GreenWise Market #1676 - Mountain Brook, AL
GreenWise Market #1676
Lane Park
Mountain Brook, AL 35223
An Alabamian Anomaly
Hello, and welcome back to The Sing Oil Blog! Today's post will bring us back to Birmingham, AL, and more specifically, the second most expensive zip code in the state (according to AL.com and Stacker). As of February 2021, the average home value was $652,115, with many properties listed for upwards of $1 million. Needless to say, it makes sense that Publix selected Mountain Brook for its third GreenWise Market 2.0.
The City of Mountain Brook is an interesting area as it consists of three "villages": Crestline Village, English Village, and Mountain Brook Village, with the GreenWise residing in the latter. The three small villages encapsulate the commercial districts of the primarily residential municipality, with most shoppers driving east toward the aforementioned Winn-Dixie to patronize traditional big-box stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, or Publix or west to the 280 corridor to visit Target, Fresh Market, or Whole Foods.
That being said, the GreenWise isn't devoid of competition. There is a Piggly Wiggly located just down the road in Crestline Village that we may visit at a later date . . .
To most, this may just look like another Publix GreenWise Market, similar to Tallahassee's #1573 that we explored two weeks ago. In order to learn what's so special about this place, we need to turn the clock back and see how Publix ended up in the European-inspired village.
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| Courtesy Dystopos (Flickr) - Western Supermarket #7 - September 15, 2007 |
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| The Birmingham News (Newspapers.com) - September 24, 1959 |
Let's circle back to 1959, when Western Super Markets opened their first store in Mountain Brook on September 26th. A formal 10-day grand opening celebration for the Mountain Brook Shopping Center followed soon after on October 28, 1959, showcasing the new store which at the time featured "a 60-foot frozen food counter on both sides of the store," and "9,750 [square] feet of floor space." That original store was located on the Western side of the plaza (what a perfect setup for one of my cheesy puns!); meanwhile, it was joined by a Colonial Store, Little Hardware, Utopia Cleaners, Woods Rexall, and Embry's Variety Store, with rumors that a 2-story department store would follow soon.
The adjacent Colonial Store, located on the East end of the shopping center, was the oldest building in the plaza. It opened five years prior to the other businesses and was said to have expanded and remodeled from its original configuration by the time 1959 rolled around.
Speaking of the Colonial, it is also stated that "'One of our specialties,' said [Manager Bill] Gilstrap, 'is a complete line of party and Kosher foods. Many of the party foods such as baby bees, grasshoppers and caterpillars come from foreign countries.'" Hold up, am I reading this correctly; is this article implying that people held bug-eating parties in the late-1950's?
Regardless, the bug business must not have been that lucrative because if you think back to my last Birmingham post, Colonial Stores exited the market in 1964. Winn-Dixie bought nine stores from the chain and rebranded them as
Hill's Food Stores, a brand they had acquired several years earlier. The article above states that the existing Mountain
Brook Hill's was closed in favor of keeping the Colonial at 2717 Culver Road. Winn-Dixie eventually converted the Colonial/Hill's to the WD brand and operated alongside the Western until 1972. I'm still shocked at how many mid-20th Century grocery stores I've come across that operated right next to each other!
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| Birmingham Post-Herald (Newspapers.com) - November 14, 1973 |
I'm not exactly sure when the Winn-Dixie closed, but the 15th Western Super Market had taken over the old space by the time its November 14, 1973, grand opening came around.
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| Courtesy Western Markets (Archive.org) |
Other than the addition of a vestibule and greenhouse, the front of the store basically looked the same as it did in 1973 up until the end.
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| Courtesy Western Markets (Archive.org) |
Unless I get lucky with an old Foursquare or Yelp listing, it's typically a struggle to find pictures of a store that closed in 2016 or before (that seems to be when Google Maps photos really started to take off). Thankfully, an archive of Western's website had a few photos from the inside of their second Mountain Brook Shopping Center store. Here we can see the old produce aisle located along the right wall of the store.
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| Courtesy Western Markets (Archive.org) |
Despite the fact that this store dated back to the 1950's, it looks like the interior underwent an extensive remodel at some point in the 21st Century. The dark ceilings and brick accents remind me of the Hattiesburg Corner Market we toured last year.
