Dead Discount Retailers
Bob Chessick
Opinionated but never inundated <calv...@aol.comCLINTON> wrote in message
news:19990914203056...@ng-cc1.aol.com...
> I love hearing these stories of how malls turned into Menards locations
> overnight :) Let's extend this a bit:
>
> Stand-alone (or as part of a strip mall) discount retailers and their
deaths...
>
> I'd like to hear a tale of how a discount retail store in the middle of a
> perfect location (crossroads) or in a terrible spot (two residential
streets,
> i.e.) or the like failed, and how it's faring as part of an insurance scam
> office now :)
>
>
> Calvin
> ----
> Impeach the prez to reply.
> ---
> "The cars were going faster, but they were safer." -- Emerson Fittipaldi,
>
> "Go with the Formula Vee...[because you really can't get the feel of a
> rear-engined car with a midget.] " - Joe Leonard, 1972
>
>
Opinionated but never inundated
Jeff Kitsko
>deaths...
There were three in the shopping center across the street from me: W.T.
Grant's, Weston's, and Jamesway....all in the same location. The first two
didn't stay for long, but Jamesway went well into 1994.
Also, there used to be a small K-Mart, which moved up the road and became a big
K-Mart, then a Big K.
Jeff Kitsko
Located on Unity TR 707 @ US 30 and PA 981
Pennsylvania Highways: http://members.aol.com/pahighways/main.html
Opinionated but never inundated
>Also, there used to be a small K-Mart, which moved up the road and became a
>big
>K-Mart, then a Big K.
I never understood "Big K", even though the stores are the same size...this
isn't an anchor store sized renovation we're dealing with.
Over here, a K Mart used to be in SSF. Then it moved near the cemetaries in
Colma on CA 82 (the SSF KMart became a Pak And Save, which eventually replaced
a nearby Safeway as both chains are owned by Safeway), and then it became a K
With A Line In the Middle, and now a Big K.
When I went to SoCal recently, I saw two K Marts: One on Santa Maria Way off
of US 101 with a written out K Mart sign at the entrance, and one off CA 46,
which had been closed, but some guy left a drink inside. The one off CA 46/US
101 was located in a fast food oasis; the fixture on the front suggested that
the old written out logo was present, and same went for the entrance sign.
Defintely looked as if it was never renovated to K With A Line In The Middle or
Big K status.
Brandon M. Gorte
: I love hearing these stories of how malls turned into Menards locations
: overnight :) Let's extend this a bit:
: Stand-alone (or as part of a strip mall) discount retailers and their deaths...
: I'd like to hear a tale of how a discount retail store in the middle of a
: perfect location (crossroads) or in a terrible spot (two residential streets,
: i.e.) or the like failed, and how it's faring as part of an insurance scam
: office now :)
The place: Pamida in Houghton
Where in Houghton: Prime spot at the corner of M-26 (Memorial) and Sharon
Ave.
What happened: It left Houghton, and the place is now Kirkish Furniture.
Wieboldt's became "Big W" before is closed in Jefferson Square in Joliet.
Now it's a Menard's.
Venture stores everywhere (you add what happed to yours). The one in
Hillcrest Shopping Center (Crest Hill) is still not filled (prime space!).
The one at Midwest Rd and 22nd St in Oakbrook Terrace is now a Big K-Mart.
K-Mart in Bolingbrook moved from a crappy location (now a Menard's) to the
west side of town.
Zayre on the east side of Joliet (at Jackson St and the RR tracks). This
became a couple of different stores. Next to it was a Kroger (back in
1980 or so), and it is now a Certified Warehouse Foods. Across the street
is an old Jewel-Osco that was shoplifted to death. Now it is home to
Eby-Brown (and I have no clue what it is).
There're more, but it's getting late.
Brandon Gorte
Undergrad in Geological Engineering
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
<http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~bmgorte/freeway.html>
Dennis S. Gulyas
news:19990914203056...@ng-cc1.aol.com...
> I love hearing these stories of how malls turned into Menards locations
> overnight :) Let's extend this a bit:
>
> Stand-alone (or as part of a strip mall) discount retailers and their
deaths...
>
> I'd like to hear a tale of how a discount retail store in the middle of a
> perfect location (crossroads) or in a terrible spot (two residential
streets,
> i.e.) or the like failed, and how it's faring as part of an insurance scam
> office now :)
From Ohio I can give you...
Hills
Fishers Big Wheel
Harts
Gold Circle
That's all I can think of right now.
> Calvin
> ----
> "The cars were going faster, but they were safer." -- Emerson Fittipaldi,
>
> "Go with the Formula Vee...[because you really can't get the feel of a
> rear-engined car with a midget.] " - Joe Leonard, 1972
>
> --
SJG
bt...@bright.net - home
"Rocks are my pillow
The Cold ground is my bed
The highway is my home." -- Magic Slim
Scott Nuzum
> The place: Pamida in Houghton
A former Gibsons (of which Pamida was a part of in some way) in El
Dorado, KS is now an army reserve office with the old parking lot fenced
in for storage of trucks and other such equpment. It was one block from
the main intersection downtown.
> Venture stores everywhere (you add what happed to yours).
In Wichita and Joplin, they were bought by ShopKo, which has a lot of
things at better prices than Wal-Mart.
S.E.N.
And ShopKo's exterior looks better at Northpark Mall (Joplin) than
Venture's diagonal stripes did.
Michael G. Koerner
>
> I love hearing these stories of how malls turned into Menards locations
> overnight :) Let's extend this a bit:
>
> Stand-alone (or as part of a strip mall) discount retailers and their deaths...
>
> I'd like to hear a tale of how a discount retail store in the middle of a
> perfect location (crossroads) or in a terrible spot (two residential streets,
> i.e.) or the like failed, and how it's faring as part of an insurance scam
> office now :)
K-Mart built a store about 1 km east of the Appleton city limit line in
the Village of Kimberly, WI in the late 1970s. They chose the location
on Kimberly Av (County 'Z') on the assumption that what is now WI 441
would connect to it. ***WRONGO!!!*** There were NEVER plans for
Kimberly AV (and its Newberry Av continuation in Appleton) to connect
directly to this freeway, and the ill-sited store in the otherwise
mainly industrial/residential area closed around 1990. There is also a
fairly sizable 'strip' style shopping center about 2 blocks east of the
freeway on Kimberly av in Kimberly that is now completely vacant except
for a small video tape rental store. This center is in an otherwise
totally residential area and was built there for the same reason as the
ill-fated K-Mart. I have not driven on Kimberly Av in nearly a year, so
I don't know what became of the properties.
BTW, there is now HEAVY commericial/residential development (including
new/proposed Kohls, WalMart and Target stores and several large grocers)
occurring around WI 441's interchanges with College Av (County 'CE") and
Calumet St (County 'KK') starting about 1 km to the south/southwest.
The freeway opened in 1993.
--
____________________________________________________________________________
Regards,
Michael G. Koerner
Appleton, WI
***NOTICE*** SPAMfilter in use, please remove ALL 'i's from the return
address to reply. ***NOTICE***
____________________________________________________________________________
Michael G. Koerner
>
> "Michael G. Koerner" wrote:
> > BTW, there is now HEAVY commericial/residential development (including
> > new/proposed Kohls, WalMart and Target stores and several large grocers)
> > occurring around WI 441's interchanges with College Av (County 'CE") and
> > Calumet St (County 'KK') starting about 1 km to the south/southwest.
> > The freeway opened in 1993.
> >
>
> Arent they EXPANDING county CE to a nice 4 or 5 lane road though there????
County 'CE' is a 4 lane divided 'almost expressway' from WI 441 to WI 55
at Kaukauna and two lanes east from there. The 4 lane part was
completed in 1997.
Chris & Linda (Jentzen) Bessert
>
> From Ohio I can give you...
> Fishers Big Wheel
Oh, man, Fisher's Big Wheel! When they came to my hometown of Howell, Michigan
back in the 80s, they had pretty much lost that whole "Fisher's" part, with
the "BIG WHEEL" in huge letters on the front of the store. That and the some-
what newer Ames store just down Grand River Ave were the two happ'nin' places
in Howell. (Brighton had the W T Grant-turned-Kmart and later a Meijer store...
Howell had to settle for Ames & Big Deal, er, Big Wheel.)
The Howell Ames closed the MINUTE Walfart announced plans to build one of
their run-down stores down the street, and Big Wheel held on for a couple
months before Walfart finally drove the final nail in their coffin. A couple
years later they finally went completely under as a company.
While nearby Brighton got the Target store in the early 90s, Howell finally
got its dues with a brand-spankin'-new Meijer store (it's a beauty) that
opened a couple months ago. Of course, Walfart had a heart attack and
decided that one of their "twice-as-big means twice-the-crap" Supercenters
was necessary, so they bulldozed a historic structure across Grand River
Ave from the new Meijer to slap in an even uglier store than their original
one. Maybe they'll actually re-paint this one when it starts to peel...
Back to the original off-topic conversation: I bought my first ever pre-
recorded musical selection at Big Wheel. I refuse to say what it was for
fear of being ridiculed for weeks to come... ;^)
Later,
Chris
--
Chris Bessert
Bess...@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/Hwys
Brandon M. Gorte
: Dennis S. Gulyas wrote:
: >
: > From Ohio I can give you...
: > [...]
: > Fishers Big Wheel
: Oh, man, Fisher's Big Wheel! When they came to my hometown of Howell, Michigan
: back in the 80s, they had pretty much lost that whole "Fisher's" part, with
: the "BIG WHEEL" in huge letters on the front of the store. That and the some-
: what newer Ames store just down Grand River Ave were the two happ'nin' places
: in Howell. (Brighton had the W T Grant-turned-Kmart and later a Meijer store...
: Howell had to settle for Ames & Big Deal, er, Big Wheel.)
: The Howell Ames closed the MINUTE Walfart announced plans to build one of
: their run-down stores down the street, and Big Wheel held on for a couple
: months before Walfart finally drove the final nail in their coffin. A couple
: years later they finally went completely under as a company.
Yep, I remember when Ames bought Zayre, and moved into North Ridge Plaza
in Joliet (SE corner or Larkin (Ill-7) and Theodore (Ill-7)). They closed
within months, and then the space was taken over by Best Buy, Officemax,
and Minnesota Fabrics (now Hancock Fabrics).
Joliet also has a very old K-Mart at Larkin and Jefferson. It has the
distinction of beign the first place within the city limits west of Larkin
(Ill-7).
: While nearby Brighton got the Target store in the early 90s, Howell finally
: got its dues with a brand-spankin'-new Meijer store (it's a beauty) that
: opened a couple months ago. Of course, Walfart had a heart attack and
: decided that one of their "twice-as-big means twice-the-crap" Supercenters
: was necessary, so they bulldozed a historic structure across Grand River
: Ave from the new Meijer to slap in an even uglier store than their original
: one. Maybe they'll actually re-paint this one when it starts to peel...
