Safeway | Rehoboth Beach, DE

 

19283 Coastal Highway

Welcome to the Rehoboth Beach Safeway!

Welcome back to The Retail Connection! We are here in Rehoboth Beach, one of the most popular beach destinations in Delaware. The town and surrounding areas have several supermarkets, and we'll be checking some of them out over the next weeks. We're starting with the Safeway, which opened on November 17, 2005 and marked Safeway's return to the town after their previous store closed back in 1987 due to their brief exit from the Delmarva. Let's step inside and take a look around!

We're heading in through the entrance marked DriveUp & Go. Acme also has this service, although I've never seen signage like this for it.

Floral is to the left past the entrance. As you can see, this store has the "Woodgrain" variant of Lifestyle v3. Only three other stores have this version of the decor, and they are all in Oregon.

Fresh fruit and organic selections take up most of the left of the store. I guess Albertsons is doing a price lock campaign right now, as Acme has these signs in their stores as well.

Lunch meats are in the back right corner, dividing green paint and brown paint.

Up next are service meat and seafood and packaged meats.

Looking down aisle 4, the breakfast aisle. The aisle and category markers are unchanged from the standard version of this decor.

Photo courtesy of Retail Forever

Here's a look at the same aisle in 2021, provided by Retail Forever. You can read their post on this store by clicking here.

And a closeup of one of the category markers.

Weirdly, the pharmacy is in the back of the store. I believe this is normal for Safeway, but most stores I know put pharmacies along the front wall.

Dairy is in the back right corner. It kind of bothers me how the "half & half" sticker on that freezer to the right is totally different from all the other ones. That looks more like what you would see in an Acme.

Frozen foods are in the aisles across from dairy.

The fresh bakery and bread are on the right wall. The phrase "oven fresh and irresistible" was carried over from Lifestyle v2, and it always makes me laugh for some reason.

The service deli is in the front left corner next to bread and rolls.

A look down the front end at the checkout lanes and a lot of Sincerely, Food signage. Other than self checkout, only the express lane was open.

Customer service and beach merchandise are on the front wall, with "Thank you for shopping Safeway" above the latter. That area used to be a Starbucks which was removed during the remodel.

This store has a Safeway Express gas station in the parking lot. Until recently, the canopy used the pre-2005 Safeway logo, which is strange considering the store itself was one of the first to use the current one.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2019

Not much has changed other than the exterior signage for DriveUp & Go and pharmacy.

Nearby competition

0.6 miles away: Giant of Rehoboth Beach

Just down Coastal Highway is the Rehoboth Beach Giant. This store opened in 1999 as one of the last to be built before Ahold took over the chain. The store originally used the Super G name but was converted to Giant in 2005 and received the updated logo in 2008. Inside, this store has the current Giant of Landover decor.

0.8 miles away: Aldi of Rehoboth Beach

The Rehoboth Beach Aldi opened in 2021 in part of a former Kmart. The Kmart lasted until February 2020 and was the last location in Delaware and the Delmarva as a whole. The store was significantly downsized before closure, and Aldi actually takes up most of what Kmart's final footprint was.

0.8 miles away: The Fresh Market of Rehoboth Beach

The Fresh Market opened here in 2016 along with a now-closing Bed Bath & Beyond on what used to be an empty lot. It is the only location in the state of Delaware.

1.9 miles away: Acme of Rehoboth Beach

The Acme opened in November 2015 in a former SuperFresh, which opened in 1999. Acme and Safeway are both owned by Albertsons, so technically they're competing with themselves, although both stores have coexisted for almost eight years so they must both do well.

I think that about does it for this post! This was my first time in a Safeway in a while, and other than the store being extremely cold and no normal registers being open, I found it to be a pretty nice supermarket. Next week, we're headed further south to see a grocer with only two Delaware locations. Don't miss it! Thanks for shopping with The Retail Connection: Ingredients for life.

Bed Bath & Beyond | Deptford, NJ

 

1755 Deptford Center Road

Welcome to the Deptford Bed Bath & Beyond!

Welcome back to The Retail Connection! This is the very first and very last Bed Bath & Beyond we'll be seeing on the blog. This is the Deptford location, which closes today, July 21. I visited it ten days prior, although it was pretty much empty already. Without further adieu, let's step inside and say goodbye to Bed Bath & Beyond.

The kitchen department is just ahead on the left wall when entering the store. This was definitely the most stocked area in the store, although most of the products aren't actually kitchen-related and would normally be elsewhere in the store.

Across the actionway are more kitchen products and store closing signs. I did look at some of the things they had for sale here, and the discounts weren't great. Maybe they got better as closing time got closer, but, like I said, I was here in the final ten days.

The middle of the store was entirely closed off with yellow tape. The remaining products were all moved to the front end.

Hopefully your dream is of boxes and empty shelves, because that's all you're going to find in the design & dream department in the back right corner.

The clearance area is all cleared out. Get it?

The sleep shop is next, past the clearance shelves. There's not much left, but at least what they do have is actually appropriate for a sleep shop.

The bath area is in the front left corner. Let's play things safe and not venture too close to the "Beyond" section...

Health and beauty is next, with some diaper bags that would make more sense at Buy Buy Baby next door.