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| Courtesy Western Markets (Archive.org) |
It only makes sense for a store featuring a greenhouse on the front to have an extensive floral department! Long before I got into my retail hobby, much less before I realized stores actually painted the walls, I visited this Western Market and remember them having impressive floral and wine departments. It seems like they even had a florist and a sommelier on staff at this location.
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| @westernwineshop (Instagram) - November 13, 2013 |
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| @westernwineshop (Instagram) - November 22, 2013 |
The sommelier would explain why Western had an entire Instagram account (and mascot) dedicated to its Mountain Brook store's wine department. Both of the photos above come from the circa 1973 store, and I'm shocked at how much alcohol they could fit inside a 20,000 sq ft space!
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| Courtesy John Jeffcoat (Google Maps) - September 4, 2016 |
In comparison, Publix #720 is a similar size but hosts a much smaller wine department in favor of more room for standard groceries.
In October 2013, Western announced that they would vacate their existing store and join Mountain Brook's new Lane Park development as an anchor of the 28-acre mixed-use development. In addition to the supermarket, the complex includes a boutique Grand Bohemian hotel, upscale apartments (which start at $2,233 a month for a one bedroom), and all sorts of specialty shopping and dining.
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| AL.com - Former Mountain Brook Shopping Center |
Shortly following the announcement, Little Hardware decided to relocate to a new store in nearby English Village, while Smith's Variety moved to Crestline Village. Both businesses had been in the complex for decades, with Little Hardware being one of the original 1959 tenants and Smith's presumably taking over the old Embry's space.
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| Village Living Online - December 28, 2016 |
Western opted to terminate its lease which was set to expire in 2019 in favor of moving to a new store in phase one of the new development; however, Rite Aid decided they wanted to ride out the entire term of its lease which prevented developers from demolishing the west side of the shopping center for several years.
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
The new 28,300 sq ft store opened to lots of fanfare on October 13, 2016, which marked the beginning of the end for the previous 60-year-old store.
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| Courtesy L.D. Duffee (Google Maps) - January 14, 2017 |
The old supermarket was paid a visit by the wrecking ball in early 2017, while the Rite Aid managed to hold on for another year or so.
Well what are we waiting for, let's take a look inside the new Western!
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
The new store featured a whole host of fresh departments including an outpost for the local O'Henry's coffee company and fresh donuts from The Heavenly Donut Company.
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
The service departments were all located in the back right corner of the store and offered plenty of ready to eat options.
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| Courtesy Bham Now - November 23, 2016 |
Meanwhile, the back left corner was home to frozen foods (you can zoom in to see a photo of the circa 1959 store).
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| Courtesy Bham Now - November 23, 2016 |
Up front, we see the store's checkout lines and customer service counter off in the distance.
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
Meanwhile, wines were housed in a large alcove on the left side of the store (complete with a climate-controlled cellar).
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| Courtesy Tommy Daspit Photography |
Even if you don't drink wine, this department was certainly a sight to behold.
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
(I wish the photographer had cleaned her camera lens before taking this shot.)
This store also featured a mezzanine level seating area above the registers . . .
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| Courtesy Village Living - October 13, 2016 |
. . . along with a fantastic view of the sales floor.
I found one more photo gallery with some very well framed shots of this store that were taken for Hoar Construction. Had I not already added the pictures above, I probably would have opted to use those instead!
Unfortunately, this Western would only survive two-and-a-half years before it was announced that Publix would acquire two locations from the company. Western's remaining two stores would close several weeks later.
Publix reopened this store as a GreenWise Market on June 27, 2019, after remodeling the interior and changing out the signage. The new store's offerings were also a departure from the Birmingham grocer's since GreenWise exclusively offered organic products.
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| Courtesy Bham Now - June 27, 2019 |
In a nutshell, area residents were mad when they could no longer drive down to their local supermarket and pick up a 12-pack of Diet Coke or a regular loaf of honey wheat bread. I'm certain that sales suffered at the new store compared to the previous occupant, which eventually forced Publix to adapt the concept to include standard grocery items in addition to specialty & organic products. Maybe this is why the Lakeland company initially neglected to add any obvious Publix branding to these stores, referring to them simply as "GreenWise Market".
