Baton Rouge supermarkets

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pseudo3d
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Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

(Separated from the New Orleans supermarkets thread so it won't get too cluttered)

What can you tell me about the Baton Rouge supermarket history? I've always found it a weird and a bit depressing that there's no chains but Albertsons (and Walmart). There's also Winn-Dixie there, but I'd actually never seen one in person in B.R.

In exploring around Google Earth, I've found some interesting remnants that I'm sure were once different grocery stores...

- I've identified Sherwood Forest and Florida Blvd. as a Skaggs Albertsons and have marked that (it's gone now)
- The B.R. Schwegmann was at Airline Hwy. and Sherwood Forest
- I've found at least two Krogers, one at Greenwell Springs and Sullivan; one at Airline Hwy. and Jefferson Hwy.
- One more exists on Florida Blvd., no luck on finding it--I've ID'd at least three vacant Kmarts in the process though
- The second Calandro's location opened at Siegen and Perkins. I'm certain this used to be something else.
- Sherwood Forest and Coursey was a Super Fresh, A&P may have kept this name until it pulled out (in 2007?)
- Sherwood Forest and Muriel had what looks like a Schwegmann but isn't. I've asked around on city-data on this one, no luck

More Google searching reveals some more information, which includes Delchamps (http://www.lagumbo.com/batonrouge/supermarkets1.htm)

- Delchamps was at 6576 Jones Creek. I seem to remember Hi Nabor was there was in the early parts of the 2000s, but I can't find an address for it. Is what I've been told/remember wrong?!
- Delchamps was at 7580 Bluebonnet Blvd (Matherne's), 5255 Highland Rd (Walmart Neighborhood Market), 1131 Millerville Rd (still vacant)

However, it doesn't reveal the mystery of Calandro's old tenant, the one at Sherwood Forest and Muriel, nor where the other Krogers were hiding.
wnetmacman
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:(Separated from the New Orleans supermarkets thread so it won't get too cluttered)

What can you tell me about the Baton Rouge supermarket history? I've always found it a weird and a bit depressing that there's no chains but Albertsons (and Walmart). There's also Winn-Dixie there, but I'd actually never seen one in person in B.R.

In exploring around Google Earth, I've found some interesting remnants that I'm sure were once different grocery stores...

- I've identified Sherwood Forest and Florida Blvd. as a Skaggs Albertsons and have marked that (it's gone now)
- The B.R. Schwegmann was at Airline Hwy. and Sherwood Forest
- I've found at least two Krogers, one at Greenwell Springs and Sullivan; one at Airline Hwy. and Jefferson Hwy.
- One more exists on Florida Blvd., no luck on finding it--I've ID'd at least three vacant Kmarts in the process though
- The second Calandro's location opened at Siegen and Perkins. I'm certain this used to be something else.
- Sherwood Forest and Coursey was a Super Fresh, A&P may have kept this name until it pulled out (in 2007?)
- Sherwood Forest and Muriel had what looks like a Schwegmann but isn't. I've asked around on city-data on this one, no luck

More Google searching reveals some more information, which includes Delchamps (http://www.lagumbo.com/batonrouge/supermarkets1.htm)

- Delchamps was at 6576 Jones Creek. I seem to remember Hi Nabor was there was in the early parts of the 2000s, but I can't find an address for it. Is what I've been told/remember wrong?!
- Delchamps was at 7580 Bluebonnet Blvd (Matherne's), 5255 Highland Rd (Walmart Neighborhood Market), 1131 Millerville Rd (still vacant)

However, it doesn't reveal the mystery of Calandro's old tenant, the one at Sherwood Forest and Muriel, nor where the other Krogers were hiding.
The Sherwood at Florida store was Albertsons. May have been Skaggs Alpha Beta before. After Albertsons, it was a Super Saver, which closed fairly quickly.
The Greenwell Springs store was a Kroger, then later an A&P Futurestore, and then Sav-A-Center. Not sure where the Airline at Jefferson Highway store was, because that's a highly industrial area. There is, however, a store in the 6990 block Florida at Donmoor.
There are four former Kmarts in BR, with a fifth demolished. The four stores are on N. Airline, College Dr. just south of I-10, Florida Blvd. and on Siegen Lane near I-10.
The Calandro's on Perkins looks like, with its exterior walk-in cooler config, a Winn Dixie. There's a Marketplace store up Siegen, which could have relocated from here.
The Sherwood Forest A&P was briefly a Super Fresh, but prior to the A&P pullout, all but three stores (Gretna, Magazine St., and Royal) were rebannered Sav-A-Center. This was the next-to-last A&P-owned store in BR, with Greenwell Springs being the last.
The store further up Sherwood Forest may have been a Canal Villere (National). There is a similar store just north of I-10 in Slidell as well.

