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| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Albertsons #4361 / Publix #1336 / Publix #1579
13031 Walsingham Road, Largo, FL - Walsingham Commons
After that refreshing Winn-Dixie break for the month of May, June takes us right back to our old friend the Publixsons. Sadly, we won't be kicking off June with a super funky Publixsons store either, as this time I've pulled another store out of the "flattened Publixsons" files. Don't worry though, I still have plenty more authentic Publixsons stores in my archives for your viewing pleasure in the future. However, every one of our former Floridian Albertsons stores has a story to tell, even if our former Albertsons friend had to see the ugly side of Publix's bulldozer brigade, like what happened here with former Albertsons #4361. Even though ol' #4361 is probably serving as eco-friendly gravel in someone's driveway these days, it stood here at the intersection of Walsingham and Vonn Roads for 30 years serving locals and beach-goers alike. We'll touch on the supermarkets of past and present that occupied this site in today's post, starting off with some photos of #4361 that YonWoo found in addition to some Google Street View images of the original building. After that we'll see what things look like now, but before we get to that, let's talk about the past first:
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| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 - Seeing this, I never knew supermarkets had a position specifically for donut fryers, but I guess that fills a hole in the bakery staffing. |
Once a sleepy citrus farming town, Largo, sandwiched between St. Petersburg and Clearwater, began to grow in size during the 1960's and 1970's as an attractive, quieter suburb to its larger neighbors to the north and south. As the people came so did the supermarkets, with Largo becoming home to 3 Albertsons stores in due time. Albertsons #4361 was the second Albertsons store to open in Largo, opening in the later portion of 1986, 6 years after the town's first Albertsons store opened on East Bay Boulevard (#4338). 6 years after the opening of this store came Albertsons' buyout of Jewel-Osco's Floridian stores, a purchase which gave Largo its third and most notable Albertsons store, #4402 at Largo Mall.
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| Store recreation photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Store #4361 was a typical late 1980's superstore building, which appears to have gotten a refresh in the late 1990's to the Blue and Green Awnings decor from its original Blue and Gray Market. Outside of the decor swap, Albertsons didn't do anything major to the building up until it was sold to Publix in 2008, part of Publix's deal to buy 49 of Albertsons' Floridian stores that year.
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| Photo courtesy of Google Street View |
Publix reopened this store rather fast, with the new Publix #1336 opening on December 18, 2008. That being the case, this store probably got Publix's standard budget-friendly upgrades of new tile flooring, the addition of sliding doors on the front, and a quick interior refresh from Blue and Green Awnings to Classy Market 2.0. During Publix's time in this building, it would have looked pretty close to this inside, just minus all the Classy Market 2.5 upgrades you see at that link.
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| Photo courtesy of Google Street View |
Interestingly, after Publix took over this building from Albertsons, Publix repainted it a darker shade of brown. Around 2013-2014ish the building was painted into the color scheme we see above, which is closer to the original color scheme Albertsons used during their time in this building. However, one thing that never changed during Publix's tenure in the old Albertsons building was the color of the roof, which remained painted in Albertsons blue all the way until the end.
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| Photo courtesy of Google Street View |
From the looks of this, it appears Publix remodeled this store to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna at some point (maybe around the time the building was repainted ca. 2013, although Publix does repaint stores independently of remodels quite often).
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| Photo courtesy of Google Street View |
The attached liquor store was located on the left side of the building, and the only interior photos I was able to find of this store before it was demolished were from the liquor store, an example of which you can see here. That linked photo (which appears to have been taken by the liquor store cashier) also shows the old Blue and Green Awning trim around the interior of the liquor store. Much like how the textured backing from Blue and Gray Market was commonly left behind in the Classy Market 2.0 remodels, that trim was the big remnant Publix would leave behind in the Blue and Green Awnings stores when those were all first converted.
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| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
After spending 8 years in this building, Publix felt it was time for a really big change. Publix #1336 closed in October 2016 to be demolished and rebuilt for a new store - #1579 - which would be a standard Publix 45M of the time. Publix managed to replace this store in pretty good time, with #1579 opening on August 17, 2017, roughly 10 months after the original store closed. YonWoo passed by this store as it was in the process of being rebuilt, providing us with the photo above as the shell of the building was nearing completion.
