🎵My Dollar Goes Far at Save A Lot🎵

Save-A-Lot #114

2605 NW 13th Street

Gainesville Plaza

Gainesville, FL

Save -A-Lot to my knowledge entered Florida in the 1980's. But I'm not sure about that. Maybe some of you other retail fans could fill me in on the correct answer. From the look of it, it appears Gainesville's original Save-A-Lot (the store in this post) opened sometime back in the 90's. Again, I'm not sure of the precise date on that either. I do know one thing; Save-A-Lot felt good enough about the Gainesville Market (or perhaps local politicians insisted) that the abandoned Food Lion in east Gainesville should be occupied by another grocery store. Publix won't touch each Gainesville with a 39 1/2 foot pole. 

 There have been many articles in the Gainesville Sun over the last 2 decades which have spoken of the blight in east Gainesville. Save-A-Lot did in fact move into the left half of Former Food Lion #1154 which opened back in 1993. In January of 2013, just 9 months after Food Lion exited Florida, Save-A-Lot opened store #798 in former store #1154's space. One would think that since east Gainesville is an impoverished area that a deep discount food store like Save-A-Lot would do well. At first it looked like Save-A-Lot would thrive over in east Gainesville, but on September 6, 2017 after just 4 1/2 years in business, Save-A-Lot shuttered their east Gainesville store. So the blight continues. 

I used to run a Little Debbie Snacks route over in primarily east Gainesville and my sales records did in fact show a slow and steady decline in sales. During the store's last year in operation (from Fall 2016 to September 2017, my overall sales dipped by 7%). That doesn't sound like a huge dip, but that was for non-essential snack cakes. Sales on other more important food items must have suffered much worse. After a little inquiry from an employee of the closed east side Gainesville Save-A-Lot I was told that the store suffered from shrink. I can believe that, as east Gainesville does have the highest crime rates in the whole area. 

Anyway, that's the short history of the fairly short-lived Save-A-Lot on Hawthorne Rd. Now lets get to the subject of this post, The Gainesville Plaza Save-A-Lot, the only remaining such store in Gainesville. 

So, let's get right to it. I'm interested in seeing what savings I can unlock, but more importantly what real changes have taken place for Save-A-Lot on the inside?

This is it?! Well, I can't expect too much revamp for a low budget low cost grocery chain like Save-A-Lot. However, I will say this; the interior repaint is much better than that awful red they used to have the walls painted. I still believe Winn-Dixie made a big mistake with the excessive red used in their latest Down Down remodels. That red paint is going to look old in 5 years or less. My wife even complained of getting a headache from seeing all the red in the remodeled Dunnellon Winn-Dixie. 

This is the front end facing left where the Produce department is (and was before the remodel), in the left front corner by the entrance. 

Save-A-Lot did do some switching around in here. after walking into the store and turning to the right past the cash registers you walk past shelves the include the store's pet foods and a few supplies. I believe some baked goods used to be located here before.

As I was headed over to the right side of the store I took this picture down aisle 5, the next to last aisle. I actually toured this store backwards. After entering I was supposed to walk strait ahead after Produce and into the grocery aisles containing snacks and refrigerated foods in coffin cases. They do keep this store neat and tidy looking. Although for me, it still has that classic old grocery store smell (if you know what I mean). 

On aisle 6 is Frozen Foods. Some of these coolers look new (the black ones to my left). On the opposite side of the aisle are cleaning supplies such as laundry detergent, dryer sheets, bleach, dish soap and paper products. 

Here's aisle 6 looking the other way toward the back of the store. Just past the Frozen Foods is the small Dairy department. I gotta give Save-A-Lot credit; the new signage looks pretty good!

Here's aisle 4 which contains snacks, beverages, and baking supplies. 

And for the next aisle over, Aisle 3, we find canned goods, rice and Ethnic Foods. 

Cuts & Chops; this is not a wording for signage that I've seen in any other grocery store. But, I guess if you're quickly looking for Cuts of meat or Pork Chops, then you won't have trouble locating them in your newly remodeled Save-A-Lot. 

Turning just a tad to my right with the handy cellphone, we get to see more of that gray paint on the back wall, with the back room doors located between the Cuts & Chops and Deli Meats. Really Save-A-Lot would be your perfect store just to pick up the essentials (if you're not a picky shopper wanting food made with the finest ingredients, and minimally processed). However, like I stated in my previous upload to flickr, Save-A-Lot still pales in comparison to the better shopping experience of Aldi.

 On top of that Aldi sells much better quality food than Save-A-Lot. Heck, Aldi's private label brands are as good or better than the generic Publix brand and Walmart's Great Value brand. 

As I turn around to face the front, you get a good look down the far left aisle which contains more snacks, such as nuts and snack cakes. If you're in the need for granulated sugar, it appears that Save-A-Lot has it in abundance this week!

Why don't we get one more look down Aisle 2. This aisle is divide from Aisle 1 by the coffin cooler. On the left side (in the direction I'm facing in this photo) are cooking oils, condiments, and other similar supplies. 

Just before checkout, I took this last quick shot at the Produce department. I've always heard that Save-A-Lot has decent produce and its very cheap, but I've never bought any produce from Save-A-Lot before. 

So That's it! Save-A-Lot is trying to hang on to the customers they have. I guess they still have their niche. If more Save-A-Lot shoppers tried out Aldi, I believe they'd make the switch. 

As you all may know, Albertsons is still my favorite national grocery store to this day (and Safeway), However, that's obviously not an option in these parts anymore. So I guess I have to choose Publix as my favorite traditional grocery store in Florida. However, when my wife introduced me to Aldi in 2016 I was skeptical at first. But after trying many items from them, I can say that I am a solid Aldi convert! 

By the way, The heading for this post was an actual jingle that Save-A-Lot used over their store's PA system back about 6 years ago. I was working as a snack cake vendor and was subjected to that horrible jingle every time I visited this Save-A-Lot. It made me want to rip my hair out!

Here is that awful jingle:
https://youtu.be/689SubyUw0g

I hope everyone has a Happy and delicious Thanksgiving feast tomorrow!

until next time,

Yon Woo