Previously...

Safeway expanded worldwide in the 1960s, with divisions established in the UK (1962), Australia (1963), and Germany (1964), In addition, there were experiments with a drugstore chain (Super S Stores). Quentin Reynolds became president of the company in 1966.

In the US, however, the never-successful New York division was divested, sold in 1961 to First National (Finast) Stores. Growth was steady in other divisions, however.

Safeway stores from the late 1950s and early 1960s are some of the most easily-identifiable structures on the west coast. A classic and simple modern design, with three main variations, these stores look as clean and fresh today as the day they opened. Many of these stores, such as San Francisco's Marina Boulevard location (the first such store in June 1959), continue to operate with only minor exterior modifications forty years after their construction. Some 1950s box stores were converted to this format as well.

Many locations have been transformed into other chain outlets and uses, such as Walgreen's, MacFrugal's, and Grand Auto Supply. Many continue to serve as supermarkets, including several Piggly Wiggly stores in Kansas City, and Grocery Outlet and FoodsCo stores around San Francisco.

Safeway has also drastically modified many of its original stores. In 1998, the landmark store on Market Street in San Francisco was remodeled into a super-sized post-modern nightmare, with only the hint of an arch and the enormous tower sign being preserved. A mint condition late 1960s location in Oakland has recently been similarly disfigured; the same is coming soon to a branch in Pollocks Pines CA. Both stores are particular losses as their interiors had never been significantly renovated either. A well-preserved example remains in Fresno CA, although no longer bearing the Safeway name.

The three main variations of Safeway's golden era, replicated countless times from Kansas City to Seattle, are as follows. All three designs are reminiscent of Victor Gruen's designs for the Penn Fruit Company stores. Kohl's Supermarkets in Wisconsin used a similar design, as did, I'm sure, countless stores around the country:

The "Marina" (Safeway's internal name for the prototype): This classic look was named for the first store so designed, on Marina Boulevard in San Francisco. Hundreds of these remain around the country, including the original. Most have been remodeled and expanded.

"Marina With Wings" (my own designation): This style added wings to the arch, often faced in stone, with the actual arch still covering a glass facade. This is probably the most common of the three variations, and was used in both freestanding and shopping center locations. It's just a guess, but it seems likely that wings were added to some of the "classic" stores for expansion purposes as well. This is the most common type still in use and can be seen at San Francisco's Inner Mission store.

"The Glass Gable" (again, my own designation): This was a late 1960s variation of the winged quonset hut which blended better in residential areas. Essentially, the arch became a gable, and still covered a primarily glass facade with stone or stucco on the edges. None of these survive in San Francisco, although the Grand Auto Supply store on Ocean Avenue is a modified version of this prototype.

In San Francisco:

San Francisco began the 1960s with 32 Safeway stores, some dating from the late 1930s. Over the course of the decade, 15 of these older stores closed, while 7 new ones opened, leaving a net total of 24 San Francisco stores in 1970 (two or three of which were still remodeled branches from before 1940).

By the early 1970s, Safeway began to move away from its modernist designs. The location at 3350 Mission Street seems to be the final San Francisco store built in the classic motif. Stores were increasingly more likely to be found in shopping centers and suburban residential areas, and Safeway joined McDonald's and others in the period known as "the beige era", with blander and more "environmentally-conscious" designs, and commercial architecture entered a very generic and nondescript era, at least as far as exteriors were concerned.

On to the 1970s...