More regular updates can be found on Bluesky and the Message Board.
Apologies
My apologies to anyone who’s contacted me over the past couple of weeks and received no reply. A couple of big family issues have taken my attention away from the site temporarily. I should be back in touch soon. Thanks for your patience.
Updates
Above: Safeway, Little Rock AR. Courtesy Robby Delius.
I’m in the process (finally) of updating the Safeway section of the site. It’s one of the oldest sections of the site, much of it dating back to 1999 and 2000, so it’s desperately in need of an update to include lots of new information. If you’d like to add anything or have suggestions, please let me know.
Update: lots of good information on Big Chain in Shreveport (mentioned last week) has been added in this message board thread.
Big Chain Stores, Shreveport LA
Big Chain, Jewella Avenue at Lakeshore, Shreveport LA.
This store has intrigued me for years, ever since I first saw this photo in Shopping Centers: Design and Operation (1950, Baker and Funaro). Not only is it a beautiful building, but it’s part of a chain I know next to nothing about.
A quick scan of Google Maps suggests that the store is still standing, although I imagine it’s somewhat altered. I believe it may currently house a Goodwill store. There was also at least one more branch, apparently also still standing, at Youree and Albert.
And that’s the sum total of my knowledge of Big Chain stores in Shreveport.
Miscellaneou
Random stuff for Friday afternoon:
First, for those of you who are feeling particularly upper midwestern today, here’s a site full of Red Owl photos.
Second, this beautiful Safeway on Pioneer Avenue in Cheyenne WY comes courtesy of Bobby Magill. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Safeway quite like it. Maybe we’ll call this prototype “Safeway Ranch”.
And last but not least, there’s this interior shot of a former Co-op Market in Ridgefield NJ, courtesy of Mike. I crave to be in this (apparently very well-preserved) store.
A&P, New Orleans
Sad but not unexpected: A&P is trying to unload is one last connection with the southeast. They abandoned most of the region in the 1990s, but somehow held on to that whole Gulf Coast operation. When Katrina hit, I knew it was doomed.
Included in the transaction would be the French Quarter branch in New Orleans, which is not only the oldest continuously-operating A&P store, but most likely the oldest continuously-operating branch of any major US chain.
The store above, located on Magazine Street, dates from the mid-1960s, and is also still open under the A&P banner, rather than the Sav-a-Center name used in most of the region.
Grand Openings
This interesting snippet from a 1968 Colonial Stores grand opening ad from Atlanta comes to me from Robby Delius. It’s particularly noteworthy because it makes such use of the “Big Star” motif that would ultimately be applied to all Colonial Stores by the mid-1970s.
Also from 1968 (and from the same source) is this grand opening ad for a Safeway store in Richmond. There’s nothing really remarkable about this one, I guess. It’s just, as the ad says, really ultra-modern. And the cartoon shoppers look so darned happy…
More reader submissions to come.
Piggly Wiggly (Winn-Dixie), Sanford NC
Evidently, the owners of this recently-converted Piggly Wiggly in Sanford NC are banking on the idea that, within a few years, no one will remember that Winn-Dixie were “The Beef People”, not Piggly Wiggly.
Red & White, Zebulon NC
Just because the chain is now being discussed on my Message Board, and because I recently dug up these photos I shot during a 2001 visit, here is the former Jenkins’ Red & White store in downtown Zebulon NC.
Red & White, like IGA, was a franchise/co-op chain dating back to at least the 1920s. Its independently-owned member stores nationwide joined in an attempt to compete more efficiently against traditional chains like Safeway and A&P. Eventually, its stores were more likely to be found in small towns, where they were often the only supermarket around.
I have my suspicions that this store may have started out as an A&P location. I have absolutely no evidence to back this up, only a vague feeling about the sign. I haven’t revisited the area, but I’m told the store closed shortly after I took these pictures.
Cala Foods Lives
Lest anyone worry, my favorite Cala Foods location in San Francisco (previously featured here and here) is apparently still a Cala Foods location, per this recent photo snapped by the photographer I love. This store was one of the only ones not sold by Kroger a few months back. Therefore it has not been converted into a Delano’s IGA. And I’m very glad, although I’m not exactly certain what the future holds for 1095 Hyde Street.
My New Favorite Kroger Prototype
Today’s feature: two amazing former Kroger stores in central North Carolina, the former here in Winston-Salem, and the latter in nearby Burlington. Both are extremely well-preserved examples of this particular prototype from the early 1950s. This is becoming one of my favorite old store designs, and may be one of my most sought-after over the next few years, now that I’m no longer living in the land of the Marina Safeway.
As an interesting side note, I’m told the Burlington store below is the one where black widow murderer Blanche Taylor Moore (portrayed by Elizabeth Montgomery in a 1993 TV movie) was employed along with one of her victims.
