KMart grocery stores before SuperKMart

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region.

Moderator: Groceteria

rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Zayre Foods

Post by rich »

Colonial operated a small number of stores under the "Zayre Foods" banner. More commonly, they had Albers, Colonial, or Big Star stores in shopping centers with Zayre.
sflagrocer

K-Mart Food(Allied Supermarkets)

Post by sflagrocer »

In the late 60's til mid 70's Allied Supermarkets ran K-Mart Foods as a separarte operation than K-Mart in South Florida, locations that I can verify would be Sunrise Blvd & 441, Lauderhill; Oakland Parl Blvd & NE 6th Ave, Oakland Park; Washington Ave & 441, Hollywood; NE 107th St & Biscayne Blvd(US #1) North Miami; and a Location in West Palm Beach I can't recall the address, nor the K-Mart Foods that was mentioned at Coral Way & Galloway in Miami. K-Mart Foods in South Florida was a discount food operation that was fairly sucessful for a short period of time, but was eventually doomed due to lack of buying power (5 or 6 stores, indepent supplier Hills Brothers and later Malone & Hyde) and high labor costs(union shop in a right to work state). K-Mart Foods concept was cutting edge at the time as was a shorter lived competitor Tresurey which also was a 70's Super Shopping Store, but niether could consoledate department store shopping with grocery shopping, much as today we struggle to combine Cafe sales with traditional grocery store sales.
u-save
Contributor
Posts: 11
Joined: 14 Jan 2006 16:37

Post by u-save »

r wrote:Once again a bit off, but I recall seeing a photo of a pre-supermarket style LS Ayres grocery store in downtown Cincinnati, 1920's vintage, in a book about Cincy history.

Also read an article that suggested that had Federated kept Gold Circle, Richway, etc. they would be today's Walmart.
Yeah But Federated was too much under pressure from shareholders to deliver profitability and to focus more on the upscale department stores like Bloomingdale's, Burdines, etc. Fed. was too diversified in too many
retail segments to keep Gold Circle and Richway running profitably let alone growing , but if it had sold all of its specialty stores and concentrated on simply the upscale dept stores and Gold Circle/ Richway, it could have been a juggernaut that could match Target.

BTW Target bought Richway and Hill's (discount stores purchased by Ames in '98) bought Gold Circle.
rrr

Post by rrr »

So why did Dayton-Hudson succeed with Target? Just less competitors in the upper Midwest where Target started? Or better management? As an aside, it sure seems like Federated is not trying too hard with the old Dayton-Hudson stores, even less than May was, not that they ever really got started.
danielh_512
Veteran
Posts: 132
Joined: 28 Dec 2005 01:33
Location: Cleveland
Contact:

Post by danielh_512 »

U-save, that's not entirely true. Not all Hills stores in Ohio (mainly only in NE Ohio) were converted to Hills. Kmart acquired some. Gold Circle operated in Charlotte, and those stores were acquired by Target.
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

Interesting thing I discovered while researching my upcoming section on Charlotte NC. For a few months in 1976, most of the Kmart Foods locations in Charlotte were rebranded as Wrigley stores, with new signs and everything. This was done by Allied Supermarkets, apparently to distingush the ownership of these stores from the adjacent Kmarts. I think Allied also owned the Wrigley stores in the Detroit area and just happened to have this name handy (and maybe even some reusable signs).

The stores closed for good in late 1976, and were eventually taken over by Bi-Lo as part of its entrance into the Charlotte market.

Did this Wrigley shift happen anywhere else?

Image

Photo from Charlotte Observer, 8 May 1976.
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Post by rich »

Wrigley was their main brand. This was a little after they consolidated their banners in Detroit (where they also operated Packer stores), although they kept operating as K-Mart foods until the end of the decade. In Detroit, they merged with Great Scott! a year later and went to format that included S&H green stamps (they'd dropped their own Gold Bell stamps a few years before).
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

Discussion moved from different forum:
Groceteria wrote:
TheStranger wrote:Wasn't KMart's first grocery project a joint venture with Allied?
Early Kmart stores had attached grocery departments called Kmart Foods, some (but not all) of which were operated by Allied. It was apparently more of a "leased department" arrangemet than a joint venture per se.
rich wrote:My recollection is that it was more of a licensing/joint development thing. To use the "K-Mart Foods" name, the operators couldn't give trading stamps or use other promotions common to conventional supermarkets. Essentially, they had to complement the "discount" format of K-Mart.