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| Courtesy Bham Now - June 27, 2019 |
At some point during 2020 or 2021, Publix decided to change course and essentially morph the existing GreenWise stores into small, upscale Publixes. Both concepts now offer most of the same products you would find in a regular supermarket; however, the former adds more prepared foods and a few extra organic products. This reversal likely resulted from both Lucky's Market and Earth Fare, GreenWise's primary competition, going under at the beginning of 2020, which will bring us to the store we see today.
Now that we've had that history lesson, let's see what all Publix decided to do with the space.
From the outside, we can see the turret we see on the corner of the building that is home to Western's old wine cellar (with single bottles of wine costing more than what I spend on groceries in a month).
I guess I shouldn't criticize the photographer above too much because my shot here has some really bad lens flare. I had a protector over my camera lens for a while until I eventually realized it made my photo quality suffer, which is likely the main culprit behind this artifact.
Jumping inside to another blurry photo, we can see all of the "Florida Local" orchids (despite the closest point in Florida being over three-hours away) along with some local Birmingham artwork.
Turning to the right, we see this store's stockpile of buggies (which again, are different than the Technibilts I typically see in Publix), along with an event calendar off in the distance. Probably the most intriguing event is the weekly trivia held in the FINDS department. I think I could kill some grocery store trivia!
Continuing into the store, we are greeted by the produce department – does this look a bit familiar?
Wow, I recognize the look of the grand aisle too! Much to my surprise, Publix essentially walked into this store, removed any signage, painted the walls, and hung their décor over what was left. I'd have to say that the GreenWise look blends in well with what Western originally used! On the other hand, I do miss some of the warmer tones this Western used to feature.
If you pay close attention to the graphics used in the produce department, you can actually see the pattern of the faux bricks under GreenWise's vinyl stickers. We can also see where Publix painted all of the round wooden accents grey.
I was shocked when I realized how much of this space had been recycled from Western, which leads to some diversions from the way Publix typically organized GreenWise stores. The first notable one is the POURS counter we see to the left. This department directly replaced the old O'Henry's space and likewise only serves non-alcoholic beverages like coffee, tea, and açai (what a nice rhyme).
Turning 90° to the left, we see the grab-and-go drink cooler which is exactly where Western left it.
Previously, Western's expansive floral department would have been located to my left, sandwiched between produce and the checkout lines.
Another departure from the norm is the fact that all of the department signs in this store are painted dark grey. If you'll remember, Tallahassee used a light wood grain while Marietta used a silver color.
In this shot, we can see this store's POURS on the left, followed by sliced meats and the Pub Sub EATS.
Over to the right is the pasta and pizza station, followed by the burrito and Asian bowl counter. The CUTS meat and seafood counter can be seen off in the distance.
Poor me, pour me another round
Line 'em up and knock 'em down
Two more, let's go
Take a look at everything we saw befo'e
Don't want to think about it
Or even drink around it
Don't want to hit the Publix sandwich bar, can't eat without it
So make them olives strong, 'cause brother Western's gone
And if I'm ever gonna move on [to aisle 1]
I'ma need some bulk food action, 'cause I'm just in a healthy mood
They're probably riding off on a horse right now with someone new
As you know by now, I'm a sucker for some good word play, and I just love the double entendre in Morgan Wallen's "Whiskey Glasses". The song doesn't really relate to this store at all, but the line got stuck in my head as I was writing the descriptions for the POURS coffee bar above!
We also just sped through several other Western remnants, most notably the tile on the back wall featuring the GreenWise logo. Likewise, I linked back to a photo I found where Western used that same tile to display graphics for its "Butcher Shoppe", followed by the historic Mountain Brook photo collage on the curved wall over the freezers.
Anyhow, the GreenWise features an extensive bulk foods department, complete with urns full of clover honey, liquid aminos, and raw blue agave. The Sing Oil Sidekick informed me that liquid aminos are often used as a substitute for soy sauce for those with a gluten intolerance; meanwhile, blue agave is used as an organic vegan sweetener.
Jumping back to the front, we see the store's customer service counter, which I recall previously being home to Western's floral department.
I am surprised that the sign for aisle 3 doesn't appear to have a stock image like the others, as I believe it is supposed to show some colorful tortellini noodles.
We'll take one last look at the back right corner of the store before moving on.
