Abandoned Bruno's: East Montgomery, AL

Bruno's at the moment is completely on life support.  The company has been in shambles since the early 1990's and acquired many times.  All of this was due to a tragic plane crash over Rome, GA in 1990 which took out the upper level management of the company, mostly members of the Bruno family.  Unfortunately, the waning of Bruno's is all too evident across Montgomery.  Vacant Food World and Bruno's stores litter the city, even in the nicer areas.  It seems like Publix or Winn-Dixie would capitalize on this, but with the Bruno's stores so far behind in design and location much of these locations look straight out of the early 1980's in areas that likewise peaked in the 1980's.  The bad economy, which has also hit Alabama hard, is not helping either.

The location pictured here is one of the nicer stores.  Located at the northeast corner of Vaughn and Bell Roads, It looks very similar to a since repurposed location in Alpharetta, GA that closed sometime in the 90's.  The design here leads me to wonder if this might not have been an Ogletree's location since I had suspected that Alpharetta store was originally Ogletree's.  Perhaps Ogletree's also was in Alabama?  That might explain the 1987 acquisition if so.  While I cannot confirm that, it was nice to find this store with the logo still on the outside.  I wish I had done a little better job photographing more of the abandoned Food World/Bruno's locations, but I covered this one specifically because of its distinct 80's-style Charleston architecture that made me wonder if it was always a Bruno's. 

Pictured above is the whole front of the store and here is a close-up of the front entrance and logo.  In all reality, Bruno's does not sound like a store you would think would be from the South.  This is a very swanky looking store even today.

Looking inside the old Bruno's reveals a store that is pretty well trapped in the 1980's, but very nice for the time it opened.  Note the brick-like brown linoleum tiles in the front.

In all, Bruno's is one of the most significant tragedies of retail.  Once a giant in the Deep South along with Big "B" Drugs, this store serves as a reminder of what once was.  I have covered a couple other former Bruno's locations on this blog here and here. 

Vintage Kroger in Rainbow Plaza Shopping Center: Panthersville/Decatur, GA

Kroger has lasted in the Atlanta area longer than any other chain grocery store.  Winn-Dixie is gone, Food Giant is gone, Ogletree's/Bruno's is gone, Big Star is gone and other local offerings in the area include Publix (arrived 1992) and Ingles (arrived late 1980's).  Because of this, people in Atlanta area have a certain affection for Kroger despite its external origins.  In fact, people in Atlanta tend to assign nicknames to many of the stores.  The most famous of those is Disco Kroger...a late 1970's Buckhead location that has seen significant renovation over time but holds the name due to its proximity to a popular disco in the same strip.  Business poured in late at night from the disco into the Kroger, because it was one of the first 24 hour stores.  While the disco is gone and the place is now called "Fresh Fare by Kroger", to the locals it is still "Disco Kroger".

Unfortunately, some of the Kroger nicknames are a bit less illustrious.  Names like "Funky Kroger" and "Murder Kroger" do not exactly paint a pretty picture but also do not seem to hurt their business. The Kroger I am covering here is one of the "Ghetto Kroger" locations.  Honestly, the name is deserved because of the shoddy condition of the store from the outside.  In fact, a friend of mine there actually thought the store was out of business until he looked in and saw the lights on inside followed by the sight of skinny teenagers in red shirts retrieving carts from the parking lot.  However, when I say the store was "shoddy" that does not mean I did not like it.  It did, however, look like the outside canopy was on the verge of collapse.

The "Bank of America" sign basically gives away that this is far from a closed location.  The "Delicatessen/Bakery" and "Prescriptions" diamonds look like something from a vintage photo.  If I had made these black and white, nobody would have known I took them in 2010.

I have to like this store, because it is straight up early 1970's.  What's not to like?  It had the diagonal-cut cedar siding, shingled mansard roof, ancient store offering signs and of course, the Kroger sign in block letters that I have not seen since the early 1990's.  It was actually a very unique and low-key design for its time, and it perfectly complimented South DeKalb Mall, which was built in the same era.  The store, of course, was also doing a decent business since areas like that tend to be under-retailed at best.  I guess you can say I was impressed to see a vintage stylish Kroger still operational, but at the same time it probably is not fair to the local population not to have a larger, nicer store.  Eventually the company is bound to cave and give them a nicer store, but at the same time I hate to see it go.  I bet I am not the only one amazed, however, at this relic still being in operation.

