Albertsons #4477 / Publix #1305
9005 US Highway 301 North, Parrish, FL - Parkwood Square
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| Today's post is a presentation of Manatee County retail |
According to my count, this is the 43rd Publixsons store I've written about on the blog, and the 45th featured on the blog in total. There are roughly 60 Publixsons stores in Florida, so that means we're three-quarters of the way through covering all the various forms of Florida's favorite supermarket conversion. However, after 43 Publixsons posts, finding an interesting introduction to include with each new Publixsons store I write about gets harder and harder every time! I guess I'll spare everyone one of my desperate filler puns in this introduction and simply state we're on Florida's Southwestern coast today, checking out a former Grocery Palace Albertsons in the (once) small community of Parrish (which is located just north of Bradenton). Parrish was once semi-rural area between Tampa and Bradenton that is now home to a sea of new developments as progress works to connect those two metropolitan areas together. Albertsons was an early arrival to the area, seeing in the early 2000's how Parrish was about to boom into one of Tampa Bay's hottest new areas. That being said, let's dive into the history of Albertsons #4477 just a little more to see what the vision for this new store entailed:
Construction on Albertsons #4477 began in Fall 2000, as workers began to clear an empty lot on the southeastern corner of US 301 and Old Tampa Road. While considered part of Parrish by its postal address, the site of the new Albertsons store was much closer to the community of Ellenton, an unincorporated Manatee County community located near the junction of I-75 and US 301. At the time of its construction, Albertsons #4477 was considered to be on the outskirts of Ellenton, in a lull of development before drivers got into the community of Parrish (whose center is located where US 301 has its junction with SR 62, 5 miles to the north of the Albertsons site). Most retail in this area was clustered near the I-75 junction at the turn of the new millennium, with Albertsons taking the lead in bringing more shopping options into the further-out areas that would eventually boom with development over the next decade.
As described by the district manager, the new Parrish Albertsons would have some of the company's longtime offerings of a deli, bakery, video rentals, and a liquor store, but would also feature some new offerings like a Starbucks Coffee kiosk and a dry cleaners - all part of Albertsons' continued commitment to be a store for one-stop shopping (although not as much as back in the day, when Albertsons also sold automotive supplies, music albums, and even televisions, but I digress).
After a year of construction, Albertsons #4477 held its grand opening on October 5, 2001, a new grocery superstore, or should I say, "grocery palace" to serve the shoppers of Ellenton and Parrish. In addition to store #4477, northern Manatee County would gain an additional Albertsons a few miles to the west of here in downtown Palmetto, when store #4484 opened 9 months later in June of 2002. Stores #4477 and #4484 were pretty much identical in most ways (including their exterior designs and having the same layouts and orientation), with the primary exception being that the slightly older #4477 opened with Grocery Palace, while #4484 opened with the revived Blue & Green Awnings decor.
The pharmacy photo in the grand opening ad and the one above showing the pet department in 2008 are the only two photos I was able to track down of this Albertsons while it was open. Usually I just find an exterior photo and nothing of the interior, but this time it was the opposite case! (However, I do have a crummy 2008 Google Streetview link we can settle for if you want a glimpse at the original Albertsons exterior). Anyway, we still got ourselves two small glimpses at this store's original Grocery Palace decor, which was only able to grace this building for 7 years until someone had to come in and rip out the spinning chef and giant bowl of chips in favor of installing some Classy Market 2.0:
The Parrish Albertsons was one of the 49 stores the company sold to Publix in 2008, with the August 2008 photo of the pet department we just saw taken not too long before this Albertsons closed for good. Publix used the acquisition of the former Parrish Albertsons as a means to replace its much older store, #354, about two miles to the west of here at the North River Village shopping center. Publix #354 closed on January 21, 2009, with its replacement in the old Albertsons, Publix #1305, opening the next morning on January 22nd.
