Rhodes Family Price Chopper, Branson, MO

For today's Beyond the Mid-South feature, we're headed up to Branson, Missouri, to check out a grocery store there. This place calls itself the Rhodes Family Price Chopper, although it's not the same Price Chopper as you'd find up in New York and other New England states. Based on the "Rhodes Family" naming, I'm certain that this Price Chopper is a banner that is licensed out to independent operators, not unlike the Piggly Wiggly or Cash Saver names my fellow Mid-Southerners may be familiar with. But beyond that guesswork, and unlike a majority of my posts, I've done zero research on this store - a refreshing change of pace, haha! Instead, I'll let all the pictures do the talking. Let's go!

Starting out with a photo that most certainly is not a contender for best image in the world... sorry about that. I took this one simply to show the roadside sign for the store, as seen while we drove past it during the daytime hours. Since we were enjoying our vacation during the day, our visit to the store proper took place only after nightfall.

As such, then, it's difficult to make out too many details in my exterior photos - again, my apologies. But you can still make out the general arch shape above the entrance, at least.

You enter into produce, on the left side of the store. I thought the full wall buildout separating produce from the rest of the store - rather than just placing upright refrigerated cases out in the middle of nowhere, and having those serve as the boundary between departments instead - was pretty neat. Certainly makes for a nice place to throw up a mural or two! And of course, the cut-throughs to the aisles on the other side reflect a well-thought-out design, too.

Glancing to our right, across the front end. As you'll see, a kind of mint or seafoam green is the primary color of this store's décor package. Personally, I quite like the color. But it is rather permeating in this interior, so I can see how others might get tired of it quickly.

The first department past produce, located in the front left corner, is a service counter that appears to be home to a trio of likely independently-run food businesses. These include Ronaldo's Pizza, Wok This Way, and Sushi with Gusto.

The deli - signed here as "Rhodes Family Kitchen" - follows, running along the left-side interior wall. I didn't get much of a chance to explore its offerings, but it definitely looks expansive, with a very upscale appearance as well: I'm a fan of the wavy overhang and the tile backsplash mural. At the very least, a salad bar is one offering, as can be seen in the foreground of this image. At the time of day I visited - around 10:00 at night - not many of these service counters should have been operational.

Stepping around the corner, this view takes us across the back actionway. The wavy motif continues here, joined by elegant backlit signage. As nice as this décor looks, however, I'm pretty sure I've seen parts of it before in other stores posted around the internet. Like the Price Chopper name this store uses, I assume the décor package is one that's offered to independent grocery store operators so that they don't have to devise their own.

The dry goods aisles begin across from the butcher, directly behind the produce department: that wall you see behind the aisle markers in this image is the other side of the one we saw bearing one of the two murals in produce. I thought the message placed on the wall was nice. It would appear the Rhodes Family has been in the grocery business for over 50 years, although I doubt this particular location is that old.

Some views of the butcher counter, located across from the first few aisles.

"Quality Cut Fresh ... Selection You Deserve." Nice messages.

Breakfast and lunch meats occupy the cases below this sign.

Looking back across to the back left corner. If you zoom in, you can see the bakery counter is located at this end of the "Rhodes Family Kitchen."

Aisle 6 picks up at the location of the second produce department mural (notice the angled wall in the background), and also introduces a drop ceiling into the mix for the remaining grocery aisles. Even more seafoam green to be found, even in the grocery aisles - that's not too common to see in chain retailers!

I made sure to photograph Aisle 12, thinking at the time that I would be posting these photos to flickr instead of to my blog. Oh well. You can still check out my collection of other 12s, if you wish :P

Note how the aisle markers, too, carry the wavy motif. 12 and 13 are the last numbered aisles in the store, although the frozen foods department does continue past this point.

Farm Fresh Dairy is the next department we encounter, occupying the right-side half of the rear perimeter wall. Like all the meat cases, dairy features exclusively refrigerated and frozen cases with doors: no open-faced units. This, of course, helps conserve energy.

To the right of the dairy department, spanning the width of the right-side interior wall, is another very nice mural, this one depicting various scenes from the Branson area.

Here's a view back across the rear actionway, from dairy. Here you can see the full expanse of the wavy décor, as well as the drop ceiling above the grocery aisles.

(Taking a page from the playbook of my friend Zachary's Market Report Blog,) the hanging signs indicate that this store uses Always Save as its store brand. I bit the bullet and did a tiny bit of Googling here - Always Save appears to be one of the banners of Associated Wholesale Grocers, or AWG, which also counts Best Choice among its brands. AWG appears to supply a majority of the independent grocery stores in the Mid-South as well, including the aforementioned Piggly Wiggly and Cash Saver stores, and others like Superlo Foods and Gordin's Butcher Shoppe.

The drop ceiling once again disappears over frozen foods. In this view, we are looking up towards a considerably darker area located in the front right corner.

As it turns out, that darker area is home to the beer, wine, and spirits departments, as well as customer service. Finally, the seafoam green gives way to a different design on the wall over here, which appears to be a textured-pattern wallpaper. The totally different feel gives these departments an atmosphere all their own, which is suitable for creating a separate liquor store environment even though there is no true separation from the rest of the salesfloor.

A walk-in cooler is also located in this area, below that fifth and final mural.

A close-up of the customer service signage, just because I really dig the backlit lettering. It makes even more of an impact here, since this area deliberately has less overhead lighting.

Tobacco is sold at this counter, instead of any of the main registers. I'm assuming this would also serve as the checkout for any liquor purchases as well, given the proximity to the department.

Here is a view back out into the salesfloor, where you can really see the stark contrast between this area and the rest of the store. In addition to the warehouse ceiling overhead, the beer and wine shelves are both shorter and sleeker, there are numerous spotlight fixtures, and the ceiling is likely painted black.

Our final interior view looks across approximately half of the front end, back toward produce and the in-store restaurant trio. I can't be certain, but it appears there may have been café seating over in that area as well, which would, of course, make sense.

The floral department can also be seen, located on the rightmost edge of produce.

A quick look at one of the handbaskets before we leave. I liked how it was branded instead of generic and nameless.

Last up, two final exterior views of the storefront. They're virtually identical, except the first one seems to show a bit more of the exterior detailing, so I decided to keep both in the post.

Hope you enjoyed traveling with me to Branson's Rhodes Family Price Chopper store! I have one more store from my June 2017 trip to Branson to share with y'all sometime in the future - it was located right next door, in fact. Stay tuned for that post eventually. And be on the lookout for our next post as well, which will introduce another new series of posts to the blog! Until then, have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are :)

Retail Retell