It's the end of an era!

Albertsons is part of the Haggen grocery brand, which has announced they will close stores all along the West Coast including here in Yakima. The Yakima Herald-Republic reported a confirmation of the location at 40th Avenue and Tieton Drive -- a store I considered my Albertsons.

Fortunately, as Albertsons and Safeway are owned by the same corporation, there are Albertsons and Safeway stores in town that they might be able to place the employees. I'm hoping for a quick and relatively painless relocation of the staff. They've always been nice to my family and I. I loved Srini, Mario, Sean, Shannon and the rest of the pharmacy department, too. I'll miss them dearly.

As a child, I loved visiting this location because it had a speech cash register. When it would ring up an item, it would say, out loud, "69 cents, a dollar 29..." in a robotic voice you'd expect from the '80s. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I consider the Albertsons at 40th and Tieton kind of a landmark for Yakima as it was near where I grew up, it was a favorite spot to grab lunch when I attended Eisenhower High School and I currently live near there so I'm usually popping in to grab an item or two on a daily basis.

Looks like they'll stay open through February. I'm not sure if anything is planned for this location immediately. Soon as we find out, we'll let you know.

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