Happy New Year!

…and welcome as we kick off a new year of Pleasant Family Shopping, where we take a look at those places you’ll remember all your lives, though most have changed. Most forever, not for better, some are flea markets now, but some remain. I know you’ll often stop and think about them, and when you do, please stop by! (Apologies to Lennon and McCartney.)Our subject is retail chain stores of the

A Very Merry Christmas

From Christmas 1971, a beautiful night view of a Chicago department store legend – the Carson Pirie Scott & Co. flagship, a familiar sight on the corner of State and Madison Streets since 1899. (The store closed last year and is now being renovated for other uses.) The Louis Sullivan masterpiece, with its magnificent iron scrollwork façade, is a lily that certainly doesn’t need gilding. In my

Sears - Christmastime in the O.C.

“The sun is shining, the grass is green.The orange and palm trees sway.There's never been such a dayin Beverly Hills, L.A.But it's December the twenty-fourth,and I am longing to be up north”.--The usually omitted first verse of Irving Berlin’s classic song “White Christmas” Well, as you can see, it’s actually a bit overcast, but I’ll bet the grass is green. The orange groves were plowed up a

Dominick's in December - 1971

An inviting sight on a cold winter evening, Dominick’s Finer Foods, known to Chicagoans then and now as simply “Dominick’s”, was a particular favorite of our family around Christmastime, with its great holiday platters and Heinemann’s Butter-Ritz coffee cakes. Probably the biggest claim to fame for Dominick’s was its reputation for a superb selection of ethnic foods, from S. Rosen’s rye bread to

Next Stop - The Island of Misfit Toys!

…but first we need to stop and stock up on our Vitamin C for the long trip. And here’s the perfect place to do it – Von’s! Santa pops up through the corrugated chimney while two of his tiny (white, inflatable plastic) reindeer look on. They’re joined by an attractive woman sporting the West Coast equivalent of “big hair”. From 1962, exact location unknown.

A Wal-Mart Christmas, 1971

What to say about this one, my friends? Ok, how about the first three things that come to mind: 1. Those eerie Santa masks with large eye openings are great for hiding security cameras!2. The oversized promo film boxes that Kodak used to make look cool, even stapled to a wall!3. $9.94 per pound is a heckuva price for polyester!Any other ideas?

Woolworth's-America's Christmas Store

Here’s a busy scene at the downtown Houston, Texas Woolworth store, from 1964. For a great many Americans, Woolworth’s was “America’s Christmas Store”, just as the pictured Santa Claus banners say. Woolworth, like its variety store competitors, had moved beyond the 10 cents price point eons ago by this time, but most items carried were still fairly small ticket. The expanded format of the Woolco

I'll Have a Blue Christmas at Ralphs

“She thinks I don’t see her admiring that shag non-skid bath rug, the one that matches her outfit. I can hear her letting out a little sigh. She’s probably saying to herself ‘I’m sure he’ll buy me another diamond ring or a mink stole. I’ll do my best to smile and act surprised’. I pretend not to notice but I do, believe me. And this year I’m not gonna let her down. It’ll be a Blue Christmas at

New Shoes from Woolco

It's Christmas season 1966 in this Woolco shoe department. A fairly quiet scene, but maybe the rest of the store was busy. People don’t usually give shoes as gifts anyway, do they? We definitely want to look nice on Christmas Day though, so a new pair of shoes is a must. In this photo, it looks like everyone bought new outfits (including stylish hats) to shop for shoes! (at Woolco.) And you’d

A&P's Christmas in Toledo, 1926

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so I thought I’d shift gears for a while with some holiday related posts.The photos above show the winners of A&P’s Christmas Display Window Contest, Toledo (Ohio) Division, from 1926. Up until the 1950’s, grocery stores generally featured a “window display” not dissimilar in concept to a fashion window in a department store. They usually consisted of

Kroger in the "Big D", 1965

These photos of the new Kroger at Dallas’ much-ballyhooed NorthPark Shopping Center were taken shortly after opening, which occurred in July 1965. They show the store’s entrance (the young girls are wearing outfits that don’t appear all that out-of-style today), the floral department, increasingly a standard part of supermarkets in upscale areas but by no means universal yet, the gourmet

L'Elégance du Kroger

Here is a set of photos of a beautiful lady, all decked out in the best 1957 fashions, engaging in some serious shopping. If you had seen her at home, getting into her car, you’d think she was headed to Bloomingdale’s, Saks, maybe Lord & Taylor. Actually, her destination is…..uh, …Kroger. (OK, I’m not at all sure those department stores were located in Kroger territories at the time, but