The Last Disco Ingles: Hendersonville, NC

Since the late 1990's, Ingles has been feverishly replacing their aging stock of stores. For a long time, they actually pretty much owned their markets since they were located in small towns otherwise void of any significant competition. Most other supermarkets in these towns were made up of locally-owned stores with higher prices and an extremely limited selection. Meanwhile, most big city chains snubbed these towns in favor of the higher margins found in the suburbs. Discount store competition was also no threat as Ingles often anchored shopping centers with the earlier and smaller Wal-Mart, Rose's, Lay's and Sky City (and possibly Kuhn's Big K) who were all at the time tiny, cramped stores with a very limited selection in grocery items.  Occassionally, they also anchored Kmart shopping centers as well, such as the case with two stores in Acworth, GA.

Ingles just south of downtown Hendersonville, NC in September 2009.

This all changed when Wal-Mart emerged as a retail superpower. Wal-Mart began replacing their old, tiny stores with their supercenters, and these new stores of course offered a grocery section that rivaled Ingles in both selection and price. At that point, Ingles could no longer rely on tiny stores that looked very dated by the mid-1990's. This is when Ingles took action. At this point, they closed weaker stores and markets while tearing down and rebuilding more successful ones.

Walking in the door, the overhang reminds me of a carnival.  The floor goes from this brown linoleum with raised circles to alternating white and green diagonal striped tile.

 

Left entrance and dairy section.  Cheese here describes the color of the whole section as much as what's underneath the sign.

The closure of the older Wal-Marts, however, actually played in the favor of Ingles.  The advantage Ingles had in locating in shopping centers with discount stores was that when they closed, they had an opportunity to purchase and tear down the old discount store nobody else wanted and build a new, larger store on that same footprint or in the same shopping center. Otherwise, they went and rebuilt on site, demolishing the existing store and replacing it with a larger modern store. The abandonment of many 80's models of Wal-Mart and the closure of Sky City left many ample opportunities to upgrade their stores in the framework of an existing shopping center, eliminating the cost of grading and building a whole new site.

"Best Meat in Town" was oddly not as prominent in this section.  Usually, this was put at a 45 degree angle repeating along the length of the wood overhang, but not in this case.

Of course, the "Green Grocer" made up for that with this very funky style repeating the words over and over.  It's so amazing this place was most likely built in the mid-80's in lieu of the 70's, which it looks like.  All the ones I knew of like it were built in 1984 and 85.

Of course, this conversion of Ingles to a more modern store format is not entirely completed. While most stores have either been reshaped or left behind, a few classic stores remain in operation. The best preserved specimen is the store at the intersection of US 25 and US 176 in Hendersonville, all pictured here. This store features all of the classic designs inside and out. I took this series of photos to let people see what these now rare stores looked like inside and out.

"Thank you for shopping at ingles".  No, thank you for preserving this cool freaking store long enough for me to get these photos.

The bakeries in the original stores were quite small.  In the background, a labelscar for "Wine" is visible.  Apparently they removed their wine department, but the Innsbruck store still featured a "Wine Cellar" until the last.

This store is ironically one of about 3-4 different Ingles stores in the town. In fact, a recently opened newer model is located only short distance down US 176, and a Harris Teeter is next door! I really wonder how this store makes it with so much market saturation, but I guess this is why this relic has held out so long is because it as more profitable to maintain an older store than to simply abandon it.  I wonder if the CVS has anything to do with it, because it is interesting they are still in that shopping center. A new Harris Teeter (correction on Kroger) under construction across the street replacing the existing next door may be the straw that broke the camel's back. The Hendersonville Ingles joins the now-closed Innsbruck Mall store as reflections of Ingles early days and the end of the first generation stores, but luckily a few are still around.

A look at the checkout area.  Track lights abound!

The word repetition continues into the small magazine and book area shown as "Reading Center".  I wanted a closer picture, but a store employee was standing where I was not able to do so, so you instead see it behind the checkout lines.

Now looking at the adjoining CVS, which I am reasonably assuming opened as Revco.  The small CVS sign to the right of the door suggests it covered up the famous Revco medicine jar logo.  Revco typically anchored Ingles shopping centers in the 80's.

