominiums behind the proposed supermarket site weren't thrilled about an Albertsons coming soon to the piece of South Pasadena property they were eying, which was formerly home to a bank.
After the former bank property went to auction in December 1992, a local developer bought the land and began to market it to new tenants. Albertsons liked what they saw in the 4.5 acre site, and would eventually join as the main tenant for the redevelopment of the bank parcel. However, after losing a fight against the city to stop the development of a new 24-hour Amoco Split Second convenience store across the street from the proposed Albertsons site a year prior, the new Albertsons was an even bigger monster to fight compared to the new gas station. Concerned about the area being influxed with more traffic, the Albertsons would generate more people to the intersection of Pasadena Ave. and Gulfport Blvd. than the gas station would according to residents. The residents noted that the parcel Albertsons wanted to develop was currently zoned for Residential/Office use (more low-traffic designations than the proposed change to Commercial zoning would create), and wanted the city to keep the original designation in place. The residents also stated that Albertsons, who would be the third supermarket at this intersection (in addition to Publix and Kash n' Karry at the time) was overkill, and that having two supermarkets at the intersection was already more than enough for their needs.
In early 1994, after lengthy discussion, the South Pasadena Planning and Zoning Board voted 3-2 in favor of changing zoning of the former bank parcel to Commercial, getting Albertsons' plans one step closer to reality (and to the chagrin of the condo residents next door). However, the residents continued to fight the development of the new Albertsons through the company's site plan submission process that occurred over the next year, with the battle coming to an end in February 1995, when the planning and zoning board voted to approve Albertsons' site plan, greenlighting construction of the store.
With the pre-construction hassles out of the way, Albertsons #4419 was on its way to reality. The new South Pasadena Albertsons opened in April 1996, nudging store #4431 in Clearwater out for the title of the last new Albertsons to open in Pinellas County by 3 months. Even though Albertsons continued to open stores in Florida until 2004, Pinellas County was very saturated with Albertsons stores by the late 1990's. Remember, Pinellas County maintained 15 Albertsons stores in operation until 2008. After the opening of the South Pasadena store, there really wasn't any more room in the county for another Albertsons, so the lack of new stores in Pinellas going into the 2000's wasn't because of the company's faults, but because of its success in establishing such a healthy spread of stores in the area.
With all the concerns about the new Albertsons store creating more traffic in the area, The St. Petersburg Times published a map of the intersection to show how the parking lot of the new Albertsons store wouldn't impede traffic at the busy intersection of Pasadena Ave. and Gulfport Blvd. The new Albertsons would only have parking lot accesses from the two side streets it was built between, with a separate access behind the store for receiving. With this design, cars would continue to make turns onto the existing side roads as they had for years, without the creation of a new parking lot entrance on Pasadena Ave. where cars would now be slowing down to make the turn into Albertsons (and in turn, jamming the flow into the intersection if that were the case).
After the initial controversy, Albertsons remained a good neighbor to the folks in South Pasadena until 2008, when it was included as one of the 49 stores Publix bought from Albertsons that year. Publix used this particular Albertsons purchase as a means to replace their existing, then 50-year-old expanded wing store across the street. Publix did a little bit of remodeling to this store, with Publix #1348 opening on September 17, 2009, and its predecessor, store #38 across the street, closing the night before.
Like many of the Publixsons stores from the 2008 batch, Publix repainted this store brown following its initial conversion into a Publix, with Publix reverting this store back to its more Albertsons-y light blue and gray color scheme in recent years.
The exterior of this store is classic mid-1990's Albertsons in every way though, and besides the back and forth on the paint color, nothing else about this store's facade has changed since Albertsons was here (well, except the logo, as it would have been weird if Publix kept an Albertsons sign on the building!).
To the left of the entrance was the outdoor cart corral, where we see a Publix employee walking around wiping down the handles of all the carts (remember those days?).
Stepping back a bit further, here's a look at the main entrance as well as the cart corral. As I said before, this Publixsons is located right before the causeway that takes you into downtown St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, both popular Gulf Coast beach spots, so there was no shortage of beach stuff for sale out here on the front walkway.
Heading inside, Publix's alterations to the interior greet us right as we walk inside, in a few different ways. The most prominent of those ways (at least in the photo above) would be the reconstruction and expansion of the bakery, which Publix rebuilt to their typical 2010's specs. In the reconstruction of the bakery, floral was moved from its original home between the entrance and the bakery to an island between the bakery and produce (part of which is visible above), with that big swooping lower ceiling added in too.
Publix originally opened this store with Classy Market 2.0, with it receiving an extremely thorough (albeit slightly odd in a few places) remodel to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna in the late 2010's. One of the oddities of this store's installation of CM 3.0/Sienna is the bakery signs, which only uses the square letter "BAKERY" portion of the typical signage on the awning. Other Publixsons stores of this design have been retrofit with an awning that leaves enough space for the full bakery sign, but Publix opted for this alternative design instead.