Kroger - Flossed in the Fifties

Around 1955, Kroger kicked its expansion program into high gear, going far beyond simply replacing existing small grocery stores with larger supermarkets. For the first time in a decade, the company moved back into an acquisition mode, buying three supermarket chains in three successive months. On May 13, Kroger announced its purchase of Henke & Pillot, an 83-year old Houston based chain of

The Postwar Kroger

In the decade following World War II, a number of key developments took hold in America’s chain grocery business. One was a marked increase in the amount of non-food items carried, particularly in the area of health and beauty products. Once limited to a few brands of soap and sometimes a handful of other basic personal care items, the forties and early fifties saw this area evolve into a

The Kroger of '49

Sorry for the shorter post this time around, I’m scrambling to get some work stuff done before we leave for Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re looking forward to the trip - the forecast calls for a 10% chance of snow and a 90% chance of Portillo’s.These photos, however, say a thousand words. They’re from 1949 and show a Kroger interior in fine form. I love the wide shot, showing the

Remembering JFK, 45 Years Later

The photograph above was taken in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, 45 years ago today. It depicts President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, along with Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie en route from Love Field Airport to the Dallas Trade Mart, where the president was scheduled to give a speech. The photo was taken at approximately 12:25 pm, as the motorcade passed in

Kroger in Cleveland, 1935

Despite a 28% drop in sales from 1929 to 1933 and a number of other challenges, Kroger withstood the onslaught of the depression better than many of its grocery chain counterparts. With nearly 5,000 stores, Kroger was in a dominant position in many of its markets.One of the “other challenges” came in April 1930, when Kroger chairman William H. Albers resigned to start his own supermarket chain.

Barney Kroger - The Cincinnati Kid

The history of Kroger, like that of so many companies born in the same era, is a great American story. The roots of today’s Kroger Company reach back to 1876, when 16-year old Bernard Henry Kroger took a job selling coffee and tea door-to-door for The Great Northern and Pacific Tea Company in his hometown of Cincinnati. Kroger, one of ten children born to German immigrants, worked hard to help

Kroger Blue

Well, I’ve been Krogering for nearly half my life now. They were still around in the Chicago area when I was very young, though I don’t recall our family ever shopping there in those years. By 1971 they had pulled out of the market completely, selling most area stores and their distribution center to Dominick’s. Moving to the south in 1987, the first Kroger stores I remember sported the “

A Nifty Fifties Thriftimart

Here’s another wonderful Southern California gem, shown through the courtesy of the Orange County Archives. This Thriftimart supermarket opened in mid-1955 in Garden Grove, California on the northwest corner of Chapman Avenue and Brookhurst Street, in what was originally slated to be known as the Melody Park Shopping Center, a nod to the adjacent Melody Park and Melody Estates subdivisions. A

You're the Topps, Baby!

The sixties were the golden age of many things, depending upon your perspective. Rock and roll music, television, movies, sports, comics, cars, the suburbs, malls, you name it – if it existed during that tumultuous time, there are legions of folks who will claim that decade as the peak of the form, whether they actually lived during that time or not. To me, the sixties were definitely the

A Leisurely Day at Alpha Beta, 1966

Here’s a magnificent example of modern day Spanish-style retail architecture – built in 1965! This 1966 photo is shown courtesy of the Orange County Archives, thanks to Chris Jepsen for the tip. This Alpha Beta supermarket opened in March 1965 at the Rossmoor Leisure World Shopping Center in Laguna Hills, coinciding with the opening of the adjacent huge retirement community of the same name.

Requiem for Randhurst

On September 30, northwest suburban Chicago’s historic Randhurst Mall, a fondly remembered part of my childhood, closed its doors for the last time. Soon the bulldozers will roll, tearing down the famous triangular center core of the mall, leaving only the (still open and operating) anchor stores standing. The mall is scheduled to reopen as Randhurst Village, an open air “lifestyle center

Take Another Look - at Zayre!

