Buffalo and Erie County Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1925-2005
This is a list of all known chain grocery addresses in Buffalo and its inner suburbs between 1925 and 2005, complied from city directories, telephone books, and other sources. It is generated through a live Google Spreadsheet so it reflects the latest information I have.
Notes:
- The “Buffalo/Suburbs” tab covers Buffalo, Amherst, Lackawanna, Cheektowaga, Depew, and West Seneca. These municipalities (generally) maintain a common street numbering scheme so the addresses are sorted by street rather than municipality.
- The “Southtowns” tab includes East Aurora, Hamburg, and Orchard Park.
- In 1939, major portions of Elk Street, Abbott Road, and Triangle Street were incorporated into a extended South Park Avenue. I have attempted to align period addresses with the current number and street as closely as possible, but a few may be slightly off, particularly the former Triangle Street addresses.
- Danahy-Faxon and Nu-Way were under the same ownership (Nu-Way was Danahy-Faxon’s supermarket operation) and were purchased by American Stores in 1946. In 1961, the stores were rebranded as Acme.
- The Flickinger stores led to the Red & White co-op/franchise and later to Super Duper stores. In 1942, the Red & White stores were listed under their individual owners and therefore could not be identified for inclusion in this list.
- Loblaws also owned the Star Food and Bells chains in the 1960s and 1970s; the Bells banner replaced Loblaws in 1975. Loblaws also seems to have owned the Food Arena stores but I have not confirmed this.
- Tops Friendly Markets would arrive in about 1961 after starting out in Niagara Falls and also owned the B-Kwik stores.
- Michael Rizzo’s The Glory Days of Buffalo Shopping is an excellent resource on all aspects of retail history in Buffalo.
Store tags:
- A&P
- Acme
- Bells
- Danahy-Faxon/Nu-Way/Thrift
- Federal
- IGA
- Loblaws/Star
- Mohican
- Red & White/Super Duper
- Tops/B-Kwik