From the early/mid- 70s onward, K-Mart seemed to simply build new stores that sometimes had a supermarket next door (often there was just a K-Mart). For example, they co-developed sites with A&P in various parts of Ohio (the ones in Cleveland had trading stamps for awhile, which would not have been permitted under "K-Mart Foods" rules).

At some point the "K-Mart Foods" licensees switched to the owner's dominant names: the National Tea stores in Indiana became Del Farm (which National used as a "discount" banner in some places). I think all of Allied's Michigan bannners (Wrigley, Packer, K-Mart) were consolidated under the Great Scott name when they acquired Great Scott, which I think was in the late 70s. They closed or sold the K-Mart stores that were outside of the main Detroit-based market area around 1980: Foodtown took over some in Toledo under its "Kash & Karry" warehouse banner and the ones in Cleveland wound up with a variety of other uses.
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

rich wrote:At some point the "K-Mart Foods" licensees switched to the owner's dominant names: the National Tea stores in Indiana became Del Farm (which National used as a "discount" banner in some places). I think all of Allied's Michigan bannners (Wrigley, Packer, K-Mart) were consolidated under the Great Scott name when they acquired Great Scott, which I think was in the late 70s. They closed or sold the K-Mart stores that were outside of the main Detroit-based market area around 1980: Foodtown took over some in Toledo under its "Kash & Karry" warehouse banner and the ones in Cleveland wound up with a variety of other uses.
As I mentioned upthread, the Charlotte NC stores were rebranded as Wrigley for a few months in 1975 before being sold to a different operator.

Food Lion (then known as Food Town) wound up with a lot of other Kmart Food loctions elsewhere in the state. I read something that suggested they may have been the Kmart Food operator in some stores, but I don't have any corroboration on this and don't trust it completely.

I think one or two Sacramento units went to Farmers.
User avatar
TheStranger
Veteran
Posts: 719
Joined: 18 Sep 2006 01:26
Location: California

Post by TheStranger »

Groceteria wrote: I think one or two Sacramento units went to Farmers.
Where were these? Somehow I don't expect the existing Stockton Boulevard Kmart to have had a KMart Foods...
Chris Sampang
Swifty
Contributor
Posts: 38
Joined: 04 Jan 2006 00:29
Location: Charleston, SC

Post by Swifty »

Speaking of K-Mart pairings, I have been told that a Kmart here in Charleston, SC had an Office Depot attached to it. I also remember reading/hearing that Office Depot fell under the Kmart corporate umbrella at one time. Can anyone confirm that?

I'm going to double-check on this Kmart/Office Depot pairing here in Charleston. It may very well have been a grocer located there. The store now sits vacant, with it's last incarnation being a Discount Furniture Warehouse. The Kmart is still open and...well....existing.

(FWIW, I'd feel better about Kmart if they'd invest in updating their stores a bit more.)
User avatar
storewanderer
Veteran
Posts: 569
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 03:24
Location: Western United States
Contact:

Post by storewanderer »

Office Max was owned by Kmart. Office Depot was not.

I suspect the Kmarts with food in Sacramento were Stockton Blvd. and the now-closed unit on Auburn Blvd in Foothill Farms.
Photobucket now allows for comments on each photo! http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Post by Groceteria »

TheStranger wrote:Where were these? Somehow I don't expect the existing Stockton Boulevard Kmart to have had a KMart Foods...
Actually, that is one of the specific ones that I know was a Kmart Foods and later a Farmers. It would have been on the left side. I can't remember what's in that space now.
User avatar
TheStranger
Veteran
Posts: 719
Joined: 18 Sep 2006 01:26
Location: California

Post by TheStranger »

Groceteria wrote:
TheStranger wrote:Where were these? Somehow I don't expect the existing Stockton Boulevard Kmart to have had a KMart Foods...
Actually, that is one of the specific ones that I know was a Kmart Foods and later a Farmers. It would have been on the left side. I can't remember what's in that space now.
Aaron's, the rent-to-own chain now most known for its sponsorship in NASCAR (with several races under its name, and a car sponsorship for Michael Waltrip).

Hey, that solved the mystery of "what Aaron's was before." Thanks!

I suspect that may be the last KMart in Northern California to use the classic red-and-light-blue lettering.
Chris Sampang
Jeff
Veteran
Posts: 940
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Post by Jeff »

The large Kmart in Covina on Citrus St looks like it could have had a food market next to it. The design is slightly different, and it was added into the main store at some point in time. Same goes for the Kmart in West Covina off I-10 that now has a JoAnn's Fabrics on one side of the store.
Post Reply