(In our case, one last look at Zayre for the time being, with some nice photos from 1981.) Ah, the asterisk. Throughout history, nothing else has etched “Buy! Buy! Buy!” in the mind of the American consumer in quite the same way. Even today, its hypnotic pulling power is employed by a wide range of entities, from gargantuan retailers to well-loved retail fansites. And from the late 70’s through

The Joys of Zayreshopping

No joke, “Zayreshopping” was an actual word coined by the company in 1975, the year these photos were taken. In their own words – “Zayreshopping is what we call the phenomenon we see so frequently: entire families shopping together in one of our stores. What makes it possible is that we have gathered together in one convenient location a broad diversity of merchandise assortments,

Zayre, American Style

These photos were taken in 1971. Only two years removed from the sixties, that era in some ways seemed eons ago. If the early 70’s appeared slightly less turbulent on the surface, they really weren’t, what with the Kent State shootings, a ramp-up in the Vietnam War, and the first manifestations of the inflation problem afoot. America continued to undergo sweeping social changes as well,

The Zayre Family Album, 1971

With 10-plus years of successful growth under their belts, Zayre began to look at opportunities to bring some new retail formats under its corporate umbrella. Pictured above in a set of individual photos is the expanded “Zayre empire” as of late 1971. These additional banners each shared key attributes with the main Zayre operation, in product offering (fashions, fabrics, toys, general

A Look Inside Zayre, 1968

A handful of scenes from a typical Zayre store, circa 1968. The first shows a couple of well-dressed folks shopping the health and beauty aids department. Just seeing the Listerine display on the end cap brings back the taste of the stuff. (Not necessarily bad in my opinion, just unique. And very strong.) Listerine was one of the heaviest advertised products of the late 60's/early 70's, with a

Zayre in Miami

Here are some nice circa-1970 photos featuring the Zayre and Grand Union stores that were located the corner of Dixie Highway (U.S. 1) and 136th Street in Pinecrest (Miami-Dade County), Florida. These photos and much of the background information that follows comes to us through the courtesy of Stuart Spector of Spector and Sons, a well-known general contracting firm that has built many

Zayre's Fabulous Department Stores

After a slow, careful period of initial growth through the end of the 1950’s, Zayre Corp., as it was now known, began to expand rapidly. Only six Zayre stores were in operation in 1959, the approximate year that Zayre’s volume reached that of the Bell Shops/Nugents stores. By 1962, there were 27 Zayres open, with ten to twenty new ones added annually for many years afterward. That same year

A Very Good Start For Zayre

Although the first Zayre department store didn’t open until 1956, the chain’s beginnings date back to 1919, with the formation of The New England Trading Company, an underwear and hosiery wholesaler. Founded in the Boston area by brothers Max and Morris Feldberg, the company began as a supplier to full-line department stores and specialty shops. Ten years later, the brothers launched their first

You Couldn't Do Better Than Zayre

The main things that stand out in my memories of Zayre were the stores’ signs, with their absolutely gigantic lettering. We shopped a lot at Zayre (the Des Plaines Market Place location, at the corner of Elmhurst and Golf Roads) through my early childhood, but pretty much switched over to Kmart for our discount store fix from about age 8 on.Ironically, I still possess an item bought for me there,

Where Were You In '62? - At Ralphs!

A bit more on Ralphs before a brief pause in the story. This photo is from 1962, and appears once again by courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library. This photo was commissioned by Foster and Kleiser, the famous billboard company, for an unknown promotional purpose. The sign is typical of Ralphs (much more so than the one shown in the last post) in the 1958-62 period.Note the multi-colored “

Ralphs Granada Hills, 1959

I dig this store the most! It sends me. This is none other than the Granada Hills Ralphs, which opened in November 1959 at 17020 Chatsworth Street, at the Balboa Boulevard intersection. This store is a stunning example of the individuality and high-concept architecture that Ralphs applied to its new supermarkets on a regular basis. A Ralphs manager summed up their philosophy for Progressive

Fifties Ralphs

A couple of Ralphs stores from the beginning and the end of the 1950’s, a decade that saw the chain greatly expand its reach within greater Los Angeles. Architecturally, these aren’t as easy to categorize as the Streamline Moderne stores that preceded them or the Modernist stores that followed, but they were nonetheless certainly pleasing enough.The first store was located in the Westdale

A Streamlined Approach For Ralphs

After adding a flurry of new stores in the late 1920’s, Ralphs settled into a slower expansion mode, opening an average of one new store a year. By the mid-thirties, the chain was once again ready to crank up the pace. The new Ralphs stores, though very different in appearance from those that went before, were striking indeed in their own right.Ralphs’ architect of choice, once again, was

Ralphs Westwood Through the Years

Here’s a collection of views, in reverse chronological order (more or less), of what is arguably the most famous early Ralphs store, no doubt due in part to the happy fact that the building still stands in beautiful condition. This of course is the Westwood Village Ralphs, a Russell Colllins-designed masterpiece, which opened on November 21, 1929 at the corner of Westwood Blvd. and

Ralphs - Supermarkets, Spanish Style

Ralphs, a SoCal institution with roots extending to the late 19th century, certainly had one of the more interesting beginnings for a retail chain. In 1873, 23-year old San Bernardino County native George A. Ralphs was considered to be the Los Angeles area’s champion bricklayer. A freak hunting accident that year cost him his left arm, forcing Ralphs to abandon his chosen profession. He

