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| Today's post highlights Monroe County, AR, retail. |
On flickr last week, I started a new album documenting the Searcy, AR, Kroger during its 2021 liquidation sale (inasmuch as a closing Kroger actually "liquidates," but you get the point). As I've discussed at length within that album, Searcy wasn't the only small town in Arkansas to lose its Kroger store in 2021: Kroger also axed its stores in Brinkley, England, DeWitt, and Morrilton, with a final closure across state lines in McComb, MS, to round out the bloodshed for the year. The thing all of these stores had in common were that they were very old locations in (mostly) very small towns; all but two of them, in fact, still had wannabe neon decor, the final ones ever to bear that package chainwide. (Searcy was the only of the six ever to remodel to bountiful/2012 decor, while England has some unidentified package that may even predate Kroger's time in that building.)
Again, all of the details are discussed much further over on flickr, but suffice to say that there have been (somewhat) happy endings for most of these cases... Searcy, DeWitt, Morrilton, and McComb all had other grocery options in town already; McComb's store became a Corner Market (new to town), Morrilton's a Harps (relocating from elsewhere in Morrilton), Searcy's a clothing store, and DeWitt is still vacant (but at least has a Piggly Wiggly in town). Brinkley and England were both set to become food deserts, but Harps came to the rescue in England as well. As for Brinkley... well, wouldn't you know that the Kroger shopping center had actually been owned by competitor Edwards Food Giant since way back in 2013! As such, they were pretty much waiting for Kroger to close all along... they moved really swiftly, too, with Kroger closing on May 29, 2021, and Edwards reopening in the space within mere weeks, on June 19. Even cooler was that Edwards documented its renovation efforts on Facebook... so without further ado, I'd like to share those photos with y'all below!
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| Courtesy Facebook |
We begin with the exterior, where the Kroger signage has been freshly removed (but their cart corral remains).
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Heading inside and looking across to the back left corner, we see a number of the wannabe neon department signs, including Produce, Bread, and Luncheon Meats. We also see Kroger Delta's early 2000s "generic" (non-decor specific) aisle markers, as well as the registers with their original, classic lane light advertisements! Looking quite worse for the wear, of course, but still.
As a refresher of what the store looked like back when Kroger was still open, check out my album from 2017 on flickr here.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Here comes the fun part: old Bauhaus decor uncovered!! As part of their renovations, Edwards Food Giant (naturally) removed all of Kroger's wannabe neon signage. As it turns out, hiding behind that stuff this whole time has been old, unpainted Bauhaus! This pic takes a look at the deli-bakery area, where much more extensive work was going on below the wall signage, as the entire space was reconfigured (if not expanded, to boot). Kroger's iconic superstore-era staircase spindles used to be located in that small window space.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Wall decor hadn't yet been removed at the back of the store, but the refrigerated cases were busy being refurbished. As part of their quick turnaround, Edwards did not replace any of the fixtures at this store (except perhaps the produce bins?). These cases are newer than the store's opening anyway (they appear to be from Kroger's millennium decor era, i.e. the early 2000s or so), so most likely they are still in good shape and it wouldn't have made much sense for Edwards to get rid of them.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Fast-forwarding a bit, we see the product of more decor removal! Old Bauhaus "Produce" and "Bread & Rolls" signs have been uncovered. Compared to "Deli-Bakery," which had yellow text with a red outline, these signs had yellow text with a green outline, meaning this store had a multicolored version of the package. The Stateline Road store in Southaven, MS, famously had a single-colored, pink-and-periwinkle version; meanwhile, the last-ever Bauhaus store, on Spinning Road in Dayton, OH, had an inverted single-color red-and-gray version. There were many, many versions of this decor over the years, it seems like, and I wonder how it was decided which store got which colorations.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
There were two produce signs at this store during the wannabe neon days, and this shot confirms that the same was true in the Bauhaus days. I wonder if this store always had Bauhaus from the beginning, or if it had superstore decor before that.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Over on the opposite side of the store, the flooring has been torn out, no doubt for work on refrigeration lines and other such plumbing. Above the wall, we find uncovered signage that used to read "Dairy & Ice Cream."
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Despite all the ongoing construction work, a separate crew already began stocking the store's shelves at this time! As I mentioned, Edwards was determined to reopen this store as quickly as possible, and set to work on immediately stocking non-perishable items as a result.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
More stocking is taking place in this photo, where we can also get a good look (as in several of the above images) at the removed drop ceiling tiles. The drop ceiling would soon return, but for now, it's an interesting look!
