New Albertsons Interior Southern California

[brendenmoney]

When I visit the Albertsons at the Colonies Crossroads in Upland a few days ago, I was surprised to see that they renovated the store to a whole new interior decor package that I have never seen before, and am surprised no one has mentioned before. While I think everyone on this forum would agree that there are still better decor packages out there, this new interior is certainly a huge a step up from Modern/Safeway Florida that Albertsons has made pretty much mainstream on all Albertsons/Vons/Safeway remodels for the past few years. It does have a lot of use of the color blue in the front of the store, almost reminding me of Walmart's new store remodels in a way, as well as a heavy emphasis on the word "neighbor." Interestingly, there is only one use of the Albertsons leaf logo throughout the entire store, which I do think raises some questions in terms of how this store would be rebranded in their merger with Kroger (should that happen), since both Ralphs and Vons have red logos, so I feel that this interior wouldn't fit those two brands very well unless maybe all the blue is swiftly repainted red if rebranded.

Here are some photos of the store:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/199217062 ... 316754823/

I'm very curious if anyone knows what this interior is called, or if they have seen it or something similar in any other Albertsons owned store throughout the country. Since I don't believe it to be very widespread yet, it makes me wonder if Albertsons cooked up this new interior to test out in the Inland Empire in response to Stater's major remodeling campaign that is spreading like wildfire across the region to all their stores. I still think Stater put's more effort into their remodels, but at least Albertsons is trying to come up with something better than they have been using.

[storewanderer]

Never seen this interior before but see a lot of elements of the Florida decor mixed into it notably the font of some of the secondary signage.

I'd eliminate the heavy emphasis on the word "neighbor" (reminds me too much of Fresh & Easy or Ikea or something foreign) and other than that this looks great. It helps that it is on a nice modern store that has had multiple remodels including the Haggen to and from, and is in great condition from the start.

Not sure this would look as good with a lousy lit beat up Lifestyle Vons with smaller wall space for fixtures, a drop ceiling, screwed up lighting, and flooring coming up. But on these modern structures this looks fantastic. Far better than the Florida decor.

[ClownLoach]

Never seen this interior before but see a lot of elements of the Florida decor mixed into it notably the font of some of the secondary signage.

I'd eliminate the heavy emphasis on the word "neighbor" (reminds me too much of Fresh & Easy or Ikea or something foreign) and other than that this looks great. It helps that it is on a nice modern store that has had multiple remodels including the Haggen to and from, and is in great condition from the start.

Not sure this would look as good with a lousy lit beat up Lifestyle Vons with smaller wall space for fixtures, a drop ceiling, screwed up lighting, and flooring coming up. But on these modern structures this looks fantastic. Far better than the Florida decor.

Let's call it "Modern Neighborhood."

Definitely looks like a reworked version of the Florida/Modern decor. There is a lot going on there. I agree that the hanging frame elements would not work without a nice modern building like that with high open ceilings. Makes me think of Whole Foods when I see the signage with letters on individual boards. There is another interesting tidbit in there that makes me wonder who designed this... There is a wall sign that says "High Quality High Standards" which reminds me of the classic Ralphs decor from the 80s and 90s which had trim that said "Lower Prices Higher Standards" on the walls. Another oddity is the phrase "Proud to be Local" all over the store... This is a chain headquartered in Idaho which is not local at all. And yes, it's a lot of "Neighbor" language which makes me a little concerned as that phrase comes off badly in a big chain. I will forever associate that with a little produce stand I used to visit in La Costa where the owner would proudly and sincerely greet customers with "Hello, Neighbor!" and if he rang up a transaction would say "Thank you Neighbor!" as you left. That was a true neighborhood institution and was never the same after he retired.

And there definitely are strong hints of a blending of the current "Hexagon decor" and "Neighborhood" decor from Kroger that are seen at remodeled Fred Meyer, a couple Ralphs Fresh Fare (San Clemente Talega and La Jolla), and many other Ralphs stores that just have "Neighborhood" with maps of the community and names of local parks and landmarks.