When Publix made the move from North River Village to the former Albertsons, that put Publix within 2 miles of another existing store, #1152, which had only opened 2 years prior. With the move cutting the buffer between Publix's two stores in the area in half, that prompted the reporter who wrote the article above to ask about the future plans for Publix's practically new store up the road and what would become of it with the former Albertsons so close. To answer that question, the representative stated, "It's not uncommon for us to have multiple Publixes. We're all about serving customers with convenient locations." Considering some other situations Publix got themselves into following the acquisition of those 49 Albertsons stores, a 2 mile buffer is a pretty big gap between stores!
Having been in this building for 16 years now (2009 was that long ago, yikes!), Publix #1305 has seen no shortage of remodels. This store remodeled away from its original Classy Market 2.0 in the 2015-2016 timeframe to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna, and then again in 2021 to Evergreen. Being that I visited this store in 2020, we'll be seeing it in all of its CM 3.0/Sienna glory, which will probably make some of my usual readers happy that we dodged an "Evergray" bullet! If you care to see what this store looks like with the current decor, just about all the Google Maps pictures show it with Evergreen (and its matching gray exterior paint job). A little fun fact: Evergreen made its debut to the world not far from here at the Gateway Commons Publix, store #1666. (And I had to link to the Yelp photos because someone decided to post pictures of many random Publix stores from Pinellas County to that store's Google Maps page - isn't it annoying when people do that!)
The exterior of this former Albertsons isn't anything too out of the ordinary for an early 2000's Floridian Albertsons build. We have the distinctive arch over the entryway, but otherwise most Albertsons stores from this era were fairly nondescript.
The exterior paint scheme we see here was Publix's doing, hailing from this store's original conversion in 2009. When Albertsons was here, the entire building was painted pale yellow like many other early 2000's Albertsons stores in Florida.
Stepping onto the front sidewalk, we find the original entrance and exit mostly untouched since the Albertsons days, with the original Albertsons sliding doors still in place too. If you can ignore Publix's distinct recycling bins and the infamous green beans looking at us through the window, it feels a lot like Albertsons was still here from this view.
Once we get past the green beans in the vestibule (home to the cart corral), we find this hallway created by the store's pharmacy island in front of the two sets of doors. When Albertsons was here the backside of that wall (which is now a staging area for Publix's online pickups and deliveries) would have been home to the dry cleaners and customer service desk, with the "Albertsons Reading Center" across from that on the wall between the two sets of doors.
Turning around, we find the store's deli in the front right corner of the building - the first major department we encounter upon entering the store.
Pictured above is the portion of the deli counter located along the front wall (former home to Albertsons' prepared foods counter), with the portion of the deli seen in the previous photo home to the main cold cut counter (as it would have been when Albertsons was here too). Grocery Palace Albertsons stores had rather large delis, enough room for our oversized friend here to spin happily above it!
However, the Grocery Palace deli department included a bit too much space for Publix, so the majority of Publix's full-service deli operations (cold cuts, hot foods, Pub Subs) have been consolidated into the counter along the right wall. Albertsons' former prepared foods counter along the front wall has been blocked off with many of Publix's self-serve deli options, like the soup bar, fountain drinks, and a grab-and-go beverage cooler.
Now that we've experienced the Publixsons deli, the next department we're off to is visible just beyond it: produce.
I was able to produce this nice overview of the produce department, showing its expanse in the store's back right corner. Looking into produce, you can tell this store suffers a bit from being too large for Publix's tastes, as the grand aisle and front end in all seemed quite spaced out with void area like this. This former Albertsons is 61,000 square feet, and even though Publix has built stores that large on their own merit in the past, Publix's own 61,000 square foot stores never feel like they're at a waste for space like some of these similarly sized former Albertsons buildings are.
Most of the main produce displays were pushed as far back into the corner as they could be, with the surrounding area near the deli and along the first aisle lightly filled out with some promotional displays.
When Publix first took over these former Grocery Palace stores, they were quite the sight with many Grocery Palace remnants repainted in the colors of Classy Market 2.0. By the late 2010's, most examples of those funky repaints were either remodeled away or obliterated (like the store at that link sadly was), but if you still crave a more authentic Grocery Palace Publixsons experience, there is still one out there on the other side of the Skyway to observe and enjoy (but as for how much longer Publix will leave something like that around for is unknown, as it's a bit crazy it's still there all these years later!). However, like most of its other Grocery Palace cohorts, Publix ripped out almost every last trace of that decor in this store's second remodel, leaving the layout as one of our only reminders of what was.