While totally coincidental, Publix #1579 actually has a vague early 2000's Albertsons look to it (it's those arches). As fun as it would be that Publix would pay tribute to this property's predecessor, this is just a common 2010's Publix exterior variant, as I think Publix would love nothing more than to make people forget Albertsons was ever here!
Similarities to Albertsons aside, the exterior of this store is quite nice, as I like these "old Florida" style designs Publix uses from time to time instead of the usual 45M default exterior. With the 48M having taken over as the new default store design for Publix these days, Publix's most recent stores have varied a lot more in exterior design, as the 48M stores have used a lot more exterior variants than the 45M ever did.
Back in the early 2010's, this stretch of Walsingham Road used to contain two really interesting Publix stores - this Publixsons, and about a mile west of here, a funky old expanded Wing Store that ended up being Publix's very last store to sport the Wavy Pastel decor package. That store down the street, Publix #98, also met the same fate the Publixsons did in 2013, getting replaced with an identical (interior-wise) modern 45M store (#1471). Unfortunately, I made it out this way much too late to see any of the real Publix oddities of Walsingham Road, however I do have a few photos I saved from the auction listing of Publix #98 if you want a quick look at that store in its final days. As for today's tour, we're going to have to settle for a quick spin around a 45M.
Since we're here, let's head inside for a quick look at the store that replaced Walsingham Road's longstanding Albertsons building:
Like any modern 45M store, you find the floral department immediately to the right of the entrance. Beyond that is the bakery in the front right corner of the building, with the deli along the right side wall following that.
During the Albertsons days, the right side of the building also served as the home for all the fresh departments, although Albertsons would have had deli in the front right corner with the bakery on the right side wall, with produce out in the middle between those two departments.
We find some drinks in aisle 1 across from the deli here, with produce becoming visible in the back right corner of the store.
A fairly standard Publix produce department here, with lots of apples and oranges stacked in neat rows (but who am I to compare?).
Rounding the corner to the back of the store, we find the meat and seafood departments. The seafood service counter and its signage got cut off a bit in the above photo, but we can see the signage for the meat department next door.
Moving further down the store's back wall, here's a better look at the seafood counter from the opposite perspective.
Cutting through the grocery aisles, here's a look across the front end, with the pharmacy visible in the distance.
While I don't see food on the right side of this aisle, I do seafood ahead.
Meat coolers extend out from the service meat and seafood counters about halfway down the back wall, at which point the coolers transition from meat to dairy products.
Plenty of snack options to satisfy your hunger here in aisle 6...
…and plenty of options to satisfy your pet's hunger here in aisle 9.
Frozen foods are located in the middle of the building here, in aisles 10 and 11 (the aisle pictured above being number 11)…
…with some chilled products of another kind for sale over here in aisle 12.
The store's second to last aisle, aisle 15, was home to health and beauty overflow, with the rest of these products finding a home in the few short aisles in front of the pharmacy counter.
The final aisle in this store is aisle 16, home of the remainder of the dairy department as well as the PB&J supplies, a common product arrangement in many of Publix's newer stores.
Back up front, here's a look at the pharmacy counter, located in the front left corner of the building (just like a Superstore-era Albertsons would be arranged).
To wrap up this brief look at Publix #1579, here are a few photos of the front check lanes to transition us back outside.
The Publix standing at this site today isn't anything special, and certainly lacks the unique charm of the Publixsons it replaced. Since our tour was pretty quick, if you want to see in more detail an identical store to this one, you can view one here to better understand the design of the 45M.
This was a decently busy Publix store while I was here. Between this being a well-populated area and being on the main route to the nearby Gulf beaches, there's a lot of draw to this store, and I can see why Publix would want to replace the old Albertsons building with this modern location.
While the original Albertsons liquor store was located on the left side of the building, Publix's rebuild moved the liquor store to the right side, adjacent to the existing strip of stores. The relocation of the liquor store was done to accommodate the addition of the pharmacy drive-thru on the left side of the building.
And speaking of the remainder of the shopping center, let's take a stroll down there to see if any other retail relics might be lurking around Walsingham Commons, now that it's primary attraction the Publixsons has been removed:
The facade of the shopping center hasn't been changed since it was built in 1986, keeping its original design that matched Albertsons' facade following Publix's rebuild.
