Jewel-Osco #4100 / Albertsons #4403 / Publix #1332 / Publix #1597
12101 Little Road, Hudson, FL - Tower Oaks Terrace
 |
| Today's post is a presentation of Pasco County retail |
The photo above depicts a fairly mundane modern Publix store, and while I'd like to say there's actually something super interesting behind that average looking 2010's Publix facade, there isn't. That really is a plain 45M Publix store, a structure that replaced a many, many times more interesting building in 2018. While this may not be my cheeriest introduction ever, on top of 2024 draining our optimism for Floridian retail in so many ways (and I have a bad feeling 2025 won't be much better, but I'd love to be proven wrong), there is something pretty interesting still hanging on at this former Albertsons site that will perk up everyone's interest as we kick off the new year on AFB. Overall, I would consider today's post an interesting compellation into the lifecycle of this property, as I've managed to gather some interesting views into the old Hudson Jewel-Publixsons before it was totally wiped away, along with my surprise discovery when visiting the property well into the current 45M Publix's tenure. As I try to expel those last few bad retail vibes of 2024 out of my system, hopefully you all find this store to be an interesting subject to kick off AFB's 12th(!) year online, so get comfy as we prepare to learn more about Pasco County's dearly departed Jewel-Publixsons:
Imagine walking into a store that's big, bright, beautiful - and full of all the things you've been looking for, but thought you'd never find. Acres of farm-fresh produce. An 80-item soup and salad bar. A bulk foods area that's barrels of fun. Fresh-caught seafood and custom-cut meats. An old fashioned deli and bake shop. And a Chef's Kitchen full of homemade specialties.
But that's not all. You'll also find discount drugs and prescriptions, one-hour photo processing, dazzling gold and silver jewelry, an amazing array of cosmetics and fragrances, the best seasonal merchandise section around - even a soda fountain, a newsstand, and a discount liquor store! And at Jewel Osco, Everyday Low Pricing saves you money every time you shop. Day in and day out, you'll save more at Jewel Osco. And if you're still not convinced, we only have one thing to say: seeing is believing!
Making its Floridian debut in March 1989 at Largo Mall, Jewel-Osco was trying to position itself as the most revolutionary grocery store concept to ever grace the Sunshine State. As you can tell by that dramatic description from the grand opening advertisement above, Jewel-Osco's "super" superstores - over 20,000 square feet larger than Albertsons' typical 55,000 square foot prototype of the time - had everything and then some you could ever want out of a grocery store - a Chef's Kitchen, a soda fountain, and even a jewelry counter! While Albertsons had been trying to play the one-stop shop game in Florida for 15 years before Jewel-Osco's entrance to the state, Jewel-Osco wanted to one-up Albertsons in just about every way with these new stores (a sentiment that may have stemmed from some lingering animosity in the air at Jewel-Osco's parent company, American Stores (née Skaggs), who were still bitter about how their partnership with Albertsons was dissolved in 1978).
Opening on November 1, 1989, the Hudson Jewel-Osco was the chain's third store to open in Florida, and the company's first to open outside of Pinellas County. Considering that Jewel-Osco's store number was #4100, I'd have to imagine this site in Pasco County was the very first selected by the company for a new store, although the Largo Mall (Store #4101) and Clearwater (Store #4102) stores ended up opening a few months before this one was completed. With an existing Family Mart-turned-Florida Choice superstore building right across the street from the new Hudson Jewel-Osco (which had transitioned to Kash n' Karry by the time Jewel-Osco opened in late 1989), it presented an interesting situation in the battle of the superstores in Pasco County. However, it wasn't Kash n' Karry's recently acquired superstores that had anything to worry about...
The Hudson Jewel-Osco was quite the draw on its opening day - just look at that crowd! Outside of the mayhem on the salesfloor, we do catch a small glimpse of the store's front end looking over toward produce. However, instead of trying to picture this store via a grainy black and white photo, be sure to check out this great Facebook album of full-color photos from some of the other Jewel-Osco stores in the area from their respective grand openings. I don't think any photos from Hudson are in that album (that I can tell, as I don't see any exterior photos of it), but all 7 of the Jewel-Osco stores that opened in Florida looked basically the same inside, and this store wouldn't have been any different.