But then I also see some call outs to the Jewel decor that is disappearing from SoCal, might only be a few stores left like Quail Hill. They have some wall graphics including a rose that looks like it is made of metal for example, something similar on the wall by Dairy. So I wonder if this is a new decor package that originated in the Jewel stores and nobody had picked up on it yet, but it has now made it to SoCal. It would be a perfect update for that design.

One thing I would change is the use of the startling "Walmart Blue" that is on a few walls, the hanging light fixtures over the registers, basically anywhere that blue is used inside this building. It is very strange to see that almost electric blue as it clashes strongly with the pastel colors in the rest of the store especially the Pistachio green that is in the front end, yuck is all I can say to that color combo. I get that it is the color of the Albertsons sign, but it just doesn't look right in there. I would bet you $100 that they've already had at least one customer ask if Walmart now owns/operates the store because of that blue.

So yeah, "Modern Neighborhood."

[veteran+]

When I visit the Albertsons at the Colonies Crossroads in Upland a few days ago, I was surprised to see that they renovated the store to a whole new interior decor package that I have never seen before, and am surprised no one has mentioned before. While I think everyone on this forum would agree that there are still better decor packages out there, this new interior is certainly a huge a step up from Modern/Safeway Florida that Albertsons has made pretty much mainstream on all Albertsons/Vons/Safeway remodels for the past few years. It does have a lot of use of the color blue in the front of the store, almost reminding me of Walmart's new store remodels in a way, as well as a heavy emphasis on the word "neighbor." Interestingly, there is only one use of the Albertsons leaf logo throughout the entire store, which I do think raises some questions in terms of how this store would be rebranded in their merger with Kroger (should that happen), since both Ralphs and Vons have red logos, so I feel that this interior wouldn't fit those two brands very well unless maybe all the blue is swiftly repainted red if rebranded.

Here are some photos of the store:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/199217062 ... 316754823/

I'm very curious if anyone knows what this interior is called, or if they have seen it or something similar in any other Albertsons owned store throughout the country. Since I don't believe it to be very widespread yet, it makes me wonder if Albertsons cooked up this new interior to test out in the Inland Empire in response to Stater's major remodeling campaign that is spreading like wildfire across the region to all their stores. I still think Stater put's more effort into their remodels, but at least Albertsons is trying to come up with something better than they have been using.

Great reporting and fantastic fotos!

Thanks

I see a few elements of my West Hollywood Pavilions and indeed, as storewanderer and ClownLoach indicated, I see a cocktail of some of the better design elements of theirs and others (except that blue). Love those perfect polished concrete floors. I like this store a lot.

But, I sure wish they would have done something more archictecturally interesting. It looks institutionally bland - milquetoast.

[kr.abs.swy]

The Safeway in The Forum in Bend (2650 NE US Highway 20) was remodeled to that interior last year.

That Safeway still has a false ceiling. That interior felt quite a bit different with the false ceiling. I thought it looked really good in the Bend store. (Sort of how the stores that were remodeled into Grocery Palace back in the day had a different feeling from the ones that were new builds - didn't feel quite as over-the-top).

BTW, off topic, does anyone know what that Bend store started as? The front doesn't look like any other Safeway I've ever seen.

[SoCalShopper1023]

I was recently inside this store a few months ago, and it had the Colorful Lifestyle decor which in my onion, didn't look bad at all. This remodel must be very recent.

I actually like this decor package, and I'm surprised to see this type of decor package in a Albertsons owned store. The design and style of this decor package makes the store feel warm, inviting and have a personality, unlike the previous ACI decor packages.

I wished they would've gone with this decor package in the past instead of Florida decor, since a good number of stores in ACI's footprint have already been remodeled into Florida decor, and will most likely remain like that for the foreseeable future.

The only thing I wish they would change is the blue accents, since it looks very "Walmart-esque", maybe use a darker tone of blue instead.

I know this store was one of the first set of stores to receive Colorful Lifestyle since it was a former Haggen. I wonder if they will start to remodel those early Colorful Lifestyle stores into this package?

