I'd like to give a big thanks to Albertsons Florida Blog contributer Jimmy S. for sending in the link to this newscast uploaded to Youtube from Orlando's WFTV on May 29, 1981. The top story of this newscast is about an extortion plot at the Albertsons stores in Altamonte Springs (#4304) and on South Orange in Orlando (#4323). The newscast contains some amazing interior and exterior shots of the South Orange store in its original unaltered form, including a few glimpses of the original Skaggs-Albertsons interior used from when Albertsons first entered Florida in 1974 until the introduction of the Blue and Gray Market interior in the mid 80's. This interior was very colorful, with many red and orange stripes and color schemes throughout the store. It definitely has a 70's vibe to it (and I mean that in a good way). It's hard to find photos of this interior, which is why this video was such a great find. I'm calling this interior the '70's Stripes' interior. When I get a chance I'll update the Interiors tab with some info on this interior. The 70's Stripes interior lasted in some stores well into the 90's, however it was all gone from Florida before the beginning of the 2000's. I've never seen this interior in person, which is why I've been reluctant on saying much about it until I could see some of it firsthand. This store was remodeled sometime in the 90's, and I'm assuming it got the Blue and Gray interior from the exterior remodel it got, which it probably had until the end in 2009. Unfortunately, this store was later demolished for a new Walmart Neighborhood Market in 2012. This store will be covered more in depth at a later date. For now I just wanted to share this great classic Albertsons footage.
So until next time,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
