Abandoned Food World - Anniston, AL

Location: 1510 South Quintard Avenue, Anniston, Ala.
(that is me in the picture)

I've been meaning to talk about this place since I found it exactly a year ago. I knew I had taken pictures, and only yesterday had I found the damn things! I'll cut to the chase. I was in Alabama for some family business when I read in the newspaper that there was a grocery store and adjacent strip mall to be demolished that had been closed about 20 years prior. On the (you guessed it) 15th we went over there to scope the place out. The old automatic doors had been boarded up, and shattered glass was present towards the front end of the building. When I made my way around the side, I noticed a gaping hole, probably about five feet in diameter, in the bricks where large pieces of wire jutted out. Of course, like any good explorer, I played it safe climbed in there ASAP. Of course I went in! Who wouldn't?

A picture taken by my ever-so-cautious mother. Notice me standing in the middle and the portion of broken wall to the right of the frame.

Sixty-percent of the roof had caved in, and the weathering damage was ever so obvious. Even some of the tiles had curled up, becoming concave and bowed.

A lot of the old décor and the signage was still up, and in mostly good condition, except for the large "FOOD WORLD" sign, whose globe had rotted off its base and landed directly onto the dank floor.

It appears they had a red-back-white stripe and checkerboard motif going on, as shown here:

 The checkout markers were still in excellent condition. The only one that had rotted away was one that read "EXPRESS LANE - 10 ITEMS OR LESS" which I salvaged (and restored.) You can see it lying down in front of the customer service desk in the third picture. 

 This was the only remaining department sign left. It's kinda sad just sitting there all alone. :(

 This is how it looked from the middle of the store.

 The Bakery in its entirety. The funky typeface used for it doesn't match the Helvetica on the rest of the décor. I don't know if this was any other store in the past, so your guess is as good as mine.

 These old floor decals date to 1996/97.

These old pictures are pretty cool. It's amazing they haven't rotted by now. One was leaning up against the wall opposite the bakery and I believe it belonged to the dairy department.

Looking at historicaerials.com's website, the store was built after 1972, and closed in 1997.

I would share with you the pictures of the strip mall, but unfortunately, I didn't take any. What I know is that there was a Big-B turned Revco Pharmacy (which was acquired by CVS in 1997) which still had a closing notice inside, and two other unknown stores. One looked to be a smaller grocery or convenience store, and I can't quite recall what the other one was.

That's it for now. See y'all next time!

Abandoned FoodMax/Gregersons, Oxford, AL

     Location: Oxford, Alabama. Next to a Books-A-Million and a Martins Department Store.

     Today, while trying to kill some time, my parents and I stopped at a Books-A-Million, and to my surprise, there was an abandoned store… with NO boards on the windows! As proven by my mother, who was born and raised in the neighbouring Anniston, and the labelscar, it was indeed a Gregersons.

Gregersons is a chain of supermarkets down in Alabama. It then was turned into a FoodMax, a subsidiary of Bruno's. Again, supermarkets. After some research, I found that it closed in 2009. As evidence, there were a mixture of the FoodMax and Gregersons décor on the walls. The only FoodMax mark I could find was one on the back wall that said, "FOODMAX: The Low Price Place" as shown below.

      Anyway, I was able to get some pictures of the inside and plan out the building as I went along.

In the picture above, you can see the lights are still on, which is quite strange, the "Quality MEAT & POULTRY" sign, where the '& POU' section of the sign looks like it's going to fall off, the scattered blue mess of tiles that were in the entrance, and the dirty scars from the aisles.

See you next time!

Abandoned Winn Dixie! - Enterprise, AL

Location: 705 Boll Weevil Circle, Enterprise, Ala.

Well! I haven't updated this in a while, but let's get right to it, shall we?
I had to go out of town on Sunday and while driving back from Birmingham, I ate at a Popeye's in Enterprise. A 1970s-era Winn Dixie store caught my eye almost instantly. This place had it all.

A "The Beef People" labelscar, drab beige colours on the outside, it was a sweet release for my travel-weary brain. When I finished eating, I sauntered over there and discovered that they were presently clearing out the building. The foreman, I think, was a drunk grey-haired man of about fifty who had no shirt on. To each his own, I guess. Looking at a news article, the place had closed February 10th. It was pretty much empty by the time I got there. Magazine racks were being tossed to the curb and being sold, as well as scrap metal.

Now the decor, don't even get me started. I have never and will likely never see a store like this again. It appears just like the façade, the interior seemed to had not been updated since  the 1970s to the 1980s, likely since its opening. Above the doorway was diagonal wood paneling, another common trope of 1970s architectural design. There was a labelscar on it as well.

"Winn-Dixie... America's Supermarket"

There was one department in particular, though, that caught my eye. In fact, it was the only department in the whole store. It was both the Deli and the Bakery, which I have never seen together in one space before. Now, say what you will, but me blindly walking into an abandoned store that was open, had electricity, and had not been updated since a period of, in my opinion, the best colour schemes and design choices in history was like walking into heaven. 

"Deli - Bakery"

These colours are perfect. The tiles are perfect. This place is amazing. This was definitely a substantial find, and all by accident. Hopefully those fossils of decor will be reused again for something else. Anyway, I have nothing else to say. See ya on the flipside!

(I think this guy was haggling someone about some scrap metal)