Ralphs' Remarkable Roster, 1940

I've been out of town on business, followed by a few days off to visit friends and family and take a long overdue hike in the Western N.C. mountains. Looking forward to digging deeper into the history of Ralphs, that Southern California grocery gem, in the next few days. In the meantime, here's a 1940 advertising spread showing the wonderful mix of Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco stores (

Ralphs - The Height of Design

Strictly my opinion, friends, but I feel that there are plenty of good examples to back it up. Ralphs Grocery Company, part of the Southern California retail scene since before the start of the last century and still going strong, was squarely out in front of a number of key 20th century architectural trends. From their ornate Spanish Revival store exteriors of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s,

Twilight of the Grand Union

The two photographs above show The Grand Union Company’s office tower and flagship store on the very last day of the store’s operation in March 2001. These photos come to us courtesy of John, an Elmwood Park native, who worked at the store during the last 14 years of its existence. The tower and flagship store were featured prominently in a series of posts on Grand Union’s early and mid-period

It's a Wal-Mart World Out There

Two of the many notable developments of the 1980’s were first, the ascent of Wal-Mart to the top of the American retailing world (the peak itself would be reached in 1991) and secondly, the establishment of Sam Walton as a modern-day American folk hero. As mentioned, the company closed out the seventies with $1 billion in sales and 278 stores. Ten years later, in 1989, their profits

A New Wal-Mart On The Way

One last Wal-Mart post, that is. In the meantime, the boys here'll get the sign set up. From the looks of their outfits, it must have been a pretty cold day. I don't think I'd mess with 'em.

The Famed Dominick's Arch, 1971

Welcome to those who have come here by way of Eric Zorn’s Chicago Tribune column today. This website is a tribute to retail chain stores of the past – mainly supermarkets and discount stores, with a few others (department stores, toy stores, etc.) thrown in just for fun. Some chains are gone altogether. For the ones that remain of course, the stores look radically different today.My name is Dave,

The Original Big K

Well, Big K, we hardly knew ye, and now you’re leaving us again. That’s right, the many Kmart stores which for some not well-explained reason took on the “Big K Mart” identity in the mid-90’s are being restored (thankfully) back to just “Kmart”, with a logo closer to their original 1960’s look, albeit with a single color, red. And a familiar sight to many Kroger shoppers is their age-old “Big K”

Wal-Mart Expands the "Magic Circle"

If Sam Walton harbored dreams of empire during Wal-Mart’s early years, he did a good job of keeping it to himself. That’s not to say he wasn’t interested in growth – he most certainly was, as is clearly evidenced throughout his autobiography. In Wal-Mart’s first decade and beyond though, the company flew under the radar, expanding slowly within the area that Walton called the “magic circle” –

Influencing Wal-Mart

The one aspect of the Wal-Mart story that I find most fascinating was Sam Walton’s study of the discount store industry, in the years both before and after the launch of his namesake chain. In his autobiography, Walton describes his adventures visiting discount stores all over America. “I ran the country, studying the discounting concept, visiting every store and company headquarters I could

What Sam Walton Knew

For many years following World War II, the most famous individual in American retail was arguably James Cash Penney. Founder of the famous chain that bore his name, Mr. Penney was active in the company into his nineties, passing away at age 95 in 1971. In 1950, he published a best-selling autobiography, Fifty Years with the Golden Rule, which shed light on his life, Christian faith, and

A New Logo for Wal-Mart!

I don’t make a habit of reacting to current retail news on this site, but over the last week or so, it’s been hard to escape the coverage of Wal-Mart’s (er, excuse me, Walmart’s) new logo. The storefront in this 1977 photo shows the “frontier” style logo the company used until the early 1980’s. By the time most Americans became familiar with Walmart, it had been phased out for some years.Opinions

Last Spin of the Turn-Style

The mid/late-1970’s proved to be the Waterloo of a number of discount retail chains with a significant presence in Chicago. The late George Lazarus, longtime business writer for the Chicago Tribune, listed the recent casualties in a 1978 editorial – Topps (Interstate Stores), Korvettes, W.T. Grant and Robert Hall Village. In short order, Jewel-owned Turn-Style would be added to the list.

Happy (Day After) the 4th of July!