Once under the bakery awning, it's a scene pretty close to that from any other 2010's-built Publix. This particular Publixsons even received the nice faux terrazzo flooring instead of the more common yellow and beige tile checkerboard, which makes this scene appear even less Albertsons-like.
Leaving the bakery, here's a look down the store's grand aisle, which runs along the right side wall. Publix's floral island lies in front of me, with produce following behind.
You've probably noticed another one of Publix's changes to this store over these last few photos as well, with that being the lighting. While it's not uncommon for Publix to swap out Albertsons' old fluorescent strip lights for the usual Publix square lights (like we see here), whatever Publix did with this store's lighting made it feel really dark inside. I've been to other Publixsons stores with Publix's new lighting that felt pretty normal brightness-wise, but this particular location (in addition to two other Publixsons stores I've been to - those others being old Albertsons superstores) just seemed really dark. I've never been to a regular Publix that seemed this dark either, so I don't know what Publix was going for with the effect here. The darkness will become more apparent as we go through more photos.
From produce, here's a look back toward the bakery, and if we turn around...
…we find the deli in the back right corner of the building.
While Publix installed new deli fixtures and a new tile backsplash behind the counter, the general design of the deli is still the original one from Albertsons. In these mid-1990's Albertsons buildings, Publix rarely bothers to change much about the design of the deli, even in more thorough remodels, as most of Publix's efforts usually go toward rebuilding the bakeries and the pharmacies in these buildings.
Leaving the grand aisle, we find ourselves in aisle 1, home to the canned fruits and fruit juices from the looks of it.
Aisle 2, where the pasta-bilities are endless!
Leaving the grocery aisles for a moment, here's a look across the front of the store toward the service desk. Notice anything a bit odd about the service desk, compared to the rest of the store?
Oddly, this store has a brand new Evergreen service desk clashing with the store's very much alive and well CM 3.0/Sienna decor (which is still in place as of early 2024 as well). The new service desk appears to have arrived in conjunction with the installation of the self-checkouts just beyond this, as the removal of the old CM 3.0/Sienna service desk was probably needed to make enough space for those new self-checkouts (the new service desk design is a bit more compact that the older round design was). While Publix has gone around and installed some Evergreen category markers and promo signs in non-Evergreen stores, it's not often you see such a prominent piece of mismatched decor like this in a Publix!
With the new service desk, this store is one step ahead for when it eventually remodels to Evergreen (which I hope is the case, anyway, instead of that other option Publix can pull). Here's one last look across the store's front end before we dive back into the grocery aisles:
Pet food, hardware, and automotive supplies are located here in aisle 6, which we'll cut through on our way to the dairy department.
Dairy is located along the back wall, running from the deli department to the frozen food aisles. Milk and yogurt can be found here along the back wall, with cheeses and lunch meats located in aisle 8.
Also to note about the back wall, there are a few vents back here that extend out of the wall and up into the ceiling, most likely part of the store's refrigeration system. Seeing these vents protruding from the wall like this is typical of a newbuild Publix from the 2010's, but not of a Publixsons, especially one from this era. Other mid-late 1990's built Publixsons stores don't have these vents, so this was another odd choice Publix made in one of their remodels here (as those vents certainly aren't from Albertsons).
Here's another look at the dairy department, as seen from frozen foods. The eggs are located on an endcap at the end of aisle 8, home to "dairy overflow" (which I guess you can call that aisle).
Stepping into aisle 8, the remainder of the dairy department is located in those coolers to my right, with PB&J supplies to my left, the same set of products you'd find in the last aisle along the left wall of a newbuild 2010's Publix. Publix did a good job of cramming a lot of their typical 2010's design elements into this old Albertsons, but in rather odd ways at times!
Following the dairy overflow aisle, we find ourselves in frozen foods, which occupy aisles 9 and 10.
All the coolers in this store look to have been installed new by Publix, as these coolers look just like Publix's usual fare. The frozen foods aisle also had the small coffin cooler endcap between the two frozen foods aisles (the edge of which is visible here), again, another 2010's newbuild Publix thing.
Aisle 11 has a spirited selection of products, being the home to beer and wine.
Once we arrive at frozen foods, the back wall switches from the brown of dairy to the red of the meat department. This picture was possible due to a big open space at the ends of aisles 7 and 8 (which were slightly shorter in length to accommodate this space, which didn't seem to have much of a purpose.
The meat department sign is located all the way in the corner next to the service counter, leaving much of the wall over the meat coolers just blank red.
Moving back to the grocery aisles again, we find chips and soda in aisle 13...
…with stationary, greeting cards, magazines, and vitamins in aisle 15 - you need to make sure you're getting enough vitamin D to keep those hand muscles strong to hold the pen when writing out a greeting card!
