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| Today's post is a presentation of Lee County retail |
Today's post comes to the blog after many years of delays on my part, mostly because yours truly didn't think to look into the original Publix store that ended up being replaced by this particular Publixsons. Little did I know this Publixsons actually replaced a very storied former Publix down the street, which then spent its post-Publix years as two additional supermarkets that made the story of the old Publix even more interesting. As such I didn't want to post this store until I could get around to revisiting the former Publix down the street, which took me a while to do as I don't live particularly close to Cape Coral. However, I finally fixed that problem, and the former Publix down the street will be the subject of another post later in May - actually, I think the post about the former Publix will be even longer than this one about the Publixsons, as there's a lot to say about the old store! That said we'll only briefly mention the old Publix in today's post, taking a look at what the chain is up to in modern times in downtown Cape Coral, all courtesy of Albertsons.
Located just west of Fort Myers, Cape Coral is a large mid-century "land-boom" city and currently the largest city in Southwest Florida, with a population of nearly 200,000 as of the mid-2020's. Cape Coral is famous for its hundreds of miles of navigable canals, upon which many of the city's residents have full boat access out to the Gulf. Unlike many other mid-century land boom cities in Florida, which were developed by business people focused solely on selling residential lots to out-of-state buyers for a quick profit without caring much about fleshing out a complete city, Cape Coral was actually developed with a small "downtown" commercial area for businesses to prosper. This commercial district along Cape Coral Parkway, just west of the Cape Coral Bridge that connects "the Cape" with Fort Myers, gave Cape Coral a more lively feel compared to the sleepier residential-centric land-boom cities elsewhere. Anchoring the downtown area in addition to the local stores was the original Publix, which we'll talk more about in that future post.
While the city had its downtown area and the original 1960's Publix plaza, it wasn't until the 1980's and 1990's when additional major retail began to develop in Cape Coral, primarily locating along the Del Prado Boulevard corridor on the city's east side before expanding into other parts of town nearing the turn of the 21st Century.
Never a jump starter in any new Floridian community (unlike Publix, and going back many years, Winn-Dixie), Albertsons almost always waited for a community's population to build out before agreeing to a new store. As such, it took until October 1997 for Albertsons to arrive in Cape Coral, joining the city's 4 existing Publix stores, two Kash n' Karrys, and a Winn-Dixie already operating at the time. Not wasting any time, Albertsons would add a second Cape Coral store only two years after opening its first, although that second location on Pine Island Road (#4458) will be a story for another day.
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| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Both of Albertsons' Cape Coral stores did very well, surviving the opening of additional Publix stores throughout the Cape in the early 2000's. Publix's need for more stores in Cape Coral ended up coming at Albertsons' expense, with both of the city's Albertsons stores included in the sale of 49 locations to Publix in 2008. While the Pine Island Road store would reopen as an entirely new store to Publix, the Cape Coral Parkway store ended up serving as a relocation of the 1960's-era Publix down the road (store #110), a store Publix didn't seem to show any signs of giving up until the Albertsons opportunity came along (although more on that when we discuss the old store).
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Once Publix decided to give up the old store, the remodel of the Cape Coral Parkway Albertsons began. Publix moved into the new building on March 19, 2009, with the older store down the street closing the night before.
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Amazingly, the Lee County Property Appraiser captured the former Cape Coral Parkway Albertsons after it closed but before Publix moved in - it's not often we see these Publixsons stores in such a state!
After moving in, Publix gave this store the usual remodel, retaining many of its Albertsons design and layout characteristics. For example, the building's exterior is 100% Albertsons in every way possible.
Albertsons #4427 opened right on the cusp of the chain's transition from its longtime 1990's Blue and Gray Market design into the Grocery Palace era, which is why this store's exterior looks like a Grocery Palace but with the mid-1990's exterior cartwell tacked onto the right side. With its late-1997 opening, this store was one of the earlier stores to feature the Grocery Palace-style exterior design Albertsons would use until the chain stopped building new Florida stores in 2004.
While the facade design was a bit ahead of itself, stepping onto the front walkway, we're transported back to the mid-1990's in terms of design. Straight ahead of me was the exterior cartwell, with the main entrance (originally configured like this) to my left.
In addition to the carts, the cartwell also served as a storage area for beach hats and pool noodles, making this a multi-purpose area these days.
Stepping inside, being this store was built in that transitional period between the mid-1990's Blue and Gray Market and Grocery Palace, we find this store to be one of the (somewhat) rarer transitional prototype stores with the open ceiling around the perimeter and the drop ceiling over the center grocery aisles. From my knowledge, all the stores built with that interior ceiling design opened with Blue and Green Awnings, which this store most likely carried all the way until Publix bought the building in 2008 and remodeled it to Classy Market 2.0.
Looking to the left, here's a clearer view of the ceiling transition looking toward the front end. Following its initial remodel to Classy Market 2.0, Publix gave this store a much more thorough remodel to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna in the mid-2010's, and then remodeled this store again to Evergreen ca. 2023. We'll be seeing this store during its Classy Market 3.0/Sienna days, as it seems like I managed to capture most of these Publixsons stores before many of them remodeled to Evergreen in the mid-2020's (and which I'll say again and again, I'll take an Evergreen remodel over the other option any day!).