Even though the original decor is gone, just this layout takes me back to the glory days of Albertsons in Florida. Grocery Palace was one of those decor packages that really leaves an impression on you, especially if you got to experience it back in the early 2000's in full force and not just in piecemeal or in shambles like most remaining examples of it are.
As you can see in the distance, Publix has the grand aisle signed as Aisle 1. If you look really close at that sign, you'll see it only has one placard on it, reading "Produce". The sign isn't wrong though - produce is about the only thing down here, as the shelves to my left seem to be the home of assorted changing promo/BOGO deals - another sign that Publix was coming up with random ways to fill the space in here.
The produce prep area lies along the store's back wall, and is still used by Publix (even though a tall drink cooler blocks part of the opening these days).
Following produce, we find the store's bakery along the back wall. While still in its original Albertsons location, Publix reconstructed this department to match their usual design in the mid-2010's CM 3.0/Sienna remodel.
While Publix's bakery design is nice, it's certainly more subdued than this! Why did oversized 3D plastic replicas of food have to go out of style?
Now that we've seen the bakery, let's cut through one of the grocery aisles to return to the front of the store, where we'll take a look at the pharmacy island:
While Publix's mid-2010's remodel stripped this store of what remained from the days of its Grocery Palace grandeur, the pharmacy island is a distinctive Grocery Palace trait that still sticks out amongst all of Publix's more modern treatments.
While Publix has removed a few of these pharmacy islands in later remodels (particularly in older Albertsons stores that were remodeled to Grocery Palace, for whatever reason), this one survived CM 3.0/Sienna, and is still going strong in the era of Evergreen too (not the greatest photo in the world, but it shows the island is still there). There's a bit of debate about these Grocery Palace pharmacy islands, primarily concerning their placement being awkward in relation to the store's layout, plopped front and center at the front of the building. That awkward placement is supposedly why many others who've inherited old Grocery Palace stores have removed them (like Kroger) and moved the pharmacy to a more traditional placement along a wall. Having experienced the original Grocery Palace layout from Albertsons and other inherited variants with the island, the islands never seemed too obstructive to me. Entering and exiting is a bit odd being funneled though a hallway of sorts due to the placement of the island, but I never thought the island made the store feel cramped in any way (although a rush at the pharmacy counter could make navigating those grocery aisles out front a bit harder if a crowd built up, as there isn't much space between the island and the aisles). For those of you who've experience Grocery Palace in some form, what do you think about the placement of the island?
Whether you find it awkward or not awkward, the island lives on here in Parrish, with Publix having reconfigured the pharmacy counter into a design more to their usual liking by expanding it into the former dry cleaners space to the counter's left.
Joining the pharmacy on the island is floral, which Publix also chose to keep in its original Albertsons placement as well.
Similar to Albertsons, Publix kept the floral service counter within the island, with displays of flowers surrounding the service counter.
Returning to the grocery aisles, here's one final look back toward the pharmacy island before we make the perilous journey into another part of the store, which involves...
…a dangerous trek through the baby food aisle to the faraway land known for its abundance of meats and cheeses...
…the International Deli!
Sadly, these days the International Deli isn't very "international" anymore, unless you consider bologna "international" since it was named after a city in Italy. I don't think Albertsons' version of the international deli was that much more international than Publix's version in terms of product selection, but the decorative flags and Eiffel tower prop over the coolers made you overlook that detail more in those days! These days, Publix left the old International Deli alcove as a fairly plain area with brown walls, which today are probably plain gray walls - that Eiffel tower prop long thrown in the trash.
From the former International Deli alcove, the next department we find along the back wall is the meat and seafood service counter, which we'll take a closer look at after zig-zagging through a few grocery aisles:
Entering aisle 8, we find health and beauty products, as this aisle aligns with the pharmacy counter in the island behind me.
