The East Memphis Kroger Trio

Today's post highlights Shelby County, TN, retail.

They may not be as noteworthy as the famed Million Dollar Quartet, but the three Kroger stores featured in this post are significant all the same. All located within a mile of White Station Tower in East Memphis, each store has its own interesting history, and surprisingly continues to operate despite the others.

We'll begin at the indisputably "Kroger" store of the three. Located at 540 S Mendenhall just north of the Malco Paradiso Theatre, the first of today's three Krogers was built as such with the neon décor, remodeled to the millennium décor later on, and finally extensively upgraded to the Fresh Fare concept in 2010.

Headed inside for a quick interior tour, we'll first focus on the signature fresh fare mural. The Mid-South only ever had three of these, and with the closure of the Exeter Road store in Germantown is down to two: the one you see here and another featured in the Poplar/Kirby store.

Above is a look down the store's "center aisle," or the divide that goes horizontally across the middle of the store, splitting the vertical aisles into halves. Most Kroger stores around here don't have center aisles, but it's a common feature overall within the grocery industry. Also featured is a look at the natural foods section signage, with the hanging components new and the product identifiers still from fresh fare. This store largely caters to a Jewish customer base.

Some quick snapshots of two service departments: that's the bakery beyond some frozen cakes in the top photo, and meat and seafood below. Recall that fresh fare does not include words with its product signage, which translates to a lack of a "draw" for photographic purposes. This store was also the busiest of the three when I visited, which didn't help things.

Examples of the accompanying adornments throughout the store before taking a look across the front end from the pharmacy. Overall, this store is unique to the market in regards to its décor and its selection, which likely explains its established clientele.

Headed outside for one last look...

...and there's our focal point in the background, the i-bank-signed White Station Tower. We'll be using it as our reference point as we take a look at all three Kroger stores today. This particular store is just about one-half of a mile away from the skyscraper.

Next up is the Truse Parkway Kroger, located only a block away - literally, just one-tenth more of a mile from the Mendenhall Kroger than is White Station Tower - at 799 Truse. If it makes little sense to operate two Kroger stores so close together, then it's worth pointing out that the situation wasn't always like this - originally, this store was a location of local grocer Seessel's, which became Schnucks after the former was sold out by Albertsons, its then-owner.

Above are some photos, courtesy of flickr member Bradley_Memphis, that show what this store looked like during the "Schnucks Kroger" days, or the period after Kroger took over this store but hadn't yet remodeled it (in fact, this store was not remodeled until late last year). These photos were chosen specifically because they illustrate that this quite possibly was the most Albertsons-like Schnucks: the wood paneling, produce décor, bakery tiling, and dairy overhang are all Albertsons Grocery Palace (aka "ACME Theme Park") décor elements.

 

On my trip to this store, however, any unique Albertsons or even Schnucks elements were all in the process of being snuffed out in favor of the homogenized 2012 décor. As I did in the décor post, I want to stress that this package - officially known as "bountiful" - is not a bad décor whatsoever; I'm simply sick of seeing it in every Kroger store in the area. There's evidence that Kroger appears to be experimenting with a new décor package in other parts of the country, so the good news is that this very well may be the last remodel we see in the Mid-South featuring 2012. The only problem is that, considering the way Kroger went on a "remodel rampage" to get all of these done, it'll probably be a number of years before we see any new décor!

Some more examples of the 2012-ization of this store. That may be a remnant of a remnant in the lunch meat photo, but everything else is pretty standard.

The bakery-deli arrangement is anything but standard, however. While Kroger did move the pharmacy to the front right corner of the store to fit their likings (more on that in a moment), they left the bakery and deli locations as-is, meaning they are where they always have been since the Seessel's by Albertsons days. Of course, the bakery overhang is gone, but we'll take what we can get!

Speaking of "taking what we can get," this takes the cake! While most of the store's remodel was complete on my December 31st visit, the very front was still being worked on, and as such some Schnucks stuff still stuck around. (Try saying that five times fast!) I'm not sure where that hanging pharmacy sign would have been originally: given that it is placed over the former pharmacy location in that picture and is pointing toward where Kroger moved it, I'd hazard a guess that it was elsewhere in the store and Kroger was reusing it for their purposes before outright tossing it. What remained of the pharmacy/floral 'box' is pictured in the center photo, with Schnucks tilework underneath.