The back left corner of this store is home to the meat and seafood service counter, as well as the main signage for the seafood department itself - the classic 1990's Albertsons orientation of this department. I wish Publix would have nudged the word "SEAFOOD" on the wall up a little further to make the text more centered onto that awning, as it looks a bit odd aligned with the bottom of the lower ceiling like that. Behind the counter, the store's original CM 2.0/2.5-era wall tile remains as well.
Also in the above photo, we have an appearance of Publix's famous clearance rack, which every store has its own random location for (although they all look exactly like that). A lot of times those clearance racks end up in the back corner like this, but I've also seen them in the bakery, in frozen foods, in a double-wide health and beauty aisle, and tucked inside a closed check lane before - I always like trying to seek out that rack to see where it is every time I go to a different Publix (and to see what random things Publix is trying to get rid of that day).
Turning to look toward the back wall again, here's a better look at the signage for the meat department, which is centered over the window into the butcher's prep room.
Health and beauty is located in the store's last aisle, aisle 16, with a few more aisles of pharmaceuticals in front of the pharmacy counter itself. Sadly, Publix walled off Albertsons' original beauty/cosmetics alcove in this store, which would have created an aisle 17 under a lower ceiling. I don't know if Publix is using that old beauty alcove for office space or if it's just sitting dead behind the wall, but the loss of that aisle probably came when the pharmacy was redone in the 2010's.
And speaking of that remodeled pharmacy, here it is, complete with the updated logo that rolled out just before the debut of the Evergreen decor in the late 2010's. The pharmacy uses one of Publix's 2010's designs, and I actually like this particular one with the curved counter and ceiling.
Leaving the pharmacy, here are a few more looks across the store's front end, this particular one looking back toward the bakery.
Even though this store received a number of small updates in the late 2010's and early 2020's, it still has the older-style CM 3.0/Sienna check lane lights from this decor package's early days. It was pretty common to see Publix update the light cubes to the later style in many stores, which look basically the same, but swap the Publix logo on the sides without the number to little sayings like "Now for the easy part" and "Checkout to smile about", etc.
This store had 8 regular check lanes and 5 self-checkouts, about standard for a Publix (although Publix's newest self-checkout corral design has 7 or 8 of those, up from the older configuration like this store that only held 5 self-checkout stations).
Along the front wall, here's a look at the space where Albertsons' service desk, video rental center, photo counter, and possibly a bank branch were located. Publix would have kept the service desk up here at first, but eventually moved that to the island during a later remodel. It appears the original Publix service desk was that spot with the lower brown ceiling just beyond the rack of beach supplies, with the remainder of this space housing the beach stuff and some random self-service kiosks these days.
Back outside (and into the light!), here's a look across the front walkway, where Publix placed a few picnic tables for an outdoor dining area.
Beyond the picnic tables is the entrance to the liquor store, where Publix installed a new sliding door to replace the original swinging ones from Albertsons.
Returning to the parking lot, here's a look at the liquor store's facade.
And there you have it - former Albertsons #4419. We'll begin to wrap up this post with our usual satellite imagery, starting off with some Bird's Eye aerial images courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth:
Former Albertsons #4419 - 2023
Former Albertsons #4419 - 2010
Albertsons #4419 - 2008
Albertsons #4419 - 2002
Albertsons #4419 - 1998
Future Albertsons #4419 - 1994 - The old bank building that was torn down for the new Albertsons can be seen at the bottom right corner of the image.
Before we end this post, here's a quick overview of the retail that calls/called South Pasadena home. I labeled the above image as if it was still 1999, with the 3 grocers that called this intersection home at the time, along with the Kmart just to the north. As I mentioned earlier, Publix moved from their longtime location across the street in Pasadena Shopping Center to the larger and newer Albertsons building, and if you hop on over to My Florida Retail, we're going to take a look at what has become of the original Publix as well (yes - it's an AFB and MFR double shot kind of day!). Interestingly, this intersection is still home to 3 major grocery stores even in the present, a rarity these days in Florida. While Publix is in the old Albertsons, the old Publix is now a Walmart Neighborhood Market, and the Kash n' Karry is now a Winn-Dixie. While you can check out the current state of the Publix on MFR, that old Kash n' Karry will have to wait until another day, as that building is not only interesting, but has a long backstory to it.
However, back to the Publixsons for a moment, at least it seems that Publix likes this building, as they've dumped quite a bit of money into it throughout the years to make it a little more compliant with the Publix mold. Is that a guarantee this store is safe from the fleet of bulldozers Publix likes to keep busy? Probably not, but it makes it seem like this store is more likely to stick around longer than some other Publixsons I've visited.
Anyway, that's all I have to say about former Albertsons #4419. Be sure to check out my post on the original South Pasadena Publix on MFR, and come back in two weeks for another Floridian supermarket adventure!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
