Still has kitchen place and they printed some cardboard box signs for its endcaps that say "Welcome to Temecula Kitchen Place." The Starbucks kiosk is the newer model (the one with white counters you see also going into Albertsons stores). I don't remember it having one before, the newer version does stand out more which is probably why they are swapping them out in remodels. Produce, bakery, and deli look the same. Center store was probably reset but like I mentioned they still have the aisle hangers misaligned which probably is a result of shifting aisles in the past to accommodate the pallet racking for the paper products aisle that holds more merchandise. They swapped a short gondola by pharmacy for tall which makes little sense as it restricts visibility for shrink prevention purposes.storewanderer wrote: ↑This one already had a Starbucks kiosk, did they expand it?ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 8th, 2024, 11:56 pmAnd... Giant waste of my time.ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 8th, 2024, 1:21 pm Ralphs is advertising the grand reopening of the Temecula location today. This store already had the newest current Ralphs decor ("Neighborhood") and the website/ad do not indicate it was upgraded to Fresh Fare. I will go check it out this weekend and see if they actually have come up with something new. Hopefully it won't be cardboard cutout letters on white paint like Yorba Linda. This was always a solid, good executing Ralphs I would shop if I lived nearby, with decent traffic although I would not call it "busy" except weekends.
Obviously the remodeled flagship Walmart has shaken everyone up on the street. Stater Bros is 6 months into a total tear down (while open) remodel like they did in Oceanside. Albertsons remodeled to a nice version of Modern (Florida) decor, not the cheaper version popping up that is just paint and stick on lettering (no actual wood or tile behind the letters). So I guess Ralphs felt the need to step up as well. The neighborhood is still growing and there are some breathtaking new homes from a Japanese builder on their first US project up the street. This is probably the only area of California that is truly growing at a nearly double digit rate annually.
Ralphs did all of three things.
First, they deep cleaned the store which was long overdue.
Second, they removed the floor and went to polished concrete.
Third, they added a Starbucks kiosk with some pretty wall art showing Temecula grapevines behind it.
That is the entire remodel. Zero repaint. Zero new graphics. And worse, this store's last remodel was botched as they had some wall lighting over department graphics to light them up while the rest was dark. It's still that way, bright and dark areas all along the perimeter wall with no rhyme or reason unless you're along the wall and look up and see the misplaced fixtures. The store also had aisle hangers that were not centered properly, some practically over the gondola, and they didn't fix this either. Meanwhile Stater Bros is finishing up a half year long remodel down the street where every single perimeter department was moved and physically rebuilt from scratch, every refrigeration unit replaced, the only area not moved is the service meat counter. For all intents and purposes it is a completely new store, even the drop ceiling was raised and replaced so it is now even all across the store.
Absolutely zero investment by Kroger here and the grand reopening signs out front seem to just be confusing the customers who see the same damn store exactly the way it was.
Maybe they did a center store reset (does it still have a Kitchen Place?)? Typically a center store reset would not warrant a "grand reopening" ad though.
Maybe they made some changes to produce/bakery/deli?
Was the floor in bad condition that warranted removal? Wasn't the last time I was there, but it has been a while.
With how their latest interior looks maybe it is a good thing they just kept the other interior (I don't like that interior either).
So yes, basically they did a grand reopening for a center store reset and concrete floor. Pathetic.