Delchamps was indeed at the addresses you listed. The last of their stores closed in 2000. The store on Jones Creek is an independent store called Ralphs Market. Matherne's has the distinction of being the closest customer to Associated Grocers BR, which is right behind it. (AGBR supplies most of the independent stores in the area.) The Highland store was completely gutted for Walmart. The Millerville store is not vacant; it's a self storage center.

Winn Dixie still has about 5 stores in the BR market; 5555 Burbank, 13555 Old Hammond Highway, 8601 Siegen Lane, 13002 Coursey, and 10974 Joor Rd. It's important to note that one of the first Marketplace stores, if not the first, was on Government Blvd., in a store that's now Piggly Wiggly. Albertsons still has 8 stores; 4857 Government St., 2950 College Dr. at I-10, 9850 Airline (an older build similar to SAB), 7515 Perkins, 9950 Bluebonnet, 15232 George O'Neal Rd., 15128 Airline and 402 S. Range in Denham Springs (a former WD Marketplace).

Independent grocers do better in S. Louisiana because they tend to cater to the desires of the population. It's very hard to get in Walmart; I worked for a rice packer who had to fight his way in, and they only gave him 2 4' shelves. He gets far more in the smaller stores, and in regional chains like Brookshire, Rouses, Calandro's, Breaux's Mart and the like.
Scott Greer
pseudo3d
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

Thanks!

The Kroger on Airline is definitely a Kroger: because of Airline Highway bisecting Jefferson, it's on the "southeast" side, that is, 11855 Airline Hwy. The other Krogers probably aren't Greenhouse stores and therefore less immediately obvious.

Calandro's being a Winn-Dixie (smaller one) makes a lot of sense. In 1998, the parking lot is empty (Google Earth)

The old supposed Canal Villere on Baton Rouge looks like it would've been one divested, but then again, Schwegmann had to divest their stores mostly where they would command too much of the market share, that is, New Orleans. Of course, then again, it would make sense since Schwegmann already had a store down closer to Airline.

I'll have to double check on that Hi Nabor again--Google Earth seems to show the parking lot empty in 3/02, which would make sense if Delchamps was there and closed...that doesn't eliminate the possibility of Hi Nabor being there for a few years, though. I'll ask my uncle in a few days--that was the closest grocery store to where he lived at the time.

The fact that (nearly?) all the Albertsons made it through is surprising too--the cuts at Albertsons LLC were absolutely brutal. The Super Saver brand was a discount format by Albertsons, and cut as a chain shortly after Cerberus took over (except Utah), which indicates that it converted around 2003-2004 and closed in 2006. If it was a Skaggs Alpha Beta, it was originally a Skaggs Albertsons, confirming my suspicions.
pseudo3d
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

Actually not too sure about the Skaggs situation, because depending on the region they did split different ways. Anyway, there are three Krogers left unfound, though they were probably not Greenhouse stores.
wnetmacman
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

Your assumption about Skaggs is correct. Not all SAB stores were S-A. I don't believe any stores of this design in LA (2 in Shreveport, 1 in Lafayette and several in BR) were combo stores like that.

The Airline store is somewhat of an Easter Egg. It's part of Brian Harris Chrysler (formerly Henderson-Saia Chrysler). It can be easily seen from the road, but hasn't been Kroger since Kroger left.

I don't believe any more stores were greenhouse, but if you have addresses I can try to pinpoint them.
Scott Greer
pseudo3d
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

The Airline Kroger isn't part of a car dealership, it's next to it, Rockstar Racing currently (indoor go-kart tracks tend to be a choice for vacant retail, Houston has an ex-Safeway/Kroger being used as one, as well as an ex-Kmart). I never knew a Kroger existed there even though I drove that way almost annually. I missed it usually because we turned before then on Jefferson Hwy. east.

