Canada Safeways

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storeliker
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Canada Safeways

Post by storeliker »

I was recently up near the town I grew up in visiting with family and we made the quick trip to the Canadian border less then an hour away. On our way home we got caught on old 99 out of Vancouver which isnt a major frewway and was surprised how many Safeways were along that strip. Is Safeway prevelant all through Canada or just in British Columbia? Are the interiors the same? Also are there any other American groceries in business up there, if not who are some major competitors? Saw about four or five in Vancouver area alone, mostly in the outskirts and not downtown. I am more familar with Seattle since I was stripped searched in a lewd way going up there one time at border at 16 and never went there much since, oh well at least I didn't get it as bad as my friend or else it would have really hurt.
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Post by Jeff »

They are non-existant in Quebec and Ottawa that I saw. Maybe they are only in western Canada. I stopped at one in Burnaby two years ago to get toiletries, and they are smaller than the US counterparts, but had the same interior as a US store.

http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/defa ... e=corphome

If you look at their story, and look at the map, you can see stores it looks like as far as into Edmonton, but nothing in Ontario, Quebec or the east provinces.
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Post by danielh_512 »

British Columbia and Alberta are the only provinces Safeway Canada operates in. Safeway, other than the Baltimore/Washington region, in which they inherited Sanitary Stores in the 1920's, is a West Coast chain.

A&P still operates predominantly in Eastern Canada, as does IGA and Loblaw's, a Canadian chain that once had stores in the US, primarily in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
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Post by jamcool »

Safeway Canada has 219 stores and operates as far East as Winnipeg. They did have stores as far East as Ontario, but those stores were sold off in the 80s.

The only other US chain operating in Canada is Wal-Mart (the old Woolco operation) and they do have grocery depts.
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Post by Groceteria »

danielh_512 wrote:British Columbia and Alberta are the only provinces Safeway Canada operates in. Safeway, other than the Baltimore/Washington region, in which they inherited Sanitary Stores in the 1920's, is a West Coast chain.

A&P still operates predominantly in Eastern Canada, as does IGA and Loblaw's, a Canadian chain that once had stores in the US, primarily in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Actually (and not completely on-topic), Safeway in the US operated pretty much everywhere west of the Mississippi until the 1980s, and had significant operations in New York (through the 1960s), central Virginia (through the 1980s), and DC (still). And even today, they own chains in Texas, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, so it's not strictly a West Coast operation.

That said, the geography of A&P vs. Safeway in Canada is about the same as it was in the US at the peak of both chains, with a definite east-west division. A&P also operates under several names in Canada, including Dominion and Ultra. And A&P Tea sold its Canadian operations last year, although they still retain the name.
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Post by danielh_512 »

David, I meant Safeway as the named chain, not including their recent buys of Pavilions, Vons, Genuardi's, Randall's, Tom Thumb and Dominick's.

Safeway was in the Richmond area until 1991, left Charlottesville in 1985, and still has open a store in Culpeper, VA. They left Winchester and Woodstock, VA in the mid-late 1990's.

Safeway was open in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, Texas to my knowledge, states they have since left (under the Safeway name for Texas), as well as some stores in Central Pennsylvania and around NYC.
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Post by Groceteria »

I've split off the drifting loyalty cards topic and placed it in "current operations". And now, back to our regularly scheduled topic of Canada Safeway...
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Canada Safeways

Post by marshd1000 »

Although it has been a couple of months that I have looked at where Safeway was in Canada, it seems to be mostly Western Canada. But I do believe that they have some stores in Thunder Bay, Ontario. But I believe that is fairly close to the Manitoba border.
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Post by steps »

these are the only places in Canada that have Safeways:


Alberta - 85
British Columbia - 78
Manitoba - 35
Ontario - 6
Saskatchewan - 15
TOTAL - CANADA - 219
Pavilions, the new, the unusal, the BEST of everything!
MarinerIslanderSean

Re: Canada Safeways

Post by MarinerIslanderSean »

storeliker wrote:I was recently up near the town I grew up in visiting with family and we made the quick trip to the Canadian border less then an hour away. On our way home we got caught on old 99 out of Vancouver which isnt a major frewway and was surprised how many Safeways were along that strip. Is Safeway prevelant all through Canada or just in British Columbia? Are the interiors the same? Also are there any other American groceries in business up there, if not who are some major competitors? Saw about four or five in Vancouver area alone, mostly in the outskirts and not downtown. I am more familar with Seattle since I was stripped searched in a lewd way going up there one time at border at 16 and never went there much since, oh well at least I didn't get it as bad as my friend or else it would have really hurt.
Hello. I am new to the boards and work for Safeway in B.C. Other than Wal-Mart and Costco, both of which have grown in the past ten to fifteen years here, there are no major American competitors. Most main competitors are based in Canada, as follows:

Save-On-Foods, a grocery store owned by local businessman Jimmy Pattison, who founded the company in 1984. S-O-F operates 54 B.C. locations and 17 Alberta stores.

