Groceteria.com

Just some historic info on the Weho store...it opened on April 26, 1961, and was all of 20,000 sqft with a 96-car parking lot. The original plans were to have a 3-story building on the corner of SMB and Robertson but the current building is only 1 story.

A 1998 LA Times article calls the store a "Von's [sic] supermarket" but klkla was working there and says it was never a Vons. The story was about a fake bomb being left at the store that was detonated by the sheriff's department in the parking lot. In 2003 presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt joined the picket line at the store during the strike.

runchadrun wrote:A 1998 LA Times article calls the store a "Von's [sic] supermarket" but klkla was working there and says it was never a Vons. The story was about a fake bomb being left at the store that was detonated by the sheriff's department in the parking lot.

I remember that incident all too well. I was the manager in charge at the time and received the call from the person that planted the 'bomb'. It was an experience I will never forget.

It happened within the first couple of days of the store opening as a Pavilions Place (as it was called at the time).

get your cameras out as they are preparing to demolish this pavs. garden grove was definitely the first pavs.was a zodys says so on their site.it's a shame that the first one is now closed and boarded up. i hear wal-mart wants the site. remember beers of the world? what a great idea! too bad pavilions discontinued this feature.

I drove by last night and the store was closed and the green construction fence was up. This has happened with the last week. There's a banner on the fence saying the new store will open Summer 2009, which seems like a short timetable but I've seen Target rebuild larger stores in the same amount of time

The replacement store opens next week. There are pictures (and plenty of comments on how ugly it is) at http://la.curbed.com/archives/2009/07/n ... ndards.php

The people on la.curbed have too much time on their hands... LOL

I've driven past it a couple of times in the last month or so and it doesn't look that bad. When I was first hired at that store in 1985 it was being converted from a small gable to Safeway's boring 1980's generic look. IMHO this is a major improvement. Can't wait to see the inside.

I think it looks really good. Its not a typical Safeway design, and is definitely better than the old store.