And both Meijers are still there I'll bet, making even more money than the
Wal*Mart Supercenter could dream of. Believe me, I'd rather have Meijers,
Targets, and Shop-Kos over Wal*Mart anyday.
: Back to the original off-topic conversation: I bought my first ever pre-
: recorded musical selection at Big Wheel. I refuse to say what it was for
: fear of being ridiculed for weeks to come... ;^)
Jewel used to own a discount store called Turnstyle, but I never could
figure out when Turnstyle died.
Jon Enslin
Treasure Island. Before Shopko arrived in the 1980s, we
used to shop at the Treasure Island off of the Madison
Beltline at Fish Hatchery Road.
Prange Way. Prange's was the high end department store sold
to Younkers in the early 1990s. Prange Way was the cheap
retailer sold to a management group that went backrupt
shortly afterwards.
Eagle Food Stores. No idea what happend here.
Jewel. When a little kid in Milwaukee, Jewel's were all
over the place. They moved out in the 1970s, and have since
come back with avengence as Jewel/Osco's.
Jon
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Jeff Kitsko
>over the place. They moved out in the 1970s, and have since
>come back with avengence as Jewel/Osco's.
>
Supermarkets here when I was a kid: Acme, Kroger, A&P, and Throu-o-Fare. Acme
seems to have pulled back to the Philadelphia/Delaware area, and Kroger is
across the PA line in Ohio. Throu-o-Fare is probably gone, since I haven't
seen any anywhere I have gone.
I really don't remember Giant Eagles when I was little, but it and Shop n' Save
took over.
Jason Hancock
> Eagle Food Stores. No idea what happend here.
Eagle is still around much of Illinois and eastern Iowa, although there's
only one left in the Iowa City area (there used to be three). The old
Eagle in Coralville became a GEICO insurance center in 1997.
--Jason
---------------------------------
<http://members.xoom.com/jhancoc>
Home of the Iowa Highways Page & Freeway Junctions of the Heartland
---------------------------------
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GeneJYao
>Supermarkets here when I was a kid: Acme, >Kroger, A&P, and Throu-o-Fare.
Acme
>seems to have pulled back to the >Philadelphia/Delaware area,
I didn't know Acme ever invaded western PA. Were they prevalent? They
apparently never got into the Pittsburgh area.
A&P is still prominent in locations outside of western PA. In eastern PA, NJ,
MD, VA and probably Delaware as well, they do business as "Super Fresh". Also
in Virginia, they own the "Farmer Jack" chain. In Massachusetts, they still
operate as A&P. I've also noticed Super Freshes in Canada and in England.
>I really don't remember Giant Eagles when I >was little, but it and Shop n'
Save took over.
Western PA saw most of its major supermarket chains die off. Throu-o-fare was
the first. Then probelms with unions drove A&P and Kroger out. Foodland, once a
major player, is now much less prominent. Giant Eagle, a relatively minor chain
until the 70's, seems to have taken over, with Shop and Save being a distant
second. Its jsut as well since Giant Eagle is perhaps the best all around
supermarket chain based in PA. I think the Philadelphia-area Geunardi's is
second best but they don't offer as many services (day care, dry cleaning,
video rentals, etc.) as Giant Eagle does.
Apeaking of Shop and Save, does anyone know where they are based? I've noticed
them in eastern PA but western PA has much more of them.
BCBA
>
>Speaking of Shop and Save, does anyone know where they are based? I've noticed
> them in eastern PA but western PA has much more of them.
>
supply (and create all the advertisements, signage ,etc) Shop N Save and
Country Market as part of the Super Valu chain.
it was "interesting" to be working on some tabloid mailers and hear the
stories of the tarantualas that would stowaway in the banana shipments
which were stored in a nearby section of the building
several of the SnS stores are franchises owned by the Scozio
family...including all the ones between my house (Monroeville) and
Kitskoville (Latrobe)
btw, as far as the Monroeville stores: Kroger and Foodland were in the
Miracle Mile Shopping Center on Bus US 22. Kroger had way-too-narrow
aisles...you couldn't pass two carts side-by-side. Foodland had a bomb
scare...well maybe more than a scare...one early Saturday morning
(before the days of 24/7 shopping) they arrived to find a hole blown out
of the back brick wall.
Thorofare was at Northern Pike and Mosside Blvd (Mosside Plaza, now home
to McGinnis Sisters -- an upscale food market). Bad traffic problems
among other things. It was cool cause it's built on the former path of
Haymaker Road (before Mosside Blvd PA48) which was cut in half and moved
when they built the Monroeville PA Tpk interchange.
Shop N Save was in front of the Monroeville Mall next to K-Mart and
Giant Eagle was behind the Mall in the Annex. Both stores were just
regular size. Montgomery Ward built a large two-story building on Bus US
22 in front of the Mall...but never really took off. After they closed,
Giant Eagle became truly Giant as they took over the upper floor...and
Hechinger's (now in the final days of liquidation) moved into the lower
floor.
Well, that was all she wrote for all of the nearby food competitors.
Giant Eagle has since built an even more Giant Eagle (on their newer
modern plan) at Monroeville Blvd and Strochein Road. Although this is
off the most heavily travelled route (Bus 22), the other chains are
completely absent from the main part of town -- there isn't any real
competition for miles in any direction. In fact the next closest store
is another Giant Eagle.
Shop N Save has a relatively new store on the Monroeville-Trafford
border which has done well in that niche. But the new GE, when it moved,
moved closer to that SnS and is likely stealing back some business.
(cross-geekery strikes again)
--bruce
Mark Sinsabaugh
A&P, and Throu-o-Fare. Acme seems to have pulled back to the
Throu-o-Fare is probably gone, since I haven't seen any anywhere I have
gone. >>
Here's how the supermarkets in Canandaigua, NY evolved over, say 20
years...
Wegmans (3 Locations): I don't remember what year the original store
opened (late 60's-early 70's). The original store was very close to the
S. Main St. (NY 332-NY 21 NB)-Eastern/Western Blvd. (US 20-NY 5-NY 21
SB) intersection until a larger store was built behind the original in
1981 (The original was demolished). The larger store wanted to expand
in the late 80's, but due to space limitations (a historic building and
an outlet to Canandaigua Lake), Wegmans was forced to close that store
and open an even larger store (2nd largest in the chain, at the time)
near the city limits on US 20-NY 5 in 1991 (The space was formerly
occupied by the former Roseland Park's waterslides and a movie theater).
P&C (3 Locations): Opened in 1965 (?) in the former Nichols Plaza
(Currently the Movie Theater at Wal-Mart Plaza). Moved to Towline Plaza
in space occupied by Tops in 1985. Moved across US 20-NY 5 into the
newly built Roseland Center Plaza in 1989.
Tops: Replaced A&P in Townline Plaza in late 70's (1978?). Closed down
in 1985 and replaced by P&C. Closest Tops is 13 miles to the east in
Geneva.
Aldi: Opened a store on Ontario CR 10 in 1997.
74 West Ave.: I mention this address because 4 different names (mainly
independents) have operated out of this location. They were in this
order: Star, Bells, Apples, Bells, Jubilee/IGA, and IGA.
===============================================
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> In article <19990916183324...@ng-ca1.aol.com>,
> GeneJYao <gene...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> > A&P is still prominent in locations outside of western PA. In eastern PA, NJ,
> >MD, VA and probably Delaware as well, they do business as "Super Fresh". Also
> >in Virginia, they own the "Farmer Jack" chain. In Massachusetts, they still
> >operate as A&P. I've also noticed Super Freshes in Canada and in England.
>
> A&P is also still alive (I won't say they're alive and well) scattered
> around New York. In the NYC metro region they also operate the
> Waldbaum's and Food Emporium chains (same food, higher prices).
What's kept the A&P enterprise going in Ontario is its purchase, some 10-15 years ago, of
the then-sickly Dominion chain (Loblaws' primary competitor). Which has worked to their
mutual benefit; the Toronto-area stores are called Dominion, those out of Toronto are A&P
and/or Super Fresh (I'll have to check whether the Super Fresh outlets have switched to
the A&P label), and there's also a "no frills" chain called Food Basics, and all seem to
be doing just peachy and holding their own against the Loblaw juggernaut. Though I don't
know whether the US A&P's use the "We're Fresh Obsessed" slogan or carry the premium
in-house Master Choice label, or if they're still bogged in the tried'n'true Jane Parker
and Eight O'Clock routine...
Michael G. Koerner
>
> Dead retailers from southern Wisconsin:
>
> Treasure Island. Before Shopko arrived in the 1980s, we
> used to shop at the Treasure Island off of the Madison
> Beltline at Fish Hatchery Road.
'Treasure Island' had a store just west of Appleton, too. They were a
part of JCPenney.
> Prange Way. Prange's was the high end department store sold
> to Younkers in the early 1990s. Prange Way was the cheap
> retailer sold to a management group that went backrupt
> shortly afterwards.
Yepper.
Jeff Kitsko
>scare...well maybe more than a scare...one early Saturday morning
>(before the days of 24/7 shopping) they arrived to find a hole blown out
>of the back brick wall.
When was this? When I was little, it seems that Saint Vincent was having a
bomb scare every other week. Did it have to do with Iranians or something, I
could never figure out.
Jeff Kitsko
Located on Unity TR 707 @ US 30 and PA 981
Pennsylvania Highways: http://members.aol.com/pahighways/main.html
Jeff Kitsko
>Michigan
>: back in the 80s, they had pretty much lost that whole "Fisher's" part, with
>: the "BIG WHEEL" in huge letters on the front of the store.
Oh yeah, we had those too, but the only one in Westmoreland County was in Mount
Pleasant. It got flooded at one point during our "bad weather" era in the
early 80s.
>Yep, I remember when Ames bought Zayre, and moved into North Ridge Plaza
>in Joliet (SE corner or Larkin (Ill-7) and Theodore (Ill-7)).
We had Zayres too. The ones I remember were at Allegheny Center Mall
(mentioned in the Dead Mall thread) and at Olympia Shopping Center. Then Ames
took them over and kept AC open (for awhile) and closed Olympia, IIRC.
>: While nearby Brighton got the Target store in the early 90s, Howell finally
>: got its dues with a brand-spankin'-new Meijer store (it's a beauty) that
>: opened a couple months ago.
Ours are coming slowly, but we are finally getting them. One time, back in 97,
I was on the Target web site. They had a store search engine on there were you
typed in your zip and it would spit out the nearest location. At that time, it
was Canton, OH!
How ironic, since we lost out to them for the Football Hall of Fame.
David J. Greenberger
> A&P is still prominent in locations outside of western PA. In eastern PA, NJ,
>MD, VA and probably Delaware as well, they do business as "Super Fresh". Also
>in Virginia, they own the "Farmer Jack" chain. In Massachusetts, they still
>operate as A&P. I've also noticed Super Freshes in Canada and in England.
