Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

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Super S
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Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by Super S »

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Yakima, and did not have time to stop and take any pictures. I did, however, notice a somewhat unusual looking Albertsons store at 1610 W. Lincoln Ave. (which has a Google street view) What struck me as odd was the fact that the location looked older, and the fact that there were windows across most of the front of the store. Most full-service Albertsons stores in the Northwest (with the exception of some very new locations) have a Customer Service counter in that area, and usually do not have windows in the center portion. Looking at the Google Maps view, it looks like this location was either added on to at some point, or may have at one time been two separate stores. That got me wondering if this store might have been something else (Buttrey comes to mind for some reason...not sure if they operated in Yakima though), or if this is simply a very old store still in operation. For what it's worth, the store seemed busy when I drove by.
bm10k
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by bm10k »

You are correct, it was a former Buttrey
Super S
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by Super S »

I recently posted about Albertsons closing stores in SW Washington on Retailwatchers:

http://www.retailwatchers.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=688

In one of the responses there is a 1972 advertisement for a Buttrey in Pendleton (which is now an Albertsons slated for closure) that bears a strong resemblance to the Yakima store I mentioned. I honestly did not realize, until recently, that Buttrey had locations this far west.
pseudo3d
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by pseudo3d »

This store converted to a Safeway, the second time the store changed names (I assume the Buttrey conversion, like many of the late 1990s Albertsons conversions, was done without a closure/reset). There's no aerials between 1965 and 1996, and the 1985 topo doesn't have it.

Further oddities come in a 1994 article where it claims that "Buttrey has sold its six Washington stores to an undisclosed buyer" (AWG) and lists the stores sold: Moses Lake, East Wenatchee, Richland, Pasco, and two in Kennewick. So either the newspaper was wrong in that Buttrey didn't pull out of Washington completely, or Yakima opened after the bloodletting.

As of 1990, they had seven stores in Washington (source: Funding Universe) not six, so either the seventh one closed before the other six were sold or the seventh one was Yakima that evaded closure. Unless we're all completely wrong and the Yakima store was NEVER a Buttrey...
Super S
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by Super S »

pseudo3d wrote:This store converted to a Safeway, the second time the store changed names (I assume the Buttrey conversion, like many of the late 1990s Albertsons conversions, was done without a closure/reset). There's no aerials between 1965 and 1996, and the 1985 topo doesn't have it.

Further oddities come in a 1994 article where it claims that "Buttrey has sold its six Washington stores to an undisclosed buyer" (AWG) and lists the stores sold: Moses Lake, East Wenatchee, Richland, Pasco, and two in Kennewick. So either the newspaper was wrong in that Buttrey didn't pull out of Washington completely, or Yakima opened after the bloodletting.

As of 1990, they had seven stores in Washington (source: Funding Universe) not six, so either the seventh one closed before the other six were sold or the seventh one was Yakima that evaded closure. Unless we're all completely wrong and the Yakima store was NEVER a Buttrey...
Maybe it started as something else. I will say that the front was not typical of Albertsons though, and certainly was not constructed in the mid-1990s. Albertsons-built stores from around the early 1980s tended to have very few windows on the front of the stores, and major remodels usually were similar as they usually placed a Customer Service area at the front. Albertsons was sometimes known to leave the layout of acquired stores intact though while simply updating interior walls, signage, etc.

The store reminded me most of the original appearance of the Buttrey stores in Boise at Cole Road & Fairview Ave, Hillcrest, and 16th Ave. Of the three, only the Hillcrest store remains as an Albertsons and has been heavily remodeled. The other two closed when Buttrey left Boise...16th is the most interesting as half of it is a NAPA Auto Parts store, and the other half is Boise CBS TV station KBOI. The NAPA half still has some windows intact and hints a little at the building's past.
Super S
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by Super S »

My last post somehow was posted twice, and it would not let me delete the second one here, so I just erased it. I don't know how the duplicate post happened.
pseudo3d
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Re: Albertsons, 1610 W Lincoln Ave, Yakima, WA

Post by pseudo3d »

After some more research, I discovered that Buttrey sold the Yakima store in 1993 before the exit from Washington, so Albertsons has presumably had this store since then.
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