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Albertsons "Promotional" centers

Posted: 02 Feb 2017 18:48
by pseudo3d
In addition to Albertsons' ill-fated garden centers, Albertsons also seemed to have another trick up its sleeve in those halcyon days of around 2000, the "Promotional" department. Here's a c. 2000 article about the opening of a "Seessel's by Albertsons" (which was an Albertsons in all but name). I'm sure there were others like this. This seems to be a different from a dollar department or a seasonal department (both of which are pretty common), does anyone remember these? What did they have?
The 67,000-square-foot Horn Lake store, which will be located at the corner of Goodman and Horn Lake roads, will be the first store in DeSoto or Shelby counties to feature a garden center and a promotional center. "The promotional center will be like a store within a store," said Gerald Melville, division vice president for Seessels by Albertsons. "This is a new concept and it will feature a variety of promotional items that will constantly change." The store also will have a butcher store, bakery, service deli and pharmacy. About 250 full- and part-time jobs will be created with the opening of the store.

Re: Albertsons "Promotional" centers

Posted: 16 Apr 2020 03:47
by luckysaver
I think "Promotional Center" meant to be sections of seasonal or specialty merchandise found in large Albertsons and Savon/Osco stores, where the aisles or special corners of the store are often labeled as "Promotional/Seasonal". For example, In the "Albertsons Vons Pavilions" division (also known as the Southern California Southern Nevada Region), the larger stores (except Nevada) have a special "LA RAMS" section, usually in the space where a bank branch used to be, which carries a selection of LA RAMS/NFL merchandise because A-V-P is a team sponsor since the 2016 season. In the division's past life (under the original Albertsons Inc and Supervalu), the larger stores had special aisles devoted solely to seasonal/holiday/promotional general merchandise, usually in the center aisles somewhere near the pharmacy.

On Albertsons' drugstore side from 1999-2006, the Savon/Osco standalone stores had promotional aisles for Hallmark Cards, seasonal/holiday, "Dollar Days", and local or charity-based general merchandise. At one Savon store near my home, (during the Albertsons ownership) it carried athletic spirit merchandise for a nearby high school such as athletic t-shirts, logo footballs, cheer pom-poms, and stuffed mascot wearing athletic shirts. Another Savon Drug store near Albertsons' Boise Parkcenter headquarters sported a "JA'S Kitchen" gourmet hot deli department, an unusual first for a drugstore (Walgreens historically had soda fountain/lunch counters), but it closed at the time of the corporate split. The jumbo Savon/Osco stores had a "Health & Home" department that sold nurse uniforms, home health supplies, and specialty medical equipment along with special service desk adjacent to the pharmacy staffed by a home health sales specialist. Some remodeled Savon Drug stores renamed their convenience grocery department "Albertsons Food Mart" that combines all grocery/candy/liquor in a designated corner of the store and at the same time reminds all shoppers of the Albertsons ownership of the Savon name.

They also had special arrangements in SoCal (I think it was during the Supervalu era) where selected "Albertsons-Savon" stores had aisles devoted to Office Depot products and Toys R Us merchandise.