A&P is also still alive (I won't say they're alive and well) scattered
around New York. In the NYC metro region they also operate the
Waldbaum's and Food Emporium chains (same food, higher prices).
--
David J. Greenberger
Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dyche Anderson
>
> jjkitsko wrote:
>
> >Supermarkets here when I was a kid: Acme, >Kroger, A&P, and Throu-o-Fare.
> Acme
> >seems to have pulled back to the >Philadelphia/Delaware area,
>
> apparently never got into the Pittsburgh area.
I recall that there were a few Acme stores in Pittsburgh in the early 70s.
> A&P is still prominent in locations outside of western PA. In eastern PA, NJ,
> MD, VA and probably Delaware as well, they do business as "Super Fresh". Also
> in Virginia, they own the "Farmer Jack" chain. In Massachusetts, they still
> operate as A&P. I've also noticed Super Freshes in Canada and in England.
When A&P bought Farmer Jack (who was also a large Detroit grocery store), they converted
all of the A&Ps in those areas to Farmer Jack's.
>
> >I really don't remember Giant Eagles when I >was little, but it and Shop n'
> Save took over.
>
> Western PA saw most of its major supermarket chains die off. Throu-o-fare was
> the first. Then probelms with unions drove A&P and Kroger out. Foodland, once a
> major player, is now much less prominent. Giant Eagle, a relatively minor chain
> until the 70's, seems to have taken over, with Shop and Save being a distant
> second. Its jsut as well since Giant Eagle is perhaps the best all around
> supermarket chain based in PA. I think the Philadelphia-area Geunardi's is
> second best but they don't offer as many services (day care, dry cleaning,
> video rentals, etc.) as Giant Eagle does.
Giant Eagle had a large presence in the South Hills in the late 60's and early 70's. I
don't recall any Shop and Saves back then.
> Apeaking of Shop and Save, does anyone know where they are based? I've noticed
> them in eastern PA but western PA has much more of them.
>
There have been many consolidations and retrenchments in the grocery industry nationwide.
The past 30 years or so has seen the national lead change from A&P to Safeway to Kroger.
Dyche Anderson
The Enemy Within
How about Parkway?
BTW... could someone in the Chicago area plaese overnight me some Vienna beef
hotdogs? I miss them, terribly.
...............................................................
Jim Geiger, musician
remove "x" in address to reply
The Enemy Within
>figure out when Turnstyle died.
>
>Brandon Gorte
I remember Turnstyle. Their logo was purple with a pinwheel-type icon, right?
They were out of business no later than 1974, I would guess. I would have been
about 6 or 7 at the time.
Jeff Kitsko
>years ago, of
>the then-sickly Dominion chain (Loblaws' primary competitor). Which has
>worked to their
>mutual benefit; the Toronto-area stores are called Dominion, those out of
>Toronto are A&P
>and/or Super Fresh
A&P is closing a lot of the stores around Ontario or changing their names. I
forget which, but I saw it on the news.
Marc Fannin
similar recent threads:
http://www.synergos-tech.com/crossroads/business.htm
While I'm here:
1. Does anybody remember Ayr-Way? There were a few in the
South Bend/Mishawaka area (Indiana) until the early '80's, when they
were gradually converted to Targets (including a transitional period
when they were called "Ayr-Way Target").
2. There are Acmes (sometimes paired with Click stores) around Akron
apparently not related to the other Acmes previously mentioned.
Greater Akron also has Apples supermarkets which I don't think are
found anywhere else.
OK, back to on-topic posts for me....
--
Marc Fannin musx...@kent.edu
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~musxf579/home.html
"If '[Weird] Al' didn't exist, we'd have to invent him."
-- Doug Feiger of the Knack
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> >What's kept the A&P enterprise going in Ontario is its purchase, some 10-15
> >years ago, of
> >the then-sickly Dominion chain (Loblaws' primary competitor). Which has
> >worked to their
> >mutual benefit; the Toronto-area stores are called Dominion, those out of
> >Toronto are A&P
> >and/or Super Fresh
>
> A&P is closing a lot of the stores around Ontario or changing their names. I
> forget which, but I saw it on the news.
Oh, yeah; I think I recall that too, from the back of my head...(although mostly
*outside* of Toronto, I believe)
Still, generally, I think they're doing well...
BCBA
>
> >Foodland had a bomb
> >scare...well maybe more than a scare...one early Saturday morning
> >(before the days of 24/7 shopping) they arrived to find a hole blown out
> >of the back brick wall.
>
> When was this? When I was little, it seems that Saint Vincent was having a
> bomb scare every other week. Did it have to do with Iranians or something, I
> could never figure out.
>
i'll have to do some research...but it was before the Miracle Mile was
remodeled to its current look. and Foodland was where TJ Maxx is
(whatever that clothes store that i never visit is called)...next to the
newer PNC office
so i would guess that it would be between 1978 and 1981
--bruce
BCBA
i've visited the Official Birthplace of Pro Football plaque!
Zayre in Monroeville was in the Country Garden Center (no one calls it
that). It was the Value City Furniture store across from Chuck E.
Cheese. It never made the transition to Ames. We also had G. C. Murphy's
(based in McKeesport) which was folded into the Ames empire. There are
still a couple of Murphy's storefront open (Market Square and
Wilkinsburg). The Olympia store is now an Ames.
We just lost Hill's to an Ames merger...so for a while we had two Ames
stores across the street from each other. Most often Hills stores had
the better location so they converted them and closed the former Ames
buildings.
And Kresge's was in the Miracle Mile where Kid R Us is. Closed when they
opened K Mart at the mall.
The last Woolworth's closed last year when the company gave up on that
format in favor of shoe stores. Including Miracle Mile, Gibsonia,
Norwin, Allegheny Center.
And the space at the Miracle Mile that is now the closed Servce
Merchandise store was previously David Weis catalog store, JCPenney, and
Town and Country department store. It originally had two floors open for
shopping with steps in the center. I don't think it had escalators.
And behind the Jonnet Building we had Gee Bees (Glosser Brothers from
Johnstown). They could never keep that roof from leaking...and
eventually it had a big hole in it. They closed Gee Bees and the
building stood empty for years. It's now Office Max and something else.
--bruce (waiting for Target to open in 2 weeks)
Jeff Kitsko
>Johnstown). They could never keep that roof from leaking...and
>eventually it had a big hole in it.
That's right, I completely forgot about Gee Bee's. There was one in Eastgate
Shopping Center, that became a Davis Supermarket (went into bankrupcy, probably
cause they sold moldy food...we had their moldy cake), then the store was taken
over by Giant Eagle.
There were also Gee Bee, Jr. stores around. Scaled down versions of the larger
ones. Glosser Bros name wasn't used outside their flagship store in downtown
"Flood City."
Michael G. Koerner
> And Kresge's was in the Miracle Mile where Kid R Us is. Closed when they
> opened K Mart at the mall.
K Mart Corp. was originally called the 'SS Kresge Corp.' (that is where
the 'K' came from) and was a chain of Wallgreen/Woolworth style
storefront disconters. I remember that they had a store in downtown
Appleton until the late 1970s and I still miss its lunchcounter
(although the one at the Appleton K Mart store (built in the early
1960s) is STILL going strong).
BTW, Shopko just announced that they are building a new store in Plover,
WI (south end of the Stevens Point, WI metro area) and will close their
quaint little and *ANCIENT* (one of the first in the chain) store on
Stevens Point's south side when the new store opens.
Opinionated but never inundated
>South Bend/Mishawaka area (Indiana) until the early '80's, when they
>were gradually converted to Targets (including a transitional period
>when they were called "Ayr-Way Target").
All I remember is that they sponsored a race car at Indy in the late 1970s.
They were located in the Indy area, I remember.
Calvin
----
Impeach the prez to reply.
---
"The cars were going faster, but they were safer." -- Emerson Fittipaldi,
"Go with the Formula Vee...[because you really can't get the feel of a
rear-engined car with a midget.] " - Joe Leonard, 1972
Opinionated but never inundated
>format in favor of shoe stores. Including Miracle Mile, Gibsonia,
>Norwin, Allegheny Center.
I heard that Woolworth's was doing OK in CT from a friend who lives there...
Bob Henry
because while I'm from the Chicago area originally, I currently live in FL.
Yes, I recall a couple of former National stores near where I used to live
in Cicero. The one in Cicero became a store called Farm Foods, then when
they went under, Walgreens took over the space and promptly drove the
neighborhood "ma and pa" drug store out of business. One in Berwyn became
(and still is) Berwyn Finer Foods. Sometimes when my sister does not want
to go to Jewel or Dominick's, she will go there for groceries ( I still have
family up there and plan to return myself-despite cold winters, better job
opportunities!) Also, if I recall, many others became A&P, which then
pulled out of the Chicago area in the early 80s (my grandmother worked for
A&P for 25+ years!).
Bob
The Enemy Within <jimmy...@aol.comx> wrote in message
news:19990917000115...@ng-cl1.aol.com...
> Any Chicagolanders remeber the old National supermarkets?
> How about Parkway?
>
> BTW... could someone in the Chicago area plaese overnight me some Vienna
beef
> hotdogs? I miss them, terribly.
>
Stanley Cline
Greenberger) wrote:
>A&P is also still alive (I won't say they're alive and well) scattered
>around New York. In the NYC metro region they also operate the
>Waldbaum's and Food Emporium chains (same food, higher prices).
A&P recently pulled out of the Atlanta area. They weren't doing well
here; most of their stores were small and dirty, and prices high,
compared to Publix, who has built many, many new, clean stores, and is
now second behind Kroger in the Atlanta grocery market. (I don't know
why Kroger does so well here; their prices tend to be be higher than
Publix and Winn-Dixie [whose presence in the Atlanta area seems to be
shrinking somewhat, not by closing stores but by business lost to
Publix], but not quite as high as the "upscale" Harris-Teeter.)
Atlanta has:
- Publix
- Kroger
- Winn-Dixie
- Cub Foods (only a few stores)
- Harris-Teeter (upscale)
- Wayfield (a small independent chain on the southside. There are
virtually *NO* independent supermarkets on the northside.)
There are more chains (e.g., Ingles, Bi-Lo, Food Lion, and Wal*Mart
supercenters, in addition to the ones above) in exurban areas.
In Chattanooga:
- Bi-Lo (formerly Red Food)
- Winn-Dixie (pulled out some years ago but came back)
- Albertsons (formerly FoodMax)
- Food Lion
- Wal*Mart supercenters
- several independents
-SC
--
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
Dyche Anderson
>
> Any Chicagolanders remeber the old National supermarkets?
> How about Parkway?
>
Yes, although I remember them in Milwaukee. I believe that the one near our house closed
circa 1963.
Dyche Anderson
Dyche Anderson
>
> >Jewel used to own a discount store called Turnstyle, but I never could
> >figure out when Turnstyle died.