Toward the far end of the shopping center is this Family Dollar store, which looks suspiciously like a former drug store junior anchor. I was expecting to reveal this space as a former SupeRx or Revco or something of that nature, but it turns out I was totally wrong - this was never a drug store to begin with, and this space actually began its life as a McDuff Electronics Store! We explored the history of the McDuff Electronics chain on My Florida Retail a while back, and you can read that much more detailed coverage here (the McDuff coverage toward the end of that linked post). It appears McDuff remained at Walsingham Commons until the mid-1990's (when the company began to falter). After McDuff closed, this space was retenanted by a location of Bill's Dollar Stores, a Family Dollar-esque chain that went out of business in the early 2000's. After Bill's closed this space became home to a Family Dollar, which it remains today.
At the far eastern end of the shopping center we find the other anchor space to Walsingham Commons - a thrift store today, but back when the shopping center was first built, this space was home to a location of Florida's famous hardware store chain: Scotty's. The facade of this building is completely original to Scotty's, an example of the chain's famous barn-themed design. At the company's peak, Scotty's had over 150 locations across the Floridian Peninsula, and was the largest hardware store chain in Florida until the arrival of the big box home improvement warehouses in the 1980's and 1990's. The arrival of Home Depot and Lowe's would end up being one of the primary factors to Scotty's demise, as Scotty's stores were much smaller and older than the modern hardware behemoths popping up across the state. Scotty's tried some rebranding efforts in the late 1990's and early 2000's to ward off the threats of Home Depot and Lowe's, including formats that tried to make Scotty's into a hybrid hardware store/dollar store. Odd retoolings of a company's format is typically not a good sign, and for Scotty's, the story wasn't any different. Scotty's went out of business in 2005, bringing to an end another iconic Floridian retail chain.
If you want to read more about Scotty's and see some more photos of the company's stores, a former Scotty's employee put together a nice tribute page for the chain. As for the location we see here, it remained a Scotty's until the early 2000's, closing a few years shy of the chain's ultimate demise in 2005. In 2004, the building was repurposed into a flea market/vendor mall type place called the Largo Outlet Mall, although that was short-lived, and by 2006 the Indian Rocks Thrift Center was operating out of this building. The Indian Rocks Thrift Center is operated by the Indian Rocks Baptist Church, which has its main church complex located just behind Walsingham Commons.
Whenever I see a thrift store operating out of a former retail anchor building, I always find it worthwhile to check out what kind of relics of the past may be lurking inside, as thrift stores, especially low-budget church-run ones, are typically not known for elaborate renovations. To get us off to a good start, the two "ENTRANCE" decals on the front doors are remnants from Scotty's, as I've seen those same decals before on other former Scotty's stores.
Heading inside, we see the Indian Rocks Thrift Center uses a fleet of old Winn-Dixie carts, recognizable by the W/D emblem engraved into the metal panels on the sides of each cart.
As for the rest of the store, like most hardware stores built in the late 1980's, Scotty's used the traditional warehouse-style approach. As such, there really wasn't a lot for Scotty's to leave behind to be recycled by the flea market or the thrift store that came after it, as the building was just a large empty warehouse to begin with. I pretty much expected to discover such results during my visit, however, sometimes you never know what you might walk into at an unfamiliar thrift store!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's SuperThrift, here to save your Scotty's! Anyway, wall signage aside, here's a look across the width of the building, with the thrift store's front check lanes located under the large Superman logo sign.
The thrift store's salesfloor only uses the front half of the former Scotty's store, with the back of the building reserved for the thrift store's donation center and some other church offices. The photo above looks toward the back right corner of the building.
From the back right corner of the thrift store, here's an overview of the salesfloor from the furniture department. As I mentioned before, the building is just a large open warehouse, so there isn't anything too distinctive in here to really make it feel like it was another store prior.
Even though Scotty's remained in operation until 2005, sadly, I never got to experience a Scotty's store in-person (although I did see the exterior of one on a road trip once, not long before the chain's ultimate demise). Therefore, I really don't know much about what the interior of a Scotty's store would have looked like back in the day, as there aren't many photos of the interior of a Scotty's store floating around online. I'd imagine the interior of a 1980's-built Scotty's wasn't too far off from the average hardware store aesthetic, with aisles of steel rack shelving and some banner signs hanging from the ceiling denoting the different departments.
