Beyond Northern Florida Retail Blog
Albertsons #4290
480 NW Parkway St.
Azle, TX
Why the Azle, TX Albertsons?
I'm a huge Albertsons fan and sadly I'd have to relocate to Southern Louisiana, the DFW area of Texas, or somewhere in the Rockies or the West Coast to experience Albertsons on a regular basis.
Albertsons has been continuously retreating from the South since 2002. We thought Florida would still have been able to hang on to a few Albertsons stores here in 2021, but nope! The Albertsons banner officially ended in Florida in May of 2016 when stores in Oakland Park, Largo, and Altamonte Springs converted to Safeway (probably a mistake in and of itself right there). Safeway ended in August of 2018 when they sold to Publix. Publix is an awesome company. That said though, I feel we have few grocery store options in Florida anymore, and unfortunately I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Winn Dixie has opened a few bright and exciting new stores in former Earth Fare and Lucky's Market locations, but after all that's been said and done Winn-Dixie is still Winn Dixie. For me personally Winn Dixie is simply an ok grocery store, not fantastic like Publix or Harris Teeter though. One of Winn Dixie's biggest weaknesses is their lack of good customer service. Also the Self- Checkout machines are aweful, even compared with Walmart's machines. Winn Dixie stores now are more in par with a Food Lion or an old run down Kroger in the Midwest.
For those of you familiar with my flickr stream :YonWooRetail2, I have a special interest in recreating Florida Albertsons stores. Since Albertsons no longer has any Florida stores, I specifically choose Louisiana and Texas as recreation photo samples, as those two states still have Albertsons stores in places where competitors such as Brookshires, Kroger, and especially H-E-B have not sent them packing (yet).
When I browsed Google maps, I came across this seemingly early 2000's Albertsons store in Azle, TX.
When I went to look at photos of the inside (3 years ago) it excitingly had Grocery Palace decor still in tact!
Doing a little research, I learned that Albertsons #4290 opened in March of 2000, right in par with when 'Grocery Palace' stores were being built in Florida.
Up until 2019 this place donned that extravagant decor package on the inside. That's 19 years!!
Then again, Albertsons wasn't in tip top shape financially, up until 2013, when the company got itself back together and reformed into somewhat of the original company and relocating corporate offices back in Boise.
In 2019, Albertsons went ahead with a remodel as they finally attained financial backing through Cerberus for a major remodel campaign, ripping out the awesome Grocery Palace and replacing it with what is officially called the Legacy Package as per this web site:
https://cdscandoit.com/work/albertsons/
While the Legacy Package looks neat and clean, it's nowhere near as exciting as Grocery Palace.
Here below, I will share with you some photos taken by several individuals who posted to Google during Albertsons #4290's transition from Grocery Palace to Legacy Package.
Probably the saddest thing to see here is construction workers dismantling the 'Dairy Barn' as well as the 'Internation Deli' decorative sign, which was quite large and heavy looking!
My favorite! That giant leaf logo right on the floor waiting to greet you as you walk in.
And now for some photos from Carlos Sanchez, who appears to be one of the construction crew who photographed the store during its transition.
Like I said of Legacy, it doesnt look bad at all, but it doesn't put you into another dimension quite like Grocery Palace.
Wow, awesome finds with those photos of the remodel in progress and that website of the décor installers! It's neat to finally have a name to the Legacy package, as well as to see that there are actually some subtle differences between multiple versions of it. For example, some of the signs on that Legacy page match what's shown on the Jewel-Osco page on the same website, but others don't. The Jewel-Osco décor more closely matches what the ACME Style blog calls Quality Built décor. (My favorite Albertsons décor on that website, though, would have to be the Heritage one -- that looks pretty good!)
ReplyDeleteAll that said, though, I do agree with you that none of those other packages can transfer you into a different dimension quite like Grocery Palace could. It's sad to see yet another store lose its props, but if there's any upside to the remodel, I'd definitely say that it's being able to see the décor removal in progress from those Google pictures. Those are amazing! A portion of the process we don't usually get to see. Very cool.
Thanks! I totally agree with you on the Heritage package. I believe that's what most of the southern Louisiana stores remodeled to between 2017 and 2019. That decor incorporates local flare, like "Louisiana Proud" or "Serving Lake Charles since 1992".
DeleteI keep having to remind myself that Jewel Osco and Acme shared the same decor packages as Albertsons. I have seen that blog too; it's cool! I especially like to see those early 2000's Acme stores around Philly with Blue & Green Awnings, as AFB calls it.
You're welcome! It's cool to hear that a bunch of the stores in that area have that look now. The local flair is great.
DeleteHaha, yep! And yeah, ACME Style is awesome. I think I liked his Industrial Circus posts the most. Of course, I was also completely enthralled when ACME bought out a lot of the A&P stores up there and proceeded to rebrand and remodel lots of them. But seeing the old A&P, Pathmark, etc. décor packages stay intact sometimes was just as fun as well!