In another odd sight for a Publix store, aisles 9 and 10 serve as a double aisle for chips and water, with pallets of water used to take up space in the middle of the aisle. In case you needed another example of how Publix was running out of ideas on how to fill all the extra space in this store, here it is.
Other than the aisle markers blocking part of it, the width of this aisle gives us a nice overview once again of the floral department in the pharmacy island.
Passing the pharmacy island, the grocery aisles get extended by a few shelf lengths for the store's last 8 aisles, bringing those closer to the check lanes.
I visited this store in the fall, so Publix had this display of fall foods out near the front end. This display must have intrigued me for some reason since I took a photo of it! Even though this post is going live in May, it won't be long until grocery store shelves are inundated with pumpkin spice everything again - the sign in this photo of another Publix pumpkin spice display proves that, as pumpkin mania seems to come earlier every year!
Yes, we'll get through this post - we're over halfway there now! However, that banner sign wasn't installed as a warning for the ramblings I was going to make you endure during a future post - those were Publix's hanging banners from mid-2020, trying to use calming words to keep people at ease during peak COVID times.
And speaking of the Publix banners - after reporting that they disappeared about a year ago, I have noticed they've reappeared recently. I guess Publix had a change of heart, either that, or their people read my recent posts and realized I was onto their scheme to try to get rid of them for good!
That little detour through the grocery aisles complete, we return to the back wall for a closer look at the meat and seafood service counter. While the old fisherman's wharf theme from the Grocery Palace era will never be topped, Publix did a nice job converting what you saw at that link into what we see here. CM 3.0/Sienna actually looks really good here in its full form! I'll let you be the judge on the Evergreen variant though.
Over halfway through the salesfloor now, here's a perspective on just how wide this building is, with produce way off in the distance at the end of the back aisle.
Taking a few more steps closer to the back left corner, the photo above really makes the store feel wide from this angle! This photo was taken in alignment with aisle 16, which is about the maximum number of aisles you'll come across in the typical Publix store. However, there are still a few more aisles in this store beyond number 16. Will this be the store with the highest aisle count I've ever seen in a Publix? We'll find out in just a moment...
Turning around from where that last photo was taken, here's a look at what we've yet to cover, with the packaged meats along the back wall followed by dairy all the way to the left.
Back in the grocery aisles again, we find tea and soda in aisle 14. As you may recall, the water and water-based drinks were over in aisle 9, which is a bit of a gap between these items. It seems like most grocery stores like to keep the water, soda and tea in the same or in adjoining aisles, not 5 aisles apart like it is here.
Skipping ahead to aisle 17, we find the soaps and cleaning products, stuff that's perfect for when you spill one of the items you picked up back in aisle 14.
The meat coolers take up most of the remaining length of the store's back wall, with the exception of a small portion of the dairy department in the back left corner itself. That piece of the dairy department along the back wall was once home to the famous Grocery Palace milk barn. While milk still occupies that location these days, the barn was moo-ved along in Publix's initial remodel to Classy Market 2.0 in a similar vein to this (although wouldn't it have been interesting if Publix just repainted the barn like many other things in those cheap early remodels?).
Getting close to the end, we enter aisle 18, which is home to the 3 B's: Beer, Bread, and Beach stuff - everything you need for a day trip down the road to Anna Maria Island. Grab a cooler, fill it with beer, and grab a loaf of bread, as what better place than the beach to enjoy a sandwich!
Finally nearing the end, the last two aisles of this store are home to frozen foods. From the other side of the building, it's hard to tell where frozen foods are at first glance with the curved drop ceiling removed, but nonetheless, they're still here much like they were in the Albertsons days.
The frozen foods aisles had a cut through between them about halfway through the aisle, visible in the prior photos and located just before the Takis display seen on my left above. Anyway, does something about this aisle seem a bit askew?
I guess when you try to hang an aisle marker from a vent pipe, this is the result you get. I'm actually surprised Publix hung this aisle marker from the pipe itself and didn't try to run the cables to the sides of it like they did with the light, as you'd think a pipe is something you don't want any extra weight dangling from!