Lou Corsaro took these last two pics for me back in 2007 of the sign and front of the store.  At the time, I did not think I would make it back before the store was gone.  Luckily, it held on a little longer for me!  Mr. Ingle, please do not change this store!

Ingles at Innsbruck Mall

While not the first Ingles, the Ingles at Innsbruck Mall is one of the very first of the stores in the chain featuring elements now rarely found in modern Ingles stores.  It dates to an era when supermarkets as a whole were much smaller with more limited selections, vibrant colors and ease of convenience compared to todays much larger stores that are close in size to the 1980's Wal-Mart stores that they so often replaced.  Ingles these days has quite a huge market and completely dominates grocery retailing in Asheville. This is why a few classic treasures have been allowed to remain, and this one was nothing short of a gem.

This photo I took in late 2005.  The store looked in remarkably good repair at that point.  The mall attached to it had an exterior renovation around that time as well.

Ingles states that their very first store opened in Asheville in 1963, which according to a poster "Ken" in my previous blog actually opened in Biltmore Village.  I am placing the opening of Innsbruck Mall about 1965, so this seems about right to me. Looking at the store inside and out, this leads me to wonder if this store was ever renovated once at any time in its history. While their design was never really updated much for 20 years after it first opened, this one was distinct in how incredibly tiny it was. I've seen a few other mini-Ingles left in operation, including one in Franklin, but this one had all the retro goodies inside and out.

Yes, it's cramped, but it looks so cozy and tacky and old fashioned like they looked when I was a child.  I really miss that.

 

You can tell its old when frozen foods are found on a side wall instead of the center of the store.  I kind of like that actually.

No special pattern or design here.  Just plain font and colors mark the Green Grocer and Wine Cellar.  I have not seen anything like this on the newer stores.  I don't even remember it in the later "disco" stores.  You can see these areas better on my photos of the store closed, but without all the lights and charm.

It was sad to see this store go. When I photographed it, the new free-standing store next door was nearing completion. That is why I took these photos. Unfortunately, my camera back then was not as good and I found it difficult to discretely photograph much of the store. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy seeing these pics of one of the last operational classic-era supermarkets.

Here is a look down a random center aisle towards the check out area.  Those overhead signs are very, very old.  In the stores built like in the mid-80's, they never updated those unless the store was rebuilt and expanded.

"The Beef People" got Leaner and Meaner: Winn-Dixie Today

Alas we hear today that Winn-Dixie is still yet alive, but at least not in my parts. In fact, today they only exist in five states: Georgia (south of Atlanta), Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. In a recent trip to Anniston, AL, a store was noted in that area off of US 431. Winn-Dixie was once the leading grocery store in North Georgia pretty much from the 1950's to the 1990's. Essentially the Wal-Mart of deep south supermarkets, its range was far and wide from large cities such as Atlanta to smaller towns such as Franklin, NC, pictured here.

These three photos above show a perfectly preserved specimen of a 70's-style Winn-Dixie in Franklin, NC on April 16, 2005. Winn-Dixie completely left North Carolina in 2005.

In the late 1980's, Winn-Dixie started a major upgrade of their stores to the "Marketplace" concept. It was quite showy at first, but encroachment from Publix into most of their markets along with way too many dated-looking stores led to declining traffic at too many of their stores. This led to them suddenly having difficulty competing with the as well as Kroger on the high end and Ingles on the low end. The toughest blow came when Wal-Mart and Target began to sell groceries, making the competition even stiffer. It was just too many players for the once dominant chain without a real niche.


The Marketplace concept obviously worked for us, because throughout the 1990's, it was very convenient and at first a pretty decent store. Unfortunately, this was also one of the first locations to close as the area around it became less profitable and traffic dwindled to none. That store today is now a Goodwill.

The above three pictures are of the Gainesville Winn-Dixie Marketplace in original late 1980's form. This was shortly before it closed in 2005.

Winn-Dixie's greatest trouble was that they catered to the lower-end of grocery customers. While this market is reliable with less competition, they are not shopping for an image or a specialty item...only the lowest prices. Winn-Dixie was basically undersold and squeezed out of many, many markets from the near fatal blow of Wal-Mart and Ingles combined. Winn-Dixie was also strained for another reason, and that was a desperate attempt to modernize and relocate stores. A store near Hiram, for instance, moved three times within a span of less than five years. First they left their 70's-style store for a new store in a more remote location only to move it again a short time later to a sleek new store in a lonely intersection removed from all other retail. Needless to say, this store closed within a year of opening. It seemed at that point, the store was finding itself in increasingly inferior locations, which did not help.

