It's December 6th again, the anniversary of when I first launched this blog way back in 2013 - 8 years ago today! While I've been gaining many new readers to the blog of late, a good number of you have been with me for most (if not the entirety of) those last 8 years, so thanks again everyone for sticking with me all this time as we journey through the former Albertsons stores of Florida, and find the other supermarket surprises lurking out there in this crazy home state of mine! And a big thanks as well to everyone who has recently found the blog, bringing us to nearly 670,000 pageviews and counting! I still have plenty of work to do before we finish our journey through all of Florida's former Albertsons stores, but I'm making progress a little bit at a time anyway 😀 That means there's plenty more to come as we enter 2022, but we don't need to wait that long for another installment into our Floridian Albertsons saga - just keep scrolling after this post for our next tour of a former Floridian Albertsons store, a really interesting store too!
Following all the craziness last year, 2021 was a relatively tame year for Floridian supermarkets. Some of the highlights of this year included Winn-Dixie's revitalization efforts continuing to grow, with an increasing focus on remodels and even a push to open more brand new stores, so some exciting things there. Kroger also launched its Floridian delivery service this year, the company trying to take on Publix without opening a single physical store in Florida, as Kroger tries once again to figure out the mystery of the Floridian grocery market. Publix just continues to do their usual thing, dominating every aspect of the Floridian grocery market, so nothing out of the ordinary there! Sadly though, as part of Publix's ongoing efforts to keep their stores as modern as possible, we did lose another Publixsons in 2021 - that being the one in former Albertsons #4372 in Sarasota, which closed in November 2021 for a tear down and rebuild. But have no fear, I was able to get out to Sarasota and visit that location before it met its demise thanks to an advance warning of its closure, so that worked out! That journey was how I kicked off my travels for 2021, so let's see what journeys will befall upon me come 2022, as I still have plenty more to cover out there!
Thank you everyone for your continued readership of the blog, as without you, I'd have no reason to be doing any of this. Keep scrolling down for my usual yearly recap of the blog's content, and following that you'll find today's feature post. I still have one most post to come for 2021, and after that we'll see where 2022 will take us, so keep coming back for more!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
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The Year in Review (and Some Random Stats):
Albertsons Stores Covered:
Albertsons #4317 - Mobile, AL (The blog's first contributor post)
Albertsons #4354 - Bradenton, FL (Manatee Ave. West) (My most popular post of the year)
Bonus Buy Stores Covered:
Detwiler's Farmer's Market - Palmetto, FL (My second most popular post of the year)
Bravo Supermarket - Lake Nona, FL (Former Earth Fare) (My third most popular post of the year)
And one more bonus store post to come in late December!
Congrats! 8 years, wow!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI already said it at the other post but I'll say it again here: happy blogiversary, friend! I thoroughly enjoy reading your content and I'm looking forward to more in the years to come. Thanks for putting all of this stuff out there for readers to find and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's all because of you and the other readers of the blog that I keep up with this crazy retail journey of mine!
DeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteHappy anniversary to the Albertsons Florida Blog! While I suppose it wasn't quite a wild year in terms of retail news in Florida, the presence of the Kroger online store is quite strange. Publix retaliating by announcing a store in Kentucky might be out of the scope of this blog, but it'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, is better able to defend their turf! Kroger has their hands full here in Houston with their declining marketshare here and some serious labor issues (the union just voted a few weeks ago to authorize a strike for the second year in a row, but a strike has yet to happen even though it could). Perhaps the online model is a way forward for Kroger, but I kind of doubt it's the best model for the time being at least. We'll have to see what comes out of all of this!
ReplyDeleteWhile I suppose I'm a relatively new regular reader of the AFB and MFR, I did read the blogs on occasion before and I was a regular viewer of your Flickr photos. In that regard, AFB is certainly not new to me! I've always enjoyed your work and I really can't explain why I was not reading your blog regularly before! I've certainly corrected that mistake though and I enjoy reading your stuff. The photos and commentary are always interesting even for those like me who aren't super familiar with the major players in Florida like The Beef People and Publix.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you have planned for 2022! Who knows, Albertsons is bound to want to get back into Florida at some point. Maybe 2022 will be the year that Albertsons returns to Florida! Stranger things have happened...see Kroger as an example!
Thanks! Yeah, Kroger seems to want a piece of Florida really bad, but seem very perplexed by how to run a store here without getting eaten alive by Publix. Kroger seems to be focusing more on online stuff than building more stores, which is a shame, as physical stores are just as important (if not more important) than all these online shenanigans. I wish Kroger would try actual stores in Florida again, but it seems like they just aren't interested in that. Publix competes against Kroger elsewhere, so I don't think they'll have much trouble going against them in Louisville. Kentucky seemed like a natural progression for Publix, and I don't think Kentucky is a super competitive grocery market either, so I think there's a lot in Publix's favor with going into Kentucky.
DeleteI'm glad to have you here now, and thanks for reading the blog regularly! It's always interesting to learn about unfamiliar stores in other parts of the country, which is why I liked reading Acme Style back in the day (which in turn led me to start this crazy project of mine!) Plenty more to come next year, so stay tuned!