Not wanting to linger too much longer in aisle 19 to test the weight capacity of that pipe, we'll loop around into the store's last aisle, aisle 20. Aisle 20 is partially home to frozen foods (in the coolers to my left), with the remainder of the dairy department stocked in the coolers to my right along the store's left wall.
So to answer my question from before, at 20 aisles wide, is this the highest aisle count I've ever seen in a modern Publix? Actually, the answer is no! The highest aisle count I've ever seen in a modern Publix is 21 aisles, located at #4477's sibling store the Palmetto Publixsons. Still, finding a Publix with a numbered aisle in the 20s is pretty rare these days, and hasn't been common since the days when Publix numbered the pharmacy aisles in the early 1990's 56N (and similarly laid out) stores (a practice that was discontinued after those stores remodeled away from their original Wavy Pastel decor). I feel pretty confident that 21 is the highest numbered aisle in any Publix in modern times, although if anyone knows of a really weird, oddly wide Publix out there I missed with more than that, let me know!
Leaving frozen foods, our last department to explore is the wine department, located in the front left corner of the building.
The wine department is located in what was once the Albertsons Pet Center, which we saw pictured at the beginning of this post, featuring the same pet photos on the wall we see at that link. That version of the Grocery Palace pet decor was a later variant, as the original Grocery Palace pet decor used a different wall graphic. Both wall designs, I believe, were accompanied by a hanging rotating sign, which you can see repurposed (and no longer rotating) at that second link.
While I can sit here and wine about how all the Grocery Palace decor was ripped out, I'll just use this photo to segue us into the final part of our interior tour: the front end.
Much like this store's impressive width at 20 aisles, the front end was rather large too, complete with 12 staffed check lanes - that's a lot of check lanes for a Publix (and register 12 is the highest numbered check lane I've ever seen in a Publix too, so this store does get to have the highest count of something in the chain)!
Beyond all the check lanes, we see Publix's customer service desk in the distance along the front wall. When Albertsons was here, customer service would have been located on the back of the pharmacy island next to the dry cleaners, with the wall in front of the checkouts home to the video rental department, the photo counter, and sometimes a bank. One of Publix's largest alterations to this building was ripping the former home of all of those special services out of the front wall and construction a new service desk near the exit door, with the remaining space along the front home to new employee offices.
Leaving the store, here's a look from the exit door back toward the entrance door, the back wall of the pharmacy island to my left to create this little hallway of sorts.
Back outside, we find the attached liquor store located on the right side of the building, designed to match the rest of the facade too with its own arched entryway.
Publix replaced Albertsons' original swinging doors with a single sliding door, although it appears a little bit of Grocery Palace detail survived inside, at least before whatever modifications were made during the store's Evergreen remodel.
I always love a good Grocery Palace Albertsons tour, even if the Grocery Palace remnants are a bit lacking these days. At least Publix left this store's original layout behind, which still keeps this building's Albertsons-ness alive years after its original decor met its demise.
Facing US 301, the original Albertsons road sign still stands, now advertising the Publix that lives on in this building.
With that last piece of this former Albertsons covered, let's spend a moment to go through some of the historic satellite imagery relating to this store, beginning with some Bird's Eye aerials courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now the historic satellite imagery, courtesy of Google Earth:
Former Albertsons #4477 - 2022
Albertsons #4477 - 2008
Albertsons #4477 - 2002 - Still a relatively new store here, the pavement still fresh.
Future Albertsons #4477 - 1999
Having covered both Albertsons and Publix in today's post, how about we cover a few different Floridian supermarkets in our next post, maybe a 3 for 1 special involving Kash n' Karry, Sweetbay, and Winn-Dixie perhaps? Sound interesting? With all of Winn-Dixie's drama still going on, that sounds like a good choice for me, and I have a really interesting store coming up next time that will cover all three of those chains in one interesting bundle, as only AFB is crazy enough to offer a buy 1 get 2 free special like that, but these deals will only last for so long!
Be sure to come back in two weeks for that, so until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