These late 1990's Blue and Green Awnings builds come across as a late 2000's/early 2010's Publix build in a number of ways. The placement of the bakery in the front right corner is especially Publix-y, and the open ceiling along the perimeter with a drop ceiling over the center store is another Publix trait from that era too. Publix completely rebuilt this store's bakery during the mid-2010's Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel, which also gives this part of the store more of a Publix feel compared to what it looked like in the Albertsons days.
Leaving the bakery, the store begins to feel more like an Albertsons again, with produce spanning between the bakery and deli. The deli counter is located in its distinctively Albertsons location in the back right corner, whereas a newbuild Publix would have that located on the right side wall next to the bakery.
I really like this particular Albertsons building design. Even though it was only used for roughly a year (1997-1998), the store and its hybrid ceiling feels very modern, and was a huge leap forward from the design Albertsons was using prior.
Turning the corner from the deli, dairy is the next department we come across traversing the store's back wall. It's quite interesting how the large air vents were designed to span the narrow channel between the back wall and the ceiling transition too.
Turning into the grocery aisles, the floral department pokes out from the end of aisle 2.
Floral is located between the entrance and the bakery along the store's front wall, again placed in a very early 2010's Publix fashion.
Because of the lower ceiling and the lights lining the edge of it, the aisle markers had to be set back into the aisle a little bit. As such, the aisle markers are actually difficult to read from the front aisle, being you have to look down the aisle to actually see them (with the tall shelves not helping the sightlines either).
The lighting in the drop ceiling part of the store appears to be original from Albertsons, as I've never seen Publix use strip lights like these in any major remodels where they replace the light fixtures. The floor tiles are classic late-2000's Publix retrofit though.
Frozen foods are located in the center of the salesfloor, in aisles 6 and 7.
Here's a close-up of the dairy department as we switch between the two frozen food aisles.
One more aisle of frozen foods seen here, but next door in aisle 8, we have a bonus:
Following frozen foods, we have one more aisle of coolers, with aisle 8 home to beer on one side and lunchmeats and cheese on the other. Having lunchmeats running down a grocery aisle like this is a very 1990's Albertsons trait.
Following the cold aisles, we're back to chips and soda in aisle 10.
Returning to the back wall, following dairy, the next department we come across is meats. The prepackaged meat coolers run along the wall into the back left corner, where we see the meat and seafood service counter in the distance.
While the placement of the service counter on the angled wall in the corner is leftover from Albertsons, the coolers are all from Publix, as the window into the butcher's room and the seafood set-up are all typical Publix designs.
Even though its number is hiding behind one of Publix's overhead posters, the internet's favorite grocery aisle is pictured here, home to pet and paper goods.
The lowered ceiling ends over aisle 14, the store's second to last grocery aisle. Being that the pharmacy was located behind me, aisle 14 was home to baby items and overflow health and beauty products that didn't fit in the dedicated health and beauty area in front of the pharmacy counter.
As for the last aisle, number 15, in that aisle we find wine and water (although the water wall got the wall graphics for the wine located on the other side). We can also see the pharmacy counter at the end of the aisle too, located in the store's front left corner.
Like in many other Publixsons stores, the pharmacy was rebuilt during the mid-2010's Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel to match the Publix standard design of the time. The pharmacy reconstruction is the largest modification this store received over the years, as when Publix rebuilt the pharmacy, they actually moved it from the front wall into the corner like this to more closely resemble a Publix newbuild of the era. While the pharmacy is still in the same general area, it does face a different direction now.
From the pharmacy, here's a look toward the few short aisles of pharmaceuticals located in front of that, followed by the front end.
I must have just caught the pharmacy just as it opened for the morning in my close-up photo, as the one above shows the pharmacy still in its closed form with the gate drawn shut.
With that final look across the front end, we're back outside now to finish up a few loose ends out here, starting with a look at the liquor store:
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| Photo courtesy of the Lee County Property Appraiser |
Due to the shape of the lot, Albertsons wasn't able to attach its liquor store to the side of the main supermarket building like they would have preferred to due to how narrow the lot is. As such, the liquor store ended up out at the edge of the parking lot near Santa Barbara Boulevard, located in its own stand-alone structure.
Besides the signage, Publix didn't really change much on the outside of the liquor store, it still living out on the edge of the parking lot as a Publix Liquors location.
Publix also reused the old Albertsons road sign facing the corner of Cape Coral Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard too, that distinctive Albertsons sign frame not fooling anyone!
Ground coverage complete, let's shift over to the satellite imagery, beginning with some Bird's Eye Views courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now for some historic satellite images, courtesy of Google Earth:
Former Albertsons #4427 - 2023 - Here you can see the odd layout of the property, with the liquor store at the edge of the parking lot near the right side of the image.
Former Albertsons #4427 - 2010
Albertsons #4427 - 2008
Albertsons #4427 - 2004
Albertsons #4427 - 1999
Future Albertsons #4427 - 1994 - Looks like a few homes were bought out to make room for the new Albertsons store.
While the current Cape Coral Parkway Publix is interesting in its own right being a former Albertsons, the Publix this store replaced has quite the tale to go along with it too. As such that former Publix will be getting its own write-up on AFB in two weeks, and we'll be seeing plenty of other grocery chains to go along with Publix next time too (we'll be touching on pretty much everything but Albertsons in that post, as Albertsons just had to build their store down the street!). Anyway, a lot to talk about next time, so be sure to come back in two weeks for the story of Cape Coral's original Publix store.
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
