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News & Updates

These are the latest blog updates. Click on the title to read the full article.

More regular updates can be found on the Bluesky/a> and the Message Board.

Remodeling

As you can see, I’ve done some significant remodeling of ye olde Groceteria over the past few days.

Since people are inherently resistant to change, I’ll stick to the benefits of this particular round and leave the negatives for the comments (I’m kidding. Sort of.):

  • The main site and the message board now have relatively consistent navigation and actually look like one site. Imagine…
  • I think the typography is nicer and the layout in general is cleaner. Your mileage may vary.
  • The new base theme I’m using is incredibly customizable, which will no doubt allow me to do all sorts of new and fabulous things with it. Eventually.
  • Remodeling every few years is a generally good thing to do.

However, if you want nostalgia, here’s what the site looked like 25 years ago:

Site front page, 2000

For the record, I’m also still working on reformatting the location lists as I mentioned a week or two back. Canada is done and I’m working my way through the U.S. alphabetically. I’m somewhere in the middle of Illinois right now.

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News and stuff

Sorry. It’s been a bit. Things have been very hectic at the day job (you know, the one where I actually get paid).

So…news:

I forgot to mention it here when it first ran, but you just might see a quote and a photo from yours truly if you read this article on SF Gate: After 70 years, San Francisco’s skyline ‘miracle’ is about to come to a close

Otherwise, most of the action has been on Bluesky of late, but here are some recent additions, for those who care:

I’m also working on a project to reformat all the location lists and make them more mobile-friendly and discoverable through the search function. I’ve done all of Canada and am working my way through the U.S. (currently at California). As it happens, the only link above that I have done so far is San Francisco.

And that’s the way it is.

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Pay’n Takit to return

In a surprise announcement on the first day of April, Albertsons has revealed that its Safeway subsidiary will be reviving the century-old Pay’n Takit brand for a new discount chain focused on self service and cash sales.

Established in Arizona in approximately 1921, Pay’n Takit was acquired by Safeway in 1928 and the branding was used in several markets into the 1930s.

Additional stores may open on the first day of April in subsequent years. Most will be conversions of existing properties, but a prototype deign for new builds has also been leaked:

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Stress = updates

For some reason, I get extra productive on the site when I’m really stressed (updated with two new additions, 13 February 2025).

New Jersey additions:

Major Pittsburgh area update:

You’re welcome!

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Winter updates

It’s cold here in Groceteria City.

Just for the record, I’m still here. I haven’t added anything big for a month or two, but I’ve been working on small updates and fixes all over the site, adding some new locations and clarifying some missing information with newspaper archives. I’m working on several updates to the Seattle area (suburbs, mostly) and I promise that major New Jersey update is still coming as well.

For now, please enjoy the above Metro location on Ellesmere Rd. Scarborough, Ontario. It started life as a Grand Union, quickly flipped to Steinbergs, later to Dominion, and finally Metro. It become Toronto’s first supermarket to be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act ten years ago.

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The latest

Not a lot of updates the past few months due to a lot of things going on at work and several trips. But I am still working on some major updates to Cincinnati and New Jersey, and I have also just returned from a trip to Michigan and Ohio, and I stopped by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne to collect a huge amount of data for many forthcoming updates.

New pages since the last update (in addition to ongoing work):

(Photo above is a former A&P/Kroger location on North Main Street in Dayton.)

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