Thomasville #2 - Thomasville, GA

 

Thomasville #2

Sing Dealer Station

1136 West Jackson Street

Thomasville, GA 31792

Scroll Down for the MTC Post on former Food Lion #947 & Food Lion #2806

As a bit of a change from my traditional coverage of Sing Oil Company convenience stores, today I'm going to cover a dealer station which survived until Sing Oil Company's merger with Amoco in 1990.  For some reason, this was one of two non-convenience store outlets included in the 1990 pre-merger list I found; therefore, I will include it on the blog.  The Thomasville #2 name actually represented two buildings over the years and the original station, located at 1120 West Jackson Street, relocated to the new building seen above in 1965.  Most of the photos I have of that station seem to have been taken in 1965 based on the various construction materials around the site. 

Some History

For those who don't know, West Jackson Street / US 319 serves as the main artery from downtown Thomasville to Tallahassee and remains along the alignment of the historic Dixie Highway, which originally connected Michigan and Illinois to Miami.  This area on the south side of Thomasville seems to be primarily residential to the East of Jackson Street and industrial to the West.  Surprisingly, the outskirts of town don't seem to have extended that far to the South since the 1960's based on what I saw when I visited this store because there were approximately two more blocks of commercial buildings which quickly faded to residences before succumbing to plantations along "Plantation Parkway".  This area of Thomasville seems to have lost some of the luster of yore, but as we'll see today, run-down buildings can often hold some of the most interesting secrets of the past.

Thomasville #2 (the second) was built in the style of most of Sing's 1950's - 1960's dealer stations, and many of these buildings can still be found throughout South Georgia.  It's also crazy for me to think that this building opened in the same year as Columbus #2, which is also why they feature the same road sign.  I'm not sure which station was completed first, but I'd imagine one of these two debuted that style of sign and possibly the diamond Sing logo as well.

Thankfully, the photographer was kind enough to include a picture of the old Thomasville #2 station located next door to the new one (if you scroll back up to the first picture in the post, you can see this building in the background.  This building would remain in-place until it was demolished around 2017 due to its deteriorating condition.

I don't exactly know when the original Thomasville #2 opened, but the station's dealers during the mid-1960's were Alpha (Alphie) and Sally Cheney.  The Cheneys operated this station until the late-1960's or early 1970's.  The first mention of a new dealer, Harold Barwick, was in the 1973 city directory and he is stated to have managed this station through 1987.  William Edward Blackburn took over management of the station in 1988 and bought the station for $152,000 on October 1, 1989, presumably from Sing Oil Company.  Blackburn continued to operate the station as an independent into the 1990's.

Courtesy Vintage Aerial - Thomasville #2 Sing Station - 1982

Thanks to Vintage Aerial, we also get a rare look at a Sing station in the 1980's; the building and signage appear to look largely the same as they did in 1965 but a canopy was added over the gas pumps at some point.

The Station

Now that we've learned a bit about this station's history, let's see what it looks like today.

It may look a little different than it did back in the 1960's or even the 1980's, but the Thomasville #2 Sing station is certainly still standing in 2022.  It looks like the building was last used for "Steve Miller Properties" and was a nail and tanning salon before that.  Unfortunately, I missed my chance to photograph the original Sing shingles as it looks like they were covered up by the current roof at some point after 2019.

If you look closely, you can even see the scars in the pavement where the gas pump islands previously stood.

Surprisingly, two of the circa 1965 light posts were still standing in the parking lot next to the foundations for the station's sign.

I wouldn't be surprised if the blue paint we see here dates back to the 1980's.

It's interesting to see how the station was added on to over the years, especially the portion of the building encasing the old storage area.  I spy some painted wood paneling too!

Here are those pump island scars I mentioned earlier, along with the other original parking lot light on the north side of the lot.  The dump truck and tractor off in the distance are standing on the site of the old Thomasville #2 station. 

One last parting northward shot before we head back south.

Until we meet again, Thomasville #2!  Keep scrolling down for coverage of Sing's corporate office and Thomasville's two Food Lions!