Like most thrift stores, clothing took up the majority of the store's salesfloor space, with the remaining space on the right side of the building not used for clothes being dedicated to furniture. The left side of the building was home to the assorted bric-a-brac such as housewares, kitchen items, books, movies, CDs, and the other types of assorted tchotchkes and et cetera.
Our last photo from the interior of the former Scotty's looks down one of the thrift store's bric-a-brac aisles, with some fake palm trees sprouting out of the clothing department in the distance.
Since the interior of the thrift store wasn't too exciting, here's one final look at the exterior of the building with its well-preserved Scotty's barn design.
Off on the right side of the former Scotty's building was the former lumber yard, which was located behind this chain link fence. These days the old lumber yard is where people go to drop off donations for the thrift store (via a gate around back) and also where the church parks its vehicles and the buses for its school. Speaking of the church's school...
…here it is, located in a former Frank's Nursery & Crafts next door to Walsingham Commons, and also in front of the church's main complex. Frank's Nursery & Crafts closed this store in 2000 when the company pulled out of the Tampa Bay area, and the building was converted into the church's school shortly after.
Now that we've explored the entirely of Walsingham Commons, here's an aerial overview of the entire complex to better visualize where all the stores we just saw were located. And since we're already up in the air, let's use this opportunity to go back in time and take a look at this former Albertsons through the years in historic aerial imagery, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:
Former Albertsons #4361 - 2019
Former Albertsons #4361 - March 2017 - The building shell for the new Publix looks mostly complete here.
Former Albertsons #4361 - January 2017 - Going back two months prior to that last aerial image, here we see the new Publix building just beginning to get framed out.
Former Albertsons #4361 - 2016 - The original Albertsons building
Albertsons #4361 - 2008
Albertsons #4361 - 2002
Albertsons #4361 - 1995
Future Albertsons #4361 - 1985 - It wouldn't be long after this image was taken that this empty lot would sprout a new Albertsons store.
It wasn't much to look at, but that's all I have to share about former Albertsons #4361. Thankfully the other two former Albertsons stores in Largo will provide us with much more to look at, as Publix has kindly kept those stores around in much more original condition! Anyway, we'll return to Largo another time, however, in two more weeks I'll be back with more Albertsons adventures to share, so be sure to come back then for more!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
McDuff! That was a pleasant surprise, I wasn’t expecting this post to mention McDuff! Interestingly enough, I was doing some research this weekend into VideoConcepts back in the days when they were owned by Eckerd before Tandy bought them and made them a sister chain to McDuff. Albertsons and McDuff, I probably would have spend a bit of time at this shopping center back in the day if I lived in Largo!
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a Scotty’s during my vacation in Florida in 1997. I’m surprised to hear that you never did visit a Scotty’s because even in 1997, the store had a certain look which really grabbed my attention. I didn’t go inside Scotty’s because I had no reason to visit a hardware store while on vacation. Well, the Ramada we were staying at in Kissimmee could have used a few updates, but I wasn’t going to be the one who was going to do those updates! I seem to remember eating at a Dairy Queen near a Scotty’s in Orlando so maybe that will make one of your Orlando-based readers know which Scotty’s I saw in 1997.
The thrift store is probably stretching things with that Superman logo, but it is a bit strange to see that nice carpeting in the middle of this otherwise very plain thrift store. They also have some Golden Girls-era sofas there which fit in perfectly with the Winn-Dixie carts! That carpeting looks like it could have come from a Ramada, but one nicer than the carpets the Ramada in Kissimmee had, lol.
I have to admit that the blue Spanish tile roof looks a bit bizarre! It kind of reminds of the era when McDonald’s and Burger King locations were painting their roofing shingles in the late 1990s. It quite annoyed me when McDonald’s painted their natural color McMansard roofs to red and Burger King was painting The Home of the Whopper-era stores to have blue roofs. I suppose McDonald’s had an excuse to make their restaurants look like a clown home, but still! I guess that Publixsons had metal or wood roof that is painted blue?
