Yes, it's nothing at all like anything Safeway or Albertsons are currently using. These two renderings were posted on an easel inside the Largo Albertsons for shoppers to look at, which you can see below in the zoomed out pictures. I looked all over online, and I couldn't find any other Safeways or even Albertsons with this interior. All the new Safeways I was finding had the Colorful Lifestyle interior. Maybe someone else out there has seen this look before, but I'm pretty convinced Florida will be this decor's debut. It's a very modern look (as was promised in the original announcement of these remodels), and, at least to me, it seems to share some similarity to Winn-Dixie's new "Down Down" interior that debuted back in January. My only criticism of this new Safeway interior is that it looks like a large overuse of brown. Brown walls, brown floors, brown displays. All of the dark colors of the store do make the colors of the merchandise stand out more, which is probably what they were going for. But other than that, I kind of like the look of it. It's a big jump for these three Albertsons to be going from neglected 90's interiors to this.
A brand new shopping experience indeed. The photos above and below show the easels these pictures were displayed on. Also in the background you can see the new wood grain/wood grain style flooring, part of the new salad bar, and what I believe is (or will be) the new home of the deli.
And finally, a look at the new aisle signs. These are basically a new spin on the old Lifestyle ones, which you can see an example of here. Another interesting thing is that under the numbers, each aisle is given the name of a local street. Aisle 4 is "Hercules Avenue", which is a fairly major north-south road in Clearwater, and Aisle 3 is "Forest Parkway", which is a residential street in Largo that loops around a neighborhood a little to the north of this store. Presumably all of the other aisles have a corresponding street name as well. I saw this concept of giving the aisles the names of local streets at an independent supermarket once, and thought it was a neat local touch.
Hopefully in the coming weeks, we'll be seeing more of this new "Brown Lifestyle" interior take shape at these three Albertsons stores. The remodels are coming along nicely, and in the next month or two, the Safeway name will probably be made official.
Thanks again Dave for sending in those pictures, and I'll try my best to keep everyone updated on the remodels as I receive new pictures and information. I have a new store post going up this coming Monday (not Sunday, as posts are usually scheduled), so be sure to come back and check that out then!
So until the next time,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
Oh my god, how many interiors is Safeway/Albertsons using? I count 2 from Safeway alone and 2 from Acme alone in active use right now, and who knows what the other divisions are using...
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, that is definitely different flooring than Lifestyle stores have used in the past, which was lighter and more dimensional.
And I really don't like those aisle markers. They seem far too plain for a real decor package. What they most remind me of is these, which were temporary cheap ones.
Safeway has Colorful Lifestyle and this new Brown Lifestyle one, however I'm not sure if the previous Lifestyle interior is officially dead yet. Albertsons has "Quality Built" and "PFH 3.0" right now, and the United division I think has their own decor as well. I'd say there are 5-6 decors being used by Safeway/Albertsons right now, not counting any division specific variants that may be out there.
DeleteWith the dark brown floors and all of the other dark brown features, I'm just hoping it doesn't make these stores feel too dark, like many of the older Lifestyle stores were until recently. They could have added a little more creativity to the design of the aisle markers, but it could have been worse. At least these look to have a little depth to them, and aren't just flimsy cardboard or thin plastic.
I swear I've seen those "street name" aisles before, possibly at ACME Style, though I'm not sure if it was an A&P conversion or not. I'm not sold on the décor, though, and I think that it looks too much like Winn-Dixie's "Down Down" package, at least in the Jacksonville store, and that's a knockoff of a Kroger package. I feel like Albertsons is a better operator than Winn-Dixie though...and it looks like not only will there be a salad bar but also a sandwich bar behind the deli.
ReplyDeleteThis look seems to be the latest trend that every supermarket wants their own version of. The first thing I thought of when I saw these pictures was the new Winn-Dixie interior, with this just being a brown version of it. Believe it or not, I actually prefer the Winn-Dixie "Down Down" version over this one.
DeleteI think it's pretty cool! Reminds me personally of a more vintage décor package than a modern one... maybe all that stuff is just coming back into style again now, haha. And as always, I love a local touch, so those aisle markers with street names are really neat!
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems to be leaning toward this look, so it must be the latest trend (like corrugated metal was in the early 2000's, for example). I just hope the final product compliments these stores well, but I guess we'll see how that turns out in the next few months. I'm also a fan of local touches, so it's nice they're trying something with that here.
DeleteThat's where I had seen the street names, at the Coronado Smart & Final. http://ecoronado.com/news/2016/02/17/coronado-smart-final-extra-grand-opening-ribbon-cutting/
ReplyDeleteI think it's a nice touch for adding a little local flare, and making the store seem like a part of the community.
DeleteMy big fear is that, as someone on Retailwatchers pointed out, is that this new store relies a lot on fresh and prepared foods but the distribution center is over a thousand miles away, which can cause problems in shelf life.
ReplyDeleteUnless they plan on finding and using an outside Florida based supplier for things like that. From what I can tell, fresh/prepared foods is going to be a pretty big thing at these three stores.
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