Hope that everyone had a great Independence Day! Now that the parades and fireworks are over, some of you may be tackling household projects today, like painting. And there’s no better place to buy the paint than…do I even have to say it?Today marks the one-year anniversary of Pleasant Family Shopping. (This website, that is, not the actual practice itself.) Thanks so much to everyone for your

Turn-Stylin'

After moving to quickly establish the first new Turnstyle West (technically it was the midwest) region stores upon buying out the company in 1962, Jewel proceeded much more slowly through the rest of the sixties. Having opened the Racine, Skokie and Harlem-Foster stores, two more Turnstyles would open in 1963, both of them in the Quad Cities – Moline, Illinois in May and Davenport, Iowa, in

Someone Was There at the Turn-Style...

…the girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Yes, it’s time to pay tribute to the only discount store chain to ever be mentioned* in a Beatles song. I’m referring of course to Turn-Style, a presence if never really the major discount player in the Chicago and Boston areas throughout the sixties and seventies.Turnstyle Operating Corporation (in the early years the name “Turnstyle” was not hyphenated) was

Frozen Food - It Just Tastes Expensive!

A circa 1964 shot of a frozen food case in a Chicago-area Jewel Food Store. The title of this post is taken from a Banquet frozen pie ad from about the same time. Clarence Birdseye, the pioneer of frozen food technology, had first marketed his frozen foods in 1930. By the 1960’s, a dizzying array of frozen vegetables, desserts and full meals (that great American institution, the TV Dinner)

White Hen Pantry, 1967

Mention 7-Eleven, and probably the first thing that comes to most people’s minds are the Slurpees that many of us guzzled as kids. Mention White Hen Pantry, a well-remembered Chicago and Boston-area convenience store chain, and the first things that come to my mind are the incredible iced brownies they used to sell. Over three-by-three inches square and darn near an inch tall, those Burny Bros.

Bargain Town is now Toys "R" Us!

It had to be the rare late 60’s/early 70’s Chicago area kid who was unfamiliar with the famous Bargain Town! Bargain Town! Bargain Town! commercials that ran incessantly on area kids’ shows during those years. These commercials were a fixture, particularly on the popular Ray Rayner and Friends show, which ran on WGN from 7 to 9 am, starting long before the station was syndicated nationally on

It's a Mad Mad Mad Shoppers World

Pandemonium has broken out in this 1962 grand opening view of a brand new Shoppers World discount store, which was located at 6211 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. Shoppers World had a fairly fleeting tenure on the Chicago retailing scene, but in that time they managed to establish a decent presence in the city and select suburbs.Shoppers World was founded in March 1956 with a single store by

Osco Drug - Out of the Past

This late 40’s scene from downtown Rockford, Illinois looks like it could have come straight out of a film noir classic. The photo is part of an intriguing series of night shots taken by Rockford native Bob Anderson, who now resides in Beijing, China.The store pictured is very typical of Osco Drug stores opened during the first twenty-odd years of the company’s existence. Founded as Pay-Less Drug

Jewel - Downers Grove, IL Early 1960's

These superb photos from Downers Grove, Illinois, apparently a two-Jewel town in the early 1960’s, were taken by Donald Hodges and come to us through the courtesy of his son Paul. These photos have a lot of detail, so you'll want to click on them to see the enlarged versions. Downers Grove is 19 miles west of Chicago in DuPage County. In the early 60’s, “Downers” (as many residents lovingly refer

Jewel's Silver Anniversary Style

The artist’s rendering above dates from 1956, and depicts Jewel’s “25th Anniversary Store”, as planned for opening in Chicago the following year. This store featured the new tower design that replaced the masonry pylon as the company’s standard over the next several years. The store’s main sign was made up of individual “stand-up” letters, but rectangular signs were still used as well during this

Jewel Food Stores in the 1950's

The early and middle years of the 1950’s were in effect the “calm before the storm” for Jewel. Near the end of the 50’s and especially in the 1960’s, Jewel would expand both its business model (adding drug stores, a discount operation and convenience stores, among other things) and its store operating territory (acquiring chains based in New England and the Northwest, along with interests in

Mrs. Chicago Shows Jewel The Way!