> >
> >Brandon Gorte
>
> I remember Turnstyle. Their logo was purple with a pinwheel-type icon, right?
> They were out of business no later than 1974, I would guess. I would have been
> about 6 or 7 at the time.
I remember them, too, from the mid to late 60's (I left Wisconsin in 1968).
Dyche Anderson
GeneJYao
>Atlanta has:
>- Publix
>- Kroger
>- Winn-Dixie
>- Cub Foods (only a few stores)
>- Harris-Teeter (upscale)
>- Wayfield
In PA, Pittsburgh has:
- Giant Eagle - slightly above mid-level chain that now is so dominant that it
has become synonomous with grocery shopping in Pittsburgh.
- Shop N Save - A no frills chain. Pretty conventional with no fancy decor.
Pretty much a less ratty version of Food Lion.
- Foodland - Similar to Shop N Save but more expensive and not as popular
- The Food Gallery - The only "upscale" supermarket chain in Pittsburgh -
similar to the Harris Teeter stores down South.
Philadelphia has:
- Acme - Pretty much the dominant supermarket in Philadelphia. It is similar to
Shop N Save, but prices are higher.
- Super Fresh - owned by parent company of A&P. Another no frills chain.
- Shop N Save - see above
- Giant - Similar to the Kroger.
- Super G - These are stores known in MD and VA as "Giant" but they can't use
that name here because of the "Giant" chain fron NJ.
- Geunardi's - a slightly above mid-level "upscale" chain. Maybe a little above
Harris Teeter.
- Fresh Fields - a true upscale chain with prices twice as much as anywhere
else. A place to see and be seen.
- The Food Source - a new Philadelphia-based upscale chain. It is so expensive
that it makes Fresh Fields look like the grocery section in a Super WalMart.
Aynthem
companies are selling food under the name of "Giant" or some
variation thereof? Off the top of my head -
Giant a/k/a Super G -- No. Virginia, Maryland, DC, Philadelphia
area
Giant -- Eastern PA
Giant -- Binghamton, NY area (Dylan, can you confirm this? My
memory is several years old on this one.)
Giant Eagle -- Western PA, Eastern OH, WV panhandle
Any others?
Melody
Oscar Voss
The first two Giants on your list recently merged (don't know if their
operations are combined, but at least they're now under common
ownership). That headed off conflicts from the similar names, as the
Maryland Giant expanded toward the E. Pa. Giant's turf (the use of the
"Super G" store name, in the northern reaches of the Maryland Giant's
region, was one awkward solution to that problem).
--
Oscar Voss, Arlington, Virginia, ov...@erols.com
My Hot Springs and Highways pages: http://users.erols.com/ovoss/
(minor URL change, old address still works)
larry gross
>sc1 wrte:
>
>>Atlanta has:
>>- Publix
>>- Kroger
>>- Winn-Dixie
>>- Cub Foods (only a few stores)
>>- Harris-Teeter (upscale)
>>- Wayfield
In Fredericksburg - midway between Washington/Richmond:
Giant
Food Lion
Winn Dixie
Ukropts
Shoppers Warehouse
Safeway - GONE - killed by Food Lions
A&P - long gone...
>
Peter Rosa
<jgPjN72iH8Em5L...@4ax.com>...
>
> Atlanta has:
>
> - Publix
> - Kroger
> - Winn-Dixie
> - Cub Foods (only a few stores)
> - Harris-Teeter (upscale)
> virtually *NO* independent supermarkets on the northside.)
>
Edwards (probably the dominant chain)
Pathmark (scheduled to be acquire by Edwards, might be antitrust concerns)
King Kullen
Waldbaum's
C-Town (smaller stores, mainly in low-income areas)
--
Peter Rosa
pros...@yahoo.com
PR...@prodigy.net
R32...@aol.com
pkirby
>
> Philadelphia has:
>
> - Acme - Pretty much the dominant supermarket in Philadelphia. It is similar to
> Shop N Save, but prices are higher.
> - Super Fresh - owned by parent company of A&P. Another no frills chain.
> - Shop N Save - see above
> - Giant - Similar to the Kroger.
> - Super G - These are stores known in MD and VA as "Giant" but they can't use
> that name here because of the "Giant" chain fron NJ.
> - Geunardi's - a slightly above mid-level "upscale" chain. Maybe a little above
> Harris Teeter.
> - Fresh Fields - a true upscale chain with prices twice as much as anywhere
> else. A place to see and be seen.
> - The Food Source - a new Philadelphia-based upscale chain. It is so expensive
> that it makes Fresh Fields look like the grocery section in a Super WalMart.
Every supermarket in the Fredericton area is owned by one of two
companies:
Empire Group (Stellarton, NS): Sobey's (2 locations) , Lofood (1)
Loblaws (somewhere in Ontario): Real Atlantic Superstore (2), Save-Easy
(1), SuperValu (1)
Interestingly, there are no IGA's in the area.
--
J.P. Kirby pki...@brunnet.net icq 48517034
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, Earth
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/jpkirby/index.html
Join the Local TV Mailing List: http://localtv.listbot.com/
---
"It's wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago."
-- Dan Quayle
George Kowal
In the East Coast area, at least NJ and parts of PA we had a large, one of the
first " megastores originally called "Two Guys from Harrison". I believe the
first store was a multi-story on the Eastern shore of the Passaic river in
Kearny, across from Newark.
Then a smaller store opened on N Broad St in Elizabeth. This was replaced by the
first highway location store at the junction of NJ82, Morris Ave and Rt 22 and
the GS Parkway in Union.
The outfit then was more popularly known as "Two Guys" and the name was
shortened to that.
They built many highway located superstores after that until they went out of
the retail business about 1981. there parent corp name was Vornado Inc and this
company now owns and operates the prime retail real estate locations where they
formerly had stores as today's multistore retail locations.
Two Guys also took over a large urban dept store location in downtown Newark, NJ
and had many highway locations throughout the area, such as 2 on NJ Rt 10, etc.
Another area mass retailer, now gone, was EJ Korvette, who was, as I remember,
owned by a French outfit.
Garrett Wollman
In article <01bf01ba$83582500$8152fcd1@nick>,
Peter Rosa <PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>Long Island has:
>Edwards (probably the dominant chain)
>Pathmark (scheduled to be acquire by Edwards, might be antitrust concerns)
>King Kullen
>Waldbaum's
>C-Town (smaller stores, mainly in low-income areas)
Curiously, we don't have any of these in central New England. The
major chains we have around here:
Star Market (owned by Shaw's, which is itself owned by a British company)
Shaw's (see above)
Stop & Shop (owned by Royal Ahold N/V, which also owns Maryland's
Giant and Western NY's Tops)
Nature's Heartland (owned by the guy who sold Purity Supreme to S&S)
Bread & Circus (expensive ``natural'' and ``health'' foods; owned by
the same company as North Carolina's Wellspring)
Omni Foods (small chain with mostly old, run-down stores)
Sun Foods (just a few, owned by Hannaford, which is being taken over
by (shudder) Food Lion)
Price Chopper (bought those Purity locations Stop & Shop was not
permitted to acquire; owned by Golub Corp. of Syracuse(?))
Donelan's (small independent located in wealthy suburban towns)
There are also four or five Costco Wholesale locations, and a similar
number of BJ's Wholesale stores.
Of these, the vast majority (in the immediate Boston area) are either
Star or Stop & Shop. On the whole, I prefer Star's merchandising
concept, which combines their whole foods ``Wild Harvest'' with
traditional supermarket fare, but they got in bed with the wrong bank
(Royal Bank of Scotland's US subsidiary Citizens Financial); so I
continue to shop at Stop & Shop, which is in bed with my bank.
The newly-built or -renovated Star locations are the only supermarkets
we have here which are even competitive with modern Western-style
supermarkets like Albertson's and Scolari's.
We still have little or no effective competition, and the situation
has gotten a lot worse lately with the mergers and acquisitions. I
was hoping that Hannaford would build some stores in the area (since
they already have the warehouse space for their home-delivery
business), but I could do without Food Lion :-<.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wol...@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick
Opinionated but never inundated
>remember,
>owned by a French outfit.
>
>
FORTUNE Magazine, in their most recent issue, labeled the last CEO of
Korvette's as the guy who brought it to bankruptcy. Seems the chain tried to
go upscale but failed miserably.
Greg Pacek - CrazyOne
<gko...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> The outfit then was more popularly known as "Two Guys" and the name was
> shortened to that.
Geez, Two Guys, I hadn't thought about that in years, but I remember
talking to someone not long ago who brought it up, can't remember who
or why. But yeah. There was at least one of these in Maryland as
well, in Hagerstown. I remember going there when I was little. I
remember when it closed, too.
While we're on that, another discount retailer took over that space in
Hagerstown (and once had a store in Martinsburg WV). That store was
called Nichols, and I don't remember much about it corporate-wise,
except I think it too was based in New York somewhere. Oh, and had at
least one store in VA (Winchester) and one in PA (I think
Chambersburg). It was just your average discount store, done in by
K-Mart and the like I imagine.
How about a dead West Virginia-based discount store called Hecks? I'm
trying to remember if they had a MD location or not; they had some in
VA. The ones I remember were in Winchester VA, and Martinsburg and
Charles Town WV. The chain had HQ in Nitro WV.
And while I'm on a roll here, what ever happened to Grand Union, the
food chain? This was another store frequented in Martinsburg WV (there
used to be two, one was next to the Nichols and its space was later
taken over by them) when I was growing up.
This is all stuff that was gone or nearly so by the time I was a
teenager, so I don't remember much more than what's up there. ;-)
--
craz...@city-net.com | "I say what it occurs to me to say
Greg Pacek | when I think I hear people say
Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Earth | things. More I cannot say."
Peter Rosa
<7s0e6b$igs$1...@grapevine.lcs.mit.edu>...
> [Rathole alert! Rathole alert!]
>
> In article <01bf01ba$83582500$8152fcd1@nick>,
> Peter Rosa <PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> >Long Island has:
>
> >Edwards (probably the dominant chain)
> >Pathmark (scheduled to be acquire by Edwards, might be antitrust
concerns)
> >King Kullen
> >Waldbaum's
> >C-Town (smaller stores, mainly in low-income areas)
>
> Curiously, we don't have any of these in central New England.
I forgot to say that Long Island also has Shop-Rite. That's the one chain
also found in New England, at least in Connecticut. In general, however,
Connecticut is Stop & Stop turf.
Isn't in curious that there are NO nationwide supermarket chains?
Peter Rosa
<37E3E75D...@earthlink.net>...
>
>
> In the East Coast area, at least NJ and parts of PA we had a large, one
of the
> first " megastores originally called "Two Guys from Harrison". I believe
the
> first store was a multi-story on the Eastern shore of the Passaic river
in
> Kearny, across from Newark.
> Then a smaller store opened on N Broad St in Elizabeth. This was replaced
by the
> first highway location store at the junction of NJ82, Morris Ave and Rt
22 and
> the GS Parkway in Union.