Street Views

Google Street View - January 2008

Former Thomasville #2 Sing station with original shingles and gas pump canopy

Google Street View - July 2011

Former Thomasville #2 Sing station as Tropical Oasis nail salon

 

Google Street View - June 2022

Former Thomasville #2 Sing station in its current state

Around The Corner . . .

Sing Oil Company Corporate Office

Offices | Oil Cannery

211 Industrial Boulevard

Thomasville, GA 31792

The next stop on our Thomasville tour happens to be located just behind the old Thomasville #2 on Industrial Boulevard.  Sing Oil Company moved their corporate offices from Pelham, GA to Thomasville in 1964, around the time when they adopted the diamond logo we see in the picture above.  

According to an article I found in the Thomasville Times-Enterprise, Sing also operated an oil cannery from a warehouse behind their corporate office.  A short rail spur allowed bulk tankers of oil to be unloaded directly adjacent to the facility allowing for an efficient material flow.

Amoco continued to staff a presence from this office from 1990 until the mid-1990's, when they finally decided to sell the building to their local distributor, Autry Petroleum on March 8, 1996, for $375,000.  The building now serves as an office for Progressive Freight Company.

With that out of the way, let's hop back across Jackson Street for our next tour: Former Food Lion #947.

 

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 Between The Lions

Source unknown - Former Food Lion #947

Former Food Lion #947

Pebble Way Shopping Center

 1327 West Jackson Street 

Thomasville, GA 31792 

(912) 227-0661

When this store was planned, Georgia operated under a mere two area codes: 404 in North Georgia and 912 in South Georgia.  Since then, eight area codes have been added to the state, with 229 superseding 912 throughout Southwest Georgia in 2000.  (Fun fact: 229 also happens to be one of the few remaining area codes to not require mandatory 10-digit dialing for a whole host of reasons).  Therefore, this store's phone number would now be (229) 227-0661 if it were still open.  I bring up this point 1). because I enjoy random tidbits of information and 2). because the city directories where I got a rough timeline for this store's short existence listed the old phone number as well.

As we have learned many times before, Food Lion made some questionable decisions during their southern expansion.  Take for example the Avon Park store in South Central Florida.  This store is oddly located several miles north of town and doesn't have much else around it: no houses, no businesses, not really anything!  Another example of this is the Lake Placid store; it is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but it still must have enough of a captive audience for it to have survived being converted to a Kash 'N Kary, Sweetbay, and Winn-Dixie.  While I will get to share that store at some point to provide some perspective, the store we will look at today had its retail history cut much shorter; conversely, it does still share a lot in common with the Lake Placid store.  For starters, both are located on the edge of town with not much commercial activity in the surrounding areas.  Both stores do, however, seem to have a number of residential neighborhoods in the vicinity.  Additionally, both locations were built in the 1990's, with the Thomasville store being completed in 1992 and the Lake Placid store opening around 199x.  Likewise, they share a similar layout.  That last point is the primary reason I bring up the Lake Placid Kash-Lion-Sweet-Dixie, because it helped me better understand the Thomasville store without having to build a time machine or trespass further into the property.  This store also came on to my radar when I was touring Thomasville's Publix #1498 for my previous post on the Thomasville #6 Sing Store and former Publix #476.  While I was checking out, I asked when the store would remodel to Evergreen.  I didn't exactly get the answer I wanted because they said, "sometime in the next two years," but I did learn an interesting nugget: the town is supposed to get a second Publix in the near future.  For a town that small, I was surprised to hear such news.  I then decided to ask "where?" to find out the intent was to have it located on West Jackson Street toward Tallahassee.  The employee didn't think it would be located "in the old Food Lion" but instead nearby.  With all of that being said, I was still intrigued and wanted to check out the old Food Lion before Publix, or somebody else, decided to heavily modify the building.