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Returning a little later, we get a couple of "aerial" views from on top of a construction lift. Definitely a cool perspective here! Stocking is in full swing, and we also get some high-quality views of the uncovered Bauhaus decor.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Another similar look over to the opposite wall of the store. It's interesting to note how only certain portions of the old Bauhaus walls went unpainted; we can clearly see the outline of the wannabe neon signage extending to either side of the unpainted area, and those "stair-step" portions did see new paint, it appears.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
The restrooms received new plumbing work and upgrades, too, which is nice to see.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Lower quality pic here, but as promised, we see the drop ceiling returning.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
This shot looks inside what *was* the store's entrance: a tunnel-like area that one entered on the right side of the storefront, under the superstore arches, but forcing customers to walk all the way across the entire front wall to get to produce in the far corner.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Edwards remedied the situation by relocating the doors front and center on the facade, as seen here. (Same exact doors, too, just moved to a new spot!)
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Our last "birds-eye" view shows us the Bauhaus sign everyone was hoping to see: the "word train" of "Fresh Beef, Pork, & Poultry"! Given that this sign appears to have already been painted over in earlier images, I'm not so certain I'm uploading these in the correct order; in any case, they're all fun to see, regardless.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
It was fun while it lasted, but of course we knew it couldn't last forever; by the time this photo was taken, Edwards had finally painted over the walls, covering over those last Bauhaus decor remnants :(
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Out front, new concrete was being poured along the front walkway.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Stocking of the refrigerated cases began in earnest even as the walls were still being repainted!
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| Courtesy Facebook |
A good-looking frozen seafood selection here. I wonder how much Edwards's selection has changed as compared to Kroger's, and their prices, too, for that matter.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
The deli-bakery area was seeing more extensive work, and as such was still covered up by plastic tarps at this point in time. Remember, all of this work happened over the course of only three weeks.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
In the last aisle of the store, we see some fresh new paint colors begin to brighten the place up, including red and yellow. I find the flooring scene here interesting: it looks to me like all the tile was removed in this photo, but as we'll see in later images below, the original Kroger flooring appears to have remained. So I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at here.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
New registers going up at the front of the store; we can also see the relocated entryway. Guest services is straight ahead, with the deli-bakery directly behind that: I wonder if that department expanded into the former entry tunnel corridor any.
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Outside, new signage went up in the spot you'd think it would have been located all along: those iconic superstore arches. It was typical of Kroger not to put their signage here, but doesn't it just make so much more sense to utilize the architecture this way?
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Here's the completed signage: Edwards Food Giant, Since 1959, The Meat People! Notice also the crews bricking over the former entrance area (and if you zoom in close enough, Kroger's yellow "this store is closed" notice in the window, too).
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| Courtesy Facebook |
Inside, we're very close to reopening, with the walls fully painted, shelves fully stocked, and registers close to being set up. It's funny to note that these "new" registers were brought in secondhand from some other Kroger store, as evidenced by that lane light!
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| Courtesy Facebook |
I wish I had more photos of the finished interior to share with y'all, but alas, this is the only one uploaded to Facebook. In any case, though: it certainly looks like a totally different store!! (Minus the flooring and aisle markers, of course :P ) Edwards did a really good job with this renovation; I'm sure Brinkley is lucky to have them.
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| Courtesy Google Maps |
Last but not least, the completed exterior, as showcased on Google Maps. Below are a few additional images I took while driving through in June of 2021, on the way to the Morrilton store while it was closing (as well as several other retail destinations!)...
I find it strange how the old Kroger logo space was being used simply as home to a very temporary-looking "FOOD GIANT" banner. Hopefully that has been fixed since then. (It does look in the Google Maps photo like they may have gotten new roofing.)
In addition to Kroger's closure in 2021, Fred's (background, right-hand side of this image) closed during the bankruptcy in 2019, so Brinkley had a bit of a tough time for a little while there. However, not only has Kroger been retenanted, but the nearby former Wal-Mart has become a combination Family Dollar/Dollar Tree store... and, Brinkley has gotten a new-build Sonic in the chain's new style, which I found interesting to see. A few more pictures of that follow.
I like that the restaurant still has a letterboard despite also having a high-rise interstate sign. The presence of only the wordmark on that sign actually reminds me a bit of the retro-style Oxford Sonic, even if the rest of the restaurant is totally modern in design.
The drive-in spaces are located exclusively on the right side of the building, with the side facing the street here showing only the drive-thru window (and that giant Sonic logo).
One downside of using the sign shape as a high-rise sign like this is that, for drivers traveling the opposite direction (that is, from town, as opposed to from the interstate), the logo appears backwards. Compare the high-rise sign to the logo on the side of the building in this pic and you'll see what I mean.
One final shot, also showing the newly-opened Edwards Food Giant in the background.
I hope y'all enjoyed this post! I know I certainly got a kick out of stumbling across those Bauhaus images when I did, and I've been waiting for the right time to finally get to share them with y'all as well. I'm not sure right now what or when my next blog post will be, but I do encourage you to keep following me over on flickr, where I continue to upload regularly and where my Searcy Kroger series is just beginning. Stay tuned for more!
Until next time and as always, thanks for reading, and have fun exploring the retail world wherever you are :)
Retail Retell
