Vintage Super Markets

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The Safeway store shown in the picture looks so much like the one that my Dad and StepMom shop at in Rapid City SD.It seems in the West areas the Safeways have the arched roofs and ceilings.The SafeWay stores in the Wash DC area are drab in comparison.No arched roofs-or wooden ceiling beems and ceilings.There is the older Safewway building in Rapid City-across the street from the larger present one-its arched too and is now an ACE Hardware store-and waht a hardware store it is-they have everything!and folks that know the hardware and can help you find things.Remember that older one when I was younger when I lived in Rapid city.
 
Fareway

Here in Waterloo we have Fareway, which has both older and newer stores. The one closest to me, on San Marnan, looks and feels like it's still 1972, right down to the bouffant hair on the checkers. I love the place.
 
Grocery Stores that R NO-MORE

I am sure everyone on here can name a grocery store chain that no longer exists. Growing up in South Florida, we had quite a few to chose from...

1) Pantry Pride
2) Grand Union (anyone remember them?)

Malcolm

( imagine my surprise that Google reports both of these chains still out there )
 
No more

Humpty Dumpty in Oklahoma
Weingarten's in SE Texas
Henky Peliot in Houston (now Kroger)
National Canal Villere purchases by Schegmann's
Schwegmann's in New Orleans

I dod remember the Pantry Pride
 
I remember Grand Union and Pantry Pride

Piggly Wiggly too. Our Piggly Wiggly building is still in town, as well as the A&P building with Dollar Tree in it, and the Save-A-Lot is in a spotless '50s market that I can't remember what it was originally.
 
Humpty Dumpty

This chanin's owner is the person who invented the first shopping cart in 1937 and was a friend of my grandparents who had a chain of IGA's in SW Oklahoma
 
Where I grew up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and surrounding areas, there were several grocery store chains that came and went over the years, some of which I barely remember. Some of them didn't have bar code scanning until the early 1980s. There was one store in particular where the checker was so knowledgeable of the cash register that she could manually enter prices and departments without looking while running the groceries down the belt to the bagging area. I was practically mesmerized by that at the time.

Red Owl
Super Valu
National Tea
Piggly Wiggly (now Cub Foods)
Independent Grocers' Alliance (IGA)
Red & White
Big Dollar
Country Store
Festival Foods
Food-4-Less
 
Bohacks
Pantry Pride

Mean kids in elementary school would tease those without the "right" sneakers by saying: "Bohacks specials" and "Pantry Pride Pumas."
 
There was a Piggly Wiggly still open in Temple, Texas into the mid-1990's. I don't know now since I moved, maybe Bob (Appnut) can tell us.

Here in Port Arthur there was a store named Howdy Doody that was open until 5 years ago, it is now a daycare center.

Port Arthur was also home to Howard's, at one time the largest independent grocery store in the U.S. After Howard's death, the family closed the store. The building was left empty for many years and some teenagers burned it down 3-4 years ago. It had covered parking: Howard Hatfield, the owner, erected a metal roof over the entire parking lot - it still stands.

Howard was also one of the five independent grocer's who banded together in 1961 to form the Market Basket chain here in SE Texas and SW Louisiana - I don't know if they were affiliated with the Market Baskets in California, but the store name script is the same. There are now 34 Market Baskets in this region.
 
NJ Headquarters

for Grand Union and the short-lived Grand Way discount stores. We recently had Edwards until they converted to Stop&Shop. Wm. Penn was in West Orange in the 50s, in one of those great airplane hangar or quonset hut constructions with the vaulted roof. A few Safeways were around, they disappeared in the early 60s. Pantry Pride disappeared in the 70s, their stores were always dirty. Ideal Markets was a small chain, their stores converted to ShopRite or shuttered. Food Fair, long gone, but still gets an occasional mention on "Mad Men". Our PathMark stores are beginning to fade since they were bought out by A&P.

Still around is Kings. One of their first stores was by us in East Orange, we used to shop there. They had the BEST slogan back then. "Kings...The Supermarket for Queens". Gotta love 'em!
 
On Old Gentilly today

Fenced in, run down, you'd get shot over there if you tried to go.

Used to be a HUGE supermarket. Also was the admin headquarters. Had a shoe repair, a bar, an upstairs section with a Chiropractor, eye doctor, and a few other little offices. Was a neat and HUGE place in the eyes of a child.

