Vintage Super Markets

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Yeah, my parents were never Lucky shoppers, and I must say I'm not one either. The recently reincarnated chain has proven disappointing with poor selection and a perceptable appeal to the lowest common denominator.

The old Berkeley Lucky tower is across Shattuck from the Safeway you mentioned. And yeah, the street changes names weirdly through that stretch until it heads through the old Key System tunnel and becomes Solano. My sister used to live at 1152 Sutter, so I am quite familiar with that quirky little section.
 
That door pull was from the Fort Pierce downtown store on Orange Avenue, the building is still there, heavily remodeled into offices, and the old W.T. Grants across from it sits empty. (Grants is the tall brick trimmed building on the left)

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I lived near Oxford and Rose during the early 70's but for the life of me I don't recall the Lucky's... although I'm sure it's still there. I shopped mostly at the Co-Op stores, which no longer exist. Along with Whole Earth Access Company and other baby boomer Utopian enterprises.
 
 
There was a FedMart in a nearby city back in the day. They carried Whirlpool appliances for a while, the only place I ever saw an LAA-9800 pair.
 
Loved the video

Brings back the childhood memories of going with mom to "Food Town" which was the predecessor to Food Lion. I remember all the checker girls being very nice and pretty too. Everything was keypunch on NCR 255 Registers. I can still remember the sound of them and watching the little black knob on the side rotate as the tape came out. Makes me long for the simple days again.
 
 
Remember their private label detergent? We used the concentrated version for a while, had a nice scent as I recall.
 
Bag Boys

We had Fedmart in Phoenix. Was originally a membership club for government workers. My older sister had a government clearance for doing production typing on various manuals, so she was able to get in.

Now about bag boys. Growing up we had a wonderful Safeway with one of those huge yellow tile towers. It was off of 40th Street & Thomas in Phoenix. Though I don't personally recall the episodes as I was only about 2, but one of the bag boys used to make fun of me and thought I was such a cute little girl. I had very nice blond curls. Now it's dark brown and silver.(somewhere I still have an envelope with those curls!) From what my family tells me I used to get real mad at the bag boy and holler at him. The bag boy? Wayne Newton.
 
Loblaws downtown Sarnia

Here's an old pic I found of the downtown Loblaws grocery in Sarnia here.. 1958,,, building 2nd on right. Adams Furniture is also long gone,,the buildings are there, Loblaws is a trashy flea market now and Adams Furniture store just got fixed up

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We still have A&P in New Jersey, just recently we went to a mueseum in Paterson and they had a display on the history on A&P with alot of A&P items. Took some pictures of what they had. Brough back memories.Here is a picture of the "Centennial Store". There is still one in Morristown NJ and it is still an A&P.

Doug

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Sudmaster

Thanks for the photo of the old White Front Store located where Seals Stadium was situated. I had totally forgotten about this big store on 16th and Potrero Avenue. It then became J. Borg Home Improvement Store, then car dealerships and Safeway and presently an enlarged shopping complex with a substantially enlarged Safeway with a Ross Store, Office Depot, Starbucks, Noah's Bagel, CSAA, Chase Bank, and other stores
 
Old oz supermarkets

Well this is a great thread and brings back many memories for me as someone who worked for Woolworths for 10 years.
There used to be quite a few small independent supermarket chains in Australia,but unfortunately as time went on most have either gone or been taken over, basically now in Australia we have only 2 giant chains, Woolworths and Coles and there are a couple of small chains in N.S.W notably Franklins and I.G.A., I am not too sure about the other states, maybe the other Aussie guys can help out.
Here are the old chains now gone that I remember,
1.Cut-Price food stores.
2.4 Square stores.
3.Permewans food stores.
4.Jewel food stores.
5.M.F.C.Stores, which stood for Major Food Centres.
The main reason I remember soem of these was my dad used to own his own cleaning business and on occasions he would take me with him, I do remember quite distinctively the M.F.C. store at Lakemba and good old Mr. White who owned the sotre, one of nature's true gentlemen.
Funny seeing the old N.C.R. cash registers my old Woolies store had those when I worked for them,here they were known as the N.C.R Class 3 register, basically the same functioning as those large ones in the movie just a smaller frame,here is a picture.

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Blimey...

....Here are a few others that have gone from our local scene...