Courtesy Vintage Aerial - Former Thomasville drive-in theater - 1982

It turns out that the plot of land used for the Pebble Way Shopping Center has a much more rich history than simply being a failed 1990's strip-mall.  To my surprise, the shopping center developers demolished the drive-in theater we see above to make way for the new Food Lion (sounds like a former Albertsons AFB covered a few months ago).  If only they had known their grand new supermarket would last a mere 5-years! (foreshadowing)

I decided I had time to make the trek to the other side of town to explore the grocery store, especially since it was still referred to as "the old Food Lion" and not something more recent.  After researching the Tallahassee grocery market in the 1990's for my guest posts on The Albertsons Florida Blog, it seemed like Food Lion had left the region in the late 1990's, following the 1992 Primetime Live fiasco, and only returned in 2020 through the acquisition of several stores from Southeastern Grocers.  That is a long time for a store to sit abandoned; I knew I had to see it for myself!

When I pulled up to the shopping center, it was eerily quiet and abandoned feeling.  There was still a large signpost facing Jackson Street with advertising for a Subway and a Kirby vacuum store and two larger blank spaces where the Food Lion and Revco signs would have been.  Why do I have the feeling that neither business has been in operation for a long time? 

Well, the fact that Food Lion was only listed in the Thomasville city directory from 1993 (with Tommy Roberts as manager) through 1996 and the fact that Revco #1283's pharmacy license lasted from 11/30/1992 until it expired 6/30/1995 leads me to believe this shopping center was pretty short-lived.

Turning toward the shopping center, I saw a few palm trees which were struggling to hang onto the little life which remained, in addition to a couple more which seemed to have given up.  Although the lot was empty and abandoned, the surface seemed as if it had recently been sealed and painted.  I'm not quite sure why. Additionally, it looks like the building was recently painted white based on Google Street Views depicting it with unpainted brick.  It would surprise me for the building owner to paint a building if Publix was considering a new store there.  Likely, Publix would not move into a 30-year-old, 32,000 sq. ft. abandoned supermarket, so I would be surprised if this was their location of choice. 

Stepping up to Food Lion's old vestibule, we see the first signs that nobody has occupied the building since the Cowardly Lion was chased off.  All of those stickers had to be from a supermarket!

Wow, open 24 hours!  We will see in a minute that this sign is indeed correct, just not in the original context.  This sign certainly dates back to Food Lion since it matches their white and blue color scheme (and doesn't look too-far off from their current style).  I find it interesting how a small town like Thomasville could have supported a 24/6 grocery store and I guess it took Food Lion a bit longer to see that as well.  I will note that this store closed for 7 hours between midnight Saturday and 7 AM Sunday morning.  I guess the store needed some time to clean and reset.

The next sticker of interest seems to be a bit less relevant than the last.  I highly doubt anybody has cared about surveilling this store in a number of years.  This also reminds me of AFB's tour of former Food Lion #808 in Satellite Beach (more similarities will follow).

No Mastercard or Visa here, only MAC, Interlink, pulse Pay, and Most.  Crazy to think how most of these are nowhere to be found in 2022.

As my first abandoned supermarket stakeout, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I've seen others complain about dusty windows or bad lighting, but I didn't know how this was in practice.  I'll just say I was in for a surprise. When I stuck my phone up to the glass, I was shocked at what I saw: largely in-tact Food Lion Futuristic décor!  While the store had been emptied out of most fixtures, the majority of the wall signage was still in place.  I really wonder if this is the best-preserved example of such a store.

Judging by the scaring on the floors, we can see that the register lines used to take up the left side of the shot, while the produce department was on the right side.  I'd assume that the one shelf between the registers and the angled produce stands would have featured seasonal merchandise, but I have no way of knowing.  Looking above the produce stands, we see the original Food Lion green pendant lights.  AFB has seen these in a different former Food Lion, but it was cool to see them with their matching interior.

Zooming in on the back wall, we see the sign for "Best Quality Meats" (how ironic, if only that sign was bleach-white too!) and the sign for "Deli Meats".  I do wonder why some of the letters are missing because I didn't notice anything large on the floor where they would've fallen.  You'll also notice two squares on the wall between the phrases.  These would have originally featured stock photos but seem to have been taken down.  I doubt Food Lion removed them since the rest of the décor is still in place, so I wonder if some rebellious teen decided they wanted some souvenirs from the abandoned store. I'm not sure what the framing is for on the wall under "Best Quality Meats", but I believe there would have been some sort of graphics there with coolers below.  I also notice a broken piece of glass where the custom cut meat section would have been, but I can't tell if it was for a window or mirror.  The door adjacent to that would have led to the butcher station.  It does look like deli meats coolers were taller and covered more of the wall.