It's hard to see the pickles in the sign for aisle 4, but this space appears to also be used for candy, bread, jelly, and fruit juice. Obviously, Reese's and Capri-Sun aren't items you'd typically associate with a "green" supermarket . . .
Likewise, Coca-Cola is a previously-unavailable product that shoppers can now find on aisle 5. Soft drinks appear to take up a lot of shelf space on this aisle, so I wonder what kind of products had to be cut back for the change.
We'll take a quick overview of the dairy department in the back left corner, but:
If you don't wanna see me . . .
. . . Did a full one-eighty, crazy
Thinkin' bout that curvy wall
Did the graphics change here? Maybe
But look at how they ended up
I'm all good already
So moved on, aisle seven
I'm not where you left me at all, so
If you don't wanna see me drinking in a GreenWise
. . .
If you wanna believe that anything could stop me
Don't show up, don't come out
Don't start caring about me now
Walk away, you know how
Don't start CARE[ing] about me now
Guess where we FIND ourselves now . . . the Western Wine World! I personally think the wine crates Western used for displays looked classier than these cut open wine boxes; however . . .
It looks like Publix has just relegated some of them to storage in various spaces around the store. Despite how I ended up framing this photo, I think my intent was to capture the advertisements for the cooking classes at Publix #1687. Interesting how Publix is advertising a class at a different store 20 minutes down the traffic nightmare of Highway 280!
(For those who aren't familiar with the area, Birminghamians are always complaining about the traffic on 280, and all I've got to say is, "try driving on I-75.")
We can also see this store's tiny selection of periodicals located in front of Western's old customer service counter.
Jumping back into the FINDS wing, we see how Publix has maintained the massive wine and beer selection Western was known for. GreenWise has also kept its own sommelier on staff, whom I believe may have originally worked for Western.
This store did have a lot of local brews available; likewise, I think my intent with this shot was to showcase the variety of "local" price tags in this display. While I've never seen the one stating "Local Product" before, the "Alabama Local" one at the top of the photo utilizes Publix's late-Sienna design language and the "Alabama Local" tags above and below the IPA cans use the newer Evergreen styling.
Once customers have selected their $230 bottle of Mercury Head or $350 bottle of Dunn Cabernet, they can chill it to the proper temperature in the machine we see here (despite the fact that both of the aforementioned wines are cabernets which should be consumed at room temperature).
Again, I don't think I noticed the several-hundred-dollar bottles of wine that ended up in this shot, I primarily saw the "Wines of the World" sign which hearkens back to branding Publix once used for the department in other stores.
Bellying up to the bar, we can see the beer tap handles that were custom made for GreenWise, along with a small sign encouraging customers to "SEE. SWIRL. SMELL. SIP. SWISH. SAVOR." (and more of those wine crates). These six verbs also serve as a helpful reminder of the proper process for a wine tasting.
Speaking of wine tasting, customers are allowed, if not encouraged, to grab a glass of their favorite vintage and peruse the rest of the store.
One piece of travel that I enjoy is tasting different local craft beers, of which the GreenWise has plenty on tap. It seems like I tried a Märzen, a München-style Oktoberfest beer, from Goat Island Brewing.
Spinning around, we'll take in one last view of this section before we find our way out.
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| Courtesy Publix GreenWise via GIPHY |
Cheers!
Okay, back to our tour. Popping out of the FINDS nook, we see this store's small floral department and CARE health and beauty section.
This store's checkouts are located under the mezzanine level seating area, and Publix notably managed to reuse Western's old lane lights, just swapping out the script font text for some Josefin Sans numerals.
As for the checkouts themselves, I found it interesting that Publix wanted to make it very clear that GreenWise is now a "Part of Publix" on the credit card machines. Quite the departure from the chain's 2019 intents.
That brings us to our next adventure: the Bacon Lovers Bash. I had no clue I'd end up in the Tallahassee GreenWise on September 10th, but thought the sign here advertised a – unique – event.
Let's head upstairs to take a look at the mezzanine.
It's hard to tell from this shot, but my experience upstairs only added to how bizarre this store was. Once stepping foot on the final stair, I was surrounded by none other than a hoard of high schoolers doing their homework. I can confidently say this is the only place I've A). drank a beer inside a supermarket and B). seen teenagers just hanging out in a supermarket.
