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The 1940s

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The 1940s were a big period of transition for Safeway. In addition to assimilating the stores acquired in the 1930s, the company began its transition to the larger stores of the new supermarket trend.

Safeway was moving to fewer, larger stores of several thousand square feet, as were Lucky, A&P, and many other competitors. A prototype developed for the Seattle area was used successfully for new branches throughout the chain, and many older stores were also expanded and remodeled.

These stores, while small by today's standards, were considered true "supermarkets" at the time, with full lines of meat, produce, and dry groceries. Many stores were also adding parking lots for the first time, even compact San Francisco which remains a transit-intensive place even today.

In 1941, Safeway entered the New York City market with the purchase of 498 Daniel Reeves stores in the area, 215 of which were in New York City proper. This was the first (and one of the only) times Safeway competed directly with A&P.

Nationally in 1949, Safeway was operating 2202 stores with total sales of nearly $1.2 billion.

In San Francisco:

In 1940, there were 123 Safeway locations in San Francisco, the result of several mergers and acquisitions. This total was reduced to 43 by the end of World War II and to 35 by the beginning of the 1950s. The casualties included many older Safeway locations as well as nearly all of the former Piggly Wiggly, Public, and Mutual/MacMarr stores.

As the 1940s ended, none of the original 1928 stores remained in operation, although one 1928 Piggly Wiggly still bore the Safeway name (476 Castro) and is still selling groceries today as the Valley Pride Market. Two stores dated from before 1930 (404 Dewey and 301 Rolph). In addition, one of the former Public stores from 1928 (507 Clement) remained a Safeway branch.

Excellent neighborhood locations have kept many of these 1940s-era stores in business selling groceries successfully for over 50 years, albeit under different ownership. Two buildings in the Sunset now house 7-11 convenience stores (2222 Taraval and and 1388 46th Ave). Others have now been converted to video stores (3150 California), drug stores (1330 Castro) and even churches (1320 Golden Gate).

A mid-1940s branch on Monterey Boulevard was reconstructed in the early 1970s and operates today as Safeway's oldest continuously-operating Safeway location.

On to the 1950s...