> shortened to that.
out of
> the retail business about 1981. there parent corp name was Vornado Inc
and this
> company now owns and operates the prime retail real estate locations
where they
> formerly had stores as today's multistore retail locations.
There was a Two Guys in Waterbury, Connecticut. I remember it well because
I applied for a job there when I was in high school, and they actually
hired me (I never started, instead taking something else). It wasn't a
bad store at all and seemed to do pretty good business. Another big
discounter in the area at the same time was Arlan's. It was more downscale
than Two Guys, really almost a junk store, and I don't know how big the
chain was.
BTW - Vornado is now one of the northeast's largest REITs and owns many
more properties than the old Two Guys locations.
Neilbert
Garrett Wollman <wol...@lcs.mit.edu> wrote in message news:7s0e6b$igs$1...@grapevine.lcs.mit.edu...
> [Rathole alert! Rathole alert!]
>
> In article <01bf01ba$83582500$8152fcd1@nick>,
> Peter Rosa <PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> >Long Island has:
>
> >Edwards (probably the dominant chain)
> >Pathmark (scheduled to be acquire by Edwards, might be antitrust concerns)
> >King Kullen
> >Waldbaum's
> >C-Town (smaller stores, mainly in low-income areas)
>
There's also Market Basket (I've seen 2-3 in the Metrowest area) and Roche Brothers (13 locations in the area). North of Boston, you
also have Victory, which I've only seen from the highway.
I shop Stop & Shop up here for most things because, well (a) I'm used to them and (b) there isn't a Shaw's/Star convenient to me.
There is a Star's "Wild Harvest" across the street but it's insanely expensive even for the regular food. I'd love to see Hannaford
plunk down a store right here and take on the rest of 'em.
Danbury, CT has: Stop & Shop, Big Y, Grand Union, Super Foodmart (same company as A&P/Waldbaums) & Shop Rite. There was a PathMark
about 10 years ago. There's also Stew Leonard's, which is an experience in and of itself. Of the bunch, Grand Union is the absolute
worst grocery store I've ever been in - consistently. There's never enough registers open (usually 2, maybe 3 if it's extremely
busy) and it always feels like, if you were to look under the shelves or in the corners, you'd find that they had just swept all the
dust and dirt out of the regular line of sight.
GeneJYao
>Bread & Circus (expensive ``natural'' and >``health'' foods; owned by the same
>company as North Carolina's Wellspring)
The parent company is "Whole Foods" which, in addition to "Bread & Circus" and
"Wellspring", also owns "Fresh Fields", several other chains, and runs stores
under its own marque.
>The newly-built or -renovated Star locations >are the only supermarkets we
have here >which are even competitive with modern >Western-style supermarkets
like Albertson's >and Scolari's.
What do you mean by "Western style"? I haven't been to the West Coast since
1989 and I've never been in an Albertson's or a Scolari's. Are those
supermarkets differetn from the ones in the East?
>We still have little or no effective >competition, and the situation
>has gotten a lot worse lately with the >mergers and acquisitions.
I actually found Boston to have pretty decent amounts of competition. Granted,
Purity has since closed, so the situation may be different. But even with just
two major chains, Boston is not much worse than other places. DC has bascially
only two major all-purpose chains - Safeway and Giant. And one big albatross -
Gaint Eagle - dominates Pittsburgh, all the other chains in Pittsburgh are
markedly smaller.
GeneJYao
>And while I'm on a roll here, what ever >happened to Grand Union, the food
chain?
They're still all over the Northeast. Their HQ is in NJ. In parts of northern
New England, Grand Union was pretty much the dominant chain. Now Shaws is
pushing northward so Grand Union might be feeling the heat.
Ron Newman
(Garrett Wollman) wrote:
> Curiously, we don't have any of these in central New England. The
> major chains we have around here:
>
> Star Market (owned by Shaw's, which is itself owned by a British company)
> Shaw's (see above)
The Shaw's purchase of Star Market is very recent. Until recently,
Star was a local independent chain (though for a few years it was
once owned by Jewel Co. of Chicago).
Shaw's plans to abolish the Star Market name and rebrand all of the
stores as Shaw's.
You forgot one important local chain: DeMoulas, also operating as
Market Basket.
> Omni Foods (small chain with mostly old, run-down stores)
I've never seen one of these. Where's the nearest one to Boston?
--
Ron Newman rne...@thecia.net
http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/
William S. Riddle, IV
<180919992104376835%craz...@SPAMXcity-net.com>...
>How about a dead West Virginia-based discount store called Hecks? I'm
>trying to remember if they had a MD location or not; they had some in
>VA. The ones I remember were in Winchester VA, and Martinsburg and
>Charles Town WV. The chain had HQ in Nitro WV.
Ahhhh yes, Hecks!!! I remember going there quite a bit when I was in
elementary school in Ashland, KY. They had two Ashland locations. One of
those locations became a Foodland for a short spell and now I think it's
just a part-time flea market. The other location became a Value City Dept.
Store and it's still doing quite well despite it's location. It's located
in the "Greenup Mall" area, which was never really a mall but a
conglomeration of three shopping centers situated around the intersection of
US 23 (Russell Road) and KY 693 (Dietrich Blvd.) in Russell. Back in the
area's heyday, they had Hecks, Murphy's Mart, Cox's, Krogers, K-Mart, and
Hills, as well as numerous other shops and fast food restaurants. The Cox's
shut down and Watson's Back Room opened up in it's place a few years later.
The Murphy's Mart later became Ames, which later closed down. Then Hecks
went under and Value City jumped in. Hills and K-Mart were still going
strong. Then in 1988, the Ashland Town Center opened up, and their one
little Wal-Mart pretty much killed the "Greenup Mall". K-Mart and Watson's
quickly died, and the shopping center fell into general disrepair, except
for the Hill's portion which still seems to be doing OK. I haven't been
back up there in a while, so I don't know if that Hill's location
successfully made the transition to Ames or not. If it did, then it would
probably be the only Ames location in Kentucky. Other than that, I think
they recently remodeled the Krogers, or moved it into the former K-Mart
space. I really need to check that out when I go back to Ashland for Xmas!
--
/------------------------------------------------------------------\
| William Speer "Billy" Riddle, IV mailto:ridd...@mindspring.com |
| ICQ # 10324460 http://www.mindspring.com/~riddler4 |
| Tenn. Hwys. Page: http://www.mindspring.com/~riddler4/TNHwys.htm |
\------------------------------------------------------------------/
Dan Tasman
Buffalo, New York is supermarket heaven ... it's home to both Tops and
Wegmans, both of which have upscale stores that are usually larger than
100,000 square feet. There's also Quality Markets (the remains of the old
Bells chain, which absorbed Buffalo's Loblaws stores in the 1970s) and Jubilee
(the remains of the old Super Duper chain), the stores of which are both
comparable to "normal" national chains.
Denver, Colorado -
- King Soopers (Colorado Front Range local)
- Albertson's
- Safeway
- Cub Foods
Fort Collins, Colorado -
- King Soopers
- Albertson's
- Safeway (including one with an underground parking ramp!)
- Steele's (local Fort Collins based chain)
- Toddy's (local Greeley based chain)
Las Cruces, New Mexico -
- Raley's (formerly Lucky, formerly Jewel Osco, formerly Skagg's Alpha Beta)
- Smith's
- Albertson's
- Furr's (formerly Safeway)
- Van Winkle IGA (local chain based in Alamogordo, whose new stores have an
unintentional '70s retro appearance.)
I think El Paso, Texas has a few locally based supermarket chains (Star Mart?
and others) that cater primarily towards Hispanics. Their commercials on
English language TV stations are even in Spanish.
--
Dan Tasman tasman (at) verinet.com http://www.cyburbia.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The world is my oyster ... but I can't seem to get it open."
Daria Morgendorfer
Dan Tasman
> Geez, Two Guys, I hadn't thought about that in years, but I remember
> talking to someone not long ago who brought it up, can't remember who
> or why. But yeah. There was at least one of these in Maryland as
> well, in Hagerstown. I remember going there when I was little. I
> remember when it closed, too.
I remember the Two Guys in Sheridan Drive in Amherst, New York (suburban
Buffalo). The building is now home to a Media Play and Burlington Coat
Factory. Still have a Quasar color TV set that I bought at Two Guys when I
was ten years old ... back in 1976.
Other long-gone discount stores that operated in Buffalo included King's
(local chain, closed in the late '70s), GEX, Twin Fair, and Gold Circle.
Anyone remember Century House, a Buffalo-based catalog store that almost went
national?
ad...@interlog.com
In that mode, I'm not sure if I've seen Piggly Wiggly stores name-dropped in this
thread...
David J. Greenberger
Garrett Wollman <wol...@lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
>Stop & Shop (owned by Royal Ahold N/V, which also owns Maryland's
>Giant and Western NY's Tops)
Royal Ahold also owns Long Island's Edwards (see grandparent of this
article) and a number of other chains along the East Coast. I think
one of the Giants may be among them.
>Price Chopper (bought those Purity locations Stop & Shop was not
>permitted to acquire; owned by Golub Corp. of Syracuse(?))
Schenectady. Syracuse is home to P&C, a somewhat smaller chain than
Tops or Wegmans scattered around upstate NY.
--
David J. Greenberger
Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
David J. Greenberger
Dan Tasman <tasman.n0-scams@n0-$pam.verinet.n0-crap.com.n0-junk> wrote:
>Buffalo, New York is supermarket heaven ... it's home to both Tops and
>Wegmans, both of which have upscale stores that are usually larger than
>100,000 square feet. There's also Quality Markets (the remains of the old
Actually, Rochester is home to Wegmans. Within New York State,
though, Tops and Wegmans share most markets (both chains have spread
beyond NY boundaries within the past few years, but Wegmans has spread
south while Tops has spread west, recently having taken over northeast
Ohio's Finast, which had been owned by the same parent corporation at
that point anyway), so both have a strong presence in Buffalo.
Champaign-Urbana has:
Meijer
Schnuck's
Jerry's IGA
County Market (owned by Neimann Foods, Inc.; I think they also own Cub
Foods and Save-A-Lot)
Super Kmart
Aldi
Save-A-Lot Foods
The two Jewel-Oscos in town were replaced by plain Osco Drugs about
1.5 years ago.
What, incidentally, is IGA?
LAuray6642
>What, incidentally, is IGA?
IGA stands for Independent Grocer's Alliance. Each IGA is individually owned
and operated, or sometimes several might be owned by the same company, but the
key is local ownership. IGA's get many of their products from their local IGA
distribution warehouse. IIRC, IGA also does some co-operative advertising.
Leo Auray
Phillipsburg, NJ
LAuray6642
>>Stop & Shop (owned by Royal Ahold N/V, which also owns Maryland's
>>Giant and Western NY's Tops)
>
>Royal Ahold also owns Long Island's Edwards (see grandparent of this
>article) and a number of other chains along the East Coast. I think
>one of the Giants may be among them.
