Covina Ralphs (Former Alpha Beta) to close May 18

[luckysaver]

The Covina Ralphs on Citrus Ave will close May 18 due to lack of business, according to yesterday's SGV Tribune and Kroger. This is the store I mentioned in a different post that it still has 1990's era Alpha Beta interior decor (and its liquor license still uses Alpha Beta Company as a phantom store operating company).

A few years ago, the Vincent-Badillo store, serving the western industrial area of Covina (another ex-Alpha Beta, originally an Alpha Beta F.A.D Warehouse Store) became a 99cents Only Store.

Here is the article:

http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_9030151?source=rss_viewed

luckysaver

[Jeff]

This store needs pictures taken of it! For the longest time you could see the Alpha Beta labelscar under the Ralphs logo, which I'm sure will be more prominent when the Ralphs logo is removed.

This store for the longest time was supposedly trying to move into West Covina off of Rowland and Citrus, but it never came to be. This store was empty 10 years ago. I'm sure it hurt when Lucky's had remodeled.

[storewanderer]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2259069976/

Business does look very bad.

[J-Man]

The Alpha Beta that became a 99 Cents Only store is at Vincent and San Bernardino, not Badillo.

[Jeff]

Yep. San Bernardino. Its actually between the two streets.

[J-Mac]

Cripe I need to revisit this place. If you didn't click the link in Storewanderer's message, the exterior looks like:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2259069976/

The story about this day: I skipped photographing the interior on this store so would have enough time to make it over to the former AB on Workman Mill Rd. in Bassett, which I also have photos of. Oddly, Bassett has an older interior but looks to have more business too.

I think this Covina store, which is a block away, is likely the culprit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2258275319/

It features your typical Lucky green/red interior.

[Jeff]

If you can, check to see if you can still see the Alpha-Beta labelscar.

[J-Mac]

I made it out to Covina today.

Yes, there is a labelscar visible. It is from the post-Lucky merger Alpha Beta (when Alpha Beta was part of the Yucaipa Cos.) I'm sure it will become more visible when the oval is removed:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2472835164/

I also have a number of interior shots, starting here:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/socalretail/2471859867/

This interior appears to be a rather standard package that was applied during the Yucaipa years. In this case, some elements from an earlier (mid 80s?) Alpha Beta interior made it through that remodel, including the flooring and the tile behind the bakery.

Strangely, even though this place is going through a store closing with big discounting it was still dead.

[Jeff]

This is also similar to the interior at the former Alpha-Beta in San Bernardino on Sterling.

Wow, what really shocks me is the amount of items on the shelves! For a store closing in little over a week, that's a lot. The Max Foods in Montebello was down to one Shelf of food on its last day. This should still have 1/2 a store left!

[TheQuestioner]

Thanks for the plentiful photos of the interior and exterior! Did anyone hassle you while inside? I have taken photos inside of supermarkets and stores, and about half the time I get some clerk or manager bugging me to stop photographing or leave the store. I try to be discreet but they catch on sometimes, especially when I take a few seconds to steady the camera (hate those blurry shots!)

Anyway, I have to say I have always been curious about Alpha Beta and wondered what they looked like. I am assuming this is reflective of the final ownership group from the late 80's-early 90's era? I am in the SF Bay Area so I am sure MANY stores around me were once A-B but the only one I ever saw that had the A-B tiles intact was in Union City. Never seen (to my knowledge) any interior decor from Alpha Beta in a store, so seeing this was a treat.

[J-Mac]

Interior photography is somewhat of an art. You have to have the right tools (I use a cellphone, another friend uses a real camera) and you have to know how to get shots off, while keeping from looking too creepy. One helpful hint: if you have merchandise in your cart, they are less likely to bug you, else they might lose a sale. Another hint is being well familiar with your equipment, and knowing pretty much how a shot will turn out before you even produce a camera... as opposed to spending too many seconds looking through a viewfinder. Practice makes perfect.

Anyway, back to the Alpha Beta in Covina...