It is a shame that the Publixsons met the wrecking ball, but that is also not surprising. You’re right that the new Publix does have a bit of an Albertsons-like look to it. One might expect to walk into a Grocery Palace store here, but such is not the case. It is just an ordinary Publix, but at least it is not a nEvergreen Publix...not yet at least!
Speaking of Awnings, did you happen to catch Mike from HHR’s post earlier this week with photos from inside the Pearland Food Town in an old Awnings Albertsons which still has Albertsons décor...and a little bonus Kroger Bountiful décor? If not, you’ll want to check it out! Link: https://houstonhistoricretail.com/2023/05/31/food-town-vs-albertsons-a-pearland-grocery-decor-showdown/
On the topic of Houston and Orlando, do you know what the story is about this Albertsons photo which is on the Albertsons Glassdoor profile? The caption on Glassdoor says it is (or was I suppose) an Albertsons in Orlando, but I’m almost positive this is actually a photo of a Grocery Palace Krogertsons in Houston unless this Krogertsons had an exact twin in Orlando! Link: https://media.glassdoor.com/m/d7/da/70/1f/albertsons.jpg
Here is the Krogertsons in question: https://goo.gl/maps/q7YYqRxZY4exa2Xv8
McDuff making an appearance in this post was just as much of a surprise to me too - I was convinced the Family Dollar was an old drug store until I searched the address when I was writing this post. As soon as I saw that was an old McDuff I thought you'd appreciate reading about it!
DeleteThe town where I lived in the early 2000's lost its Scotty's in the late 1990's, shortly before we moved there. Since like you said, when traveling there really isn't much of a reason for stopping at a hardware store, so I never got to experience what a Scotty's was like in person. The reason I remember Scotty's from that road trip we took was because the giant Scotsman's head they used as a logo really stood out to me, as it was somewhat creepy and unique at the same time! There was a Scotty's on South Semoran near the old Albertsons you've mentioned seeing before (this building, which is now a school: https://goo.gl/maps/g6iNERWsfLJBpGWx9). I don't see a Dairy Queen near that building though, unless it closed a long time ago. Beyond that Scotty's I'd have to do a little more digging into where some of the other former Orlando-area stores were to see if a different location was a match.
That carpeting in the thrift store was just a large area rug that was rolled out under some of the furniture, it wasn't professionally installed or anything like that. However, it does have an old hotel vibe to it, which still pairs well with floral print sofas!
At least the blue roof tiles matched Albertsons' color scheme, although the blue tiles looked pretty nice with the beige paint on the front. Publix kept the blue Spanish tile roof all the way until the store's demolition, with the new store getting a silver metal roof in its place.
Yes, I saw Mike's recent post - that store is quite interesting, and the Bountiful bakery sign is a weird sight mixed in with all the other Albertsons remnants! I also saw that Food Town's slogan on the self-checkout machine was "It's your town" - I can't help but wonder if that's also a nod toward Albertsons too, or just a coincidence.
I don't know what the story is with that photo on Glassdoor, as that's not any Orlando Albertsons I know of, and I've been to all of them! I've never seen a Grocery Palace Albertsons in Florida with the glass block window between the two sets of doors, or one built with a brick facade either. I'm pretty sure that's the Houston Krogertsons, as that store doesn't match anything else I've ever seen before.
Huh, I never even thought about how similar the Food Town slogan is to the old Albertsons 'It's Your Store' slogan! I wonder if that is an Albertsons-inspired slogan or just a coincidence. Given some of Food Town's well-preserved Albertsons locations, maybe it isn't just a coincidence!
DeleteThe Albertsons I went to that was by the Kmart on South Semoran was during my 1988 trip to Orlando, but the Dairy Queen I ate at near the Scotty's (at least I think the DQ was near the Scotty's, but I'm not even positive about that) was during my 1997 trip to Orlando so I'm not sure if it would have been around South Semoran. It's hard to remember, but I seem to remember being intrigued by the Scotty's and then eating at Dairy Queen soon afterward, lol.
Speaking of old Houston Albertsons photos, here is something neat Mike found at the Getty Images website. It is a photo from 2001 of my local Grocery Palace Albertsons...the Albertsons Express there specifically. This Albertsons is now a Krogertsons and Kroger replaced the C-store Krogertsons Express with a standard Kroger C-storeless gas station a couple of years ago, but the store itself still has a lot of Grocery Palace remnants especially relating to the floor and layout.