Looking from another angle on the left side of the vestibule, it looks like it may be a mirror on the back wall and not a window.  I also wonder if all of those frames originally had mirrors.  We can also see the edge of the customer service counter on the left side of this picture.

Looking toward the right side of the store, we can see some double doors leading to the stock rooms in the back right corner, followed by signage for "Frozen Foods" on the right wall (again with a missing letter and stock photo).  Next up, in the front right corner, is "Fresh Produce" with more of the green pendant lights.  While simplistic, I do like how cohesive this package felt and how each department had its own color that related to the product.  Produce was green, Frozen was blue, Deli meats was yellow / orange, and "Fresh" Meats was red.  The store also had consistent striping around the perimeter with seemingly a bottom stripe of light blue, a middle stripe of green, a third stripe of yellow, and a final top stripe of a cream / off white color.  Food Lion also seemed to use a blue and yellow version at other stores.

Zooming in a bit, we can get a better idea of the colors used on the signage and the striping.  It also looks like each department's stock photo got a frame matching the department's sign.

While we were able to get a pretty good view of the right side of the store, the left side was a bit less cooperative.  Since the Deli and Bakery service departments were located in the front left corner, less light was able to penetrate this side of the building from the front windows.  If you really zoom in, you can see the doorway which would have led to a hallway with the store's restrooms.  I've also seen modern stores in these buildings use this space for extra sales floor.  Along the left wall of this store was the dairy department, but we unfortunately can't see any of the signage for it.

Backing up a little bit, we can see the side of the deli and the edge of the customer service counter.  Lots of wood paneling!

We'll take one more overview of the right side of the store.

before we take a look in the vestibule.  This is where my 24-hour comment comes into play.  Somebody had pried open the door on the left side of the vestibule, so I took that as an invitation for my phone to snap a picture! 

Update 10/11/2022: As Anonymous in Houston reminded in the comments below, several stores in Houston continue to showcase Food Lion's Futuristic décor in one form or another.  Check out these Flickr pictures to see what some of the chains Texas locations look like today, and also this post on the Houston Historic Retail Blog to see a store which mysteriously received its own version of Futuristic while having never been a Food Lion itself.

We'll take a few more overview shots of the store before we leave.  Here you can clearly see the scars left by the checkout lines and aisle shelving.

From this angle, it is a bit easier to see the colors of the striping on the wall (look by the wood paneled section).  We see the same bright colors as before, but if you zoom in, you can see the fourth cream stripe sticking out from the corner of the wall. 

This shot is somewhat reminiscent of one taken by AFB a few years ago (just maybe not as creepy).

 

Now let's look down toward the former Revco, Subway, and Kirby.  Somebody was doing work in the other storefronts and noticed me when he walked to his car go get something.  He didn't seem to care that much that I was taking pictures as he didn't say anything, but I still didn't want to hang around too long.

Over on the right side of the vestibule, we see the remains of Food Lion's old cart storage area.

The left side of the store doesn't seem to have received one of those, but here we can see the vestibule and the edge of the other shops.

Around back, we can see the loading dock and one of the fire exits from the store. It is a shame how this building has remained largely vacant for the last few decades, but I'm glad I was able to document what remains.  It looks like the Senior Life Insurance Company, who has a massive building across the street, used to occupy some of the smaller storefronts in this shopping center, but they obviously did not use the old grocery store.  It would've been really interesting if it still had the stock photos on the wall and if I could have gone inside, but I didn't want to risk breaking into a building!  Only time will tell if Publix or somebody else decides to use this space, but it does have convenient access to both Jackson Street and Pinetree Boulevard.  

Courtesy Thomas County Property Appraiser - Former Revco #1283 - September 19, 2019

 To close out this post, I want to include a quote from AFB concerning this store: "no wonder it crashed and burned - that was a really out of the way location to be the sole outpost of a major grocery chain in town. For a secondary Publix that site could work (especially now that the area appears to be more built-out), but that location certainly was a product of Food Lion's poor location selection back in the 1980's and 1990's (just look up where the old Avon Park Food Lion was built for another great example of that)."  With that, let's take a look across town at what Food Lion is up to in 2022.

