Farmer's

[TheStranger]

The Sacramento section mentions them briefly and I have been inside two locations still operating as supermarkets (Vic's IGA in the Land Park area of Sacramento, and Harvest Foods out in the North City Farms section of south Sacramento)...however, this Flickr photo makes me wonder a bit:

http://flickr.com/photos/johntodd/462517760/

The other cities listed are:
Stockton, Modesto, Grass Valley, Marysville/Yuba City, Fairfield, Vallejo, SF, Colma, Milpitas, SJ, Dublin, Cotati, Santa Rosa, and Pleasant Hill

I wonder where Farmers was in all of those places...

[Groceteria]

Sacramento (1965):

-- 4911 47th Ave.
-- 5040 Franklin
-- 1271 West Capitol (West Sac)

Sacramento (1970):

-- 4911 47th Ave.
-- 2730 Broadway (former Cardinal/Lucky)
-- 5040 Franklin
-- 2500 Meadowview
-- 1601 West Capitol (West Sac, the address if not necessarily the actual building of the current Raley's)

Sacramento (1975):

-- 2730 Broadway
-- 2120 El Camino
-- 5040 Franklin
-- 2500 Meadowview
-- 5150 Stockton

Sacramento (1980):

-- 2730 Broadway
-- 2120 El Camino
-- 5040 Franklin
-- 2500 Meadowview

I have the Vic's IGA in Land Park down as a Jumbo Market in 1970 and 1975 rather than a Farmer's, which is not to say that it never was a Farmer's, but it apparently wasn't one during the chain's peak years.

I know there were a lot more locations scattered around northern California (I think I have a picture of one in Fairfield), but I don't have addresses either. I think they're like Mayfair and Brentwood in that they appear somewhat sporadically in city directories. I think some of their locations may have been rather short-lived too, which might mean I missed them with my five-year intervals. Also, many of them were in smaller and outlying cities I've never researched (and probably won't now that I no longer live there).

I'm really stuck as to where they might have located in SF. I'd imagine it would've been on the southern fringe of the city.

[romleys]

546 Cotati Blvd., Cotati, CA.
310 East Bidwell St., Folsom, CA.
430 Glacier Dr., Martinez, CA.
2018 West Briggsmore Ave., Modesto, CA.
3848 McHenry Ave., Modesto, CA.
75 Weller Ave., Milpitas, CA.
2316 Monument Blvd., Pleasant Hill, CA.
703 Contra Costa Blvd., Pleasant Hill, CA.
1800 Story Rd., San Jose, CA.
510 Redwood St., Vallejo, CA.
1755 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA.
6633 Dublin Blvd., Dublin, CA.

Many of these locations were paired with Kmart stores or other discount department stores.
In addition some were former Mayfair Markets.
Hope this helps.

[Groceteria]

1755 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA.

This seems to be the location of the current Safeway at 1335 Webster. The current structure was built in 1983, per the city of San Francisco, and was supposedly a Mayfair, then a Brentwood, before being taken over by Safeway when Brentwood was acquired about 1985. Note that I do not have actual physical/written evidence of this progression, just some anecdotal evidence.

It would be interesting to determine when it was a Farmer's, and if there was a different structure involved (or if the property record online just has the wrong date, which isn't entirely uncommon).

Many of these locations were paired with Kmart stores or other discount department stores.

The Stockton Boulevard store in Sacramento was one of these, I believe, which might explain its short time frame. Does anyone know if perhaps Farmer's took over the Kmart locations from the local Kmart Foods operator in NoCal? Or maybe if Farmer's was the local operator? There's some discussion of the Sacramento store starting here as well, FYI.

[TheStranger]

I may have mixed the identity for Vic's IGA in Land Park up between Jumbo and Farmer's, so that might be my mistake.

As for the Webster Street Safeway, I got an email a few days ago from a former Safeway employee that claimed it was never a Brentwood but a 1980s original Safeway. But I suspect it may have received a new building and address change when Safeway came along.

4911 47th Avenue is that gabled building that is now serving as a church; 5040 Franklin is Harvest Foods (with 1970s decor package - I wonder if that is a Farmers package), 1271 West Capitol in West Sac is where that Safeway/Rite Aid center is now I think...2730 Broadway is office buildings now...2500 Meadowview I think is gone as well. 2120 El Camino in unincorporated Arden, that's now a furniture store (with a former Winchell's Donuts in the lot).

[Groceteria]

I've started a new thread on the Webster Street Safeway in SF because I think it's worthy of discussion on its own:

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... =7607#7607

We can continue on with the other Farmer's locations here.

[J-Man]

There was definitely a Farmer's on the south side of Madison Ave. near Manzanita in unincorporated Sacramento in the early and mid-70s. I'm pretty sure there was also one on Cottage and Howe, adjacent to K-Mart (now a Home Depot.)

[TheStranger]

There was definitely a Farmer's on the south side of Madison Ave. near Manzanita in unincorporated Sacramento in the early and mid-70s. I'm pretty sure there was also one on Cottage and Howe, adjacent to K-Mart (now a Home Depot.)

That first location you mentioned, is it this furniture store? It'd actually be in Carmichael:

http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores2/323/dcfc0061.jpg

As for Cottage/Howe in Arden, when was that a KMart? I always had a feeling that Home Depot was something else...would this Farmers have been a KMart Foods location?

[J-Man]

The picture looks like the location, although I haven't been by there in a awhile. If it's right where Madison curves around, that's where Farmer's was.

As for Cottage/Howe-- that was a KMart for many, many years. The Farmer's was on the south side of the KMart. Eventually, after Farmer's got out of the grocery business, they downsized some of their stores and turned them into liquor stores under the same name. The one adjacent to KMart was such a store, and it eventually became a CompUSA, which closed when they went into the larger location on Alta Arden.