Real Canadian Superstore and Extra Foods, owned by Loblaws in Ontario. RCS locations are in big-box form, while Extra Foods is more of a typical smaller grocery store. Both advertise the same prices weekly and operate nationwide.

IGA Marketplace (my sister works here) operates a number of stores throughout B.C. as well, though I don't think they extend past Alberta (I could be wrong).

Otherwise, there are a bunch of smaller regional stores like Stongs and Choices, as well as the odd SuperValu. Thrifty Foods, founded and strongly established on Vancouver Island, is also attempting to expand onto the mainland and, as luck would have it, have built a location right down the street from where I work, probably cutting into my hours.

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Nonetheless, Safeway remains the top grocery retailer in B.C. and they continue to expand. All Canadian locations are looking to remodel in the dark yellow-beigish "lifestyle" schematic by around 2009.
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Post by marshd1000 »

I am also thinking that in British Columbia, Jim Pattison also owns Overwaitea Foods, Urban Fare, Coopers among others.
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Post by MarinerIslanderSean »

That's true. I think back in the 80's, there used to be a lot more stores under the Overwaitea banner until S-O-F started operating. Now they are scattered around the province and away from the Lower Mainland. Coopers isn't very numerous but they are known as a good discount chain.
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Post by TheStranger »

Reviving this old topic, doing a bit of google searching...just found a couple of photos of an unusual looking Safeway in Vancouver:

http://www.kevinfreitas.net/journalPicV ... c5kZh6IB0=

Anyone know where this store is located?

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Here's another Vancouver-area Safeway photo I found on the web, this time of a 1960s-era sign:

http://ofquiet.com/vancouver/safeway.html

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Lettering on this one suggests it is a 1970s-era site:

http://www.amblesidevillage.ca/safeway.htm

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Marina currently operating as a flea market, but could become a library and some retail stores:

http://www.vancourier.com/issues02/1021 ... 02nn3.html

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Remodeled 1970s-era store with original sign pylons, photographs taken from the vantage point of anti-fish farming Aboriginal Canadian protestors:

http://images.google.com/url?q=http://w ... yC8fuL59g=

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This looks like a Winnipeg-area marina.

http://www.winnipeghumanesociety.ca/spe ... ag_Day.php

Image

Wonder if it's this store, which got a retrofitted marina roof in 1998:

http://www.dkbennett.com/safeway.html

Image

A 1970s era Winnipeg store which is being replaced:

http://www.newwinnipeg.com/news/2004/08-13safeway.htm
Last edited by TheStranger on 12 Oct 2006 15:19, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by TheStranger »

Here's a nice googlesearch find: interior of a marina store in Saskatoon, on 33rd Street.

http://schools.sbe.saskatoon.sk.ca/mayf ... rtners.htm

http://schools.sbe.saskatoon.sk.ca/mayf ... feway3.jpg - note the marina windows up top, making this an earlier specimen

http://schools.sbe.saskatoon.sk.ca/mayf ... feway5.jpg - nice view of the ceiling

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A very vintage looking marina in Burnaby, BC.

http://www.burnabyevents.com/b/bus212.html

Image

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Interior of a marina in Regina, SK, in a vintage photo showing the old Lucerne labeling.

http://community.webshots.com/album/167832816phLVbW

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Another photo of the Winnipeg marina, which is apparently located on Main Street

http://pages.interlog.com/~urbanism/

Image

A second marina Safeway location in Winnipeg, on Ellice Avenue, has a fascinatingly vintage sign:

http://pages.interlog.com/~urbanism/mowinn.html

Image

1960s Safeway photo from Winnipeg, I don't think it's the Main Street marina, but it's definitely a marina design:

Image

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More shots of the Vancouver store from earlier (I'm now thinking those shots were from the back of the store):

http://www.oopsweb.com/2004/sp/02b/safeway.jpg

http://www.oopsweb.com/2004/sp/11b/images/safeway.jpg


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A small shot of a Safeway in I think Chilliwack.

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:g ... MG0129.jpg
Last edited by TheStranger on 12 Oct 2006 15:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TheStranger »

1932-era Safeway.

http://www.wainwrightmainstreet.org/pro ... eway0.html

http://www.wainwrightmainstreet.org/pro ... eway5.html

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33rd Street location of Safeway in Saskatoon, in the late 1950s/early 1960s:

http://schools.sbe.saskatoon.sk.ca/Mayfa/grassroots.htm


Existing marina, photo taken around mid-1970s:

http://schools.sbe.saskatoon.sk.ca/Mayf ... IMAGE7.JPG

A more recent photo of that same store:

Image
Last edited by TheStranger on 12 Oct 2006 15:16, edited 2 times in total.
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