Saturday, January 21, 2017

Altadena Ralphs, the historic Market Basket, closing forever January 27, 2017

It is hard to believe what degradation North Lake Avenue in Altadena is experiencing. After losing the Coffee Gallery to overpriced Hipsters (the owner and customers) we now lose the reasonable priced Ralphs Grocery Store.

Altadena, you should have incorporated long ago, otherwise our ex-Pasadena Planning Director, Richard Bruckner, now the Planning Director for Los Angeles County including unincorporated Altadena, is going to bury you in ugly condominiums. I always thought Altadena's better chance was to take Pasadena's annexation move, but I am of the minority opinion.

One has to think that after January 20, 2017, a lot of our freedoms and choices are being curtailed.





Farewell Altadena....I have little reason to go up North Lake Avenue anymore except for access to the San Gabriel Mountains. I will focus on the environment and the hiking trails and historical remnants in the mountains, such as Millard Canyon, the Arroyo Seco, Devil's Gate Dam, Mount Lowe and Mount Wilson.

I wish we could bring back a vibrant Altadena.....I do still shop at Altadena Hardware, Dazees and Boys Republic.....Aldi's apparently is just going to be another version of Food 4 Less, which I can't bear.....  At least we still have a Ralphs on North Lake at Walnut in Pasadena. I may start getting my morning coffee and newspaper at Vroman's, which I hope Joel Sheldon will keep going.

Hope springs eternal.........

4 comments:

  1. I've really been enjoying the new Full Circle thrift store in the old Pacific Electric Building...a nice addition to the area.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, it was good to get the old Pacific Electric Substation open to the public again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, it was good to get the old Pacific Electric Substation open to the public again!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Closing this particular Ralphs store in an area where only three quarters of a mile away, there are DOZENS of multi-million dollar homes, makes no sense! What was Ralphs / Kroger management

    thinking? Management should have instead opted to tear down the old building and rebuild a new, bigger Ralphs store - a full-service supermarket like all of the rest of the Ralphs in the local area,

    which would include: Deli, butcher, salad bar, Coffee shop, flower shop, and all the rest of the accoutrements one would expect from a new Ralphs supermarket. Everyone in the Altadena area would

    have shopped there. The problem with the existing Altadena Ralphs was they had nothing there except the bare essentials - and most of those items were not name-brand. The long-range thinking is

    non-existent apparently at Kroger/Ralphs. A new supermarket building project would have paid for itself quickly in this East Altadena area where residents have a lot of disposable income! This

    medium sized community of Altadena, Population. 50,000, has no dinner houses, no decent restaurants and now no major supermarket, but that wasn't the case 50 years ago. There used to be piano bars,

    steak houses and decent restaurants in this community. Residents there now have to schlep down two-lane Allen Ave to the always-crowded Vons store which shares space with Chase Bank and the other

    businesses near the corner of Allen and Washington, or drive 4 miles over to Hastings Ranch where another perpetually crowded Ralphs parking lot offers challenges to park when in the area. The other

    less desirable option is a Food-4-Less on Lake Ave which is another parking nightmare and risk all of its own. I'm glad we don't live in this area any longer, it has really deteriorated.

    ReplyDelete