Location: 10751 W Flagler St, Miami, FL 33174
A comment came in for Monday's Flashback Fun post from Albertsons Florida Blog letting us know about a store where Grand Union's light-up aisle marker structure can be seen! The Food Star Supermarket in Miami Florida is a former Grand Union which most likely closed in 1985 when GU pulled out of Florida. What's so hard to believe, the store had received the 80's remodel, seemingly months before it was sold off. Tons of photos are available of the store on google reviews showing much of the GU elements still intact. The store was remodeled in the early 2020's with most of GU's remnants have been removed.
Here are two photos that appeared in Monday's Flashback Fun post with adjustments made to the photos so the aisle marker structure is more visible. Over the years, the product photos faded pretty badly as can be seen on the panel next to aisle 5.
Looking at the photo above, I was reminded of another cool feature Grand Union had in their 80's remodels. Some of the checkout light fixtures were designed to be turned, allowing a register to go from regular to "express" and back again as needed. The fixtures above appear to be express only. May not seem like a big deal these days, but back in the 80's and as an ACME employee, I thought the ability to switch a register back and forth on a moments notice was pretty darn cool!
And here it is... preserved and lit up!! As we know, Stop & Shop removed these structures as did most companies that aquired Grand Unions. Food Star did not, and retrofitted the structure with their own signage. Some distant shots here but we'll get up close down below. Side note: this place appears to be a pretty high-volume store in these photos.
The cage-like structure above the lights was red in GU's northern stores.
Grand Union's ceiling lights still intact here as well when these photos were taken.
So exciting to see this structure still intact! Long gone now but preserved for good at Acme Style. Thanks to Albertsons Florida Blog for letting us know about them!
I thought you'd enjoy seeing those photos of the Miami Food Star! I wish I could have made it to that store before the remodel to get some better pictures of the aisle marker structure, but at least there were a few on Google that captured it well. I'm surprised Food Star was actually taking the effort to find modern product photos to hang from that structure too.
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