Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by storewanderer »

This looks like the new Safeway Stores NorCal has opened too (El Dorado Hills, Sacramento-Crocker, and soon to be Reno).

This is a stock Albertsons prototype, it follows their late 80's/early 90's store layout generally speaking. Biggest difference is produce gets no wall space in these stores, the wall space goes to Starbucks and expanded deli and bakery areas. Other than that this is 80's Albertsons or even those old Skaggs Albertsons in layout. Also similar to Albertsons last new build store layouts in the mid 00's. Frozen foods/dairy on the side wall opposite produce/bakery, pharmacy in the front corner with little aisles in front of it, floral at the edge of checkstands with no wall space... Nothing like a Safeway in layout. Even product placement is Albertsons format with bacon next to the eggs in an aisle-based cooler. In Safeway standard layout the bacon is on the other side of the store from the eggs. Really funny to see stores called Safeway using this layout. I really got used to the general Safeway layout over the years; it was boring but so predictable.
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by pseudo3d »

arizonaguy wrote: April 1st, 2021, 8:56 pm
It looks somewhat similar to the Safeway that opened up in Mesa, AZ in November 2019 (I believe it's Albertsons / Safeway's newest Arizona store).

https://goo.gl/maps/wfc12dBPhQtJ75Uo6

I'm surprised that El Paso wasn't moved to United like most of the New Mexico stores.
I think it's still logistics and what worked best for both chains. Albuquerque and Midland-Odessa are much closer to Lubbock than El Paso is, for instance, and it could be what the two companies wanted...after all, regular ol' Albertsons still performs well in El Paso, probably its best-performing major metropolitan area in Texas (though perhaps owing to a lack of competition).
storewanderer wrote: April 1st, 2021, 11:48 pm This looks like the new Safeway Stores NorCal has opened too (El Dorado Hills, Sacramento-Crocker, and soon to be Reno).

This is a stock Albertsons prototype, it follows their late 80's/early 90's store layout generally speaking. Biggest difference is produce gets no wall space in these stores, the wall space goes to Starbucks and expanded deli and bakery areas. Other than that this is 80's Albertsons or even those old Skaggs Albertsons in layout. Also similar to Albertsons last new build store layouts in the mid 00's.
The Safeway in Mesa, AZ really does look like a renovated Grocery Palace-era interior. It is a bit troubling that after 20 or so years, they're still re-treading the same old designs without much innovation. At least under the years following the acquisitions of American Stores and others they occasionally changed it up a bit with a drive-through pharmacy or garden centers.
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by jamcool »

The two Safeways in Goodyear (AZ) were remodeled last year, brighter colors, wood floors, and grocery aisles named after neighborhood streets.
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by pseudo3d »

Store opened a few days ago (eight locations in the city, wow).

It looks like they have same circular checkstand things like they did in stores of old?

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/ ... 840011001/
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: April 3rd, 2021, 12:57 pm Store opened a few days ago (eight locations in the city, wow).

It looks like they have same circular checkstand things like they did in stores of old?

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/ ... 840011001/
Interesting yes those are definite Albertsons allright. The new/remodeled NorCal Safeways have no turntable on the end of the checkstands, rather just a space that slopes down slightly (no conveyor belt like was standard in Safeway from the mid 90's on to carry items between bagger and cashier). Placement of the receipt printer on the bagger side is also classic issue Albertsons. Maybe they set it up this way so it would be consistent with their other stores in the area.

The colorful lifestyle interior looks good. Much better than the Florida interior Safeway NorCal is using. Florida interior doesn't look bad, just rather sterile and boring.

What is interesting in general is they are opening new stores... even if it is only a few new stores... if they can start to scale it up - 10 new stores this year, 15 new stores next year, 25 new stores the next year...
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

The store actually opened today:
https://kvia.com/news/business-technolo ... celebrate/
Very nice store.
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Re: Albertsons opens new store in El Paso

Post by pseudo3d »

Why are they saying it's the largest store in El Paso? They have 70k+ square foot stores in the city that were built as Smith's. If they want to prepare for an eventual H-E-B invasion or at least provide a passable knockoff, they need to have some bigger stores, if only for this market...
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