Groceteria.com

I got curious and went ahead. There was indeed a Kroger at 1713 North Spring (a/k/a 2040 East Morgan) from 1955 to 1970 (some ads mistakenly say East Spring). How it managed never to appear in a directory I do not know. It may have been outside the city limits at the time or something. 2100 Boonvill...

2101 W Franklin shows for me as one of the Oakley stores Kroger took over in 1939. If I had to make a guess, it would be that 1950 was an expansion that might have included the furniture store space. I don't have time to check the newspapers now, but I'll try to later. There is a 1713 NORTH Spring S...

Interestingly Kroger still franchised PW to about 1948 when the Kroger brand was finally introduced to Atlanta. In Evansville, Indiana, which I just finished, they apparently introduced the brand in the late 1920s but ultimately prioritized the Piggly Wiggly brand over Kroger until the mid-1940s wh...

Well I have been able to piece together from various newspaper articles and from talking to my friend Lisa Tolbert, who is the author of the book “Beyond Piggly Wiggly,” groups of franchised stores were sold off to retailers such as Safeway, National Tea, and others, but Kroger obtained a controllin...

Slightly more interesting than I expected:

https://www.groceteria.com/place/indiana/evasnville/

The building shape and roofline are pretty quintessentially Golden Skillet, and the Canadian franchisee was originally based in Newfoundland so I'm guessing it's purpose-built. But I can't swear to that, obviously.

For example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retroweb/31356112074/

Biloxi almost did me in...

https://www.groceteria.com/place/us-mis ... rt-biloxi/

Steve Landry wrote: ↑13 Nov 2023 12:50 I know you have been busy with some juicy research finds lately but, any upates on Super Fair?

Sadly, due to some work projects, I've been at one of those points where stringing actual sentences together for fun is beyond my capacity right now. Sigh...

the506 wrote: ↑14 Nov 2023 10:07 Here's an even bigger pointer: an early Mary Browns location in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, complete with what may be a vintage Golden Skillet-era frying pan sign.

That is incredible. Thanks!

I feel like I drove past this once when I was in Venice maybe 10 years ago. I have seen some pre-1959 stores that had the “gable“ look. I’m not sure if it was there originally or may be added later. From Google Maps, this sort of looks like it might have had a new front appended to it in the 60s.

Apparently Fox Markets took over the Santa Cruz Market at 752 A Street in Oxnard in 1959 and then basically took it back late in 1960. Can't find an article explaining why. Santa Cruz also took back another store (1924 E Main) they had offloaded on about the same timetable.

Thanks. I’m not sure what’s up with that one store on A Street in Oxnard that flipped over to Fox Markets and then turned back into a Santa Cruz Market. I’ll dive into the newspapers tomorrow and see if I can figure it out.

Possible, I try to update to current versions of all addresses but I'll miss one here and there. And sometimes Google Maps itself goes off the rails (see today's Ventura post). I'll look at it when I have a minute.

For your Saturday afternoon viewing pleasure, it's back to SoCal: https://www.groceteria.com/place/california/ventura-area/ Be forewarned that some of the Google Maps links for Main Street in Ventura insist on pointing to Main Street in Santa Paula even though the correct, valid addresses are in the...

Updated t fill in the gaps between 1934 and 1959, and from 1980 to the present (though I'm still missing a few years in Tulare):

https://www.groceteria.com/place/califo ... nd-tulare/