It's pretty amazing when a store that was built or last renovated more than 10 or 15 years ago still looks modern now. I think that's the case with at least the outside of this Hannaford in Kingston, NY, which was built in the 1990s as one of Grand Union's flagship superstores. The facade has not been substantially changed since it was built.
The window corner looks great from the outside and creates a very bright space for the entrance inside. Hannaford took over this location in the bankruptcy in 2001 and renovated it at least once inside since then.
My one complaint about the outside here is that it reads, Supermarket Hannaford. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the icon, with the word Supermarket, on the right of Hannaford? Or, I'm pretty sure everyone around this store knows what Hannaford is, so why not just put Hannaford in the banner?
There are entrances and exits on either side of the glass enclosure. They bring you into an open foyer with a door to the left in the picture above to the grand aisle, and the front-end runs to the right in the above picture. The parking lot has a pretty cool cover structure over the walkway:
Must be nice when it's raining. Or snowing. I bet this is left from GU.
A quick look inside. You enter a large, spacious produce department. The wall to the left above runs along the front of the store, facing the main parking lot. The entrance is behind me and grocery aisles are to my right. Service departments continue along the back wall.
Very nice seafood counter -- much better and bigger than what you'd expect in a chain store like Hannaford. I also really like the tile along the back wall here.
Looking along the back wall.
The perimeter has very low ceilings, but they open up to an exposed ceiling over the grocery aisles, which is much nicer. I don't know why they didn't build the whole store with these higher ceilings. Maybe there's a second floor.
The deli and prepared foods department is looking pretty sad here, but it was actually really nice. The signage is some of the worst I've ever seen. Why use dark purple on a dark blue background? And why doesn't the prepared foods counter (to the left) get any signage at all?
This store was built by GU as a replacement for an older store in the same mall.
Nice! This store's decor kinda reminds me of the Hannaford in Red Hook, NY. I was there a few years back-- their produce section is amazing! They have some type of faux tree hanging over the whole department. It's quite breathtaking in person!
ReplyDeleteWow, that store looks really nice. I just looked up some photos. I don't know if this store's decor is older or just lower-cost, but while it's nice, it doesn't wow you in person.
DeleteThat décor looks like what they used around the time that they would have converted this over from Grand Union to Hannaford - looks similar to the one (and only) store that Hannaford took over up this way in Albany at that time (which has fairly recently been redone, as have some others that they had dating back to their entry in the area in the 1990's).
ReplyDeleteYes, that would be my guess too, that they renovated around the time of the Grand Union takeover but haven't really done much since.
DeleteThis store has been downsized when they took it over from Grand Union - there was significant more sales-floor space when GU opened during the Milton Glaser designed ‘Clean, Fresh and Good’ store era with the biggest hot foods department I’ve ever seen in a supermarket. It was so big that GU employed young persons (mostly teen girls) with roller skates to zip around the store to check prices, help customers, cardboard duty (I don’t think that would fly with insurance coverage today!). This GU was misplaced, not located in a major thoroughfare, not really convenient to get to and parking was difficult, it never did the massive business GU expected (I believe they pinned their hope on the large IBM population that lived in and around Kingston (it was close to IBM corporate buildings). When IBM went belly-up in Kingston, their many office buildings emptied in the early 90’s and thousand of employees moved-out - the entire area became depressed. The first downsizing was when it was a GU, the hot food went away, and the sales floor was reduced and far more so when Hanneford’s took over. The other Hannaford’s in Kingston is a much better store than this one. It was quite a store when it opened and reminiscent of the Highland GU which Hanneford’s also took over.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thank you for the insight! In which direction was the store previously larger than it is now? Was that section actually demolished?
ReplyDeleteThe rear of the store was moved forward to make sales space shorter (it was a ‘deep’ store with full double aisles and a center aisle separating). A big chunk of the left side of the store was closed-off and walled in. Today, that old GU space houses an Advanced Auto Parts store. The GU decor was always far nicer than Hannafords. I have a couple of images of the Kingston Plaza from the 50’s/60’s and one suggest there was a much smaller supermarket where GU was (probably a GU) back then.
ReplyDeleteFun facts: there were two GU sister stores in the same late 80’s GU motif and hot foods: Wappingers Falls and Highland. Like Kingston, GU downsized Wappingers and chopped off part of the store (the store was smaller than Kingston). Today it is a Big Lots. Highland was never downsized as it did great business (late nights the store was always packed) it remains the same size today as a Hannafords.
Very interesting, thank you for the history!
DeleteIn the 60s & 70s at least, the Kingston Plaza GU space was a department store by the name of Britts.
Delete