Kroger Thriftown Discount Dept. Stores

[retail_person_247]

Has anyone ever heard of this chain?

Apparently it was Kroger's true discount dept. store division

Kroger had their family centers, hypermarkets with a full supermarket and discount dept store section, similar and comparable to todays Walmart Supercenter,

But they also had Thriftown, full on discount department stores, with no supermarket portion.

I first heard about this on the Pleasant Family Shopping blog.

It is, in fact, mentioned in Kroger annual reports from 1967 & 1968:
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... =Thriftown
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... up?q=Thrif

Believe it or not, I actually found a PHOTO of a Thriftown store in operation on Google Images / Facebook.
I didn't save it, and I can't find it anymore, no matter how I phrase my search. I think that the original image either got deleted, or the group that it was posted in became private.

Here's my artists rendition of what said photo looked like (not sure if this is actually going to display properly):

I also found this old news report via Google News Archive which states

"larger discount stores which do not sell food or drugs are operated under the Thriftown and Value Village names"
I currently have no idea what Kroger's Value Village is as I haven't looked into it.

Here's the Google News article:
https://books.google.com/books?id=S_0rA ... wn&f=false

I found a supposed location using Google News Archive too:
https://books.google.com/books?id=y3wqA ... wn&f=false

It's in the middle of a city...? Using historic aerials proves that noting has really changed here since the 1960's

Does anyone else out there know anything about this chain?

[retail_person_247]

I feel like I should also mention that Meijer did the exact same thing with their "Meijer Square" stores:

https://retail247.blogspot.com/2023/01/ ... quare.html

They started out as a grocery store, became a hypermarket (via their Thrifty Acres division), but also had their own discount chain with no supermarket attached

[retail_person_247]

A quick search on Newspapers.com brought me 2 ads with the Thriftown logo:

https://www.newspapers.com/clippings?qu ... 0Thriftown

[retail_person_247]

Ok so after doing some more research on Newspapers.com, here's some more information that I found about the chain:

I found a store location, 160 19th Ave, Moline, IL

It was located next to a Kroger location

Was last advertised in 1971

Later advertisements featured the Kroger logo and the Thriftown logo combined

[retail_person_247]

Found another location

Hollywood City Center, Steubenville, Ohio

Ad for the store:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 102394831/

There was a Mr Wiggs discount dept. store located in the plaza at one point (????-1981) which then became a Kmart location from 1984-1991. Not sure if Mr. Wiggs replaced Thriftown or was located elsewhere in the plaza (assumingly after Thriftown closed)

Kroger still currently operates a supermarket in the plaza

[retail_person_247]

Ok, one last short update on this topic for today.

After looking through newspaper archives and a quick search through Kroger's old annual reports, apparently this concept wasn't as short lived as one would think.

The earlist newspaper ad that I could find was from 1963:
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/339 ... wn&match=1

I also found a newspaper article from 1964 about the Monoline store:
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/340 ... wn&match=1

"the installation is a pilot store for merchandising three types of stores in one unit. The unit is comprised of a supermarket drug, and discount store. Moline is described as "a rigid testing ground for the pilot operation." The article says the Quad-Cities "have turned into a tough market with "discounters discounting the discounters." Jannes is a manager for Modern Woodmen of Amer the Federal Government The stock was soon going for ica. doesn't put a stop to that kind of quackery. She pays her taxes ment at John Deere Moines Works, it was this week."

(I copied this from the read OCR option because I don't have a Newspapers.com subscription which is why there might be some odd spelling errors)

The newspaper article states that it's "3 different types of stores in one unit" making it seem like the discount, super market, and drug store portion are all under the same roof, like todays current Walmart supercenter. However, I found this one ad from the same year which actually debunks this. It's not "3 stores in one unit" rather, it's 3 Kroger branded stores next to each other. Kroger, Thriftown, and SupeRX:
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/611 ... wn&match=1

Maybe they all did share the same building? and they had some inter-connected sort of front entrance, kind of like what Stop & Shop and Bradlees did early on? But the news article made it seem like "3 different store types in one unit" meant just the Thriftown store.


But anyway,

Does anyone have any information on any other Thriftown locations?

[retail_person_247]

Has anyone ever heard of this chain?

Apparently it was Kroger's true discount dept. store division

Kroger had their family centers, hypermarkets with a full supermarket and discount dept store section, similar and comparable to todays Walmart Supercenter,

But they also had Thriftown, full on discount department stores, with no supermarket portion.

I first heard about this on the Pleasant Family Shopping blog.

It is, in fact, mentioned in Kroger annual reports from 1967 & 1968:
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... =Thriftown
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... up?q=Thrif

Believe it or not, I actually found a PHOTO of a Thriftown store in operation on Google Images / Facebook.
I didn't save it, and I can't find it anymore, no matter how I phrase my search. I think that the original image either got deleted, or the group that it was posted in became private.

Here's my artists rendition of what said photo looked like (not sure if this is actually going to display properly):
sketch-1696637647471.png

I also found this old news report via Google News Archive which states

"larger discount stores which do not sell food or drugs are operated under the Thriftown and Value Village names"
I currently have no idea what Kroger's Value Village is as I haven't looked into it.

Here's the Google News article:
https://books.google.com/books?id=S_0rA ... wn&f=false

I found a supposed location using Google News Archive too:
https://books.google.com/books?id=y3wqA ... wn&f=false

It's in the middle of a city...? Using historic aerials proves that noting has really changed here since the 1960's

Does anyone else out there know anything about this chain?

I finally found the picture that I was talking about

Apparently this was the store in Moline

Looking towards the far right side of the building it would appear that they had Auto Centers?

(Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/RetroQuadCitie ... 434487050/)