More regular updates can be found on Bluesky and the Message Board.
It lives!
My sincerest apologies for the long disappearance. Several major work and family emergencies have pretty much taken over my life for the past few months and the site has been a pretty low priority. But I’m starting to see some daylight now and I have a bit of new content to add. For now, it’s just two new location lists: one for Myrtle Beach SC and one for the Norfolk/Tidewater Area of Virginia. I hope to add some photos for both of these this weekend. And I hope to do a lot more than that over the next few weeks.
New content
I’ve been quietly working on new content as I’ve had time the past few months (which regrettably has not been often) so I guess I should mention some of it here:
New location lists:
Also, I’m almost done with the 1950s section of the revised Safeway history section. And coming soon will be a new LA photo gallery which will include lots of stuff from my recent trip to SoCal.
Groceteria does Toronto
For your reading and viewing pleasure, a new section on Toronto and Southern Ontario, featuring over 200 photos plus a location list. As Toronto is one of yer humble host’s favorite cities, you can count on additions.
Adding Ottawa
Just a quick note to reveal a new section with some new photos and a location list: Groceteria does Ottawa.
More to come…
More new stuff
New pages for Indianapolis and Burlington NC with location spreadsheets and photos. Pittsburgh and Columbia SC still to come, as promised earlier.
Much new content
Sorry for the long lapse in content around these parts. My personal life has been less than optimal the past few months (long story) and I’ve also been very preoccupied with work.
Anyway, I’m happy to present the following for your amusement today:
- Atlanta: A location spreadsheet covering 1930-1991 and a new photo gallery. I envision some narrative here soon.
- Boston: A location spreadsheet covering 1955-1974.
- Los Angeles: A location spreadsheet covering 1932-1942.
- Portland (OR): A location spreadsheet covering 1956-1962.
Tomorrow (if my enthusiasm holds out), I’ll be posting location spreadsheets and photo galleries for Pittsburgh and Columbia SC.
And soon, I really will be completing the updated history of Safeway that I started a few months back.
Golden Gate Harris-Teeter closing
This is kind of sad. One of the two oldest continuously operating chain supermarkets in my hometown is closing. The Harris Teeter location at Golden Gate Shopping Center opened in 1961 as an A&P. A Kroger opened simultaneously at the other end of the center. The Kroger was replaced about 1975 with one of Greensboro’s first Food Town (now Food Lion) stores. The A&P lasted until the late 1970s and became a Bestway (local chain) and then Harris Teeter in 1988. Centers with two supermarket anchors were common at the time but are rarely seen anymore.
The view above is from 1999. Below is a 1961 “grand opening” photo from the Greensboro Daily News:
Along Highway 70
Just got back from a conference in Morehead City NC and thought I’d throw up a few pictures I grabbed in cities along the way back. I only had my phone camera with me, so the quality is somewhat lacking. Above is a beautiful former Colonial store at 1201 Broad Street in New Bern. It was closed so I was unable to determine if there were any interesting interior remnants.
This former A&P is at 919 Broad Street, also in New Bern.
Colonial Stores/Stop & Shop, Indianapolis, late 1950s
Contact sheet (click image above to enlarge) of several Indianapolis Stop and Shop locations after they were purchased by Colonial Stores in 1955 (but before they were subsequently unloaded in 1959). Colonial purchased the Albers chain in Ohi0 at about the same time and had much better luck with those stores. Colonial did similar co-branding with both chains.
These are from a large collection of construction archives I recently acquired. They’d been sitting in the abandoned Colonial Stores HQ in Atlanta for probably twenty years. Lots more to come.