“What changes would you make, Mrs. Chicago – if you had your way? What is your idea of a perfect food store?” asked Jewel of Chicago’s homemakers, seeking ideas on how to transform their recently acquired , middling chain of former Loblaw stores into a grocery shoppers’ nirvana.18,389 women answered the call.And Jewel responded.The greatest thing about this May 1934 full page ad, beyond the cute

Postwar Jewel, 1947

Throughout the 1940’s, Jewel Tea Company’s experience was similar to that of several other successful regional grocery firms. Like many other companies both within and outside of the retail food industry, Jewel did its part for the war effort. The company “got into war work” – producing rations for the U.S. Quartermaster Corps.And like many of their counterparts, Jewel experienced minimal growth

Inside a Jewel Food Store, 1944

Here are a couple of interior views of a Jewel store from late 1944. It’s hard to describe what I like most about these wonderful scenes – The orange collars on the employees’ white uniforms, standard for Jewel at the time. The bright, bold graphics of the 1940’s packaging. The gleaming porcelain refrigeration cases. The simple elegance of the light fixtures. The natural beauty of the vegetable

Chicago's Little Jewel

Jewel Tea Company, as it was known from its inception in 1899 until 1966, had a national reputation as a home delivery service long before it became established as the dominant Chicago grocery chain. The company was founded in 1899 with a rented horse and wagon by Iowa native Frank Skiff, who two years later would be joined in partnership by his brother-in-law, Frank Ross. Starting with a single

Thanks For Tuning In!

…and welcome to all of those who are visiting from fark.com, where I’ve noticed this site is featured today! The Kmart posts are below (just scroll down) and on the next page. Hope that you enjoy these looks at our well-dressed retail past. A number of discount store and supermarket chains have been featured (plus a lot of stuff about Sears) up to now, and they can be searched by chain and in

Gotta Stop at Jewel's

A great 1966 view of a new Jewel-Osco “Master Market” combination store, complete with rooftop parking to maximize customer draw in this Chicago city location, a place where free parking can’t always be taken for granted.This store typifies the architectural style that Jewel (often affectionately referred to as “Jewel's” or The Jewel) used for decades – clean and simple, not flashy. But for those

Kmart - Big Changes for the Bluelight

Having enjoyed a golden decade from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies, from that point on things would become complicated for Kmart. Part of this was due to external factors such as competition and general economic ups and downs, but a series of management decisions made along the way certainly played a major factor as well. While Kmart was an early pioneer in automated distribution,

Kmart - That 70's Store

Ah, the seventies. An era of taste and refinement. Of subtlety and style. And no place was better to outfit that style than Kmart. I believe that these Kmart scenes from the early and mid seventies capture the essence of that era as well as any photo, retail or non-retail, that I’ve ever seen. Up first is a great early evening photo, from 1973, of the standard seventies Kmart exterior,

You're Safe When You Save at Kmart

A stylishly dressed mother, with stylishly dressed daughter in tow, shops the Kmart intimates department. A family stuffs a mother lode of purchases, including a color TV, into their car, and a young girl gazes adoringly at Kmart’s return policy, (maybe thinking “gee, Mom really is safe when she shops at Kmart!”, the company’s slogan that was introduced in ‘68), these scenes are circa 1968/70.

Kmart...Eat Here and Get Gas!

You know, there’s really nothing like a Double K Burger when you’re craving that great Kmart taste! Mmmmmmm!Yes, my friends, there really was such a thing as a “Kmart Chef”. After five years of outstanding growth, Kresge began to explore ways to leverage the success of Kmart. Though virtually all Kmarts had in-store snack bars and/or concession stands, Kresge figured that a free-standing fast

Kmart's Mid-Sixties Ascent

In contrast to its discount image, in the mid-sixties at least, the opening of a new Kmart could arguably be considered a town status symbol. Adding an average 35 stores per year at the time, Kresge would step up its pace even more as that tumultuous decade rolled on, tallying nearly 60 new Kmarts a year by 1970. Development was particularly heavy in the southern and western states, where

What's the Frequency, Kmart?

The transformation that the Kresge company underwent with the introduction of Kmart was dramatic, to put it very mildly. Among the most impressive aspects were the sheer speed and scale of the rollout. Once the final decision was made to push forward with Kmart, Kresge president Harry Cunningham gave a mandate to Kresge’s real estate department that at least 60 leases be secured for new Kmart

S.S. Kresge's Pre-K Days

Before discount stores popped up all across America, there were the variety stores. For decades, Middle America shopped at these stores for their basic needs – housewares and kitchen items, linens, basic clothing, shoes, school supplies, toys and so on. Most of the larger variety chains had their origin in the decades immediately preceding or following the beginning of the 20th century. They were

Remember...TYFSAK!