A New Era

Food Lion #2806

Former Harveys #1620 / Harveys #2335 / Piggly Wiggly #? / FoodMax #?

 1327 West Jackson Street 

Thomasville, GA 31792

Now that we have taken a look at Thomasville's Food Lion of yesteryear, let's flash forward to see their second attempt (well, actually the third) at the South Georgia town.  As far as I can tell, this next store is only the second Food Lion branded store to be in Thomasville, but the third time the chain has been in the market.  For those who don't know, Food Lion acquired a South Georgia chain of grocery stores called Harveys in 2003.  This purchase included two Thomasville locations, one at 309 Smith Avenue and the other at 1404 East Jackson Street.  Delhaize would operate these stores for several years, until they decided to sell the Harveys, Reid's, and Sweetbay brands to Southeastern Grocers in 2013.  SEG ended up closing the Smith Avenue store in 2018 during a large closure round, while they sold the East Jackson Street store, along with 61 others, back to Food Lion in 2020, ending Harveys decades-long run in the town.   

Some History

As you can tell by the plethora of supermarkets listed in the title of this section, the building at 1404 East Jackson Street has quite the history.

Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Food Max (Fayetteville, GA) - 1993

It appears that this location began its life as a FoodMax in 1990, which was a warehouse grocery concept run by Alabama's own Bruno's.  You can read more about Bruno's failed attempt at conquering the Tallahassee market here, but they seemed to vie for the Thomasville grocery scene as part of the same effort.

Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Tallahassee Democrat - July 11, 1990

The article above mentions how a FoodMax was planned for Kerry Forest Parkway in Killearn (which I think ended up opening as Bruno's #187 in 1991) in addition to a new store in Thomasville.

Courtesy Newspapers.com - The Tallahassee Democrat - July 11, 1990

The 48,000 sq. ft. Thomasville store had opened by 1991 and was listed as having 75 employees with Stoney Layfield as the manager in the 1992 city directory.  The land was previously home to what appears to be a mobile home sales center.  In the end, the store must not have fared too well because it was last listed in the 1994 directory, before being replaced by a Piggly Wiggly managed by Mr. Hill Bennett (who interestingly also managed the FoodMax in 1993).  I know Bruno's operated a number of Piggly Wiggly stores themselves, so I wouldn't be surprised if they converted this location to the brand in attempt to drive more sales.

Courtesy Vintage Aerial - Former Thomasville Piggly Wiggly - 1982

Previously, Thomasville's Piggly Wiggly was located about a block to the East at the corner of Jackson Street and Pinetree Boulevard.  This store was replaced by Big Lots, presumably when the Pig trotted on down the road to the former FoodMax.  I'd be curious to know if Bruno's also operated this location but wasn't able to find that in my research. 

Courtesy the Thomasville Times Enterprise - May 23, 1995

It always seems like I find really interesting things when I'm not even looking for them, and I uncovered this ad I had saved on October 9th (a week after this post was published) that I had filed away a while ago.  It shows an ad for Alltel Wireless who was one of the primary carriers in parts of the Southeast until they were partially bought by Verizon in 2008.  Incidentally, the remainder of the company continued to operate in mostly rural markets until it was purchased in 2013 by AT&T due to an anti-monopoly condition of the Verizon merger.  Alltel would remain in Thomasville until the second acquisition.  The reason the ad above is significant is because it shows Piggly Wiggly being located in the exact store we are studying by May of 1995.

Courtesy Vintage Aerial - Gateway Shopping Center - 1982

By 1997, Harveys had moved into 1404 East Jackson Street from their former location in Gateway Shopping Center.  I believe Harveys' Gateway store took the place of the A&P store seen above (to the right of Belk) and had moved into that location by 1986.  If you didn't know it already, Harveys had a habit of "hermit crabbing" in stores built by other grocers which will be a common theme amongst other stores of theirs I plan to cover in the future.

