stopshop

Contact sheet (click image above to enlarge) of several Indianapolis Stop and Shop locations after they were purchased by Colonial Stores in 1955 (but before they were subsequently unloaded in 1959). Colonial purchased the Albers chain in Ohi0 at about the same time and had much better luck with those stores. Colonial did similar co-branding with both chains.

These are from a large collection of construction archives I recently acquired. They’d been sitting in the abandoned Colonial Stores HQ in Atlanta for probably twenty years. Lots more to come.

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This is big.

A very observant member of an Atlanta architctural firm (who’s now my hero, by the way) contacted me a few weeks ago to tell me about some materials he found while working on a client project, wondering if I might be interested. I picked the stuff up today. Turns out it came from the former headquarters of Colonial Stores and was apparently material that was simply abandoned upon the demise of the company in 1988 and had been sitting in the office ever since.

The take: twelve boxes and more than a dozen rolls of blueprints, sign plans, mechanical drawings, lease information, and other material. It seems this may be most of the records of the real estate and/or construction department of the chain. There are layouts and fixture plans dating to at least 1952, proposals for the conversion of the Albers stores in the Midwest after that chain was acquired by Colonial Stores in 1955, and lost of materials on the conversion of stores to the Big Star format in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This is incredible stuff and I am really grateful that it was saved from the dumpster and that I was able to get my hands on it. I’m just starting to go through all the boxes and I’ll keep you posted.

It’s amazing what you can fit inside a 2002 Buick LeSabre when you try really hard:

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Just a check-in to remind you that yer humble host is still alive and well, and will be graduating with his shiny new master’s degree in just a couple of weeks. I’ve also taken a full-time job as a digital project manager at a large state university library. The combined forces of a new job and my last semester in school have taken their toll on the site, I know, but I’m hoping to get the momentum back soon. Currently in progress: my revised history of Safeway (still), new photo galleries for most of the site, and my history of chain supermarkets in Pittsburgh. I also have articles on the way from other contributors (more soon).

In the meantime, enjoy the magazine photo above, of the Millbrae CA Safeway in 1963. It has nothing to do with this post, but it sure is pretty…