>
Royal Ahold N/V owns:
Stop & Shop (New England, Upstate NY)
Edwards (NYC, Long Island, NJ)
Giant (Eastern PA and MD)
Finast (Western PA Ohio and area)
Bi-Lo (wherever the heck they are)
Tops (Western NY)
there may be more...
In addition, Royal Ahold is in the process of acquiring PathMark, and plans are
to convert all of the existing Edwards stores to PathMarks. In places where
both exist fairly closely, individual stores may be sold to other chains.
This happened in CT and MA in '94/'95 when Ahold acquired Stop & Shop. Having
owned Edwards for some time already, they had originally planned to operate
both chains in the same area, as Edwards "Everyday Low Pricing" and Stop &
Shop's "High/Low" pricing strategies were different. However, CT's Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal, along with MA's AG, brought up anti-trust issues,
and what ended up happening is that all of the Edwards in New England and NY
north of NYC were converted to Stop & Shops, except those stores that were
either too close to existing Stop & Shops, in which case the Edwards store was
sold. (and in a few isolated cases, the existing Stop & Stop store was sold,
and the Edwards converted to Stop & Shop, where the Edwards was the better
facility). Most of the stores were either sold to Shaw's, which gave them a
Connecticut presence for the first time (They had opened up a handful of stores
in the early 90's but this acquisition increased their market share fivefold
overnight), or to Bozzuto's, a local distributor, which opened them as Adams
IGA.
Stop & Shop had, the year perviously, acquired Mel's, a Long-Island supermarket
chain, and was beginning the process of converting them to Stop & Shops when
they were acquired themselves by Ahold, so Mel's was converted to Edwards.
Mel's was S&S's only presence in NY south of NYC.
Leo Auray
who worked for Stop & Shop from '88-'97
LAuray6642
Grand Union (2)
Big Buy
Pantry Pride
Stop & Shop (2)
Fairway Beef (local)
A & P
King Cole (just over the line in Bridgeport; mom shopped there b/c they had the
one particular brand of canned tomatoes mom used for spaghetti sauce)
What happened to them:
Grand Union: (1) closed about '77/'78, space was taken over by an expanded
Howlands, a local Dept. Store: Howlands became Steinbach about 1984/5?
(2) closed about 1992, now is a Bob's sporting goods...
Big Buy: Became Finast, then Edwards, now Shaw's. This store has been a
hodgepodge of renovations and expansions as long as i can remember. My first
job was at this Finast.
Pantry Pride: Closed about '78 (I think the chain went under.) The Caldor's
next door expanded into the space. And we all know what happened to
Caldor's....the space is currently vacant.
Stop & Shop. (1) The older of the two Fairfield locations, this one opened in
the mid 50's and was last remodeled in '71. it's still open.
(2) This one was newly open in '75, was converted to a Super Stop & Shop about
2 or 3 years ago. I started my career with Stop & Shop here.
Fairway Beef: Burned to the ground in spectacular fashion in the early 90's.
A strip mall stands on the site.
A & P: Closed in the early 90's...a women's clothing store is in the spot now.
Leo Auray
James C. Schul
>
> Atlanta has:
>
> - Publix
> - Kroger
> - Winn-Dixie
> - Cub Foods (only a few stores)
> - Harris-Teeter (upscale)
> - Wayfield (a small independent chain on the southside. There are
> virtually *NO* independent supermarkets on the northside.)
>
Dayton, OH, has:
Kroger
Meijer
Cub Foods
IGA (very few)
Marsh (the 3 closest are in Franklin, Greenville, and Troy)
Dave's Market (regional chain)
Fulmer Foods (regional chain)
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ James C. Schul +
+ JCS...@worldnet.att.net +
+ http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/2153 +
+ Dayton, Ohio, USA +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
pkirby
>
> What, incidentally, is IGA?
The International Grocer's Alliance or something like that. It's a
somewhat loose coalition of independent supermarkets worldwide.
Peter Rosa
<7s35g9$brk$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>...
> In article <7s0e6b$igs$1...@grapevine.lcs.mit.edu>,
> Garrett Wollman <wol...@lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
>
> >Stop & Shop (owned by Royal Ahold N/V, which also owns Maryland's
> >Giant and Western NY's Tops)
>
> Royal Ahold also owns Long Island's Edwards (see grandparent of this
> article) and a number of other chains along the East Coast. I think
> one of the Giants may be among them.
>
Edwards' house brand items say that it's a division of Giant Foods, with
its HQ in Atlanta. There's no mention of Royal Ahold.
Jody L. Aho
Super One (a regional chain covering northern Minnesota, northern
Wisconsin, and the Michigan U.P. roughly west of US-41)
SuperValu
Cub Foods
Jubilee (the locally-named collection of IGA stores)
--
Jody Aho
ja...@cp.duluth.mn.us
http://www.cp.duluth.mn.us/~jaho
Stanley Cline
> Bi-Lo (wherever the heck they are)
Southeast (bought Red Food in Chattanooga, among others)
The connection between the various Ahold chains is strange -- for
instance, one of Bi-Lo's house brands is Finast!
-SC
--
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
Greg Pacek - CrazyOne
<gene...@aol.com> wrote:
> And one big albatross -
> Gaint Eagle - dominates Pittsburgh, all the other chains in Pittsburgh are
> markedly smaller.
Got that right. Sometimes it's damned annoying, too. In some areas
it's pretty hard to shop at anything but Giant Eagle without driving
way out of the way or settling for a much smaller store with less
selection.
With most of the newly built or newly-remodeled Giant Eagles, this
isn't a huge deal, but even compared to stores in much smaller cities
Giant Eagle sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. I personally think
that older-skewing demographic and who knows what else is leaving us
behind the times occasionally. ;-)
Dennis S. Gulyas
news:7s357k$bj1$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu...
>
> What, incidentally, is IGA?
Independant Grocer Association
> --
> David J. Greenberger
> Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
--
SJG
bt...@bright.net - home
"Rocks are my pillow
The Cold ground is my bed
The highway is my home." -- Magic Slim
Neilbert
LAuray6642 <laura...@aol.com> wrote in message news:19990919151618...@ng-fb1.aol.com...
> Fairfield, CT, circa 1975:
>
> Grand Union (2)
> Big Buy
> Pantry Pride
> Stop & Shop (2)
> Fairway Beef (local)
> A & P
> King Cole (just over the line in Bridgeport; mom shopped there b/c they had the
> one particular brand of canned tomatoes mom used for spaghetti sauce)
>
> What happened to them:
<snip>
I remember the King Cole at Park Ave and North Ave in Bridgeport. I thought the idea of sending your groceries out on rollers to the
parking lot was jsut the coolest thing ever. Of course, I was 5 at the time. Isn't that space occupied by People's Bank now?
ad...@interlog.com
> >- Van Winkle IGA (local chain based in Alamogordo, whose new stores have an
> > unintentional '70s retro appearance.)
>
> How many IGAs are there?
Long established in Southern Ontario, and their numbers have lately been
enhanced by converting the Food City chain into IGA outlets.
In fact, one can identify 3 major "hierarchies" of grocery stores in Ontario:
the Loblaw group (premium house brand: President's Choice); the A&P/Dominion
group (premium house brand: Master Choice); and the IGA/Loeb/Sobeys etc.
collective (premium house brand: Master Choice). Interesting how these brand
names apparently in eclipse elsewhere (A&P, IGA) have survived and prospered in
Ontario...then again, so do Esso stations...
Mark Sinsabaugh
and Sayre)...
Chains:
P&C (7)
Tops (4)
Wegmans (3)
Save-A-Lot (2)
Weis (1)
A&P (1)
Aldi (1)
Independents:
Shur Fine (2)
Jubilee/IGA (1)
Big M (1)
===============================================
Mark Sinsabaugh
http://www.redrival.com/baugh17
Visit My Net Games In Progress...Net Cross Wits
(http://www.geocities.com/televisioncity/stage/1199/net_x-wits/board.html),
Net Caesar's Challenge
(http://www.geocities.com/televisioncity/stage/1199/net_caeschal/board.html),
and Net High Rollers (Returns October 4th)
===============================================
"Well? We're Waiting!"
- Ted Knight (Caddyshack, 1980)
ad...@interlog.com
Repeat-myself mistake there. For the IGA hierarchy, it's "Our Compliments", not
"Master Choice"...
Alan Hamilton
Basha's
Safeway
Fry's
Fred Meyer
ABCO Desert Market
Southwest Supermarkets
Albertson's
Okay, now the details. Basha's (locally owned), the Hispanic-oriented
Southwest Supermarket, Albertson's, and Safeway have remained intact
over the years. The rest have been involved in tons of megamergers
and sell-offs.
ABCOs are Lucky and Alpha Beta stores that were transferred into local
hands. They're in the process of changing their name to Desert
Market.
Fry's and Fred Meyer are owned by Kroger. Fry's itself has been
around a long time, but has picked up a lot of stores in mergers.
Smitty's operated grocery stores and combined department store/grocery
store. Smith's moved into town and opened up their own stores.
Smith's bought out Smitty's, rebranding the grocery-only stores as
Smith's, but leaving the combined stores as Smitty's. Smith's merged
with Fred Meyer, which was bought out by Kroger. Kroger changed the
Smith's to Fry's (which it already owned), and changed Smitty's to
Fred Meyer. So Fry's + Fred Meyer = Fry's + ((Smith's + Smitty's) +
Fred Meyer) + Kroger. Got that? This has left a number of Fry's
rather close to each other, but surprisingly few have been closed.
Southwest Supermarket (also known as Supermercado Southwest) took over
a number of locations that were abandoned by the major chains.
--
/
/ * / Alan Hamilton
* * al...@primenet.com
Arizona Roads -- http://www.primenet.com/~alanh/road/
No ads, popups or watermarks ever
Opinionated but never inundated
> unintentional '70s retro appearance.)
How many IGAs are there?
Calvin
----
Impeach the prez to reply.
---
"The cars were going faster, but they were safer." -- Emerson Fittipaldi,
"Go with the Formula Vee...[because you really can't get the feel of a
rear-engined car with a midget.] " - Joe Leonard, 1972
Garrett Wollman
In article <19990919150329...@ng-fb1.aol.com>,
LAuray6642 <laura...@aol.com> wrote:
>Royal Ahold N/V owns:
>Stop & Shop (New England, Upstate NY)
>Finast (Western PA Ohio and area)
Finast used to be around Boston as well. The name is a portmanteau of
``First National''.
Now we can go on to consider which supermarkets buy their store brand
products from Canada's Loblaws chain. I believe both of the major
chains here have done so in the past.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wol...@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick
Dan Tasman
> In fact, one can identify 3 major "hierarchies" of grocery stores in Ontario:
> the Loblaw group (premium house brand: President's Choice); the A&P/Dominion
> group (premium house brand: Master Choice); and the IGA/Loeb/Sobeys etc.
