What the heck are they doing to the Lawrence/Ravenswood store?
- Todd's is relegated to pre-made sandwiches and pre-sliced meats (and ribs that are whole slabs, but also under heat lamps). As y'all know, there is is nothing worse than pre-sliced bbq -- it dries out very quickly. If you can get "fresh" BBQ, it certainly isn't obvious.
- The sushi bar is down to 4 seats. Pre-made sushi is much larger.
- The oyster bar is gone.
- One of the fridge/freezer aisles was replaced by shelves. This was the section nearest the candy shop, which usually had tons of chicken parts, and on the other side, the exotic meats, amongst other things.
- The pre-made sandwiches are now grab-and-go. They used to be stacked behind glass and an employee had to wrap it and hand it to you.
- They do seem to have added a higher emphasis on truly made to order sandwiches, and have a new made to order salad counter, where an employee mixes your salad for you on a chipotle-style assembly line. I don't get the salad thing, where I could just turn a 180 and grab my own salad from the salad bar from a much bigger selection of ingredients. This is going in the opposite direction of what I would expect.
- The floral section from downstairs has taken over where the bulk spices used to be, next to the produce.
- The downstairs area now seems to be, I dunno, a warming station for those wandering the neighborhood? The counter down there didn't have any tap-pulls mounted. It may still serve beer and wine, but it wasn't obvious. Otherwise it's totally unclear what is being sold down there. I can't imagine this area being permanently wasted in this way, but you never know.
In general, it feels like they converted to a model where there is much less personal service. I know that if this isn't a temporary situation I have no reason to go there anymore, and, in fact, my visits are probably down 80% year-over-year. They have removed most of the things that made them unique, while the competition has stepped up their game a touch to blur the differences even more. I'm guessing this is all Kroger homogenizing its chains.