While I don't think the arrival of Jewel-Osco was the direct cause behind this, over on Pasco County's US 19 corridor, Albertsons had two stores - one in Holiday (#4324) and one in Port Richey (#4340). While Albertsons saw quite a bit of success in Pinellas County just to the south, the company was struggling to make ends meet with its two original Pasco County stores. Store #4340 (the one a little closer to the Hudson Jewel-Osco, about 4 miles away) would end up closing in 1990 (mere months after Jewel-Osco's arrival), with #4324 surviving for another year before Albertsons sold that store to Winn-Dixie. I'm not really sure why Albertsons' original stores in Pasco County were flops, however, sometimes all it takes is a second chance:
Much like Albertsons' original Pasco County stores, Jewel-Osco wasn't having the best time wooing over Floridian shoppers either. Jewel-Osco's large, grandiose stores were expensive to run and weren't holding the momentum American Stores had hoped for, leading American Stores to once again surrender Florida to their rival Albertsons. It was announced in April 1992 that Albertsons would take over the 7 Floridian Jewel-Osco stores, and following a brief transitional period, this Jewel-Osco was now your store.
 |
| Albertsons #4403 Recreation courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
While Albertsons' first foray into Pasco County flopped, I would have to say the second time around in the old Jewel-Osco building went much better for Albertsons, with the new store lasting 16 years compared to the 13 years #4324 lasted, and #4340's 10 year run. Albertsons also remodeled store #4403 in the early 2000's, another sign this store was doing moderately well.
Also while researching Albertsons #4403, I found this interesting advertisement. For a period in the mid-late 1990's, Albertsons operated an in-store Blimpie counter at this location. This is the only Floridian Albertsons I've ever heard of with an in-store Blimpie counter, or any kind of non-Starbucks fast food partnership for that matter. I wonder if any other Floridian Albertsons stores had Blimpie counters, or if this was a one-off trial at this store considering it had quite a bit of room to spare?
Albertsons #4403 remained in business until 2008, when it became one of the 49 stores sold to Publix that year. Store #4403 was one of the faster conversions out of that batch, closing as Albertsons around September 2008 and reopening as a (very large) Classy Market 2.0 Publix on December 11, 2008.
Following the opening of the new super-sized Publix (store #1332) in December 2008, Publix decided to close an older location (store #295) two miles west of here in May 2009, considering #1332 its replacement. Store #295 must have been a very slow store or was soon to be up for replacement, as another Publix (store #487) lies about the same distance away from #1332 (but to the north) and was not phased by the opening of the new Jewel-Publixsons.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
During this store's time in operation, it was remodeled once more around in the 2015-2016 timeframe to Classy Market 3.0/Sienna. It is with that decor we will see this store in our brief tour of the interior I gathered from Google Maps, which interestingly enough for early 2025, still features more photos of the old Jewel-Publixsons than the current 45M (see - these funky Publix stores are much more photogenic!).
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
The exterior of this store wasn't really altered at all outside of the paint color from its construction in 1989 until 2017 when Publix...did what they did to this store. Still, it's quite interesting how 4 of these supersized Floridian grocery anomalies still exist in semi-original form as supermarkets too (granted, that's about to go down to 3 soon, but I'll rant about that later!).
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
For such a massive facade, that's quite the tiny sign Publix had! Looking at the other Jewel-Publixsons stores, it appears the size of the sign is more of an optical illusion in comparison to the size of the facade, and isn't really much smaller than the signs Publix would normally use.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Entering the store from the left-most entrance, here's a look across the front wall toward produce. As we've come to see in other Jewel-Publixsons stores, there's plenty of open space in this 75,000 square foot building.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Customer service was located along the front end near the rightmost set of doors. This was the last Jewel-Publixsons that kept customer service located along the front wall, as 3 of the remaining 4 stores (Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Bradenton) had customer service moved to an island near the rightmost doors during Publix's Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodels, and the 4th (Largo Mall) had customer service moved to an island during its remodel to Safeway in 2016 (and Publix kept Safeway's counter).
