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January 2007

Previously...

1 January 2007 | Link this

Happy New Year!

As 2007 begins, I'm starting what I promised a few days ago. I plan for this journal to be more of a regularly-updated photo journal, with a picture and maybe some accompanying text every few days.

Let's start with this lovely shot from Norway, Michigan circa 1974. You could argue that the fact that A&P was still operating outdated, tiny stores like this one well into the 1970s is probably why it's no longer a major national player anymore.

By all logic, this store should have closed in the 1950s. It was anachronistic even thirty years ago, cobbled together as it was from two ancient storefronts midblock, without a parking lot in sight.

It's just this kind of store, though, that first piqued my interest in vintage supermarkets back when I was a kid in the 1970s. There were one or two in my hometown, and I also remember seeing the few that remained along Peachtree Street in Atlanta when I visited as a small child. It's a pity I never thought to take pictures of them then.

2 January 2007 | Link this

One of Safeway's planned 1958 store prototypes, from "The New Way at Safeway", a Progressive Grocer study of the chain. I'd love to have seen one of these if any were actually built.

3 January 2007 | Link this

Given the opportunity, who wouldn't want to shop in this 1955 (pardon the expression) jewel of a store from Libertyville, Illinois. For the explorers among you, it was apparently located at 130 East Cook Street.

4 January 2007 | Link this

Sent to me several years ago by Daniel, who participates on the Groceteria Message Board, this 1982 video capture is from a TV news story on the closing of a Marina Safeway in Visalia, California, just south of Fresno. It's a nice shot of a then-intact interior from the middle to late 1960s.

7 January 2006 | Link this

This isn't really history-related, but my closest local Lowes Foods is closing and will be replaced by a Compare Foods branch soon. I'm a big fan of Lowes in general, but this was a rather creepy and uninviting location, and I think the new tenant may be a big improvement. It's a pretty good deal for MDI as well; since they own Lowes and supply Compare, they get to keep making money off the location without actually having to operate it.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd throw in that bit of local color and flavor to give you a glimpse into the place yer humble host lives nowadays.

8 January 2007 | Link this

One of my favorite Safeway locations in San Francisco apparently closed last night. The small-scale Marina-type store on Seventh Avenue is to be torn down and replaced with a new "lifestyle" format store with rooftop parking.

This location opened in 1959, and was probably less than 12,000 square feet. The prototype was designed for smaller lots in residential areas and smaller towns that couldn't support a full-sized store. It always amazed me how much stuff they managed to pack into the place, and how many customers it managed to accommodate.

It's been rumored to be closing for several years, and the time has apparently come just shy of its fiftieth birthday. I'll miss this one.

This is a video capture from a 1974 episode of "The Streets of San Francisco" featuring the location with its signs camouflaged:

A 1999 night shot of the exterior:

Interior photos, circa 2004:

11 January 2007 | Link this

After all these years, we finally know that Opus shops at Vons, thus placing Bloom County somewhere in Southern California. I'd always assumed it was in the midwest, but what do I know?

12 January 2007 | Link this

So how sexy is this postcard view of a gullwinged Publix next door to a Lum's?

Mmmm. Ollieburger...

15 January 2007 | Link this

Spencer's in Morro Bay, California, snapped by Mark while he was visiting his parents this weekend. I can't help thinking this used to be something else. Whatever it was, it looks pretty cool.

18 January 2007 | Link this

Two photos, grabbed long ago from some Virginia Tech website (I think) that show amazing early 1950s interiors from an Safeway store somewhere in Virginia. Actually, I'm betting the store itself dates from the 1940s. This pair really excites me.

20 January 2007 | Link this

The lovely Southern California store pictured above is where the Boyle family, of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, shopped. This overhead shot was from 1972; I think it was taken from the third floor of a building across the street. I'm not sure of the exact location (the Boyles lived on Elm Street at the time) but I imagine it's been torn down by now anyway.

Unless, of course, Jons took it over and simply replaced the "D" with a "J", similar to what they've done with so many former Vons locations around Los Angeles.

21 January 2007 | Link this

Thanks to Carlton Swift for this shot of a former Kwik-Chek/Winn-Dixie (and before that, King's Market, with which I'm not familiar) in Columbus GA. It's of perhaps my favorite vintage, the early 1950s, and it looks like it retained its original round pole sign dating back to the Kwik-Chek days.

This building was scheduled for demolition on Friday of this past week. Too bad. I'd like to have seen it in happier times.

24 January 2007 | Link this

A 1972 Safeway prototype in Federal Way WA, courtesy of Tim Babcock. Several of these were apparently built in the area, but this is the only one with an intact exterior. It's rumored to be closing soon.

30 January 2007 | Link this

From Galax VA, an early 1970s Kroger superstore prototype (like this one) which has been through a minimal renovation, where the lower section of its original arched canopy wasn't removed when the center was given a new facade. The interior is the standard early 1990s red, white, and pink package that was applied to so many of these superstores, usually as their first remodeling ever.

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