> collective (premium house brand: Master Choice). Interesting how these
> brand names apparently in eclipse elsewhere (A&P, IGA) have survived and prospered in
> Ontario...then again, so do Esso stations...
I'm surprised none of the Buffalo/Rochester luxo-grocery chains like Tops or
Wegmans have made a go at the cross-border market. Judging from all the
Ontario plates I saw in the Tops International and Wegmans stores in the
Boulevard Mall area last time I was in Buffalo, I would think they would be a
hit there. Considering that Loblaws had stores in Buffalo at one time, what's
stopping US chains from operating in Canada?
On a related note, have there been any plans from chains like Whole Foods or
Alfalfa's to open stores in the Buffalo area? If WNY's not in their expansion
plans, I don't blame 'em -- I doubt that a region where the four food groups
consists of wings, pizza, beef on weck and Polish sausage would take to
free-range soy.
Mustard
> In PA, Pittsburgh has:
>
> - Giant Eagle - slightly above mid-level chain that now is so dominant that it
> has become synonomous with grocery shopping in Pittsburgh.
> - Shop N Save - A no frills chain. Pretty conventional with no fancy decor.
> Pretty much a less ratty version of Food Lion.
> - Foodland - Similar to Shop N Save but more expensive and not as popular
> - The Food Gallery - The only "upscale" supermarket chain in Pittsburgh -
> similar to the Harris Teeter stores down South.
>
> Philadelphia has:
>
> - Acme - Pretty much the dominant supermarket in Philadelphia. It is similar to
> Shop N Save, but prices are higher.
> - Super Fresh - owned by parent company of A&P. Another no frills chain.
> - Shop N Save - see above
> - Giant - Similar to the Kroger.
> - Super G - These are stores known in MD and VA as "Giant" but they can't use
> that name here because of the "Giant" chain fron NJ.
> - Geunardi's - a slightly above mid-level "upscale" chain. Maybe a little above
> Harris Teeter.
> - Fresh Fields - a true upscale chain with prices twice as much as anywhere
> else. A place to see and be seen.
> - The Food Source - a new Philadelphia-based upscale chain. It is so expensive
> that it makes Fresh Fields look like the grocery section in a Super WalMart.
In Southern Michigan, we have:
- Meijer
- Kroger
- Farmer Jack (some former A&P's)
- the various Spartan Store chains
- IGA (scattered)
- SuperValu
- Few independent grocers, particularly because many are affiliated with Spartan
As an explanatory note, the Spartan Stores are merely a buying group of
independently owned chains of varying size (the larger chains include Harding's and
Felpausch) similar to IGA. They are as big a presence here as Meijer, and they
stay competitive with the other major grocery chains. IGA and SuperValu, the other
buying groups I mention, seemingly don't do half as much business in Michigan as
the Spartan Stores do. Of course, there are probably more Spartan Store locations
than there are of Meijer and the other large grocery chains combined, at least in
the southwest part of the state. I do notice that there seems to be fewer Spartan
Stores in the Metro Detroit area, if they even exist there, and that the heaviest
concentration is in Southwest Michigan. In fact, when Jewel-Osco pulled out of
Michigan, the locations in Kalamazoo and Portage became Harding's Marketplaces
(just a bigger version of Harding's that offered what Jewel-Osco had offered) while
the locations in Battle Creek became Felpausches (also offering what Jewel-Osco had
offered). I'm not real sure who occupies the former Jewel locations in other
Michigan cities, but they could very well be other Spartan Stores.
--
Brian Rawson-Ketchum
Bronson High School Class of Y1.999K
Bronson, MI
mailto:rawmu...@crosswinds.net
Please reach me by ICQ, #9526798
Want to buy me something? Check here:
http://www.cdnow.com/gift/rawmu...@crosswinds.net
The Enemy Within
> In that mode, I'm not sure if I've seen Piggly Wiggly stores name-dropped in
>this thread...
Alabama used to have a Piggly Wiggly in nearly every town with a population of
more than 1,000.
I don't know if there are any left. I haven't seen one in at least 12 years,
or more.
...............................................................
Jim Geiger, musician
remove "x" in address to reply
bugo
The Enemy Within wrote:
>
> ad...@interlog.com wrote:
>
> > In that mode, I'm not sure if I've seen Piggly Wiggly stores name-dropped in
> >this thread...
>
> Alabama used to have a Piggly Wiggly in nearly every town with a population of
> more than 1,000.
> I don't know if there are any left. I haven't seen one in at least 12 years,
> or more.
>
There was a Piggly Wiggly about a quarter from my apartment in Savannah,
GA, when I lived there in late 1996. Don't know if it's still there or
not. It was by a Kmart just east of GA 204 on Montgomery Crossroads,
IIRC.
BCBA
>
> >format in favor of shoe stores. Including Miracle Mile, Gibsonia,
> >Norwin, Allegheny Center.
>
> I heard that Woolworth's was doing OK in CT from a friend who lives there...
>
maybe it's like those gas stations that keep one storefront open to
maintain the name rights. but the parent company is supposed to have
given up on the five-and-dime format and concentrated on the Foot
Locker, Lady Foot Locker and San Francisco Music Box stores.
--bruce
BCBA
>
>
> In PA, Pittsburgh has:
>
> - Giant Eagle - slightly above mid-level chain that now is so dominant that it
> has become synonomous with grocery shopping in Pittsburgh.
> - Shop N Save - A no frills chain. Pretty conventional with no fancy decor.
> Pretty much a less ratty version of Food Lion.
> - Foodland - Similar to Shop N Save but more expensive and not as popular
> - The Food Gallery - The only "upscale" supermarket chain in Pittsburgh -
> similar to the Harris Teeter stores down South.
>
also in Pgh:
numerous other one-and-two store "chains", too...like Kuhn's (similar to
Foodland) and McGinnis (higher price and quality than Food Gallery). and
an odd Food 4 Less here and there (absoutely no frills, cement floors,
bag your own, products on industrial warehouse shelving and skids)
Food 4 Less radio ads are funny 'cause the announcer doesn't know how to
pronounce "Monroeville"
as Gene implies...Giant Eagle can pretty much squash anyone else in this
market. they probably feel more pressure from the Super Wal-Mart than
from the older grocery only chains.
--bruce
Exile on Market Street
calv...@aol.comCLINTON (Opinionated but never inundated) wrote:
> >The last Woolworth's closed last year when the company gave up on that
> >format in favor of shoe stores. Including Miracle Mile, Gibsonia,
> >Norwin, Allegheny Center.
>
> I heard that Woolworth's was doing OK in CT from a friend who lives there...
That's news to me, as F.W. Woolworth Co. has not only completely abandoned
the variety-store business -- there was a massive chain-wide liquidation
about two years ago -- but no longer calls itself by its founder's name:
the parent of the Foot Locker chain changed its name to "Venator Group" at
the beginning of this year. However, their landmark skyscraper HQ in NYC
is *still* the Woolworth Building.
--
Sandy Smith, University Relations / 215.898.1423 / smi...@pobox.upenn.edu
Associate Editor, _Pennsylvania Current_ cur...@pobox.upenn.edu
Penn Web Team -- Web Editor webm...@isc.upenn.edu
I speak for myself here, not Penn http://pobox.upenn.edu/~smiths/
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public
relations officers."
---------------------------------------------------------Daniel Boorstin--
Exile on Market Street
laura...@aol.com (LAuray6642) wrote:
> Royal Ahold N/V owns:
>
> Stop & Shop (New England, Upstate NY)
> Edwards (NYC, Long Island, NJ)
> Giant (Eastern PA and MD)
N.B.: There are *two* Giant chains under the Royal Ahold NV umbrella:
Giant Food, Inc. (Landover, MD) and Giant Food Stores (Carlisle, PA).
The two chains operate separately from one another (and compete directly in
Southeastern PA, where the Landover Giant operates as "Super G"). The PA
Giant has an "everyday low prices" strategy, while the MD Giant -- one of
the Washington/Baltimore area's dominant chains -- competes on quality and
service.
Which may be why the latter hasn't been doing well in the Philadelphia area
(I thought I read recently that all of the chain's PA stores have been
closed): Genuardi's Family Markets -- the Norristown-based chain that
operates solely in the Philadelphia market -- got there first. While the
level of service and variety is not up there with, say, Wegmans in
Rochester, it's very high, and the chain has steadily gained market share
in the Philadelphia area (it's now #3 behind Acme and ShopRite).
Which brings us to Super Fresh, the onetime #3 chain, now #5. Apparently,
corporate parent A&P has announced a new strategy in which its chains will
either "dominate or leave" the markets in which they operate. (By
"dominate" they'll accept a #1, #2 or #3 ranking.) Given the chain's
slipping fortunes in Philly, the buzz was that they were planning to exit
(which would mean I'd have to find a new supermarket), but apparently they
have no such plans, which means they'll have to get aggressive on
*something* -- either price or service. As of now, the chain is not known
for either.
Summing up the Philadelphia market, we have:
Acme (American Stores/Albertson's)
ShopRite (Wakefern)
Genuardi's
Pathmark
Super Fresh (A&P)
Thriftway/Shop'n'Bag (Fleming Cos.)
Clemens
Giant Food (Royal Ahold NV)
Super G (Giant of Landover/Royal Ahold NV)
Fresh Fields (Whole Foods Markets)
plus a few other chains, such as Weis, that operate on the fringes of the area.
Wakefern Food Co. and Fleming Cos. are wholesalers, which supply
independently-owned grocers trading under their chain name (Fleming
supplies independent grocery chains operating under a variety of names in
different cities; all Wakefern-supplied stores operate under the ShopRite
name).
> Finast (Western PA Ohio and area)
I get a big kick out of that (somewhat suggestive) word, which was
originally an acronym for the chain that owned the trademark, FIrst
NAtional STores of Somerville, Mass. (The chain exited New England
completely some time ago.)
Exile on Market Street
> Royal Ahold also owns Long Island's Edwards (see grandparent of this
> article) and a number of other chains along the East Coast. I think
> one of the Giants may be among them.
Both of the Giants are. See my other post.
Exile on Market Street
<PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> Isn't in curious that there are NO nationwide supermarket chains?
But I think with its recent acquisition of American Stores, Albertson's
Inc. is pretty darn close to being a nationwide supermarket operator,
albeit through multiple chains.
Question: Can any Kansas Citian tell me what led the Milgram chain to
fold? (They were a local chain -- their slogan was "Hi Neighbor!" -- that
was a dominant player with Safeway and A&P through the 70s, but seems to
have disappeared completely.)
Aside on A&P: Besides the chains already mentioned here (A&P, Super Fresh,
Farmer Jack, Food Emporium, Waldbaums...), they also own the no-frills
Save-A-Lot chain.