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
The produce department was located in the front right corner of the building, with the grand aisle of service departments running along the right side of the store behind produce.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Here's a closer look at the very spacious produce department, which was located under a lower ceiling compared to the rest of the store.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Publix's Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel to this building was rather cheap, and was nothing more than a repaint of the old Classy Market 2.0 colors and some new signs. The original lighting from Jewel-Osco/Albertsons was kept, and the floors retained Publix's beige tile pattern installed before the store opened in 2008. Another note of how cheap the Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel was is that remnants from Albertsons' decor were left behind following that remodel too. While many of Publix's initial Classy Market 2.0 remodels were cheap and tended to leave Albertsons remnants behind, the majority of Publix's later remodels remedied that situation. We've come to learn that when Albertsons remnants are left behind in Publix's later remodels to these buildings, that's typically not a good sign for their long-term prospects...
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
The previous two photos showcased the Publix Deli, located in an island in the grand aisle. The first photo showed a closeup of the Classy Market 3.0/Sienna deli sign and the painted over Industrial Circus remnants, with the second photo showing the deli with its previous Classy Market 2.0 paint scheme. Across from the deli island was the bakery, a closeup of that department's signage seen here.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Someone on Google really wanted nice closeups of the department signage! Meats and seafood were located on the store's back wall, just around the corner from the deli island and bakery.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Not the greatest photo in the world, but it gives us a quick glimpse of the center salesfloor.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
I wonder if the Coca-Cola vendor was the one who posted this photo on Google, as that's a very nicely stocked Coca-Cola aisle! In this photo we can also catch a glimpse of the Dairy signage as well as Publix's mid-2000's style tile pattern.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Health and beauty was located in the front left corner of the building near the pharmacy counter, which was located just our of frame to our left.
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
Our final interior photo of this store is another look across the front end, with the pharmacy visible in the background. Considering this store closed in 2017 for its rebuild, it's somewhat surprising Publix dumped a little money into a light remodel of this store only 2-ish years prior to that. However, this wouldn't be the first time I've seen Publix remodel a store that close to its day with the bulldozers. Considering that, I'm really surprised the famous Publix #172 in Naples (which only just closed for its remodel this past November) didn't get a cheap Classy Market 3.0/Sienna remodel like this in the mid-2010's, as that store was certainly overdue for a remodel by that point!
 |
| Photo courtesy of a Google Maps User |
A night shot of the exterior will complete our coverage of Publix #1332 while it was still open. Publix #1332 had a 9 year run, closing for good on November 11, 2017. While he was not able to make it to this store before it closed, YonWooRetail2 managed to pay this store a visit in the days after it closed and before demolition began, providing us with some interesting perspectives of this store awaiting its fate. We'll begin with a quick video of this store by YonWoo (which hopefully works - Blogger and embedded videos haven't worked well for me in the past), where he explains this store and some of the sights:
What's interesting is the guy who started talking to YonWoo seemed totally unfazed by the fact he was recording a video of the store - if only it could always be that way! After recording that video, Yon Woo also took some still photos which we'll take a look at now:
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Approaching the center doors, we see all the signage removed and the word "CLOSED" cryptically spray painted in red on the wall next to the center doors.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
The Publix labelscar above doesn't help the overall aesthetic of the place either...
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
…and the presence of the construction equipment confirms the inevitable.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
For some reason a chunk of the column by the center doors was ripped out. The opening in the column was originally confined to only the brown painted area, but someone wanted to make it larger by ripping out the lower gray painted portion too. I don't know what was there to warrant ripping that chunk of concrete out, but it just piled onto the feel that this building was about to come down.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Looking toward the right side of the building, we see the doors leading into the produce department and grand aisle where the columns flare outward.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Between those columns is another stucco arch under which we find the door, and through which we'll take a look at what remains of the store's interior:
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
If I remember correctly, YonWoo visited this store pretty close to the beginning of demolition. I believe the fixture auction had finished by the time these photos were taken, and what we see left in here was going to come down with the building. Anyway, here's a look through the right side door, looking toward the check lanes and the deli island.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
It looks like the power to the store had been disconnected, which is why it's dark in here. The power is usually cut off right after the auction company is finished with their sale.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Moving along to the center doors, here's a better look across the stripped apart salesfloor.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Lastly, moving over to the left doors near the pharmacy, we have a number of greeting card displays blocking our view into the building.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
Turning the other way, we get a view of the old pharmacy counter and left wall.
 |
| Photo courtesy of YonWooRetail2 |
This view of the left side entry facade will be out last of the building standing, as before long...
 |
| Photo courtesy of Suncoast News |
…this place will be nothing more than a pile of rubble. By late December 2017, that was all that was left of the old Hudson Jewel-Publixsons as machines were ripping away at what little was left of the building. YonWoo also managed to stop by this site yet again in August 2018, giving us another update on the new Publix store as it was nearing completion.
