Oak Harbor Albertsons reopens as Safeway

[arizonaguy]

I also had thought that perhaps, if the Haggen stores had been successful, that we would have seen a merge between the Albertsons and Safeway stores in some areas. I know that in Puget Sound, there are more Safeways than there are Albertsons. So I thought that maybe the few remaining Albertsons would possibly have been re-branded as Safeway. Or I thought that maybe the stores would have kept their names but there would be joint Albertsons and Safeway ads. Years ago, when Safeway bought Carrs in Alaska, the Carrs stores were not re-branded as Safeway and the Safeways were not turned into Carrs. Instead new stores were Safeway and the ads said, "Carrs/Safeway". So I would have thought, at the least, we may have seen some "Albertsons/Safeway" ads, with the original stores keeping their banners. But with Albertsons taking back a good hunk of the Haggen stores in Washington, that would not make sense. I live near Burien, WA and it would make no sense at all to rebanner the two Haggens to Safeway as they are all very close to the original Burien Safeway. So while they are getting a huge amount of Burien grocery business, it would be easier for them to keep up the illusion of a separate Albertsons and Safeway, even though they are running the same sales ads!

Down the line when the leases expire on the "duplicative" stores I do anticipate them going to a "one banner per market" strategy. It may not be for some time, but 10 years from now I'd imagine that OR/WA/Northern California/AZ/CO will be bannered as Safeway, Southern California will be bannered as VONS, ID/NM/NV/Intermountain Region will be bannered as Albertsons, TX will be United / Tom Thumb / Randalls, etc.

[pseudo3d]

I also had thought that perhaps, if the Haggen stores had been successful, that we would have seen a merge between the Albertsons and Safeway stores in some areas. I know that in Puget Sound, there are more Safeways than there are Albertsons. So I thought that maybe the few remaining Albertsons would possibly have been re-branded as Safeway. Or I thought that maybe the stores would have kept their names but there would be joint Albertsons and Safeway ads. Years ago, when Safeway bought Carrs in Alaska, the Carrs stores were not re-branded as Safeway and the Safeways were not turned into Carrs. Instead new stores were Safeway and the ads said, "Carrs/Safeway". So I would have thought, at the least, we may have seen some "Albertsons/Safeway" ads, with the original stores keeping their banners. But with Albertsons taking back a good hunk of the Haggen stores in Washington, that would not make sense. I live near Burien, WA and it would make no sense at all to rebanner the two Haggens to Safeway as they are all very close to the original Burien Safeway. So while they are getting a huge amount of Burien grocery business, it would be easier for them to keep up the illusion of a separate Albertsons and Safeway, even though they are running the same sales ads!

Considering that the Essential Everyday brand isn't gone yet and I imagine that Albertsons might want to make improvements on the store brand as is, I think that rushing to convert stores (or not convert stores) isn't the best of plans. It's possible that in SoCal, they could have a "Vons Albertsons" brand replacing both. Other than that, Safeway in western WA/OR, Albertsons in most of the Intermountain regions (though Safeway has scattered stores out there) depending on the market, Albertsons at least in Denver (given the weakening of Safeway's name), probably predominantly Safeway in Arizona, the Southern division having Tom Thumb in the DFW area but Albertsons outside of it (except United's stores, of course), and so forth. Furthermore, despite the Safeway name being strong in the Western markets, Albertsons in this merger has shown who actually wears the pants in the relationship.

[pseudo3d]

From what I've seen on Yelp, the store has somewhat unique décor. There's the general Lifestyle décor signage and aisle signs, but one part of the store has photos of food and a dark red complementary to the rest of the store. Wonder if it's "intermediary" décor set what future retail archaeologists will dub "Lifestyle 2.0" (unless there has actually been a slight change in Lifestyle decor)

[klkla]

The photos over the dark red have been pretty common in Vons remodels for a while here in SoCal, usually in the service deli area.

[arizonaguy]

From what I've seen on Yelp, the store has somewhat unique décor. There's the general Lifestyle décor signage and aisle signs, but one part of the store has photos of food and a dark red complementary to the rest of the store. Wonder if it's "intermediary" décor set what future retail archaeologists will dub "Lifestyle 2.0" (unless there has actually been a slight change in Lifestyle decor)

I have to say, the Lifestyle decor looks great in the Yelp photos of this store without the tiled false ceiling.

There were a number of Albertsons locations built in the early 2000s with the same interior that the former Oak Harbor Albertsons had and this decor would probably work just as well if not better than the current Albertsons LLC interior.

[pseudo3d]

From what I've seen on Yelp, the store has somewhat unique décor. There's the general Lifestyle décor signage and aisle signs, but one part of the store has photos of food and a dark red complementary to the rest of the store. Wonder if it's "intermediary" décor set what future retail archaeologists will dub "Lifestyle 2.0" (unless there has actually been a slight change in Lifestyle decor)

I have to say, the Lifestyle decor looks great in the Yelp photos of this store without the tiled false ceiling.

There were a number of Albertsons locations built in the early 2000s with the same interior that the former Oak Harbor Albertsons had and this decor would probably work just as well if not better than the current Albertsons LLC interior.

To be honest, most of the store décor made (Kroger, SuperValu, Albertsons, Publix, H-E-B) in the last 15 years looks better without drop ceilings, probably as a result of the "exposed ceilings" becoming more common in new-build supermarkets.

[Alpha8472]

This store received a cheap Lifestyle remodel. The arched aisle signs are from several years ago. They were probably old signs salvaged from a closed down store. The newest aisle signs are wood grain and much smaller in size. The refrigeration units were not replaced with the white Lifestyle refrigerator units. Also, the wall tiling is the old Albertsons tile. This should have been replaced with tan ceramic Lifestyle wall tiles. I see that there is a lack of the lighted arch wall decor that appears in the current Lifestyle decor.

[storewanderer]

This was a very cheap lifestyle remodel in Washington; one part that is interesting is it looks like they installed the lifestyle color floor yet they did not re-do the tiles in deli (tiles are at eye level; floor is something you actually have to look down at; I'd think they would re-do what is at eye level first...).

Also I see in the photos the old Safeway register systems (the ones they've been removing from stores since about 2013 but still haven't removed from all stores) and old credit card readers that do not have the EMV Chip Slot. Clearly they just put a bunch of used stuff in this store, maybe the main investment was labor to remodel and paint.