- Supa-Scoop
- Owl Supermarkets
- Shop-Rite

But we do have Supabarn here. A locally owned chain that is expanding into NSW....They keep top quality meat and veg...better than Coles and Woolworths...mind, they are dearer too

http://www.supabarn.com.au/
 
Welcome-Mart

Thanks Chris,
Great news hearing about Supabarn,hope they open one near us in the next year or so as well.
I have just thought of another small independent chain now gone I guess and that was Welcome-Mart.
If only we had even just some of these smaller chains still around, and to tell you the truth I would not care if they were dearer than Woolies and Coles at least it would give us a little more choice.
 
Foraloysius, i really enjoyed the film, thanks. JasonL, the Schweggmann's in Harvey sold appliances too, mostly GE, Wp. The NCR register brought back many memories, I was a hotel night auditor in the 1980's I remember having the NCR during the World's Fair in 1984, you posted, room, tax, long distance, valet, Misc (postcards). This was still, when the phone company called the desk clerks time and charges on long distance. All these categories had there own color voucher that had to be machine stamped in a slot on the NCR, as the guest folio flowed under another print surface on the left hand side. This process made so much racket that the room next to the office was not rented, until the audit was done. I got off topic but what a great thread. alr2903
 
After watching the movie from Louis' link, I realised that a lot has improved for the supermarket cashier. Did they have to stand all day? I can't remember that. And then entering all prices by hand and all payments in cash... It also brought back memories of paying with cheques ("betaalkaarten"). I had forgotten that option altogether, probably because I never used those. I always went to the post office for cash. Had to wait there every week in a 20 m long queue on Saturday morning...
 
IGA

Post 409208 above, by spankomatic, shows Vic's IGA.

Interestingly, the IGA logo is the same as IGA stores here. But IGA in Aus stands for Independent Grocers of Australia - they are not a wholly owned chain like Woolworths or Coles, they are an association of independently owned small supermarkets, and a marketing and buying group to promote and purchase stock for their supermarkets.

I wonder if there is any real connection, or if one of them just "stole" the other's logo?
 
Jason:
I used to shop at the Schewegmanns on Downman Rd and Chef Menteur. I rented a house across from the Bunny Bread factory on Downman Rd near Lakefront Airport.
That parking lot on the weekends was like the Indy 500! Take you life into your hands walking across it!
 
Theo

I can't remember cashiers here doing their work standing up. As far as I remember overhere in supermarkets they all had a swivel chair to sit on. I remember those cash registers very well. I had forgotten about the use of cheques (betaalkaarten) too, I actually used them a lot. But apparently the memory didn't last. I changed to paying with plastic as soon as it was introduced.

I remember too going to the bank or to the post office for money. I was so glad cash machines were introduced, although I remember standing in line for them also. I hated having to wait for your money and then having to wait again to spend it! Nowadays I hardly use a cash machine, I do all the paying by plastic as I said.
 
Prelinger Archives

I love the movies in the Prelinger Archives. Besides the movie about the job of a supermarket checker there is also a movie about the Hillsdale shopping center in San Mateo. It includes a visit to the "Farmer's Market", which is sort of a supermarket. We are talking 1957 here.

 
Louis,

I started using the "Chipknip" or "Chipper" as they were named by the Postbank when the euro was introduced so that I didn't have to fumble with al those unfamiliar coins (it felt like paying in a foreign country). Nowadays I don't use the "Chipknip" so much anymore because we can use PIN payments for small amounts too. The "Chipknip" still needed in our canteen, although cash is now also accepted after many complaints. Shortly after the introduction of the euro we had the strange situation that although the euro was now in use in many European countries, my Spanish colleague couldn't pay in the canteen because his bank pass didn't work there and cash was not accepted.

Because of all the electronic payments, I am still not so familiar with the euro coins as I was with the guilder coins...
 
Even after 45 years watching that video "the checker" it's interesting to see how some products have retained their packaging look you can spot them right away.. like the Campbells soups, the Draino in the funny can. And then seeing some you remember as a kid but the packaging has changed,, like the blue/white Kleenex box and the Heinz canned spaghetti etc.
 
I know what you mean about not being as familiar with the euro coins as with the guilder coins. I still use my Chipknip for parking garages etc. Some of them don't take the pin pass.

BTW, do you have memories of older Dutch supermarkets?

I remember Végé, Vivo, Centra, 4=6, de Gruijter, Simon de Wit and ofcourse back then already Albert Heijn too.
 
Yes that Hillsdale movie is also interesting with "The Farmer's Market" as "one of the gayest attractions" :-)

It appears that in the USA, supermarkets were already very common at a time that hardly anyone in the Netherlands had heard about them. At that time "Albert Heijn", our best known supermarket chain, had still small shops were the customers were individually served.

The Christmas 1956 images are also interesting for me as I was just born then...
 

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