Only 9 months after the previous demolition photo was captured and one month after YonWoo's revisit, the new Publix #1597 was ready to open. The new store held its grand opening on September 15, 2018, a big downgrade (at least in terms of size) to what was once here.
The current Publix #1597 is one of Publix's 45M stores, which was Publix's default store design for much of the 2000's and 2010's. The name "45M" is derived from the fact that most of these stores are around 45,000 square feet in size, a nearly 30,000 square foot reduction compared to the Jewel-Osco structure this replaced. While it will be more apparent in the satellite images at the end of this post, Publix had so much extra space left over here that they were able to fit an attached liquor store and pharmacy drive through all within the footprint of the old Jewel-Osco - with room to spare!
On the right side of the building, a block wall connects the Publix Liquor store to the remaining storefronts left over from the original shopping center. Behind that block wall is just an open grassy area of extra space which opened up following the construction of Publix's smaller store. I don't know why Publix just left that as open space and didn't fill the gap with another storefront or two, as leasable space seems like a better return for that newly reclaimed area than grass.
Thankfully there was a decent amount of coverage of this building before it was demolished, to make up for the fact that my visit to the site of Albertsons #4403 didn't occur until Publix's new store was in place. Before we get to the fun stuff still lingering around at Tower Oaks Terrace, I suppose we'll take a quick walk through the current Publix store since we're already here:
Stepping through the door, our friends the Publix green beans are here to welcome us inside.
Being a textbook average 2018-built 45M Publix, we enter the store and turn to the right to find the floral department, with the bakery just beyond that.
Since the old store closed with Classy Market 3.0/Sienna, the new store didn't bring anything new to table decor-wise, other than the newbuild version of this decor looking much fancier than a cheap repaint version of it with Albertsons remnants intertwined within!
Following the bakery in the store's front right corner, we find its neighbor the deli further down along the right side wall.
Starting around 2018-ish, Publix began introducing the "Grab & Go" department in the deli, which consolidated most of the deli's pre-made single meals into one cooler with its own department sign, seen here in aisle 1.
Produce is located in the store's back right corner like normal - nothing too out of the ordinary here!
From produce, here's a look across the store's back wall. The meat and seafood counter is located straight ahead, with dairy further down the wall.
While I didn't get a close-up of the Seafood sign, I did get this one of the meat department. To the left of the meat window are the coolers of prepackaged meat items.
While I may have neglected that close-up of the seafood sign, we do get to see that again in this look down aisle 4, the breakfast aisle.
Returning to the front of the store, here's a photo across the front end looking toward the pharmacy.
Changing the angle just a bit, we get a quick glimpse of the customer service desk next to the check lanes.
While Publix had been hanging these seasonal photo banners over the aisles for years (going back to the 2000's at least), it seems like that tradition has been discontinued sometime in the last year or so. I guess printing all these banners every few months for over 1,300 stores was an easy expense to cut.
Frozen foods are located in the center of the store. I like the white trim used on the coolers in these later Classy Market 3.0/Sienna stores compared to the mustard yellow trim used in the earlier newbuilds.
Getting closer to the left side of the store, we find the start of the dairy department on the back wall. Like most other 45M Publix stores, dairy wraps around onto the left wall in the last aisle.
Aisle 12 is home to this store's selection of potent potables, probably making it popular with locals for that reason and not so much this aisle's internet fame.
As we move closer to the left side of the building, the pharmacy counter comes into view as well.
Since we're near the pharmacy, the grocery aisles also switch over to health and beauty and other non-foods products as well.