Anyway, the photo is of someone filling up at the Albertsons Express...so they could take a trip to Florida according to the caption! How do you like that, someone in Houston starting their trek to Florida at my local Albertsons! Link: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/eric-greenwald-gases-up-his-truck-before-heading-off-to-news-photo/1258312369
"Fills a hole in the bakery staffing" -- I like it! I caught a few more of your puns on my first glance through, but that one was a bit more subtle!
ReplyDeleteIt is very hard to tell what interior #1336 had from that old Google Street View. It looks like the "Welcome to Publix" lettering on the wall is silver rather than black, so I believe this store was at a minimum remodeled to 2.5. The biggest potential indicator of it having 3.0/Sienna is what looks like green paint on the back wall next to red paint. I've only ever seen that shade of green used in two CM 2.5 stores, which gives me pretty good confidence that you are correct in saying this store received Sienna before it closed. It's always strange when a store is replaced by another one which uses the same décor! Still no surprise that the liquor store closed with sans serif Classy Liquor 1.0.
What perfect timing for me to mention that your photo links for #98 were broken! I'm glad you managed to track down the original pictures and they weren't lost forever (like some other shots I wish I had downloaded).
As for Publix #1579, it looks like most every other Sienna-built 45M I've been to on the inside. It's easy to date this store as being built in 2016 or later since has the new customer service counter and checkout cubes but lacks the extra mosaic tiles in the bakery and deli as well as the "Publix apple". It seems like many of the 2016+ 45M stores also feature the backlit service department signs which seems like that was something previously reserved for the prototypical Premium Sienna stores from around 2011.
Fun learning about the hardware thrift barn too!
I was hoping you'd pick up on that one! :)
DeleteI was primarily basing my guess of the interior on the color of the back wall, so I'm glad to have a second opinion that this store did close with Sienna. It is weird thinking that the old store closed with the same interior the new store got, but that's Publix for you - keeping the stores up to date until the very end!
With this post going up, I figured it was for the best I got those photos of #98 fixed!
#1579 is about as average as a late 2010's Publix can come. It would have been great if I could have visited this area back in 2013 and seen #98 and #1336, as it would have been fun seeing Wavy Pastel one last time!
I remember taking those photos way back when. Hard to believe it has been over 5 years now! I really like the store Publix built here. It was one of their better designs (like the new 1784). This one however, like you stated, was more late 90's Albertsons looking than any other store that Publix has built in the last 18 years.
ReplyDeleteI remember looking at the interior photos by shoppers of the Publixsons before it was torn down, had a weathered look to it. I can kind of see why Publix was ready to do a replacement here. It seems as though this store was one of the earlier design patterns that Albertsons began using in the late 80's, like stores 4370 in Daytona and 4374 in Tampa.
From the looks of the historical aerials, this store did solid business back in the 90's, but by the early 2000's, it appears that this store started struggling, at least one would assume from the lack of cars in the parking lot. It reminds of my old 4355, which did bang up business during the 80's through the mid-90's, but by 2002 things really started slowing down. I think if there had been more stores up in the Panhandle than the scattering of stores we had, 4355 may have made it til 2009 when the last Panhandle store closed.
It's crazy how long ago 2017 was now! Overall the new Publix is a nice store, it just isn't anything special or noteworthy - it looks like any other modern Publix. The exterior is nice, and I like how modern Publix stores have been trying to make the exteriors different between locations more frequently.
DeletePublix seems to dislike these Superstore-era Albertsons buildings, as these have been a frequent target for replacement. From the exterior photos I've seen of 4361, the exterior looked a bit tired, and I'm sure Publix wanted something a bit more modern here to fit their tastes. I've noticed that a lot with these old Albertsons stores too, the old aerials from the 1990's and earlier would show a busy store, but then business seems to taper going into the 2000's. I'm actually surprised the one Tallahassee Albertsons even made it to 2009, as it was really isolated up there for that last year it was open!
you didn't miss much by never visiting a Scotty's. I visited one, exactly one time. It was on West Hillsborough in Tampa (near the old Albertsons on Memorial Hwy, it was an August Saturday and it was hotter than Haydes, I just recall sweat dripping from my forehead as I got out of my car to go into this hardware store with the old style logo. Unfortunately, it was a total dump inside, looked terribly unkept, and I left after looking around a few minutes. It closed a few months after that visit.