I'd also like to point out how the photo above shows the future location of the Thomasville #6 Sing Store and the Happy Penny off in the distance, along with Thomasville's Kmart and the future site of Thomasville's Winn-Dixie Marketplace next door (just behind the Woolworth building).  

Courtesy Thomasville GA Blog - Harveys #2335 - 2010

Accordingly, Harveys #2335 had opened its pharmacy by 1998 and would continue to operate it until SEG's large pharmacy closure round in roughly 2018 or 2019.  This store was also reassigned #1620 in 2014 after SEG had completed their acquisition of the Harveys chain from Delhaize.

Courtesy w f. (Foursquare) - Harveys #2335 - November 17, 2011

This store likely boasted the "Harveys Grid" interior package for much of its life, but I'm not certain about what package the chain used before it was purchased by Delhaize in 2003.  AFB mentioned how the font used for this package reminded him of something The Home Depot would use, while I heard another comment that it looked like it had military-themed styling; I can agree with both arguments. Regardless, this shot was taken looking toward the produce department along the right wall of the store.

Courtesy w f. (Foursquare) - Harveys #2335 - October 26, 2011

This shot was taken looking at the cart coral with aisle 5 and the pharmacy box off in the distance. The yellow looks a bit neon, but not as bad as what would come later. We can see in the Pepsi display, the Ghost of Groceries Past is unsure what to think of this place. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Courtesy Mark Richard (Google Maps) - Harveys #1620 - September 2016

Our last look at the Grid package will be across the front-end of the store just before it was remodeled by Southeastern Grocers.  Ultimately, SEG would remodel this store to the hideous Yellow Down Down package within the next year, giving us what we see below.

Courtesy Anna Vinson (Google Maps) - Harveys #1620 - October 2017

Did somebody drive a school bus in here?  At least the store isn't entirely grey, but this shade of yellow would not be my choice of wall color.

Courtesy remembering (Google Maps) - Harveys #1620 - January 2021

Finally, we see this store in its last days of SEG's ownership as we look down the leftmost aisle of the store.

Courtesy Thomas County Property Appraiser - Former Harveys #1620 - March 12, 2019

I was really interested to see this location after Food Lion had taken over because a number of the pictures online showed it still retained SEG's awful yellow flavor of Down Down.  Unfortunately (but also thankfully), this store had been repainted to match Food Lion's modern look by the time I visited. 

While it is odd for a Publix fanatic like me to see produce located in the front right corner of a store, it seems to be a common practice with other grocers.  I have no idea whether this layout dates back to FoodMax or was implemented by Harveys, but it seems that Food Lion didn't do much with that regard during the light remodel.

Fortunately, it does look like Food Lion spent the time to redo the floors or thoroughly clean them.  It looks like all of the produce stands are also new, so the old ones likely would have left a lot of scarring on the floors.

This view, however, gives us our first look at this store's roots.  If you zoom in to the produce coolers, you'll notice a green cart bumper.  That, my friends, is Harveys green to be exact.

Looking back over the front end, we see the area of the store reserved for seasonal merchandise and the edge of the pharmacy box.  This section of the store felt a bit like a former Albertsons where Publix doesn't quote know how to utilize the space, and it seems like Food Lion may have had the same issues.  If I remember correctly, I think FoodMax would've used this space for a few short H&BA aisles, but I could be mistaken.

I'd also like to note that the pharmacy box wasn't actually being used.  I believe it was closed during Winn-Dixie's big pharmacy closure round of 2018-19 and was not reopened by Food Lion.  I wonder if it would take a lot of effort for them to reapply for a license, so Food Lion didn't really want to bother with it?

Looking toward the grocery aisles from the produce section, we see the other edge of the pharmacy box and one of the deli's hot food stations.  Prepackaged luncheon meats were in the cooler on aisle "0", while health and beauty products occupied the short aisles 1 & 2.  At least Food Lion managed to add their own aisle signs.

Looking toward the deli and bakery, it seems like everybody had gone home for the night.  From what I've read, Harveys in general seemed to be known for their deli meals, so I wonder if Food Lion has been able to hold their own.  I do see some green countertop which is left over from Harveys!

