The Family Mart / Florida Choice #704 / Kash n' Karry
26277 US Highway 19 North, Clearwater, FL
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| Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail |
Being that the former Albertsons we saw this week on AFB wasn't one of the more interesting ones out there, I figured that would make this a good week for another AFB/MFR double shot! Even though today, September 6, 2026, marks Publix's 96th birthday, we won't be seeing any Publix this weekend. Instead, we'll move a few doors down from former Albertsons #4344 to a former A&P-owned The Family Mart building, also located along Clearwater's US 19 corridor. Unlike the former Albertsons store, we'll at least have some vintage Family Mart relics to see here today, so let's get started and learn a little more about this store:
The Family Mart made its debut in Clearwater on March 14, 1979, two years before the similarly-sized Albertsons #4344 opened next door. The Family Mart was essentially an exact copy of what a 1970's Florida Albertsons store was like, having similar building designs, sizes, and expanded general merchandise offerings like Albertsons, just with A&P's own flare to it. A&P would later admit they recruited Albertsons executives to develop The Family Mart as a true rip-off of Albertsons, showing some companies will do whatever it takes to one-up the competition!
A sketch of the building in its original form is visible on the grand opening advertisement above. It's crazy just how similar these Family Mart buildings looked looked like an Albertsons from the time, complete with the side entrances, tucked in liquor stores, and river rock paneling. Just by looking at one of these buildings it's pretty easy to tell it was intended to be a knockoff Albertsons!
Even though The Family Mart only lasted for 9 years in this building, it was the longest tenured supermarket at this site overall. As A&P struggled and began to contract from outlying markets, the company sold its Florida Family Mart Stores to Kroger in 1988, who rebranded the stores to Florida Choice.
Florida Choice operated these former Family Mart stores for not even a year before Kroger also announced its departure from the Florida market later in 1988. The Florida Choice stores were sold piecemeal to the highest bidders, with Kash n' Karry buying most of the Florida Choice locations along the Interstate 75 corridor.
While Kash n' Karry managed to get a decent run out of most of the Florida Choice stores they purchased (including many that ended up becoming Sweetbays), the Clearwater store was an almost instant flop. I did find that one ad listing the Clearwater store as a Kash n' Karry, but any mentions of this location as a supermarket end after 1989. At the time, Kash n' Karry already had a store 2 miles to the east at McMullen-Booth and Enterprise. With that, plus having Albertsons practically next door, seemed to spell doom to this building carrying on as a supermarket.
Much like Florida Choice, Kash n' Karry lasted barely a year here before closing. Still holding the lease, Kash n' Karry sublet the building to an up-and-coming chain - Office Depot - as part of the chain's expansion into Tampa Bay.
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| I never knew Emerson made a computer until I saw this. |
The chain only 3-years-old when it opened its Clearwater store in 1990, the Boca Raton-based office supply startup was doing its best to grow fast both in its home state of Florida as well as nationwide. Above is one of Office Depot's ads from 1990, when the chain only consisted of roughly 40 stores (most of which were in Florida at the time). The early 1990's were the start of the office supply store bubble, with a number of chains battling it out to the top. Office Depot would end up being one of the winners of that battle, a prize that doesn't seem so glorious anymore with the way Office Depot stores keep closing nationwide as that market changes.
Even with all of Office Depot's shrinking of late, the Clearwater store is still open as of mid-2026. Office Depot occupies the right half of this former Family Mart building, with PetSmart taking up the remaining space in the left half of the building. PetSmart has been in this building for almost as long as Office Depot, with references to PetSmart in this space first appearing as early as 1992.
Office Depot squared-off its portion of the Family Mart awning upon moving in, but otherwise left much of the building's Family Mart aesthetic in-place. Family Mart's original entryway would have been through a set of doors on the side of the vestibule, the structure of which still exists (albeit closed in) at this building today. To better understand what this building would have looked like in original form, be sure to check out this identical building in South Pasadena here.
Although it's all been painted over in beige, the river rock panels from Family Mart still exist today, giving this building its distinctive look. When the building was subdivided, Office Depot and PetSmart built new entrances for each of their spaces, both opting to carve new doors out of the front wall like we see above for Office Depot.
Stepping inside, this store looks like most other Office Depot stores. The various office supplies are kept in "pods" along each side of the store, with computers, printers, and ink in the center salesfloor and office furniture toward the back.
Looking across the back of the store, we see the divide between electronics and furniture. When Family Mart was here, this side of the building would have been home to most of the grocery aisles, with the fresh departments located on the left side of the building in what is now PetSmart's space.
A slightly blurry look at the furniture department toward the back of the store. The back right corner, where I was standing to take this photo, would have been home to Family Mart's pharmacy counter.
The aisle markers we see above correlate with the "pods" for the various office supplies. Each "pod" is basically a short U-shaped aisle, one of the more unique salesfloor arrangements I've seen out there.
From the left side of Office Depot, here's a look toward the right side wall and what would have been Family Mart's health and beauty department.
Looking toward the print and copy center, that is located in what would have been Family Mart's vestibule.
Our last photo from inside of Office Depot looks toward the front registers and the door, where we'll be heading as we prepare to head next door to PetSmart:
Looking at the former vestibule, there were a few doors installed on the front of it where all the windows were sealed in following the subdivision. These days, it looked like neither door was still in use by either tenant, with the one on PetSmart's side signed as a fire door, and the one on Office Depot's side blacked out and covered in advertisements.
Much like we saw next door at Office Depot, the PetSmart is a pretty standard modern PetSmart inside. The photo above looks down the store's main center aisle, from which all the aisles of various pet supplies branch off from.
The front left corner of PetSmart's space had this odd lower ceiling over it, roughly covering the area where Family Mart's deli and bakery departments would have been. This corner in a standard Family Mart store did have a lower ceiling, but nothing that looked quite like this. As such this ceiling must have been added by PetSmart, although these days it doesn't really serve to showcase any distinct department (which it may have been constructed for back in the early 1990's when PetSmart first opened).
The PetSmart wasn't super exciting inside either, so I only took these few interior photos of the store. This particular day there weren't even any kittens in the adoption area to take pictures of to make this post a little more exciting either!
Back outside, on the PetSmart side of the building you can see the original angled awning that Office Depot squared off.
My favorite part of these 1970's Family Mart (and Albertsons) buildings are the original river rock panel walls. Even covered with a little beige paint, you can still make out the design here today (which is more than I can say about the Albertsons building from the same era next door!).
Over 35 years after it was last used by shoppers, the former side and liquor store entrances, complete with original awning and lighting, is still visible. While the doors and windows were sealed in during Office Depot's conversion, the awning makes it extremely obvious what this used to be!
Even though both current tenants rebuilt their respective interiors, it's interesting how original the exterior has remained - it's still very obvious this used to be a Family Mart! So when the Albertsons store of the same vintage nearby falls flat on its historical interest, thankfully it's knockoff still had a bit to remind all of us what it was!
More to come in two weeks on AFB, and be sure to keep checking back on MFR for more updates and posts from all of us! So until the next post,
AFB
