COMPTON, Calif. -- Ralphs Grocery Co. here has opened a new Fresh Faire store in part of a former department store in Westwood Village, the community adjacent to the UCLA campus in West Los Angeles.
d on the building's second floor, with its parking lot on the same level just outside the entrance. The store is the first full-service grocery store in Westwood Village in 27 years.
Joining Ralphs in the converted 50-year-old department store will be Long's Drug Store, on the building's third floor; a Best Buy location sharing the second floor; and Expo Design Center, the interior decorating outlet operated by Home Depot, occupying the first floor. Although the Ralphs portion opened Sept. 19, the other stores are not scheduled to be completed until early next year.
According to a chain spokesman, Ralphs' lease prohibited it from changing the building's exterior, making it necessary for Ralphs to find a way to utilize display box windows on the store's north side that formerly featured Bullock's fashion designs. Ralphs' solution was to install four large-screen TV monitors that show interior shots of the store on a rotating, round-the-clock basis, the spokesman said.
Other unusual store designs Ralphs operates include a store in San Diego's former warehouse district that is built in a turn-of-the 20th-century style and a store in Santa Barbara with Spanish Colonial architecture and exterior fountains.