What closed it down? Politics (as usual for Louisiana)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...n=0.001359,0.00284&t=k&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.0
 
Grand Union is Still in business

When Grand Union closed the majority of their stores, after the buyout (by their major supplier, the name escapes me at he moment) they left about 25 stores open in upstate NY under the Grand Union Family Markets name. They still have a website, but are no where near the once mighty chain that they were.
 
A&P

A&P still has several "centennial" type stores still in operation as "A&P" here in the NY, NJ, CT, tri-state area, they are:
Shrub Oak
Goldens Bridge
Katonah
Millwood
Peekskill
Armonk
Stamford CT
not to mention the "centennial" stores out on Long Island that were converted to the Waldbaums banner, or the South Jersey, PA stores converted to the Superfresh banner.
If anyone can think of any more please post them.
Mike
 
A vintage Sears building

A little off topic, but here it is. The Sears in Gentilly Woods where my mom's Kenmore 800 was bought and also where I'd break away from her to go look at the washers and stereos.

That little strip to the left used to be a covered walkway from the parking lot to the store.

That was back in the 60s and 70s when everything was still safe. Now it's a self-storage. The neighborhood isn't extremely bad there but not what it used to be.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...,-90.035007&panoid=kRmc3PlgKHUjtVWSDSjt-g&cbp
 
I remember those big old cash registers (and those big-haired ladies) from our local Safeway back when I was a kid.. it was amazing how quickly they could ring everything up and those machines were LOUD! I also remember the fights/strikes that emerged as bar code scanners came out.

The part of this that I think should be mandatory viewing for checkout lane folks these days is the "making the bags" section at the end.
 
In S.W. Pa most we have:
Shop-N-Save
Giant Eagle
Food Land

The stores that are no longer:
A&P(always filthy)
Kroger

We have never really had any national chains in this region, Shop N Save and Giant Eagle are Pittsburgh based chains, and doesnt really extend out of S.W. Pa
 
Thanks Louis - I enjoyed seeing the supermartket film. Was fun to see the packaging I remember from when I was a kid. The music used starting at about 6:20 I recognize as the theme song for the "Donna Reed Show". The large woman customer looks to be the lady that played the second Doris Ziffel in "Green Acres" and appeared in the Hungry Jack pancake commercial. A good trip down memory lane!
 
There's a Lucky's in this town which is supposed to be some sort of supermarket icon in terms of constuction. But I've never quite figured out why...

Over in downtown Berkeley there is a very classic urban laundromat, which I used when I lived nearby. The Central Launderette, as I recall. I recently noticed it's been lovingly refurbished, with the green and white enameled steel and neon signage on the front of the building all restored. Next time I'm in that area I'll have to take a camera for a few pics, esp at night-time.
 
Here's a look at some vintage discount stores etc...

I remember White Front quite well. I bought my first acoustic guitar ($10) around 1966 from the White Front store in San Francisco. It was a long bus ride home with the guitar in a very flimsy cardboard box that was falling apart, eliciting unwanted comments from other passengers.... lol... still have the guitar today... Anyway, that huge concrete arch in the front of the store is unforgettable.

http://www.lilesnet.com/memories/blast_from_the_past/index.htm
sudsmaster++1-24-2010-11-47-41.jpg
 
N C R Class 5 register

Cant you see these teenage girls today having to run one of these registers,at the Lowes store where I worked you had three keys grocery meat produce,there is a lever to the right that is subtotal and total,also there is a place to put a crank on the right side of the console, so if the power goes out you can still run the register,when I went to work in 81 these were about gone,but they still had them in a couple of stores, and we still priced everything by hand.,oh yeah, these dont tell you your change, you have to count it back to the customer.
 
<img src = http://www.hy-vee.com/webres/Image/CMS/Company/History/header_1960.jpg>

Locally here in NE Iowa, there are two chains that have either been here for a long time, or have been here for a long time and still look the same.

HyVee's certainly don't look like this anymore, but there is a surviving store in Waterloo called the 'Burton HyVee' that still is housed in the original building.

HyVee has been in Waterloo/Cedar Falls since 1964. Ask anyone who has lived in the area since then and a good chance they've shopped at HyVee.

<img src = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Fareway.jpg>

I also like Fareway. Closed on Sundays and it still feels like 1969 when you walk into the place. Plus they have the best meat counter anywhere. Photo is from the store in Marshalltown, IA. When I was driving through there on my way to Omaha I snapped a photo as well, but this one on Wikipedia was just too good to pass up.

Ben
 

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