You're right. The backroom areas of the stores were reduced by the amount of space needed for the kitchens of the Bakery/Deli/Panda Express departments in the center of the store which made the stores feel larger overall.storewanderer wrote:But on my more recent visits to Pavilions they do feel like they are in the 55k square foot range. I think it is also somewhat difficult to estimate size in these as the deli/bakery area sits in the middle of the store. Normally that is off on the walls and that space does not feel like "part of the store." In Pavilions, it does feel like part of the store.
When Vons started building larger stores to compete with Smiths they really struggled with how to handle all the extra selling space. The first of these large stores, which opened in Simi Valley, had an entire aisle of Rubbermaid items. They were intended as high-margin impulse items but just sat on the shelf. Sales were horrible.
In California we have too many options for buying life's necessities and for our grocery stores we really only want to buy groceries. We don't want to buy our clothes there. We don't want to by our furniture there. Just sell us good food at a reasonable price and don't waste our time with all the rest. We don't have time for it.