 

Before we leave the store, here are some looks post-remodel from kingskip1 on flickr. On top is the completed floral area in the home of the former pharmacy/floral box, and in the center, the newly updated cartwell, joined on bottom by a photo of mine looking at some old Schnucks lettering over the entryway. Kroger did not alter the vestibule configuration, although if I had to guess they've now opened up what many would consider the main entrance: the one pictured is the one off to the side rather than directly under the Kroger logo, and was the only one accessible to customers after Schnucks for whatever reason closed off the left one. Note also that Kroger felt the need to redo the "welcome" lettering inside as compared to Bradley_Memphis's photo from earlier in the post!

One last look at the storefront before taking a look out into the parking lot at the former Schnucks gas station, now a Kroger fuel center. No need to highlight the White Station Tower in this photo: it's clearly visible smack-dab in the center of the shot there, and is only 0.3 miles away from this store, making it the closest Kroger to the tower. It was also the least busy store of the three when I visited, which may account for its position as the last former Schnucks location to be remodeled by Kroger.

Well, I can't exactly say the last former Schnucks to be remodeled; that title goes to this tiny store at 576 S Perkins - should Kroger ever get around to remodeling it, that is! This store is the most special of the three (and of any Kroger in the Mid-South, I dare say) in that it retains its original décor package: Albertsons Industrial Circus. Yep, you read that right: Schnucks, let alone Kroger, never got around to remodeling this store either! It could be that they were remodeling Seessel's locations geographically (which could explain why the Truse store just east of here retained so many Albertsons elements blended in with the Schnucks décor), or that the corrugated metal within the package was enough to satisfy their infamous décor needs at the time. Alternatively, Schnucks may have simply left the store alone due to its size: this store tops out at a total of nine aisles, and they (as well as Kroger) may not have seen the incentive for investment. Despite its size, however, this store somehow stays open, and even seemed to have more customers than the Truse store when I went; it's got a real "neighborhood grocery" sort of feel.

For the sake of keeping this post [relatively] short and since I already have photos of the store on my flickr account, I'll be posting my photos from the S Perkins Kroger over the next few weeks on flickr instead of here on the blog. (Don't worry, though: my pictures from the Mendenhall and Truse stores are exclusive to the blog!) I invite you to check out my album from this store here if you're interested. Unfortunately, instead of remodeling, it's potential closure to be feared for this store... but in the meantime, it's impressively hanging in there!

Oh, and lest I forget: there's that White Station Tower off in the distance, a tiny bit more than exactly one mile away from this East Memphis Kroger location. And speaking of East Memphis, while we're in the area, I can't neglect to mention the other retail news. This intersection - Poplar/Perkins - is quite affluent, and features Oak Court Mall as well as Laurelwood Shopping Center. While this Kroger closing would have some sort of effect on the area were it to happen, it'd be nowhere near the effect Sears is currently having just 0.2 miles west. As mentioned in a previous post, the Laurelwood Sears is in the process of closing, ending an astonishing 58-year run at that location. flickr users l_dawg2000 and Memphis Retail have both been covering the liquidation, and have albums that you can check out here and here (and here and here :P ), respectively.

In that same linked post, I mentioned there were reports of the lone Memphis Kmart closing as well. I visited the former Super Center last month, and there were no signs of any closing activity; that would explain why there were no reports of the closure. Sources still have the store closing in April, but there has been no further - or original, for that matter - announcement on the subject. This isn't entirely unexpected, however, considering Sears Holding's aversion to store closure notices these days and the fact that the aforementioned Sears closure is much more newsworthy. Either way, I did get photos of the store, which will be featured in my March blog post; should I make it back before that post goes up and there is indeed a liquidation occurring, you can be sure I'll get more photos and post them as well... but I wouldn't count on it.

As a final note, all of the photos featured in this post that come from flickr users other than myself are now linked back to flickr, thanks to a tutorial I got from fellow flickrer and blogger Ryan busman_49 - I'll try and retrofit all previous posts to this standard one of these days. And again, for photos of the S Perkins Kroger, check out my flickr album; for photos of the Memphis Kmart, stay tuned right here late next month. Until then, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are!

Retail Retell