As for the other Krogers, they likely weren't Greenhouse stores, so we're looking for Superstore (or older) era stores. It's probable that some of the independents took them later, though.

Regarding Super Fresh, it looks like it became just an A&P in the end. Is that not the old A&P oval logo common to many stores in the Northeast? link

The link I gave does list Super Fresh (but not Sav-a-Center). It lists these addresses, but I'm not sure if they were actually bannered as such. The State Street one I read about I don't think was one (just a regular A&P):

224 W State St. (torn down for redevelopment--but I remember reading this was just A&P, not Super Fresh)
3380 Government St (couldn't pinpoint)
3138 College Dr. (probably the shopping center with Hobby Lobby in it--and that looks like a 1960s Kmart...you were right)
2168 Oneal Ln (Stage, Dollar Tree, maybe something else)
4530 S Sherwood Forest Blvd (Quarters, aforementioned)
7539 Jefferson Hwy (can't tell, has some of the same "arches" in mystery Sherwood Forest store--another divested National store? Or maybe both of another mystery chain?)

None of them especially resemble an obvious former Kroger (the Greenwell Springs store wasn't listed), and I think the Government St. one was a really old really small A&P--the type not a whole lot bigger than your average convenience store.

The mystery of 6576 Jones Creek still hangs. It was a Delchamps in the past--no question about that, and it's Ralphs Market now, but I thought I remember that Hi Nabor was there. Ralphs opened in 2007, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't vacant for 7 years prior because I drove past that intersection no less than since December 2000 no less than 7 times between December 2000 and January 2007.

It's still possible that the Albertsons mentioned was a Skaggs Albertsons. The division of how the stores fell apart depended on states, some became Skaggs SuperCenters, at least one went straight from S-A to SAB, and others Albertsons took the stores back, so S-A became Albertsons. In any case, if it was SAB, it became Jewel-Osco in 1991 in an effort to expand the name in the South, then flipped it to Albertsons in '92.
wnetmacman
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:224 W State St. (torn down for redevelopment--but I remember reading this was just A&P, not Super Fresh)
3380 Government St (couldn't pinpoint)
3138 College Dr. (probably the shopping center with Hobby Lobby in it--and that looks like a 1960s Kmart...you were right)
2168 Oneal Ln (Stage, Dollar Tree, maybe something else)
4530 S Sherwood Forest Blvd (Quarters, aforementioned)
7539 Jefferson Hwy (can't tell, has some of the same "arches" in mystery Sherwood Forest store--another divested National store? Or maybe both of another mystery chain?)

None of them especially resemble an obvious former Kroger (the Greenwell Springs store wasn't listed), and I think the Government St. one was a really old really small A&P--the type not a whole lot bigger than your average convenience store.

The mystery of 6576 Jones Creek still hangs. It was a Delchamps in the past--no question about that, and it's Ralphs Market now, but I thought I remember that Hi Nabor was there. Ralphs opened in 2007, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't vacant for 7 years prior because I drove past that intersection no less than since December 2000 no less than 7 times between December 2000 and January 2007.

It's still possible that the Albertsons mentioned was a Skaggs Albertsons. The division of how the stores fell apart depended on states, some became Skaggs SuperCenters, at least one went straight from S-A to SAB, and others Albertsons took the stores back, so S-A became Albertsons. In any case, if it was SAB, it became Jewel-Osco in 1991 in an effort to expand the name in the South, then flipped it to Albertsons in '92.
3380 Government St. was torn down before 2011. If you look at Google Maps and go back in street view, you'll see the old A&P. It had been closed for several years before being torn down.
3138 College Drive was across the street. Village Square was rebuilt about 4-5 years ago, and the entire shopping center, save the restaurant, bank and (strangely enough) Office Depot. The Super Fresh closed long before, though. It was all the way at the southwest end of the center, approximately where Great Wall is now. And that Kmart was an early 70's store, similar to the stores on Airline and Florida.
2168 O'Neal was a Futurestore
4530 Sherwood Forest may have been an A&P at one time, but the sign frame was recycled for Sav-A-Center, using a solid green background.
7539 Jefferson Highway was definitely an A&P. It's the second store in from the road with the straight columns, Goodwood Hardware. The arched store on the end was a K&B.

The last 5 years of A&P in Louisiana resulted in most of the stores being branded Sav-A-Center; only Greenwell Springs and Sherwood Forest stayed open long enough for this. The A&P banner was only used on 3 stores in Greater New Orleans; Gretna, Magazine St. and the Royal Street store.