A look down the front end, which is still mostly stocked with outdoor and summer items.

Some of the liquidation-related signs hanging in front of the registers. Apparently, they're still getting "new arrivals".

There were some good luck notes from customers hanging on the customer service desk. The employees here all seemed very nice, but I could tell they were sad.

I took a panoramic shot of the entire shopping center, which is obviously very unlucky. We have a closing Christmas Tree Shops, a closed Harmon Face Values, a closing Bed Bath & Beyond, and a closing Buy Buy Baby.

And, before we go, here's a picture of the Deptford Town Center pylon sign, which is soon to be totally empty once Christmas Tree Shops closes. CTS was formerly owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, so at one point every store in this plaza was owned by the same company.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2023

The store closing signs were already up as of May.

2015

Not much has changed since the store's opening.

2011

I'm not sure if this shopping center was demolished and rebuilt or just expanded. Before the redevelopment, this center was home to a few vacant stores. The Halloween store on the end seems to be a former Frank's Nursery & Crafts.

It's sad to see Bed Bath & Beyond ride off into the sunset, and I wish all of its employees the best of luck. That's going to do it for today's post. Next week, we're headed into the First State to see some supermarkets you won't find in the Philadelphia area. See you then! The Retail Connection: Beyond any store of its kind.

F A R E W E L L ,

B E D  B A T H  &  B E Y O N D !

Lidl | Egg Harbor Township, NJ

 

3121 Fire Road

Welcome to the Egg Harbor Township Lidl!

Welcome back to The Retail Connection! Today, we're in the township of Egg Harbor, located in Atlantic County just a few miles away from shore towns like Atlantic City and Ocean City. Instead of enjoying the boardwalk or the beach today, though, we'll be taking a tour of this Lidl. First, a short history. Genuardi's opened here on February 14, 2001, about a week after their acquisition by Safeway. The Genuardi's division closed in 2012, with many Pennsylvania stores being sold to GIANT (which doesn't operate in New Jersey). No buyer of this store was named, and the store closed in December 2012, eliminating another grocery store from the town after Pathmark closed earlier that year on March 2. The store sat vacant until JR's Fresh Market, a Thriftway/Shop N Bag and later Foodtown affiliate, took the space over from 2015 to 2018. Lidl opened in most of the building on April 14, 2021. Without further adieu, let's begin our tour!

Heading in through the iconic Genuardi's tower...

This store has a different decor package from what we saw in Folsom. The New Jersey flag in the heart is a nice touch.

We enter to the left to the bakery, Lidl's only in-store fresh department. I think I prefer this look over the older one. I like the fake chalkboard signs. By the way, if you've never been in a Lidl before, I think you should know that you can smell the bakery no matter where you are in the store. That's just another thing to love about Lidl.

The produce market is across from the bakery. Interestingly, the produce sign is unchanged from the previous decor.

Seafood and meats are in refrigerators in the back left corner. I really like the "floating" freezers in this store. We'll see them again later on.

Deli meats and cheeses are behind the refrigerators on the back wall. The signage here is definitely much clearer and more noticeable than it was before. See the same area in Folsom for comparison.

General merchandise is in the middle of the store. This Lidl in particular had quite a lot of beach and pool supplies, probably because this store isn't far from the shore.

Frozen foods and the rest of dairy are on the right wall.

Here we see those interesting freezers again. I've never seen anything like them before.

Looking down aisle 7. The aisle markers are hung above the shelves as opposed to above the aisle. I can't say I care for that idea.

Registers along the front end, as per usual. I was intrigued by that "Egg Harbor Township community wall", but it didn't really have anything on it other than ads for Lidl's magazine.

Purpose-built Lidl stores have all glass along the front end, so it's interesting to see decor on the front wall.

Lidl didn't take over the entire Genuardi's/JR's building, so there's a small part on the end still vacant and looking like a Genuardi's. This was the entrance to the Signature Cafe back in the Genuardi's days. Check out Josh Austin's Flickr page to see a photo of this store back in June 2012 when it was still Genuardi's.

Other Images of Interest

Street View Images

2017

The store was JR's Fresh Market and affiliated with Foodtown at the time of this picture. By the way, if you're interested in seeing photos of this store when it was still JR's (which retained the Safeway decor from Genuardi's), click here.

Nearby competition

4.4 miles away: ShopRite of English Creek

This ShopRite on Black Horse Pike co-anchors the English Creek Shopping Center with an Ollie's (former Jamesway). This store opened sometime in the 80's as a Starn's ShopRite, and was sold to Village Super Market in 1986. It retains the "STARN'S" logo on the side of the building, as you can see. Unfortunately we won't be getting to see this store, but I hope to get to it sometime soon. Sleeve Did It has a video touring this store, if you're interested in seeing it. Also, there's an Aldi across the street from this ShopRite, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Thanks for checking out this Lidl with me! While the earlier Lidl stores in the US have beautiful exteriors, the newer ones have very nice decor on the inside. Personally, I'm a big fan of Lidl stores, and this one was no exception. I'm also glad to see an older supermarket building reused and still selling groceries. Thanks for reading and see you next week! The Retail Connection: Rethink grocery.