From the tail end of the 60’s well into the early 80’s, my family and I often shopped at Kmart. (In my case, the one at Algonquin and Golf Roads in Arlington Heights, Illinois. A Lowe’s now sits on that site.) I was always intrigued by a small, fluorescent light red sticker with black type that read “Remember…TYFSAK!” that seemed to be on every cash register in the store, right next to the

All Together Now at Fisher-Fazio's

The Fisher-Fazio family is gathered together for this “family photo” from 1975. Even Uncle Ralph from Chicago drove in, with his bag of groceries from Dominick’s. (Just seeing that 70’s Dominick’s bag makes my arms hurt, when I think back on how many hundreds of those things I lugged from the family gas guzzler’s trunk to our kitchen back then. Definitely more good memories than bad of those

Fazio's California Adventure

Under management by the Fazio/Costa group, Fisher Foods became widely recognized as one of America’s fastest-growing supermarket chains at the end of the 1960’s, going into the early 70’s. The company had begun a successful expansion program, adding other key Ohio markets to their original Cleveland base. The acquisition of the Dominick’s chain in Chicago was bearing fruit as well, and the

The fabulous fazio's

By the early 1960’s, Fisher Foods was in trouble. The company began losing ground in the late 1950’s, posting a net loss for 1959. The losses would grow, topping $300,000 in 1963. By 1964, with 90% of Fisher’s stores now losing money, the company was ripe for a takeover. In January of that year, a group of Cleveland investors (which, importantly, was made up of career supermarket operators)

It Was Fresher at Fisher's

Fisher Foods, Cleveland’s largest grocery chain for a major chunk of its 80-year history, was founded in 1907 as Fisher Brothers Company. The Fisher Brothers, Manning and Charles, were natives of Jersey City, New Jersey and got their start in the grocery business in New York City in the waning years of the 19th century, where Manning worked for James Butler, a grocer who owned 150 stores in

Snow Falling On Fazio's

An early 1971 view of a brand new suburban Cleveland Fazio’s supermarket. This store opened six years after the Fazio and Costa families had bought out the moribund Fisher Foods chain, which was at one time the dominant food chain in the area but by the early sixties had fallen on hard times. By the time the pictured store opened, the company (which still went by the official name of Fisher Foods

Searsizzle

One final look at Sears for now, and this time we’ll move inside for a gander at some indoor entrances to Sears stores within the context of the far-out, groovy atmosphere of a couple of brand new circa 1971-2 malls, in photos taken when they were new. (Ok, those expressions were already dated by 1971, but what the hey…)In my opinion, the real action from a design standpoint was inside the malls

Late Sixties Sears Scenes

As the sixties drew to a close, Sears continued to reign as the world’s top retailer, and a respected American institution. Probably the highest profile evidence of this was the company’s bold plan to move to a new downtown Chicago headquarters, Sears Tower, construction of which would soon be underway. The tallest building in the world at the time, Sears would relocate there from its antiquated

Easter Greetings

A very nice Easter display featuring a cross standing atop a “hill” of Easter lilies (crossing the 'line of separation' between church and supermarket?) in this early 1960’s view from a Southern California Vons location. In-town rival Alpha Beta went the secular route that year, as seen below. These photos are from an early 60’s Progressive Grocer article about “Spring Merchandising Ideas”. Hope

Seattle Sears at Sunset

A lovely evening view of the brand-new Sears at Aurora Square in Shoreline, Washington, a suburb just north of Seattle. This store, which opened in September 1967 and still exists, featured a somewhat unusual in-line auto center. With most Sears stores of this size, they were detached. A considerably less dramatic photo shows the store as it appears today.In 1967 Sears was near the peak of its

Live from Korvette City!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled posts to bring you this special report live from the “Korvette City” in Baileys Crossroads, (near Arlington) Virginia in the metropolitan Washington, DC area!Live in 1965, that is. This special footage was sent to me by Robyn Carter, an Arlington native, retro retail and postwar culture fan. Filmed in 8mm color in 1965 by Robyn’s grandmother, Izola Grubb,

Sears - Canoga Park, California 1964

On October 28, 1964, Sears opened the largest store in its history up to that time, a 300,000-plus square foot colossus in Canoga Park’s Fallbrook Square Shopping Center, located in the western reach of the San Fernando Valley. Complete with a massive Disney World-esque underground warehouse and service infrastructure, the store represented a major acknowledgment on Sears’ part of the sensational

The ____ Side of Sears

I’ll let you come up with your own adjective to describe this gasp-worthy (ok, that’s mine) group of four Class A Sears stores, which opened between August and October, 1964 and are pictured here shortly after opening. Showing a wide spectrum of architecture and (almost) every Sears logo combination, the individual charm of each of these stores speaks for itself.The first store pictured is the

Sears Had Everything

A few interior shots from 1962, including an attractive snack bar, (great way to take a break during a shopping trip, right?), some departmental views, and the ubiquitous catalog order desk. As mentioned previously, every Sears store had one of these, and the company also had hundreds of standalone Catalog Stores in small towns across the country, filling in the (fairly few) gaps market gaps