Here we get a better look at the prepackaged meat section, and some prepackaged baked goods I'm not exactly sure what the cutout in the back right corner of the store used to be, but it now was home to a dark selection of flowers.  Maybe it used to be the bakery?

And here is a better look at the sliced meat section of the deli and the small bakery counter.

We'll take one last look at the produce department from the deli / bakery area before we move on.  We can also get a better look at the old Harveys refrigerators which were still in use.  Just judging by the styling, I would have to guess these were from the early 1990's.

I really don't like stores with a split aisle setup (Winn-Dixie likes to do this a lot), but this store almost made that even worse.  About 5 aisles on the right side of the store were split down the middle, but the remaining grocery aisles ran the entire length of the store.  This made for a really abrupt transition which seems like it would be confusing to navigate.

Here's a look down aisle 2, which was shortened due to the presence of the pharmacy box.

Looking down the back aisle of the store toward the left side, we can see some more antique coffin coolers and meat coolers.  Off in the distance is the meat & seafood counter, followed by the dairy section. I have noticed where a number of the décor signs mention saving money or low prices.  SEG had tried to gear Harveys toward their discount store format, so I wonder if Food Lion is trying to do the same with the stores they acquired.  In all honesty, this is one of the only active Food Lions I have seen in almost a decade, so I can't really speak to what direction the company has been trying to move toward with their stores.  Maybe they all get this package.

Here's another look at the grocery aisles, and how many of them seem oddly set back from the main actionway.

I do like how these signs have the triangle shape to make it easy to see what is on the aisle from within the aisle and from the actionway, but I wish they had a number facing the aisle as well.  Thankfully, my other pictures tell me that this is aisle 5.  I do wish Food Lion could have managed to line the aisles up so there wasn't a column in the middle of the walkway.

We'll take a quick look at the sign for aisle 6 before we move on to the rest of the store.

This store received a combination meat & seafood counter, but it looks like most of the product is prepackaged anyhow.  We can get a good look at some more Harveys coolers.

I feel like this view gives us a better look at how Food Lion was struggling to fill this space.  Mind you, they also have a row of coffin coolers behind those pallet drops.

The milk coolers are in the back left corner of this store, next to the restrooms.  This setup (other than the deli/bakery and pharmacy box) really seems to remind me of a Winn-Dixie!  I also want to note how the décor is largely the same throughout the store.  While I don't mind the white walls with the blue stripe and black lettering, this interior feels a bit soulless, bland, and cheap to me.  At least the walls aren't yellow anymore!

Finally, we'll take a look down the leftmost aisle in the store, aisle 12.  I noticed that one of the signs says "Creamy & affordable goodness" which reinforces my interpretation of this store being geared toward a lower price point (and that the marketing department should rethink their decisions).  I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but wine and beer occupied the front left corner of this store, along with several offices. 

I also noticed how this aisle was split as well, which makes me believe this store used to have the center aisle run through the entire grocery department.  That would explain why the center grocery aisles had so much extra space toward the back of the store.  I just wonder why Delhaize or SEG would bother rearranging some of the aisles yet leave others as they were. 

Our last look at this store shows the checkout lines and customer service counter.  I do see where the checkout lines still have their green cart bumpers which shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.  In the end, this is far from the worst-kept grocery store I have been to; the fact that it had a neutral smell and shiny floors alone makes it beat many that I have seen!  I'm glad to see that Food Lion managed to eradicate any traces of SEG's presence in the building but do wish that the Harveys name could have been maintained due to its strong South Georgia roots.  Maybe they will get around to changing out the larger fixtures in the near future.  

 For those who are curious, I decided to include pictures of a store directory I picked up on my visit.

And that is it for today, folks!  I hope you enjoyed this extensive tour, and we'll see what sort of adventures I find to share in a couple of weeks.

Until next time,

- The Sing Oil Blogger

Additional Resources: 

Historic Aerials

Google Earth Pro

Google Maps

Georgia Pharmacy License Database

Thomasville #2 Parcel ID: 017027001

Sing Corporate Office Parcel ID:  056TH022F

Food Lion #947 Parcel ID:  018016039

Food Lion #2806 Parcel ID:  01123001B

Thomas County Property Records