Former Albertsons #4344 - Clearwater, FL (Countryside Shops)

Side view of Albertsons #4344 as seen from US 19 - 2007 Google Streetview

Albertsons #4344 / Planned Publix #1310

26583 US Highway 19 North, Clearwater, FL - Countryside Village

Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail

     Of Clearwater's 3 former Albertsons stores, one was famous for being the very first Albertsons in all of Florida, one was famous for being a rather well-preserved mid-1990's Albertsons relic into the early 2020's, and the other was just...well...there. Sadly, poor Albertsons #4344 by Clearwater's Countryside Mall didn't have much notoriety going for it in terms of historical or retail nerd significance, and as such, has become one of the lesser talked-about former Albertsons stores in Pinellas County. It's a shame that is, as there are some oddities about this store, particularly involving what happened to it in the first few years after it closed. Today I'll finally give former Albertsons #4344 its time to shine, so lets learn a little more about this store and the unusual circumstances that became of it after it closed:

     Albertsons #4344 was built on a prime piece of property across the street from Clearwater's Countryside Mall. While currently Northern Pinellas County's only indoor shopping mall (and a very successful one at that), Countryside Mall was actually the newest of the 3 malls that once called Clearwater home, opening for business on September 8, 1975. Even though Pinellas County has a decent population, 3 malls was still a bit excessive for Clearwater, with mall bloat cited as the reason for the eventual closure of Countryside's two primary competitors in town - Sunshine Mall and Clearwater Mall. There's plenty to read online about the many malls of past and present in Clearwater (available at those links I provided) so I won't stray too far into the details of that, but needless to say Albertsons picked a good spot for a new grocery store.

     Albertsons' new store was to be part of a larger shopping center called Countryside Village, an entertainment complex sorts with over 250,000 square feet of space (inclusive of Albertsons' 55,000 square foot box, the largest store in the new center). 

     Countryside Village began construction in January 1981, with a projected opening for the majority of the tenants by November of that year, just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

     Outside of Albertsons, the other tenants in Countryside Village would skew more toward restaurants, entertainment, and specialty stores. A small movie theater and a new restaurant called Pizza Time Theatre (a former spin-off concept from the Chuck E. Cheese company) would serve as junior anchors to Albertsons, alongside a number of smaller tenants.

     Looking at the tenant line-up and considering how Countryside Village was designed to be a higher-end skewing specialty-store and entertainment district, Albertsons seemed like a strange choice to be the anchor of this strip. I feel like a department store or even Publix would have made more sense to anchor Countryside Village, but the pairing with Albertsons seemed to work out in the end - the Albertsons lasted for quite a long time. Albertsons remained at Countryside Village until 2008, and received two large remodels during its tenure here - one in 1991 (presumably to Blue and Gray Market from its original 70's Stripes decor, that remodel mentioned in the above clipping) and another ca. 2003 to presumably Industrial Circus/Broadway (probably looking very similar to what you'll see at that link, just with this store being a mirror). Unfortunately I've never seen any interior photos of this store as an Albertsons, so my guesses on the decor packages are based solely on the timeframes of the remodels and characteristics of the exterior modifications.

     In May 1994, a rather strange shoplifting event occurred at Albertsons #4344. After being apprehended by a security guard and handcuffed (I didn't realize store security even had such power), a man who attempted to leave the store with 4 video tapes and 3 bottles of sunscreen without paying made an unusual escape attempt.

     The man ran out of the upper-level security office, onto a catwalk, and leaped onto the store's suspended ceiling. Since a suspended ceiling can't hold much weight, the suspect ended up crashing through the ceiling and landing on his head in front of the meat counter, suffering traumatic injuries. Had the man just waited for police to arrive, he most likely would have been let go with a summons -  another remainder that is does not pay to outrun the law.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     Back when I was first putting together this blog, I swear I came across a really nice picture or two of this store when it was still open as an Albertsons. Back then I downloaded anything I could find that was somehow related to a Florida Albertsons store, but I have no idea what I could have done with those pictures - they weren't in my usual download place. Unless I dreamed up those pictures, these few blurry Google Streetview images of the store are what we'll have to use today to show what this place looked like as an Albertsons. While a typical Skaggs-era holdout building like this at its core, the building was dressed up in its 2003 remodel with a reconfigured entryway, complete with a decorative arch similar to the one installed over the liquor store and side entrance (which is a little clearer in the GSV image I started this post with).

     Albertsons #4344 was included in the sale of 49 stores to Publix in 2008, a sale that wiped out 13 of Pinellas County's 15 Albertsons stores at the time. While there's no shortage of Publixsons stores in Pinellas County because of that sale, something strange happened with Albertsons #4344 - Publix never opened a store here.

