Lynnwood Safeway (Lake Serene)

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explorersea
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Posts: 66
Joined: 27 Jan 2008 15:17
Location: Beautiful Pacific Northwest

Lynnwood Safeway (Lake Serene)

Post by explorersea »

Special to the Pacific Northwest is the Safeway 3523 in Lynnwood Washington, which we always referred to as Lake Serene (14826 Hwy 99 N Lynnwood), this 51,000 square foot store opened in 1980 and was quite the exception for the times, this was a large experimental store from opening. This Super Store tested many concepts, some were successful, many were not. The store opened with a Pharmacy when there were just a handful in the division, scripts were tracked on 3x5 cards as there wasn't a computer system yet. You could try on shoes using benches on the store aisle, the store carried such Variety as shower curtains, bathroom scales, towels, bicycle tires even men's athletic supporters. The north side of the store had a separate garden center with its own entrance and POS., some of the building elements are still exposed today. Sales were disappointing at this store from the get go, it was the early 1980s, the economy was soft and Safeway was focused on increasing foot traffic and sales. The store opened with split aisles which were removed within a few years to encourage customers to complete walking all the way down the aisles. A Sausage Kitchen was trialed near the meat department but was not successful. This was the first store to test the China Express concept in the Pacific Northwest, it was such a success that Safeway embraced the extension to the deli and it continues today across the company. POS enthusiasts would find it interesting that this store opened with IBM 3660 models and was the first store in the Pacific Northwest to pilot IBM 4680 registers a few at a time with a slow and tedious execution as the new solution had many challenges in the first couple of years. Eventually the population in the area grew and sales continued to mature as the store found its way. A fuel station and Starbucks were added in the 2000's to make the property complete.
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