Now for a blast from the past. Photos from August 2018. You may remember my previous post located here on the shopping center where this supermarket is located.
This supermarket has stood the test of time and retained all of the 1980's fixtures, neon, and mirrored ceilings in certain spots. By today's standards, this is a small supermarket. There are 13 regular sized aisles with a butcher, bakery, deli counter, floral department, and customer service booth. The store is in excellent shape and the people who work here take great pride in keeping the store in good shape. The store could easily go another decade or so if it stays kept up without needing an update. There are some similarities in this store to some of the older Fiesta stores in the Houston area. I hope these stores never change, most of today's grocery stores are boring and bland in my opinion.
Anyway, enjoy the trip back in time to the 1980's.
Mirrored effect on the signage, with a 1980's font.
Green ring of neon in the produce department.
Neon sign and mirrored ceilings in the floral department.
A look at some of the interesting generic products they carry here. Larry The Cable Guy mac and cheese?
Now we venture off into the main part of the store.
The checkouts. It is worth noting that the store uses a strange type of buggy that fits over the checkout. It is hard to explain, you just have to check it out for yourself if you are ever in the area.
Keeping up with the theme of the store, but with red lettering.
Frozen food aisle.
Very cool wood design with mirrored glass and neon lights! There is so much going on in this part of the store. The bakery is literally in a corner of the store.
Kinda misleading because the dairy aisle is one over, but this was the best way to see that sign.
Same with the cold beer aisle.
Here is the dairy section with the cool neon rings.
Another view of the corner bakery and deli.
Keeping up with the theme.
A view of the thank you for shopping at Market Basket sign above the registers.
A better view of the checkout counters.
As you can kind of see, the ceiling above the checkouts goes up and creates a 3-D half oval.
The exterior of the store.
Wow, this grocery store is a time capsule from 1988-89. Well, a time capsule back to the late 1980s except for the Larry the Cable Guy Mac & Cheese. That's a modern oddity, lol. Thanks for the photos, this is one of those hidden gems which often only exist in small towns.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, this grocery store reminds me of the Fiesta in Houston which is near the former Main St. Sears. I'm not sure if that store has been renovated in the last couple years as I probably last went there in 2016, but it looked a lot like this store in terms of the neon lighting, mirrored look, and the ribbed paneling. The Fiesta across from the Astrodome and the former Fiesta on FM 1960 & Kuykendahl also looked like this store. The Astrodome Fiesta may still look that way, but I have not been there since 2005.
You're right, this store is very well maintained. I've seen newer grocery stores in Houston which are noticeably more worn than this store. The owners and managers deserve a lot of credit for keeping the store retro and clean. This store looks like it would be a lot of fun to shop at and the smaller, more familiar layout of it surely makes shopping a lot easier than traversing the mazes which are the modern grocery stores.
Some of the design elements in this store remind me of the 1980s Safeways which opened in the Houston area shortly before they left this area. Granted, a lot/most grocery stores which opened in the late 1980s looked something like this, but the Safeways in particular had a lot of similarities. Some of those Safeways which were eventually converted to Krogers (via AppleTree) may maintain some of those features, but I kind of doubt it given how frequently and extensively Kroger has renovated their stores in recent times.
Anyway, thanks for these wonderful photos of a store which I didn't even know existed. I know grocery stores are not typically things you blog about aside from some Fiestas, but it would be great so see more retro and odd grocery stores discussed on here.
There are a few shells of grocery stores that may have been Safeway stores in the golden triangle. Two of them are located in Port Arthur and look very similar to the Safeway that was on 1960 and Aldine Westfield that sat vacant for a very long time.
DeleteI am pretty sure the Fiesta by NRG is still retro. I went through the parking lot not too long ago to eat at one of the nearby restaurants. I did not have a chance to go in the store, but the front still looked the same.
Thanks for sharing.
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