New Safeway opens- has partial lifestyle interior

[storewanderer]

It looks like they are phasing out lifestyle, finally. The walls look different. The walls clearly look like an Albertsons decor with the list of "services" small under customer service very much like a Supervalu or even American Stores interior would have been. The funny part is they have the checkout lights and aisle category signs from lifestyle. You'd think in a brand new store they would try to coordinate the design of the decor/fixtures for a new decor package...

http://www.mymcmedia.org/countys-larges ... os-photos/

[klkla]

It looks like they just threw elements from their different brands together. Cement floors, Albertsons 1960's style fluorescent lighting, Safeway produce bins and checkstand lights, Albertsons's butcher block. To be honest it doesn't look all that great.

[pseudo3d]

The videos and pictures didn't show a whole lot of the interior, though I'm not a big fan of the colors used in some of the décor, nor like the font. Unfortunately, the videos and picture aren't really showing a lot of the store (and Steve Burnham is terrible at public speaking), though I am observing the Safeway produce bins look exactly like the new ACME produce bins in the converted A&P stores, except they say "Safeway" on them.

I'm happy that Albertsons finally took the Lifestyle design to pasture, though I'm curious if this is the template for future stores.

[storewanderer]

It doesn't look good at all for a brand new store. It looks to me like what most chains would do on a low budget remodel in a back of the road location that few people see. Not a high profile new store.

[arizonaguy]

It doesn't look good at all for a brand new store. It looks to me like what most chains would do on a low budget remodel in a back of the road location that few people see. Not a high profile new store.

It looks very "blah".

The new Kroger Marketplace stores have a "wow" factor to them. That store (per the video) was completely lacking on any "wow" factor. It does look like an odd mish-mash of Safeway / Albertsons decor with awful lighting. Some back of the road Safeway stores here in Arizona (and even back of the road Bashas' stores here) have better light fixtures than that store. Albertsons' Arizona flagship store (Desert Ridge in Phoenix) looks 100 times nicer than this (and it simply has "warehouse style" ceilings with the standard LLC decor package.

[storewanderer]

It really looks like a lifestyle with different walls, and the walls look very inspired by Supervalu's (white walls, colored lower case wall letter cut outs) premium fresh and healthy decor. I did like that Supervalu decor, it grew on me.

No self checkouts either, I see.

Albertsons LLC's new store in San Luis Obispo (reopen of a former Scolaris) looked a lot better than this... too bad that store went to Haggen and will now become a Smart and Final.

[veteran+]

Well laid out with all the services and product selection for a great one-stop shop!

But, oh my............what a boring milquetoast interior!!

Yikes!

[klkla]

I noticed it got the Albertson's 'Wing Bar'. Everytime I have seen that it in one of their stores looks gross. It seems like they just dump in some previously-frozen wings in the morning and let it sit all day until someone desperate enough for hot food actually buys them.

[pseudo3d]

It doesn't look good at all for a brand new store. It looks to me like what most chains would do on a low budget remodel in a back of the road location that few people see. Not a high profile new store.

It looks very "blah".

The new Kroger Marketplace stores have a "wow" factor to them. That store (per the video) was completely lacking on any "wow" factor. It does look like an odd mish-mash of Safeway / Albertsons decor with awful lighting. Some back of the road Safeway stores here in Arizona (and even back of the road Bashas' stores here) have better light fixtures than that store. Albertsons' Arizona flagship store (Desert Ridge in Phoenix) looks 100 times nicer than this (and it simply has "warehouse style" ceilings with the standard LLC decor package.

A "wow" factor? Last I heard the Kroger Marketplace interiors didn't look very good (link) either. The ceiling height does make a HUGE difference, though.

EDIT: It looks like the reason why the ceiling height is low is because it's in an apartment building.

[klkla]

EDIT: It looks like the reason why the ceiling height is low is because it's in an apartment building.

The ceiling wouldn't have to be that low in a large modern apartment building.

This store sort of reminds me of a store they built in San Francisco ten years ago on the bottom of an apartment building. I would imagine the total ceiling area would be similar. You can see pics on their Yelp page: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/safeway- ... 1eiC1TzSPQ