The last aisle in this store is aisle 16, which oddly enough, is one aisle more than the monster Jewel-Publixsons stores in Clearwater, Bradenton, and Palm Harbor have (those 3 max out at 15 aisles, even with 75,000 square feet to fill!) The fact that this 45,000 square foot store has one more aisle than its 75,000 square foot counterparts has to do with just how long the aisles in those Jewel-Publixsons buildings are, and their extra-wide widths from Publix trying to fill the space.
Before we head back outside, here's one final interior photo looking across the front check lanes.
Certainly not as exciting as a former Jewel-Osco building, but that's Publix #1597 in a nutshell. Considering how Hudson isn't quite as bustling of an area as Pinellas County or Bradenton, home to Publix's other inherited Jewel-Osco buildings, I can see why this was the first of those buildings to be cast off. A 75,000 square foot supermarket building is expensive to maintain, and this was probably a low volume store for Publix. Publix's 45M is pretty well-tailored for low-volume operations, and I think it fits the area better than its supersized predecessor.
The extra space left behind on the left side of the building was used to construct a pharmacy drive thru lane, with the remaining piece of the original shopping center seen just beyond that.
Moving out to the parking lot, I took this photo to demonstrate how this shopping center - Tower Oaks Terrace - got its name. The parking lot was filled with large old oak trees towering over the cars, these trees most likely original to the property with the parking area built around them.
From the edge of Publix's parking lot, looking across Little Road (which is anything but - it's a 6 lane major highway) is Florida's most newsworthy supermarket of the last year - Aldi. That Aldi was built on the site of an old Family Mart-turned-Florida Choice-turned-Kash n' Karry-turned-Sweetbay. Sweetbay closed that store in 2013 right before the company sold its remaining stores to Winn-Dixie that year, so that Aldi, at least, was not a product of Winn-Dixie's recent demise. The old Sweetbay was demolished in 2020 for that new Aldi, however, you can see some photos of the old Sweetbay in its abandoned state taken by YonWoo here.
Anyway, now that we've toured a modern Publix store and seen a modern Aldi, let's get to the fun part of this post - the part with the Albertsons relics:
Situated at the front of Tower Oaks Terrace at the property's main entrance from Little Road is this Valero gas station, also known as the former Albertsons Express gas station. Albertsons built this gas station in 2002, which probably lines up with the main store's remodel to Industrial Circus/Broadway. Google Street View gives us a very grainy look at this gas station from 2008, the same year Albertsons sold off many of their gas stations. The sale of the gas stations coincided with the sale of the 49 stores that same year to Publix, so this gas station would have closed around the same time as the main store in the summer of 2008.
Following the sale of this gas station to new ownership, it was rebranded from Albertsons Express to Citgo. The Citgo branding lasted until 2011, when the station rebranded again to Chevron. The Chevron branding was switched to Valero by 2015, the brand this station kept until early 2024, when it rebranded yet again - back to Chevron, interestingly enough.
Even with the many changes to livery on the gas canopy itself over the last 15 years, the old Albertsons Express convenience store building hasn't changed all that much since 2008, and that's where this post gets more interesting.
Considering the convenience store operators over the years couldn't even be bothered to remove the old Albertsons A-leaf logo from the front of the building, opting to cover it with a white box instead, you can probably imagine what else is lurking around this place! Strangely though, while the original 'Beverages' sign remains on the right side of the building, the matching 'Snacks' sign was removed at some point in the late 2010's. I can only imagine that sign was damaged in some way to cause its removal, considering how the A-leaf still prevails to this day under that white square!
Stepping inside the convenience store, we're welcomed to __ Express (and I think we all know what to fill in that blank with!).
Like the outside of the store, the original interior signs and decor from Albertsons remains, just sans the A-leaves. The product on the shelves is new though, as Albertsons for sure wouldn't be reselling Aldi brand cereals and Walmart brand ketchup in the convenience store like this!
The drink coolers were located along the left side of the convenience store, with the soda fountain located on the back wall with the coffee machine. The "deli" sign you see isn't very accurate anymore, as there wasn't much of anything deli related over here!
Turning our attention to the left wall though, a touch of Grocery Palace found its way into the Albertsons Express decor, with the row of drink coolers referred to as "Beverage Blvd". While not as grandiose as its Grocery Palace counterpart, finding a miniature Beverage Boulevard was a good way to make this visit a little more worthwhile!