Exile on Market Street
<PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
> Edwards' house brand items say that it's a division of Giant Foods, with
> its HQ in Atlanta. There's no mention of Royal Ahold.
AFAIK, none of the Royal Ahold chains' products identify the corporate parent.
I wonder if Albertson's plans to do so with American Stores' brands (Acme,
Osco, Alpha Beta [are they still around?], Lucky...) sometime down the
road.
Exile on Market Street
> What's kept the A&P enterprise going in Ontario is its purchase, some
10-15 years ago, of
> the then-sickly Dominion chain (Loblaws' primary competitor).[...] I don't
> know whether the US A&P's use the "We're Fresh Obsessed" slogan or carry
the premium
> in-house Master Choice label, or if they're still bogged in the
tried'n'true Jane Parker
> and Eight O'Clock routine...
Eight O'Clock is still the house coffee brand -- and given its strong
identity (it was whole-bean when everyone else was still in vacuum-sealed
cans), there's no reason for that brand to change.
But Jane Parker and her sister Ann Page died years ago. So, for that
matter, has the "A&P" store brand, phased out in favor of a brand all the
chains can use, "America's Choice." And at least at Super Fresh, the
premium line is also Master Choice. However, on this side of the border,
they're not "fresh obsessed" -- they're "so fresh we're Super Fresh."
ObLoblaws: The premium store brand carried in Acme stores is "President's
Choice" -- the premium line Loblaws originated.
Exile on Market Street
(GeneJYao) wrote:
> sc1 wrte:
>
> >Atlanta has:
> >- Publix
> >- Kroger
> >- Winn-Dixie
> >- Cub Foods (only a few stores)
> >- Harris-Teeter (upscale)
> >- Wayfield
>
> In PA, Pittsburgh has:
>
> - Giant Eagle - slightly above mid-level chain that now is so dominant that it
> has become synonomous with grocery shopping in Pittsburgh.
> - Shop N Save - A no frills chain. Pretty conventional with no fancy decor.
> Pretty much a less ratty version of Food Lion.
> - Foodland - Similar to Shop N Save but more expensive and not as popular
> - The Food Gallery - The only "upscale" supermarket chain in Pittsburgh -
> similar to the Harris Teeter stores down South.
>
> Philadelphia has:
>
> - Acme - Pretty much the dominant supermarket in Philadelphia. It is
similar to
> Shop N Save, but prices are higher.
N.B.: Among the locals, "Acme" is a three-syllable word.
> - Super Fresh - owned by parent company of A&P. Another no frills chain.
Er, no. Save-A-Lot is the A&P "no frills" operation. Super Fresh is a
typical middle-of-the-road chain: stores have full service delis, hot
prepared foods to take out, in-store bakeries, service butcher/seafood. At
least in Philadelphia, the larger stores lack eat-in foodservice,
drycleaning and/or bank branches, but several have pharmacies.
> - Geunardi's - a slightly above mid-level "upscale" chain. Maybe a little
above
> Harris Teeter.
Genuardi's operates stores throughout the Philadelphia region, but none
within the city limits itself. Why? Philadelphia proper remains a strong
union town, and the Genuardi family are equally strongly committed to
remaining non-union (mainly by offering extremely competitive pay/benefits
packages to their employees, as the chain's competitors are by and large
unionized). AIUI, if the chain so much as opened a store on the south side
of City Line Avenue, they'd face a union organizing drive the next day.
> - The Food Source - a new Philadelphia-based upscale chain. It is so expensive
> that it makes Fresh Fields look like the grocery section in a Super WalMart.
Haven't heard of this chain yet. Where in the Philly area do they have stores?
You left out:
Clemens (mainly N & W 'burbs)
Thriftway-Shop'n'Bag (cooperative of independently-owned stores supplied by
Fleming)
Pathmark
ShopRite (chain of independently-owned stores supplied by Wakefern)
And at least two no-frills chains:
Aldi
Save-A-Lot (see above)
BTW, the Pennsylvania (not NJ; it's based in Carlisle) Giant has an
"everyday low prices" operating strategy, which I don't think Kroger
follows.
And FWIW, Genuardi's appears to be trying to compete on price and quality
simultaneously now -- they've adopted the automatic discounts on prepriced
products that Giant of Carlisle introduced to the market and offer
aggressively priced specials.
IGA used to operate in the Philly market also, but I think they've all but
disappeared.
Peter Rosa
[That's news to me, as F.W. Woolworth Co. has not only
completely abandoned the variety-store business -- there was
a massive chain-wide liquidation about two years ago -- but
no longer calls itself by its founder's name: the parent of
the Foot Locker chain changed its name to "Venator Group"
at the beginning of this year. However, their landmark
Their liquidation was complete sometime in the fall of 1997.
I remember seeing a sign on one of the stores saying "Shop
now - we won't be here for Christmas" (or words to that
effect). Quite a few of the Woolworth's locations are still
vacant despite a stong real estate market in most parts of
the country. From what I've heard, many of the sites are of
an awkward neither-fish-nor-fowl size, too large for
specialty shops but too small for superstores. It also
hasn't helped that many of them are located in what are now
less-desirable urban locations.
Venator occupies only a relatively small part of the
Woolworth Building, with most of the structure rented out to
other businesses. They occupy most or all of the building's
top floors, in the tower section, where the small
floorplates limit the rents that could be earned. Otherwise
I suspect Venator by now would have moved out completely to
less-luxurious surroundings.
--
Peter Rosa
pros...@yahoo.com
PR...@prodigy.net
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Exile on Market Street
> The first two Giants on your list recently merged (don't know if their
> operations are combined, but at least they're now under common
> ownership). That headed off conflicts from the similar names, as the
> Maryland Giant expanded toward the E. Pa. Giant's turf (the use of the
> "Super G" store name, in the northern reaches of the Maryland Giant's
> region, was one awkward solution to that problem).
However, the two chains have different operating philosophies -- the PA
chain is an "everyday low prices" store, while the MD chain stresses
quality and service -- so there'd still be confusion if they operated under
the same name where they compete directly. "Super G" is around to stay, at
least for a while.
Exile on Market Street
(Garrett Wollman) wrote:
> Now we can go on to consider which supermarkets buy their store brand
> products from Canada's Loblaws chain. I believe both of the major
> chains here have done so in the past.
So does Acme Markets in Philadelphia.
Exile on Market Street
> Now we can go on to consider which supermarkets buy their store brand
> products from Canada's Loblaws chain. I believe both of the major
> chains here have done so in the past.
So does Acme Markets in Philadelphia.
BTW, if the store's premium brand is Master Choice, but its store brand is
*not* America's Choice, then it's not owned by A&P, but buys its premium
line from them. (The supplier is identified not as A&P, but as "Compass
Foods" of Montvale, NJ.)
GeneJYao
>Haven't heard of this chain yet. Where in >the Philly area do they have
stores?
"The Food Source" is a division of Clemens markets. The first store opened in
Bryn Mawr (on Lancaster Ave).
GeneJYao
>ObLoblaws: The premium store brand >carried in Acme stores is "President's
>Choice" -- the premium line Loblaws >originated.
That's interesting. I believe Loblaws is an Canadian chain, but Canada doesn't
have a "president". Is the "president" the president of the company?
GeneJYao
>Which may be why the latter hasn't been >doing well in the Philadelphia area
>(I thought I read recently that all of the >chain's PA stores have been
>closed): Genuardi's Family Markets -- the >Norristown-based chain that
>operates solely in the Philadelphia market -- >got there first.
That explains why the last time I was at Super G in Valley Forge the place
was nearly empty. Giant of Landover is a pretty good chain, I think much of
thier problem is bad locations. Most of the prime locations in SE PA have been
taken by Acme.
BTW - I had a pretty bad impression of Super G since one time I was there I
ate at two tables that they set up in the interior of the store. The location
was strange since it was not outside the cash registers the way most eating
areas are and I was afraid that some employee might suspect that I was eating
without paying, but it was hot outside so I decided to stay indoors. I paid for
the food and reentered the store. Sure enough, some asshole employee came up to
me and demanded to see the receipt. After he confirmed that I did indeed buy
the food he simply said "OK", gave a spiel about how they had problems with
people eating without paying, and then left. It wasn't utnil I ran into him
again in the parking lot that he apologized.
ad...@interlog.com
> In article <37E1BA41...@interlog.com>, ad...@interlog.com wrote:
>
> > What's kept the A&P enterprise going in Ontario is its purchase, some
> 10-15 years ago, of
> > the then-sickly Dominion chain (Loblaws' primary competitor).[...] I don't
> > know whether the US A&P's use the "We're Fresh Obsessed" slogan or carry
> the premium
> > in-house Master Choice label, or if they're still bogged in the
> tried'n'true Jane Parker
> > and Eight O'Clock routine...
>
> Eight O'Clock is still the house coffee brand -- and given its strong
> identity (it was whole-bean when everyone else was still in vacuum-sealed
> cans), there's no reason for that brand to change.
>
> But Jane Parker and her sister Ann Page died years ago.
Interestingly, the Jane Parker label still exists in Ontario--although the
closure of A&P's Jane Parker bakery in Toronto and "farming out" of operations
was recently announced; still, that's a plant, not a label...
GeneJYao
>Quite a few of the Woolworth's locations are >still vacant despite a stong
real estate >market in most parts of the country. From >what I've heard, many
of the sites are of
>an awkward neither-fish-nor-fowl size, too >large for specialty shops but too
small for >superstores. It also hasn't helped that many >of them are located
in what are now
>less-desirable urban locations.
Another problem was that, in some locations, Woolworth's (now Venator) signed
long leases, sometimes lease of 20 or more years. It was an attempt to lock in
on lower prices since the agreements Woolworth's hammered out stipulated that
the landlord can't raise the rates. Thus Ventor is stuck with many Woolworth's
locations for several more years. Why don't they just break the lease? Becuase
they want to convert some of them to Foot Lockers and other Ventor -owned
chains - taking advantage of the cheap rent. Even if they convert only a
fraction of the old store to a Foot Locker, it is still worthwhile to them.
Anyway, does anyone know whether the Woolworth stores in England are part of
Woolworth's of America (now Venator)? The Woolworth stores in England are also
discount retailers and have the same concept (general merchandise along with a
cafeteria). But the English stores appeared more up-market than their American
counterparts.
SP Cook
Exile on Market Street <smi...@pobox.upenn.edu> wrote in message
news:smiths-ya02408000...@netnews.upenn.edu...
> In article <01bf0226$c7b98420$f6b9fcd1@nick>, "Peter Rosa"
> <PR...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> > Isn't in curious that there are NO nationwide supermarket chains?
>
> But I think with its recent acquisition of American Stores, Albertson's
> Inc. is pretty darn close to being a nationwide supermarket operator,
> albeit through multiple chains.
>
of the Appalachians and east of the Rockies, and present in coastal South.
They are digesting Ralph's (So Cal) and some other western chains. They
will be the nation's grocer by 2005.