The interior looks to be something that was installed during the Yucaipa years (1991-1995) which was an inexpensive way to dress up a mid-80s Alpha Beta interior. There are parts of the interior, such as the floor and tile in the bakery that stayed from the 80s, while I believe the wall graphics and checkstands are from that 91-95 era Alpha Beta. I could be wrong about this and I wouldn't mind someone correcting me if I am.

I have seen photographs of Albertsons stores that retained elements of their Alpha Beta interiors (via Lucky.) For reference, this Albertsons (Lucky, AB) on Bird Ave in San Jose retained a mid-80s Alpha Beta interior with only changes to the aisle hangers by Lucky. See: http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... l%20Decor/ there is also this San Jose store: http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa11 ... Wall%20De/ (Both of these San Jose stores have since closed.)

Another 1980s vintage Alpha Beta interior is in this thread: http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... =27&t=2225

[storewanderer]

To sum it up:


No flash
Hip-level shots
Mute all sounds on camera
Avoid aisles that are more likely to be "watched" like liquor or health and beauty
Walk the store to get a feel for how well it is staffed and if there seem to be too many employees either take a few shots real fast and get out, or wait for the employees to become occupied with other customers then photograph their areas.
Stand in an aisle looking at and facing a product (12:00) but hold your camera pointing over at the wall or aisle hanger or whatever other element you wish to photograph at the 3:00 or 9:00 positions.

If all else fails go ask about digital prints; ask the store employees for help using the equipment. This way they think you had a legitimate reason for bringing the camera in that being to get digital prints. Or maybe the batteries are out on your camera and you need new ones and you want to swap them out right in the store (and of course get a few test shots to make sure everything is working after the battery switch). With digital prints costing as little as 15cents, ordering a few to me is a non-expense. I know in the case of the batteries if you don't have a camera that uses normal batteries that won't be any help. Plus batteries cost so much in some stores that it is cost prohibitive to me.

A lot of it depends just how detailed you want your photos of the store to be, too. If you want to just get a couple shots, you can go in and take them real quick and be out the door before anyone opts to approach you. In this case you certainly want to start your first photo in a certain point in the store that is most distant from the door, and quickly work your way to the door so your last photo is near the door making for a quick exit.

[TheQuestioner]

From the looks of it, I was not missing much when it came to interesting decor with those mid 90's Alpha Betas. I wonder what the stores looked like in the 60's when they had the red exterior tiles. Those tiles were so cool.

Thanks for the tips on interior photography. I have followed most of these measures for a while now, but I think I will add having a cart and putting a few items into it. I could also use the cart's handle to steady my shots. I have a silent camera that I knew pretty well, so I can do hip shots without peeking at the viewfinder or screen too often. My biggest vexation is the blurry shots. Since I am often on the move 9to avoid the appearance of lingering for no reason) it can be hard to slow down and pause just long enough to get the intended shot. Most of the time I do OK by starting inside and saving my various, well-staged ourdoor shots for after I finished inside. Most of the times I get busted are when I wait for there to be few/no people and a clerk just pops up out of nowhere. I think these incidents are not intentional, just bad luck that the clerk happened upon me. Sometimes I can't really hide it. I got a couple of good shots of the curly iron dividers containing the round Safeway "S" at a store in San Jose, and that got the staff's attention. But there was no way in hell I was leaving without those "S" dividers. I hit that store on a second occasion to get what I missed before. Now, if I can just get off my butt and set up a flickr account, I can share my captures with you all...

[luckysaver]

I drove by the old store the other day - the shopping center has less cars in the parking lot - perhaps the small shops lost a lot of business with the closure of Ralphs. They took out the red oval a top the front entrance and the old AB H sign on Citrus has the oval white out.

I remember years ago when I first visited the store, they had a pigeon problem so Ralphs installed a bird barrier fence about the front doors.

This is one of the stores I mentioned in an earlier post that was part of a group of older Ralphs stores that were former Alpha Beta's operating under the RGC phantom subsidiary "Alpha Beta Company" (as seen on their state Liquor and Tobacco permits), since this store was an Alpha Beta.

luckysaver