     Going as far as assigning this building a store number (#1310) and applying for a pharmacy license, Publix ultimately chose not to reopen this store under their own brand, a fate suffered by only one other Albertsons store purchased by Publix in that batch (#4315 in Tallahassee). In #4315's case, Publix had just opened a brand new store across the street from that building two years prior to acquiring it. As such, Publix wasn't going to relocate that store to an old Albertsons, and even though it's Publix we're talking about, they didn't open it as a "relief" location either (like what happened with #4302, included in that same deal). As such, Publix originally intended to convert #4315 into a 1st Gen Greenwise Market, a plan that was eventually aborted once Publix quietly decided they weren't going to move forward with opening any more of those stores by late 2008. My guess is that old #4344 was also on track to become a Greenwise Market as well, and why it suffered the same fate that #4315 did. Publix already had a nice cluster of stores around here (the closest being 2 miles to the east), so I wouldn't be surprised if this location presented itself as a potential for Greenwise, especially since both the Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton Greenwise stores were located in high-profile upscale shopping centers across from or next to a mall like this building was. Even after Greenwise was phased out, Publix let go of this location instead of opening it as a regular Publix, which could have worked, considering the slight buffer between stores and the eventual closure of the Sunset Point Publix a little to the south of here in 2012 also.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     In 2011, once Publix decided this building wasn't for them, they sold it to Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's ripped apart this former Albertsons and ultimately made it unrecognizable as a supermarket. As a concession though, Google Street View drove by the building as it was in mid-conversion, and you can see some interesting perspectives of it by clicking around here.

     Other than being a little bigger than a typical non-House of Sport Dick's store, there really isn't anything to differentiate this location from any other store in the Dick's chain these days.

     Dick's even took the effort to stucco over the original river rock panels on the building's exterior, leaving nothing much from Albertsons except the original sidewalk ramps.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     Since they were still visible in GSV, here's a look at the original river rock panels before they were covered over. The GSV clipping you see above is the same section of wall we just saw one photo back in modern times.

     Although completely rebuilt, Dick's main entrance is located in the same place where Albertsons' main entrance once was.

     Heading inside, we see the building was totally stripped to the walls, leaving behind nothing supermarket related. The photo above is looking straight down the middle of the store from the front doors to the back.

     This particular Albertsons store was a mirror of this one, with the grand aisle on the left side of the building and Health and Beauty, the pharmacy, and the liquor store off to the right.

     Looking from the right side of the building toward the left, Dick's clothing departments take up what would have been the health and beauty area, looking toward the former bakery on the other side of the building.

     Knowing I wasn't going to see much in here, I just did a quick lap around the store's perimeter walkway, taking a few overview photos from each end as I breezed through.

     Taken from the former produce department at the back left corner of the store, here's a look toward the old bakery and deli departments on the left side of the building.

     Even for being an oversized store compared to Dick's usual, there was no shortage of stuff in here. I guess with the new 120,000 square foot House of Sport stores, filling a 55,000 square foot location is nothing for them!

     Here's another look across the center of the building, this time from the old grand aisle back toward health and beauty.

     I guess there is one thing that Dick's Sporting Goods and Albertsons have in common - they both sell items to make a better batter! Now that I finally found a way to slip that one in, it's time to head back outside for some final exterior photos of this store:

     While the background story is interesting, this really isn't the most exciting former Albertsons out there, which is why this store has faded away more than some of its former cohorts in town, and throughout the county.

     Looking down the right side of the building, you can barely see where the old right side entrance was closed in. The side entrance was located where the first light on the side wall is now, the patch only noticiable as the stripe at the top of the wall where the entrance was closed in is thinner than the rest.

     Even though Dick's changed pretty much everything they could have with the building itself, the road sign facing US 19 is a direct Albertsons relic, about the only obvious sign of Albertsons ever having spent time on this property anymore.

     Being that the Albertsons tour was rather lackluster, let's take a quick walk around the rest of Countryside Village to see what that's all about:

     Unlike its more specialty nature from when it was first built, Countryside Village has pivoted these days into being a rather plain big box power center, anchored by many of the stalwarts you'd expect from such a center these days. Countryside Village's current anchor tenants, outside of Dick's, are TJMaxx, Home Goods, and Ross Dress for Less - Home Goods in particular pictured above. Home Goods was built on top of what used to be the Countryside Village movie theater.

     Dollar Tree serves as a junior anchor to the strip, nestled between Home Goods and Ross.

     Countryside Village is comprised of two primary strips of stores, with the one containing Home Goods and Ross located on the eastern side of the property across from the strip featuring the former Albertsons and TJMaxx.

     At the very back of the property is this 3rd strip of retail, comprised of smaller storefronts and built entirely over a pond. You access this part of the strip via a series of foot bridges, and it's actually a unique and creative design to fit more retail onto what most would look at as unbuildable space.

     Looking back toward the portion of the center where Albertsons used to be, here's a peek at the center's TJMaxx store.

     Party City served as another anchor to Countryside Village, however this store closed with the rest of the chain in 2024. Its space appears to remain vacant as of mid-2026.

     So that's about it for our tour of Countryside Village, which isn't much more exciting than the former Albertsons it's attached to. Anyway, to wrap things up, here's our look at some satellite imagery of the former Albertsons store, starting with some Bird's Eye aerial images:

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side

     And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2023 - The former Albertsons is the large building with the white roof closest to the interchange.

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2012

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2010 - The store is closed, but still in original form here.

Albertsons #4344 - 2007

Albertsons #4344 - 2002 - The building as it looked before its early 2000's remodel

Albertsons #4344 - 1995

Albertsons #4344 - 1985

Future Albertsons #4344 - 1971 - Back when Pinellas County still had large tracts of open land available.

     Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see here at the site of former Albertsons #4344 in terms of supermarket relics. As such, for something a little more interesting, you can skip over to MFR to see another former supermarket practically next door that has a few more pieces of the past to see. In two weeks we'll be back in this general area for a tour of a currently operating supermarket that's much, much more interesting to look than this, so things will pick up here on the eastern fringes of Clearwater soon! 

Be sure to come back then, so until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger