Groceteria.com

A few years ago, I happened upon a strangely-remodeled store in West Virginia that I dubbed the "Frankenstein Kroger."

Recently I discovered this scene in Chillicothe, Illinois (greater Peoria), and it gave me the same vibes...
This was a Kroger/SupeRx combination greenhouse store from the 1980s. The drugstore portion (now a CVS) was never remodeled and still retains its original glassy facade, but the Kroger was either rebuilt at some point or renovated beyond recognition.

That is one ugly remodel. Kroger build two stores in Houston in 1993 that were new construction of a corporate design that had two upstairs rooms and large windows. It looks like this remodel tried to mimic that design but did a horrible job. The actual new construction were pretty nice looking stores. They had one problem, the a/c was designed for up north and the rooms were very hot in the summer!

Also seems like a kind of odd combination, to have the supermarket with a pharmacy and the CVS in the same building?

BillyGr wrote:Also seems like a kind of odd combination, to have the supermarket with a pharmacy and the CVS in the same building?

My guess, though I don't know firsthand, is that it didn't start out this way. My bet is that the Kroger didn't originally have one. The CVS may have originally been something else; possibly a SuperX. When the store was sold, there was no longer a need to worry about 'competing with themselves', so when Kroger remodeled, they probably added it then. This wasn't an uncommon design for Kroger, and can be seen throughout their operating area; it was essentially a double greenhouse.

wnetmacman wrote:My guess, though I don't know firsthand, is that it didn't start out this way. My bet is that the Kroger didn't originally have one. The CVS may have originally been something else; possibly a SuperX. When the store was sold, there was no longer a need to worry about 'competing with themselves', so when Kroger remodeled, they probably added it then. This wasn't an uncommon design for Kroger, and can be seen throughout their operating area; it was essentially a double greenhouse.

Without a doubt, it was SupeRx. There are still lingering directory references on the Internet to a "Hook-SupeRx" at this address.

Just in case anyone needs a refresher: Kroger owned SupeRx from its genesis in the 1960s until 1986, and the side-by-side Kroger-SupeRx combination was common in the 1970s and early 1980s. The SupeRx chain was merged with Hook's Drugs of Indianapolis and spun off into its own entity, which was acquired by Revco in 1994, which was acquired by CVS in 1998...hence, this scene.

I'm surprised whenever I see an old SupeRx that's still open as a CVS, though. The competitive trend towards standalone drugstores with prescription pickup drive-thrus has been in force for two decades now, and many of these old locations result in awkward juxtapositions now when you can just as easily get prescriptions refilled at the Kroger next door.