ReplyDeleteAbout 10 years ago when I was remodeling a house I tore out some shelves in the garage which each had Scotty's price tags, brought back memories of that visit.
I was in Gainesville a couple weeks back and drove by the Albertsons' featured a few months back, right beside the Rural King (my destination).
While there are some stores I wish I got to experience before they went out of business, I've never really felt too bad that I missed out on Scotty's. Hardware stores really aren't stores that were built to impress, and I'm not surprised Scotty's began to struggle after the arrival of Home Depot and Lowe's if the stores were being run the way you saw at the West Hillsborough location.
DeleteThat's neat you found those Scotty's price tags while remodeling the garage. I've come across some random items from Scotty's at estate sales too, so there are plenty of little bits of that chain still lurking around out there. And my timing of the Gainesville Albertsons post worked out well too!
I'm not surprised the Sing Oil Blogger referenced your "fills a hole in the bakery staffing" pun in his comment -- once I saw that at the top of the post, I about closed out of my browser, lol! Incredible pun there, and plenty of other good ones in the post, too.
ReplyDeleteSince the rebuilt Publix wasn't all that special on its own, my interest latched onto another part of your post: the reference to Bill's Dollar Store! When I clicked your link, I was very surprised to read that the chain was based right here in Ridgeland. What a coincidence! Here's a non-paywalled version of their bankruptcy announcement, from the Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/cd4e29b2194e692c5733b51b54d2a64f
That article mentions that they were almost bought by Fred's, but the deal fell through. It's not easy to find further history on Bill's after that point, but they must have gotten bought somewhere along the line, as I knew the name sounded familiar -- that's one of the brands under the umbrella of Variety Wholesalers, Roses' parent company! It seems like there are still a small handful of Bill's Dollar Stores in operation these days, although of course given their locations, virtually zero documentation exists -- some towns are so small they don't even have Google Street View imagery. But there appears to be one in Nettleton, MS, for instance, and probably a few more scattered here and there (if anyone is able to adequately track them down on Google or the Roses website). Roses used to advertise all of its other, smaller brands on the homepage of its website, including Maxway, Super Dollar (unrelated to Fred's, as far as I know!), Super 10, etc. But nowadays those brands are relegated to the depths of the store locator, and it feels like Roses is even replacing some over time with the Roses Express branding as that format becomes bigger and bigger, such as some Maxway stores I've seen articles about (including the one in Greenwood, MS). So who knows how much longer the Bill's brand will last, but it does at least seem it has secretly and silently survived many years past the bankruptcy, and perhaps its presence in extremely small towns will keep its quiet existence safe for more years to come!
Thanks - I really think Ollie's is losing out not having us on their pun writing team!
DeleteI only skimmed that article about Bill's Dollar Store, so I totally missed that connection the chain had to Ridgeland - that's pretty neat! I'd never heard of Bill's until I found this article, so I wonder how far they made it into Florida. Sounds like Bill's grew into a rather large chain, and shared a lot of similarities with Fred's too, especially with the stores targeting small towns in the south (although Largo is by no means a small town, but even Fred's did try to make it big in the city too!) It's a shame that unlike Fred's, Bill's mostly slipped into obscurity, even though a few locations still survive hidden away. I certainly seems like Variety Wholesalers is trying to consolidate all of those older brands they had into Roses and Roses Express, which is a shame, as some of those brands go back years. It makes me wonder what a modern Bill's would be like, although I'm sure it's probably a Roses Express these days in all but name. Still can't help but wonder if any of the few remaining stores have older vestiges of Bill's hiding around inside, although I'm sure the last thing you need right now is another project involving a fallen mid-south dollar chain!
For sure, haha!
DeleteYep, I was surprised to read that as well, and agree with you that there are lots of Fred's similarities! I'm also with you on being curious what Variety Wholesalers' game plan is with all their "other" brands; consolidating them into Roses Express certainly seems to be what I've seen as well, although I just can't imagine that working with some of their oldest, smallest stores. But we'll see, I guess! And ha -- trying to find a surviving Bill's to document isn't high up on my priority list, but I'm definitely intrigued now!