Exiting the convenience store, we have one final thing to look at - the adjacent Albertsons Express Carwash! In Florida, Albertsons Express Carwashes were somewhat rare, as I believe carwashes were only included with Albertsons' later gas stations from the 2002-2003 era, when the last few of these were built around the state. What makes this Albertsons Express carwash interesting is that the handful of other carwashes built by Albertsons were typically attached to the back of the convenience store like this, while this one was totally freestanding off to the side of the convenience store building.
From the looks of it, it appears the carwash at this site hasn't been operational since Albertsons sold this gas station off (or at least since the very early days of this station under new ownership). As such, we still have an original Albertsons carwash menu board present, again, just with the A-leaf logo blacked out.
Unfortunately, either someone punched this sign or the wind blew something into it, causing the brittle sun-won plastic to crack like it did. Even with the crack though, we can still read just about all the services offered on it, from the Basic Wash all the way up to the premium tier "Ultimate Wash" (which included a clear coat and triple foam polish too).
If you look closely at the black square, you can still make out the Albertsons logo that is covering. From this zoomed-in level, you can also see how time hasn't been kind to the ink that was used to print the sign, with the letters cracking and peeling away and those bubbles looking like they're about to pop!
Here's one final look toward the closed-off entrance to the car wash, which doesn't appear to be reopening anytime soon (even with the recent rise in popularity of car washes down here - car washes are popping up on vacant land around here almost as fast as Dollar Generals!)
Along the road, the original Albertsons Express sign frame remains, although slightly modified from its original form following the station's transition to Valero. I also do not miss those gas prices like the one seen on this road sign in early 2022!
To wrap things up here, I have one final photo of the convenience store's facade, as see from over by the old carwash.
Walking back to the car, I followed the sidewalk along the back of the old Albertsons express and took this photo of the store's (now covered by advertisements) back window.
Even with the main store now but a memory, at least the former Albertsons Express gas station lives on to give us a small taste of one of the former grocers to occupy this property. While Jewel-Osco, Albertsons, and Publix have spent time at the northwestern corner of SR 52 and Little Road, as we begin our transition to satellite imagery, I'll take a moment to mention some of the other former names in grocery that spent time at this corner too:
Prior to Jewel-Osco's arrival at this intersection, two large supermarkets had originally been established this corner for quite some time. The first grocer to arrive on this corner was Family Mart at the northeastern quadrant in 1981, followed a year later by Winn-Dixie at the southwestern corner in the new Plaza of the Oaks, which also included co-anchors TG&Y, J. Byron's, Crafts Plus, and Eckerd Drugs. The first of these grocers to bow out was Winn-Dixie, who closed their store at Plaza of the Oaks in 2000, with half of their building now home to a Save A Lot. The Family Mart building, as mentioned previously, remained a supermarket until 2013, closing as a Sweetbay that year before being demolished for the current Aldi in 2020. In the present, that leaves this intersection with 3 grocers still, but those 3 are now Publix, Aldi, and Save A Lot - the new Floridian grocery trifecta?
That out of the way, let's switch over to the Bird's Eye aerial images of the old Albertsons site, courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front - These images were captured after the new Publix was built, so we'll be seeing that with its two orphaned portions of the original shopping center. To gain some better perspective of the new store versus the old one, remember the old Jewel-Osco building abutted those two pieces of the old shopping center.
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now the historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:
Former Albertsons #4403 - 2023
Former Albertsons #4403 - 2018 - The new Publix under construction
Former Albertsons #4403 - 2017 - The original building in place
Albertsons #4403 - 2007
Albertsons #4403 - 1995
Future Jewel-Osco #4100 and Albertsons #4403 - 1984
Lots of layers to this rather long post, but if you made it to this point, then you must be ready for another year of AFB! While there isn't much left of Albertsons #4403, at least we still have that old Albertsons Express gas station to remind us of what Publix wiped away. As we continue into 2025, I'll have plenty more to keep you entertained, with some interesting stores, current events, and at least one guest post planned for the coming months too. Be sure to come back in two weeks for more, and let's see what 2025 has in store!
So until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
