Sad looking Fry's store

[arizonaguy]

I went to a different Fry's today than I normally do to do my shopping (the store at 91st Ave. and Union Hills Rd) and came away very unimpressed with the store. The store is a former Smith's that has been renovated into the latest "standard" decor package. However the flooring and the lighting are awful in this store. Also, they seem to be only using 1/2 of the light fixtures in the store which (with very little natural light coming in due to the tiny ex-Smith's entry vestibule) made the store very dark inside and the overall condition of the store looks about on par with what I've seen at older Albertsons stores in the Phoenix area.

I've seen K-mart and Sears "cheap out" on lighting but this is a first for Frys (or Kroger). It's especially interesting as their main traditional competitor in the market (Safeway) is brightening up their stores.

See Photos:

[SamSpade]

Are you sure that's not a Smith's?

Man, all Kroger stores are getting the same decor, aren't they? Smith's Food and Drug in Idaho Falls, Idaho looks exactly like this except with stained ceiling tiles. The lighting there is 100% on most of the time, but I've seen it at half illumination in evenings. So what's with this Fry's leaving the canned goods in boxes? Makes it look like a warehouse grocer.

[arizonaguy]

Are you sure that's not a Smith's?

Man, all Kroger stores are getting the same decor, aren't they? Smith's Food and Drug in Idaho Falls, Idaho looks exactly like this except with stained ceiling tiles. The lighting there is 100% on most of the time, but I've seen it at half illumination in evenings. So what's with this Fry's leaving the canned goods in boxes? Makes it look like a warehouse grocer.

Kroger seems to have 3 modern decor packages. The "Fresh Fare / Signature" package (which appears did not get implemented in Texas), this decor (which is by far the most common), and the "Marketplace / Fred Meyer" decor package.

The reason I posted this as this was what a typical Fry's store looked like (with a different decor package) in the early - mid 2000s. Fry's had a number of "nasty" or "worn" stores. They've cleaned most of them up to where this is now an out-liar.

Most of the ex-Smiths stores look like this:

[storewanderer]

I've seen Smiths dim the lights after about 10 PM (this has been happening since Smiths was an independent company) and sometimes it gets VERY dark in the stores; so dark that I am surprised there have not been some slip and fall cases.

This store looks a lot better than the Sparks, NV or Carson City, NV Smiths which only got partial new floors in their remodels and also still feature old tan shelves throughout. The Sparks store is the worst; part of the perimeter has a new floor, part has an old tan floor with various patchwork replacements.

If you want to see a really crappy Frys I suggest 520 East Baseline. Maybe it has been remodeled since my last visit which was some years ago but I cannot find any concrete evidence. Also I don't know if it is still the case but 2250 East Baseline got the last Frys interior before Kroger standard interiors started to be used.

[arizonaguy]

I drove by the Fry's at 4353 W Bethany Home Rd, Glendale, AZ 85301 and noticed that it had a "unique" interior (that I haven't seen at any other Fry's). I assume this is the last Fry's interior before Kroger standard interiors started to be used as it seems to have a "southwest" theme missing on later decor packages.

Here are some photos from Yelp of this decor:

http://s3-media4.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/ ... klEA/o.jpg

http://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/ ... Rgfg/o.jpg

http://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/ ... q5hg/o.jpg

I prefer this decor package to the current Kroger one in the OP as well as the package at the beginning of this post.

After some observation, I also have noticed that it seems to be a chain-wide decision by Fry's to dim the lights. Every store is a bit different on how they choose to implement it. Some stores, like the one in the OP, shut down every other row of lights. What's more common in my observations since the OP is that stores will shut off every other set of lights in a row. Which is similar to what I've observed in Sears or K-mart.

Also, one thing I didn't really pay a lot of attention to, but I have recently noticed, is that many of the Kroger built late 1980s - 1999 stores all follow a common template (with some variation):

- Stores are fairly narrow front to back but are very wide side to side
- One side of the store contains liquor (on the front corner nearest to customer service)/deli/bakery/produce while the other side contains the pharmacy (on the front corner nearest to the bank if the store has a bank)/health and beauty/restrooms
- Floral is adjacent to the closest entrance to the liquor/deli/bakery/produce side of the store
- There is only 1 service counter (a service deli). There is no bakery, meat, or seafood service counter. I believe bakery items may be ordered at the deli counter.
- Baked goods are located on the far rear corner of the store (adjacent to the service deli)
- Precut meat and dairy is located along the rear wall.

Essentially, these stores are on par with the majority of Walmart Neighborhood Markets in terms of the lack of service counters with only a deli (although the deli is much more extensive than a Walmart Neighborhood Market deli). This also was the almost the entire Kroger Arizona store base until the 1999 merger. Kroger has closed a handful of stores of this design (and one of it's new Marketplace stores will replace another). Due to their design, (especially the low ceiling many of them have in the health and beauty area) they feel a lot more cramped than the Safeway and Albertsons stores built during the same area.

I am curious if this is a Kroger design unique to Fry's or if this has been implemented across its other divisions as well.

After the 1999 integration of the Smith's and Smitty's / Fred Meyer Marketplace stores into Fry's, Kroger built all new stores to have separate bakery and deli counters as well as a service meat and seafood counter (which is what the Smith's and Smitty's / Fred Meyer Marketplace stores have).

Going back to the discussion about Kroger and uniqueness, a Yelp search led me to a unique Fry's store in Tucson that isn't on the Boar's Head deli program and instead has a Hispanic themed deli that also serves gelato:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/frys-food-and-d ... s-tucson-7

The thing is that neither the Fry's website nor the store's name (as it's the standard "Fry's Food & Drug") would lead one to believe that it was a Hispanic themed Fry's store until one walked through the door.

[klkla]

Going back to the discussion about Kroger and uniqueness, a Yelp search led me to a unique Fry's store in Tucson that isn't on the Boar's Head deli program and instead has a Hispanic themed deli that also serves gelato:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/frys-food-and-d ... s-tucson-7

The thing is that neither the Fry's website nor the store's name (as it's the standard "Fry's Food & Drug") would lead one to believe that it was a Hispanic themed Fry's store until one walked through the door.

I did a quick demographic search of the area:

51% White
36% Latino
6% Black
1% Asian

The immediate area around the store is moderate income (30K-$50K household income).

I'm guessing a Latino-named format might not appeal to the non-Latino majority in the area but there is a large enough Latino population to warrant carrying products that will appeal to them, as well.

[storewanderer]

The design described of pre 1999 Frys is very much like a Dillons and Dillons has many of those still open. They would have a seafood department in the angled area of meat but maybe it was closed in the noted location.

Save Mart is down to just one store like this in Antioch on Contra Loma. The other Save Mart in Antioch on 18th Street was an older, smaller Frys with a small service bakery, no deli.

The interior shown is actually the Food 4 Less interior.