It seems to me like these two things reflect Publix's intents for the GreenWise chain concept, but Western's ultimately better execution with this store's design. The fact that people want to spend more time in a store is something that retailers have been battling for decades, and it seems like this location may actually be winning. After all, the more time people spend in a store (and the more alcohol they drink), the more stuff they will eventually buy. This concept is especially relevant in the age of online shopping and delivery.
Now, for what we've all been waiting for: the view(s).
This is probably my favorite picture from this entire photoset, but shoppers (or high schoolers) can take in this view of the produce department immediately as they are walking up the stairs.
I do like the contrast of the colored vegetables against the abyss of grey.
We then round the corner to take a look at the main sales floor . . .
Along with a shot toward CARE and FINDS.
Our last look inside the store is back downstairs toward the former Cadence Bank space. I'm surprised Publix kept the bank in the first place, considering it is the only Cadence branch ever located within a Publix, but it looks like the bank likely had a deal signed with Western that Publix decided to maintain. On the other hand, I'm not surprised that this branch closed on December 2, 2022, considering Publix has also eliminated the remaining Truist banks in its Atlanta-area stores.
That will wrap up our 'stour', so I'm curious to hear what y'all's thoughts are. My friend Retail Retell mentioned "I thought it was really neat! Expensive... but neat."
While I didn't get the chance to actively compare prices, he brings up an interesting point. I'm not sure how much like-for-like prices differ from a normal Publix – or Kroger – for that matter. Obviously neither Publix nor Kroger typically carry $350 bottles of wine, but I would still be curious to compare prices for some of the regular items, like a pound of chicken or a head of lettuce, to other stores.
With that, let's take a look at some satellite imagery.
Aerial Views
I typically don't include descriptions of each aerial shot, but there are quite a few stages of this shopping center which are much easier to understand with a look from above:
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Historic Aerials - 1947 - Future site of Mountain Brook Shopping Center |
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Historic Aerials - 1956 - Colonial Store and future site of Mountain Brook Shopping Center |
By 1956, site work for the new shopping center had been completed on the north side of the newly constructed Mountain Brook Village (the heart of which being the five-point intersection at the bottom of the screenshot). We can see the Colonial Store had already been completed on the East side of the plaza, and work was likely about to begin on the rest of the center.
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Historic Aerials - 1970 - Mountain Brook Shopping Center, with Mountain Brook Village below |
Jumping forward to 1970, we see that the entire shopping center had been completed and an addition had even been added to the right side of the old Colonial (which was operating as a Winn-Dixie at the time). The original Western was located under the "RI" in the "HistoricAerials.com" watermark.
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Google Earth - 2002 - Mountain Brook Shopping Center & Mountain Brook Village |
By 2002, not much had changed in the shopping center except for an addition to the rear of the "new" Western.
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Google Earth - October 2016 - Old and New Western Market locations in Mountain Brook |
Jumping to 2016, we can see that the new store is ready to welcome shoppers while the old location is awaiting its demise.
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Google Earth - April 2018 - Western Market at Lane Park and remaining Rite Aid store |
Ironically, Western's original location in Mountain Brook Shopping Center outlived its second as we can see that side of the plaza still standing in 2018. This wrinkle was due to Rite Aid's lease still being in effect as I mentioned before.
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Google Earth - March 2022 - GreenWise Market and new development at Lane Park |
By 2019, the entire shopping center had been demolished and work soon came underway for phase two of the Lane Park development. We can see the new storefronts nearing completion in the March 2022 satellite view above.
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| Courtesy Western Supermarkets (Facebook) - February 28, 2019 |
That will conclude my coverage of Mountain Brook's GreenWestern Market, but make sure to check back in two weeks to see where I end up next!
Happy Trails,
- The Sing Oil Blogger
P.S. My apologies for getting Dua Lipa stuck in your head.
Update (May 20, 2023): Publix has officially confirmed that it is discontinuing the use the GreenWise Market name for stores and all eight current outlets will eventually be converted into standard Publix stores. This doesn't come as much of a surprise considering how many planned GreenWise Market locations have since opened as miniature Publix stores. I suppose it is only a matter of time before the Mountain Brook store becomes Evergrayed.