After the Atlanta area Winn-Dixies closed, Winn-Dixie tried something very strange...resurrecting the more profitable of the Atlanta area stores into a warehouse grocery concept called "Saverite". Saverite was hardly a hit, but their mascot in their slogan was quite amusing featuring a comical, bug-eyed man in a cape who was going to save you from high prices. Honestly it looked like the cape was on too tight causing his eyes to bulge through them! In real life, such a character would be hauled off to the psych ward and likewise this crazy and rather dated attempt at advertising wasn't enough to disguise (pardon the pun) that it was Winn-Dixie's last gasp in the Atlanta market. They all closed less than a year later.

This Saverite is shown here on Cobb Parkway (US 41) in Kennesaw. It replaced a Winn-Dixie Marketplace that opened in 1989, which replaced an older Winn-Dixie on Old US 41. The original Winn-Dixie is now country-western bar "Cowboys".

Despite this, most of these stores held out until the big retail purge of 2004-2005 and from what I understand the company is now much leaner and meaner. In fact, discussion I have heard lately about the chain is that it is coming back quite nicely in their remaining markets and has greatly improved on the quality and appearance of their stores. Gone are the sloped metal fronted 70's stores in dated shopping centers. Gone are the ridiculously offbeat locations in saturated markets. The battered company is refueling itself where it stands today. Will it come back bigger and stronger against the tough competition that mauled them in the first place? All of us who ever grew up shopping there hope so.

Also, check out a more historical piece on Winn-Dixie featured at Pleasant Family Shopping.

Bruno's Finer Foods

Another Birmingham-related post, this one directly affects Atlanta and that is the mention of Bruno's supermarket. Bruno's was a big player in the Atlanta market in the 1980's prior to the invasion of Publix. An upscale supermarket much like Publix, they came to Atlanta in 1987 when local chain Ogletree's was purchased. A picture of a former Ogletree's/Bruno's is found in an earlier post.

While Bruno's has long since left Atlanta (they left by 1995), they are still alive and well in their home city of Birmingham where they existed long before. While no longer an independent chain, a few of these are still around including a location at The Summit (pictured above). Bruno's was also notable for two now defunct retail ventures including a drug store chain (Big "B" Drugs), which was also in Atlanta and their Atlanta partnership with Kmart for one of the first discount superstores (American Fare) in 1989. Respectively, the Big "B" stores all became CVS and the American Fare simply Super Kmart before later closing.

While I have not found many locations, I know that they exist today in Birmingham owned by the same company that also owns Bi-Lo, Foodmax and a couple other grocery chains.

Ingles

Ingles: the Asheville chain that still provides us a halfway local option for grocery stores in the Atlanta area...and a hell of a lot better prices than Kroger or Publix. Big Star, Winn-Dixie, A&P, Food Giant and Cub Foods are all long since history around here, but one survives: the chain that owns that little mountain town we Atlanta folks love to go to when the air gets crisp and the leaves are pretty.



One thing that I love and is a big part of my childhood memories are those very outlandish stores that they built in the 80's. It was 1985 that Ingles made its big entry into Georgia with its stores that looked straight out of an episode of The Price Is Right. Likewise, they were just as funky on the inside. To me, these actually seemed down home and quite cozy, and they always represented for me a trip to the hills because we stopped at one on the way up. Nearly every small town in North Georgia still has them, and these usually were originally anchored by a Wal-Mart, Sky City or Rose's (more rarely) in the same shopping center. Unfortunately, very few of those original stores still exist and the photos here feature a store that if it is not already closed will be shortly when the new ones opens in Winder where the Sky City was originally.



The Ingles like the ones pictured have either been painted over, demolished and replaced with a new store on the same spot, closed or relocated. Usually these relocatations were in the same shopping center, replacing one of the older and smaller Wal-Marts before they ate the country. One of these original Ingles still exists in Hendersonville, NC (asking anybody to get that pic for me). Included with the Winder photos are a photo of the very retro Ingles at Innsbruck Mall in Asheville and the Ingles roadside sign in Blue Ridge.