Favorite supermarket interior? (1995-present)

[Brian Lutz]

I've always liked the Kroger Fresh Fare interiors (as seen in most QFC Stores, although I believe Ralphs and Kroger Fresh Fare stores would have used it as well) from the mid 2000s. A few of the QFC stores here still have it, but most have been remodeled to a more standard Kroger interior now. The Safeway Lifestyle interiors could be quite nice as well with the right lighting, but a lot of the stores here that got it had really terrible lighting so it didn't work well.

[Super S]

I've always liked the Kroger Fresh Fare interiors (as seen in most QFC Stores, although I believe Ralphs and Kroger Fresh Fare stores would have used it as well) from the mid 2000s. A few of the QFC stores here still have it, but most have been remodeled to a more standard Kroger interior now. The Safeway Lifestyle interiors could be quite nice as well with the right lighting, but a lot of the stores here that got it had really terrible lighting so it didn't work well.

The Lifestyle stores looked nice at first, until they were butchered up with the addition of random, cheap fluorescent light fixtures placed in odd areas in the stores. Lifestyle interiors do not look as nice now.

One interior that I thought aged pretty well was Fred Meyer's interior that was used in the mid-2000s. Sadly, many of these are being replaced by current Kroger interiors.

[Bagels]

I think the last Albertsons in SoCal to open before SVU was the store in Murrieta at Scott Rd and I-215. It also had Jewel interior.
There is a 2004 build Albertsons off Highway 79 in Murrieta. I'm sure this was the last Grocery Palace to open. Later versions of Grocery Palace didn't have the weird props like the milk barn and spinning Meal Center chef.

I didn't mean SoCal, but rather Greater Los Angeles Area (as defined by the MSA; mostly LA/OC), simply because I'm not as familiar with the Inland Empire. But you're right, it appears the Albertsons at Scott/215 appears to be two years younger than the store off Quail Hill in Irvine.

Taking a cue from @storewanderer, I looked up the liquor license for the Albertsons off Alton Parkway in Irvine and it appears the store opened in 1989. It had a near identical interior to numerous new build stores with the Jewel interior, so my assumption is the Lucky merely took its existing build and added the Jewel decor package. The flooring in Alton store is/was identical to that of the other stores built in the 2000s, and I have a hard time believing that Lucky replaced the flooring after a decade, so my guess is various elements of whatever design Lucky was using in the late 1980s/early 1990s were kept.

That said, I do find it interesting how Albertsons slapped the Grocery Palace decor package on several of the Lucky stores that were under construction. Tustin comes to mind -- same layout and flooring of the Jewel interior stores, but Grocery Palace colors. Later, they went back to the Jewel decor... I guess the response was negative.

[storewanderer]

The flooring in Alton store is/was identical to that of the other stores built in the 2000s, and I have a hard time believing that Lucky replaced the flooring after a decade, so my guess is various elements of whatever design Lucky was using in the late 1980s/early 1990s were kept.

Nope, that flooring all looks like flooring from the Jewel interior. On a side note that Jewel interior does not look great in that store; the ceilings are too low for it to work well.

Definitely not old 80's/90's from Lucky which would have been 1 by 1s with white with dark brown checkers or white with dark blue checkers (in the mid 90's switched to 4 by 4s of white with peach checkers on sales floor and went with white and lighter blue checkers around refrigeration). Also from the mid 90's Lucky sometimes used a gray floor in produce (slip proof) or a ceramic tile floor in produce. I think in the late 80's/early 90's Lucky may have used a dark brown mock wood like floor in produce at least in some stores.

[submariner]

I've always liked the Kroger Fresh Fare interiors (as seen in most QFC Stores, although I believe Ralphs and Kroger Fresh Fare stores would have used it as well) from the mid 2000s. A few of the QFC stores here still have it, but most have been remodeled to a more standard Kroger interior now. The Safeway Lifestyle interiors could be quite nice as well with the right lighting, but a lot of the stores here that got it had really terrible lighting so it didn't work well.

The Fresh Fare is nice, and is actually originally from Ralphs. You'll often see the braided wicker wreath accompanying the Kroger or QFC logos... still in the Ralphs oval shape!

Here's the "O.G." Ralphs version:

Downtown_Los_Angeles_2.jpg (63.86 KiB) Viewed 2265 times

Here's the QFC version:

and finally, the Kroger version:

[retailfanmitchell019]

I've always liked the Kroger Fresh Fare interiors (as seen in most QFC Stores, although I believe Ralphs and Kroger Fresh Fare stores would have used it as well) from the mid 2000s. A few of the QFC stores here still have it, but most have been remodeled to a more standard Kroger interior now. The Safeway Lifestyle interiors could be quite nice as well with the right lighting, but a lot of the stores here that got it had really terrible lighting so it didn't work well.

The Fresh Fare is nice, and is actually originally from Ralphs. You'll often see the braided wicker wreath accompanying the Kroger or QFC logos... still in the Ralphs oval shape!

Here's the "O.G." Ralphs version:
Downtown_Los_Angeles_2.jpg

Here's the QFC version:
42886602_d2kP2ICBimKXPuGrvHaTIFjGKHvuD9uL97g1CtPTMoA.jpg

and finally, the Kroger version:
ff4.jpg

There is even a "Fresh Fare by King Soopers" in Englewood, CO, adjacent to Cherry Hills Village, the highest-income town in CO. There is another King Soopers in Greenwood Village, CO with Fresh Fare decor, but no Fresh Fare signage on the exterior.
I think Smith's even used this interior at a store somewhere in Vegas.

[storewanderer]

There was one Smiths Fresh Fare in Las Vegas on I think Charleston. It was remodeled out of that interior in the past couple of years. There was a second Smiths Fresh Fare down in Henderson. I think that was remodeled quite a while ago. I don't remember the exact location. It was near where the Henderson Super Kmart was.

There were also some scattered Kroger Fresh Fare locations with that interior in Nashville and Detroit Divisions, those were primarily smaller stores converted to the interior.

There was also one Cala Foods Fresh Fare in the Castro District in San Francisco at 4201 18th Street. I'm not sure how much of the interior that was able to be easily removed from the place, was left when Mollie Stones received the store from Delano IGA. But the floors and paint are still there.