Photo of Safeway Exterior - Walnut Creek (or Vallejo)-1973?

Uh...California.

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Jason B.
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Photo of Safeway Exterior - Walnut Creek (or Vallejo)-1973?

Post by Jason B. »

Richard Longstreth, an American studies professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., has published "Road Trip," a new book based on nearly 200 photos that he took across the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

An article about Prof. Longstreth's book appeared in the winter 2016 of "GW Magazine," the George Washington University's official publication:
https://magazine.gwu.edu/just-passing-through

One photo from circa 1973 is said to be of a Safeway Foods supermarket in Walnut Creek, Calif. This photo apparently is published within the book. A reader apparently shot that page of the book and placed it on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/24900023986/
However, that reader claims that it is a 1972 shot of a Safeway store in Vallejo, Calif.

The "GW Magazine" article, in the printed version, includes the Safeway photo on page 54. The caption quotes Prof. Longstreth, "Few building types were more aggressively modernist" than post-war supermarkets. He noted the "exuberant forms" and colors of some West Coast Safeways. "GW Magazine" noted "like this one in Walnut Creek, Calif., in 1973."

The photo depicts a tall pylon (akin the 1950s era stores in Lodi and Livermore, Calif.) that says "SAFEWAY FOODS" on it with a "Circle S" logo. A "porte cochere" horizontal structure extends over part of the parking lot with "SAFEWAY" on it. Circle "S" logos are seen on shopping carts in the parking lot. A sign in the parking lot says, "PLEASE PARK CARRIERS HERE". A man in a business suit and wearing a hat is seen pushing a shopping cart away from the store. Signs on the store windows include a "Circle S" logo, "Since we're neighbors let's be friends," "Finest VALUE," "Finest SERVICE," and "Finest DAIRY FOODS".

Can anyone confirm if this is a Walnut Creek Safeway store that existed in the early 1970s? Could this be the Walnut Creek Safeway store that was at or near Broadway Plaza shopping center? The present-day Safeway (2016) serving that part of Walnut Creek is at the southeasterly corner of Broadway and Mt. Diablo Blvd. Apparently that Safeway store is itself slated for demolition and replacement, according to this 2012 plan:
http://www.beyondthecreek.com/remodel-o ... the-works/

This webpage shows how one Safeway consultant (Architectural Network, Inc.) has renovated some California stores:
http://www.architecturalnetwork.com/Pro ... ohnson.pdf
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