Home : Groceteria Journal : 2005 : March

March 2005

Previously...

7 March 2005 | Link this

It doesn't get much better than this one, does it? It's from my just completed whirlwind weekend supermarket tour of Bakersfield, finally shooting some of the stores I'd added to my database several months ago. I'll post the photos later in a ne section which will compete the Central Valley Trilogy, but I figured I'd better hit the town this weekend, since I'll be leaving the west coast for good in a few months.

As luck would have it, I was also in town for the last weekend of Ralphs in Bakersfield. Save-Mart is taking over two of the three stores, adding yet another chain to the collection of prototypes it has in its collection of stores.

Like I said, there will be more pictures later, but I had to include this ghost of Alpha Beta I spotted on Brundage Lane. Actually, the Rite-Aid is a ghost now too...

15 March 2005 | Link this

I'm happy to say that a reader has confirmed that this Pavilions was originally a Safeway-Super S combo, as I'd guessed. He also adds that his "childhood recollection, however, was that they didn't use the Super-S name in Southern California but called them 'Safeway Variety Centers' instead." Anyone care to confirm?

This reader also noted that the building is in danger of being demolished when the store is replaced with a new building at the other end of the current parking lot...

With that mystery solved, does anyone have a clue what the heck this thing might have been? It looks like maybe some chain discount store prototype, but it could have been a supermarket as well, I guess. This particular example stands on Mooney Boulevard in Visalia CA.

26 March 2005 | Link this

It's officially all over for the Alma Plaza Lucky now, I suppose. It was scheduled to close on Thursday, and I made it by for a few final photos last Sunday. I'm definitely sorry to see this one go.

I've been busily organizing all my assorted newspaper and magazine articles into a Filemaker database lately, which means I haven't really been working on the site very much. But it should make later updates (and the long-pondered book) much easier.

In addition, I've been trying to get all the Northern California photos I can before leaving the Golden State forever at the beginning of June. Suggestions are welcome, as are pointers to things I should see on the road back east. Our stops are tentatively planned for Palm Springs, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, and New Orleans. We may also take breaks in El Paso, Atlanta, and/or Jacksonville before arriving in Groceteria's new home of Charlotte NC.

Continue...