Groceteria.com

Was in Vegas last week.

Visited the VONS @ 1131 Tropicana. Obviously an old Safeway...with the old Safeway-shaped street sign. Not Lifestyled yet. An older/smaller store. Enjoyed the slot machines along the front of the store.

Visited the VONS @ Twain & Maryland. Noticed that their website has two (2) listed on Twain...1155 & 1185. The site I visited is on the corner, is huge, and is Lifestyled. Has a gas station. Enjoyed their slots section as well! Was this site a former Smith's? Sure has the Smith's feel.

I only visited the one (1) location on Twain. What is the other like? Why two (2) so close together?! Was the other possibly an old Safeway site?

The Southern Cali Safeway division included Las Vegas and the stores went to Von's which had little presence beyond Greater L.A. and San Diego at the time. Unfortunately, Von's hasn't fared well in Vegas over the last decade and operates far fewer stores than Smith's/Food 4 Less and Albertson's. Had Ralphs' been used rather than Smith's, I suspect a similar fate as Von's would have happened to Ralphs, as both chains seem to fail to gain traction outside their SoCal homebase.

The Tropicana store was definitely an old Safeway. It's one of those old stores that has made money over the years because it is the only supermarket near UNLV. It sells a lot of high margin liquor and convenience items.

The Maryland Parkway/Twain store used to be a Mervyns. There was a smaller older Vons in the same shopping center earlier. When Mervyns closed Vons moved over to the bigger store. The old store was torn down and a park was put in it's place. There are two addresses for the store because the gas station/convenience store has its own address.

Vons was actually bigger than Safeway in market share when they merged in 1988 in the Las Vegas market. Vons even had the number one market share for a while in the late 70's and early 80's (as did Safeway in the 1960's) until Smith's became more aggressive and started building bigger stores. The merger of Albertson's and Lucky put Albertson's on top for a while and then Smith's/Food4Less acquisition of Raleys put them back on top with Albertson's close behind and Vons falling to a distant third.

thanks for the info!

Yes, with the proximity of the Tropicana site to UNLV...I noticed many students shopping. A few buying school supplies!

I found the Maryland/Twain addresses confusing on their website! I noticed on the California thread about the VONS on Catalina Island...that the gas site is mentioned...as possibly considered a VONS EXPRESS.

thanks again!

I don't know if I should start a new topic for this or if this is even appropriate, but today I just noticed that the VONS on North Las Vegas Blvd closed...Apparently it is a former Safeway from the way its sign is shaped...

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