As I recollect, none of the Louisiana stores became Jewel-Osco. The 76 stores sold (all but one in Tyler, TX) were in OK, NM, AR and TX. It's very possible that these may have always been just Albertsons (and later Super Saver). There are similar stores in Lafayette and Shreveport for sure, and one of my friends worked at one of the Shreveport stores. He said it was always Albertsons. The last S-A was open in 1977, and I believe those stores are all newer than that.

There are no Supercenter-style Krogers in BR. IIRC, Kroger was not in Baton Rouge long, and may have been in some other acquired stores before that. A dead giveaway for a Kroger is the exhaust/compressor pattern on the roof; typically it's at one corner of the store, with 3 compressors on either side of 4 exhausts.

Hi Nabor is at 5383 Jones Creek Road, and has been since 1982. They're a small outfit; the Jones Creek store is their biggest. They have two other stores; one on the north end of town (the original) and one in the Broadmoor shopping center on Florida (which was just forced out of the Drusilla Lane center for locally owned LeBlanc's Supermarkets).
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pseudo3d
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

I think you were right about Hi Nabor after all. I asked my mother about it, and she said it was a Hi Nabor--obviously where I got the idea from, but then continued to say that my cousin "K" worked there, presumably in high school. I have no doubt that "K" did work at Hi Nabor, but "K" graduated from high school no later than 1998, at which point Delchamps would've still been there. Then he moved to an out of state college (and did not return to La.), which eliminates any date past then.

Therefore, Hi Nabor did NOT exist there. But was it vacant for ~6 years between Delchamps and Ralphs? That still doesn't sit right. Of course, that opens up the possibility that I never noticed whatever was there because nothing WAS there. I guess I'll have to ask my aunt and uncle in a few days. They should know.
pseudo3d
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

I did some re-confirming that there wasn't anything there until Ralphs, and Hi Nabor was never there.
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

So I found five Krogers (I think there were five) that pulled out around 1983 (due to when ads were) in the Baton Rouge area. Most of them were already found:

6955 Florida - Greenhouse Facade Intact. Abandoned and in bad shape.
3138 College - The entire shopping center was redeveloped. Appears to have been Super Fresh later. Either center anchor or junior anchor on the side closest to the creek (demolished).
11855 Airline - Greenhouse Facade Intact. Now Rock Star Racing.
14440 Plank - Greenhouse Facade Hidden. Now Rainbow.
14485 Greenwell Springs - Greenhouse Facade Altered. Now Oak Point Fresh Market. (Renovated under Oak Point)
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

3138 College (Sav-A-Center, and evidently once Kroger)was the store at the far southwest corner by the creek. This is Village Square. When it was redeveloped, almost the entire center was demolished, save for the Office Depot in the upper left corner. The big box in the middle was Service Merchandise until that chain's demise, and K&B/Rite Aid also had a store in the upper left with the mansard roof surrounding the whole building.

I do not believe the Florida Blvd. store has been occupied in more than 20 years; the building adjacent was a Howard's BranDiscount store, and Howard's went out of business in 1987. 1989 Historic Aerials shows a few cars in the grocery parking lot, but none since.

14440 Plank is actually within the city of Baker. It was part of a Kmart-anchored center. Its greenhouse isn't hidden, it was removed.

Greenwell Springs was fully intact during the Sav-A-Center days; I visited there during that time. A&P did remove the Bauhaus decor, but floorplan-wise, it was intact. All the bell lights over the checkouts and produce were repainted green.

The Airline store is the most intact on the outside of the bunch. A similar, larger store was in Opelousas at I-49 and Creswell Lane.
Scott Greer
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by rich »

National definitely did exist there, but I don't know the locations or whether they exited Baton Rouge before leaving New Orleans. They acquired a chain in Baton Rouge (I want to say the name was "Capital") in the 50s, so their characteristic buff brick 50s stores that had brick pylons might not be present there.
wnetmacman
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

rich wrote:National definitely did exist there, but I don't know the locations or whether they exited Baton Rouge before leaving New Orleans. They acquired a chain in Baton Rouge (I want to say the name was "Capital") in the 50s, so their characteristic buff brick 50s stores that had brick pylons might not be present there.
The National division was based out of New Orleans. A Real Superstore on Greenwell Springs Road and a normal 80's store on Sherwood Forest just north of I-12 still stand, and most likely countless smaller ones do as well. They left BR around the same time they collapsed in New Orleans after the Schwegmann purchase that doomed both chains. Thanks, Schnucks.
Scott Greer
JohnK
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by JohnK »