[ClownLoach]

I was recently inside this store a few months ago, and it had the Colorful Lifestyle decor which in my onion, didn't look bad at all. This remodel must be very recent.

I actually like this decor package, and I'm surprised to see this type of decor package in a Albertsons owned store. The design and style of this decor package makes the store feel warm, inviting and have a personality, unlike the previous ACI decor packages.

I wished they would've gone with this decor package in the past instead of Florida decor, since a good number of stores in ACI's footprint have already been remodeled into Florida decor, and will most likely remain like that for the foreseeable future.

The only thing I wish they would change is the blue accents, since it looks very "Walmart-esque", maybe use a darker tone of blue instead.

I know this store was one of the first set of stores to receive Colorful Lifestyle since it was a former Haggen. I wonder if they will start to remodel those early Colorful Lifestyle stores into this package?

I wonder if there is some concerning new competition in the area or something that enticed Albertsons to remodel this particular store? They still have many older design packages in stores that need updating. Colorful Lifestyle is useful because it lacks any real branding message thus they could change the banner overnight without much additional work. It is hardly obsolete. They need to address the repaint lifestyle stores as they seemingly have picked random colors and they look horrific. Some locations have light pastels which contrast poorly with the now white lettering, while others have bright gem tones that border on day-glow and are obnoxious.

This store's twin in San Marcos would benefit from this remodel as it is starting to look dingy and worn out. They especially need to remove the giant drywall false ceiling over produce/wine and the checkouts in that store; I am assuming this store had those upon opening and removed them in this remodel?

I think it is universally agreed upon that the Walmart blue has to go however.

One other concern is that there are a lot of light pastels which may not age well and that gives me cause for concern. Dusty rose is one color I see a lot in there which fades to an indistinguishable beige under those bright lights and UV from skylights. I have noticed that Whole Foods tends to use some almost electric bright colors on their signage which fade to "normal" after about a year. It seems whoever designed this may not have considered the effects of lighting in that environment. Maybe the blue will be more tolerable in a year or so.

[ClownLoach]

The Safeway in The Forum in Bend (2650 NE US Highway 20) was remodeled to that interior last year.

That Safeway still has a false ceiling. That interior felt quite a bit different with the false ceiling. I thought it looked really good in the Bend store. (Sort of how the stores that were remodeled into Grocery Palace back in the day had a different feeling from the ones that were new builds - didn't feel quite as over-the-top).

BTW, off topic, does anyone know what that Bend store started as? The front doesn't look like any other Safeway I've ever seen.

The pictures of that Safeway are not at all the same decor. That decor is the Oregon offshoot of Colorful Lifestyle that has shown up in downtown Portland and elsewhere in the state. They just apply some mountain-scape wallpaper to the blank colored walls, affix what looks like trimmed LVP flooring behind the existing lettering. Then for some odd reason they install the numberless checkout lights from Pavilions that look like an industrial lamp. It is really like a repaint of the already colorful lifestyle store. This Upland store is a totally new package with new lettering and graphics.

This is Bend with their new remodel (which I am naming "Colorful Oregon")

[SoCalShopper1023]

One thing I also noticed that this decor package has a lot of similar elements to the most recent Kroger decor used in standard (non fresh fare) Ralphs stores. Like the fonts on the wall signage, and the "Cake Shop" signage reminds me of the "Bakery Shop" signage that Kroger uses. Plus all the "Local" branding pertaining to Upland.

I'm not a fan of that particular Kroger decor package, but this Albertson's iteration looks slightly better.

[ClownLoach]

One thing I also noticed that this decor package has a lot of similar elements to the most recent Kroger decor used in standard (non fresh fare) Ralphs stores. Like the fonts on the wall signage, and the "Cake Shop" signage reminds me of the "Bakery Shop" signage that Kroger uses. Plus all the "Local" branding pertaining to Upland.

I'm not a fan of that particular Kroger decor package, but this Albertson's iteration looks slightly better.

There are remarkable similarities. They must have hired the same design firm.