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May 2007

Previously...

3 May 2007 | Link this

Just because the chain is now being discussed on my Message Board, and because I recently dug up these photos I shot during a 2001 visit, here is the former Jenkins' Red & White store in downtown Zebulon NC.

Red & White, like IGA, was a franchise/co-op chain dating back to at least the 1920s. Its independently-owned member stores nationwide joined in an attempt to compete more efficiently against traditional chains like Safeway and A&P. Eventually, its stores were more likely to be found in small towns, where they were often the only supermarket around.

I have my suspicions that this store may have started out as an A&P location. I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, only a vague feeling about the sign. I haven't revisited the area, but I'm told the store closed shortly after I took these pictures.

8 May 2007 | Link this

Evidently, the owners of this recently-converted Piggly Wiggly in Sanford NC are banking on the idea that, within a few years, no one will remember that Winn-Dixie were "The Beef People", not Piggly Wiggly.

23 May 2007 | Link this

This interesting snippet from a 1968 Colonial Stores grand opening ad from Atlanta comes to me from Robby Delius. It's particularly noteworthy because it makes such use of the "Big Star" motif that would ultimately be applied to all Colonial Stores by the mid-1970s.

Also from 1968 (and from the same source) is this grand opening ad for a Safeway store in Richmond. There's nothing really remarkable about this one, I guess. It's just, as the ad says, really ultra-modern. And the cartoon shoppers look so darned happy...

More reader submissions to come.

31 May 2007 | Link this

Sad but not unexpected: A&P is trying to unload is one last connection with the southeast. They abandoned most of the region in the 1990s, but somehow held on to that whole Gulf Coast operation. When Katrina hit, I knew it was doomed.

Included in the transaction would be the French Quarter branch in New Orleans, which is not only the oldest continuously-operating A&P store, but most likely the oldest continuously-operating branch of any major US chain.

The store above, located on Magazine Street, dates from the mid-1960s, and is also still open under the A&P banner, rather than the Sav-a-Center name used in most of the region.

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