Hey y’all- just a few memories of late 60s and 70s/80s BR groceries that this thread made me think of after I found and read it! I was looking for images of the old Skaggs Albertsons online when Google introduced me to this forum. There were enough questions to which i knew the answers, having grown up in South Sherwood Forest from ‘67 forward, to want to help. So here goes. :-)

The Albertsons at Florida and S Sherwood was originally Skaggs Albertsons (never “Alpha Beta”) and I remember getting a “free cookie club for life” card out of the mail for them as part of their grand opening in (circa) 1975ish, as I recall. Dad took us down there for the grand opening, and I swear, you’d have thought the State Fair was in town. Groceries AND general goods, under one roof! Along with a drug store! Who’d have thought at the time?!! There was a K&B pharmacy catty-corner to Skaggs Albertson’s that feared a loss of business- same old shopping center as the immortal Bert’s Records and Tapes and a few other small retail places. They shouldn’t have worried though. They were K&B. :-)

Further up Sherwood Forest Blvd, closer to my neck of the woods (we moved there even before SFB connected to the new I-12; it dead-ended more or less at S Harrell’s Ferry), the store we used regularly was A&P in the S Sherwood Shopping Center- that was the FIRST Sherwood Forest A&P, long before the one at SFB and Coursey got built. Last time I was in town, that center was a bit blighted- A&P was a Fred’s, the big beautiful TG&Y next to it and the Eckerd’s next to the TG&Y were something else, can’t remember, and the Exxon (just changed its name from Esso in the US) at the corner of SFB and Old Hammond was then a Sonic (circa 2014). That A&P ruled the grocery roost in that then-newly suburbanized part of town until a National (they were never any other brand til much later- all in BR used the classic NOLA National logo and branding, the same way A&Ps weren’t Super Fresh-es until sometime in the mid-late 80s) moved in as the anchor grocery to a new shopping center built at the corner of SFB and N Harrell’s Ferry. Later, in the 90s (I was working at the old KAJUN 103 FM with studios in what’s now the CJ Brown Building), that huge Schwegmann’s did indeed come to SFB at Airline (which is also where SFB dead-ended).

Around the LSU campus, most of the earlier posts also have the scene right about Tigertown- in the University Shopping Center, which is now soulless condos, there was a HUGE A&P in which they used to give me stale bread to feed the ducks at U Lake. The other big grocery store was another A&P nestled up against the Perkins Road on-ramp to I-10 in the old shopping center at Acadian and Perkins- where Acme Oyster House is now. The anchor for that smaller shopping center was one of the few Woolco stores in the area before Woolworth’s pulled the plug in them.

Hope this helps!
wnetmacman
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Re: Baton Rouge supermarkets

Post by wnetmacman »

JohnK wrote: 25 Feb 2020 16:36 The Albertsons at Florida and S Sherwood was originally Skaggs Albertsons (never “Alpha Beta”)
Skaggs and Albertsons split the stores 50/50, with some becoming Skaggs Alpha Beta (largely in Texas) and some becoming Albertsons (Louisiana and Florida). It's a shame that one sits empty, as it's in a busy spot.
JohnK wrote: 25 Feb 2020 16:36 Around the LSU campus, most of the earlier posts also have the scene right about Tigertown- in the University Shopping Center, which is now soulless condos, there was a HUGE A&P in which they used to give me stale bread to feed the ducks at U Lake.
I well remember on my first drive through LSU this one was open and fully operating, mid 90's.
JohnK wrote: 25 Feb 2020 16:36 The other big grocery store was another A&P nestled up against the Perkins Road on-ramp to I-10 in the old shopping center at Acadian and Perkins- where Acme Oyster House is now. The anchor for that smaller shopping center was one of the few Woolco stores in the area before Woolworth’s pulled the plug in them.
That explains what the old Books-A-Million was before that. That store became Walmart and was the scene of a police officer's murder (among other things) before it moved over to College Drive.
Scott Greer
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