The Many Sides of Sears, 1963

The seven Sears stores pictured above were all opened in a seven-month period – from March through October, 1963. These stores – all type A “Complete Department Stores” help to illustrate the impressive breadth of architectural styles Sears employed during the period. It’s interesting to note, also, that Sears used multiple logo styles on their stores – the “script” type, which had been in use in

Sears Oakbrook Center, 1962

Here’s a unique Sears store from one of my all-time favorite malls, Oakbrook Center, which is located in Chicago’s Western Suburbs. This store, which opened along with the rest of the mall in March 1962, was designed by famed architect Richard Marsh Bennett, who also designed many of the mall’s other structures (including the exterior of the Oakbrook Jewel Food Store, featured in one of this

The Signature of Sears

If you are around 30 years old or so, you probably have some good memories of shopping at Sears. If you’re over 40, chances are they’re great memories. The sights (and smells) of the Sears “experience” , if it may be called that – the “Karnival Korner” candy and popcorn stands, the smells from which permeated a large portion of the store, the toy department, bringing the Christmas “Wish Book”

The ABC's of Sears

One of the most significant keys to Sears’ success was the company’s ability to provide the appropriate size and type store for each community they did business in. General Wood, having successfully launched Sears’ initial entry into the retail store field, realized early on that a “one size fits all” approach wouldn’t work. A strategy to develop three primary basic types of Sears stores was put

Sears - Daytona Beach, Florida 1955

These day and night photos are of a new Sears store opened in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1955. The store was located at the intersection of Beach Street and 3rd Avenue, just off of the west end of the Broadway Bridge (U.S. 92, which traverses the Intercoastal Waterway) and across from Riverfront Park. The building still exists.The last two photos are detail shots of two of the store entrances

A Mid-50's Inside Look at Sears

A set of interior views typical of larger Sears stores from the mid-1950's. From the end of World War II up to that time, the company opened over 100 stores in new locations and had relocated more than twice that number of existing stores to larger, suburban facilities. Sears’ sales by this time were more than double that of their arch competitor, Montgomery Ward. Their approach to

Sears, Roebuck and America

Sears didn't have a single retail location for nearly the first forty years of its existence. Founded in 1886 by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck, the company established its initial reputation and fame as a “catalog supply house”, shipping all manner of goods to (mostly rural) locations all over the country from its Chicago headquarters. Along with its chief competitor Montgomery Ward, founded

The All-Weather Sears

Two views of classic Sears stores from the early nineteen-sixties - the Anchorage, Alaska store, which opened in 1966, and a Phoenix, Arizona store which opened four years earlier. Sears took a backseat to no one in terms of architectural design, variety and quality of construction during the postwar go-go years (or in many pre-war examples, for that matter). Fortunately, a decent number

The After Hours - Bradlees/Stop & Shop

One last look at Bradlees and Stop & Shop for now - here’s a night view from 1967 featuring Stop & Shop’s distinctive new logo, one the company would use into the 1980’s. The further refinement of the combo concept is nicely in evidence here. The difference in lighting styles between the discount store and the supermarket sections, described in detail in the article quoted in the previous post,

Stop & Shop's Sign of the Times

Here is a 1980’s photo of a great vintage Stop & Shop sign (with a clock, yet - always a welcome sight) from the 1957 Medford, Massachusetts store that was shown in a previous post and appears again in the second photo above. The sign photo comes to us through the courtesy of Larry Cultrera, a Medford native and host of a very entertaining and informative new website, Diner Hotline, which

Bradlees' Crushing Success

I’ve probably read close to 100 archived store “Grand Opening” articles over the past year in gathering information to research for this site. While generally interesting, the articles almost always tend to fall into one of two distinct categories. The first is the “just the facts” reporting style: “A large crowd was on hand for the opening of the new Safeway yesterday…” The second is the “over

Big Bargains at Bradlees

At the start of the 1960’s, Stop & Shop was enjoying great success, with over 100 mostly large, modern supermarkets, adding between fifteen and twenty per year. The majority of their new locations were in shopping centers, and increasingly the company served as the prime developer of those centers, leasing space alongside their own stores to popular but less well-capitalized discount store chains

Navigating the Stop & Shop

Here are a couple of nice 1960 interior views of Stop & Shop’s Natick, Massachusetts store. In addition to the great use of color and the classy design scheme (standard for S & S at the time), they also show a wall-length store directory – something that was a very common feature of chain supermarkets from the 1940’s through the sixties. These directories are now very rarely seen, the valuable

Stop & Shop's Showstopper

One of the great buzz-phrases of the 1960’s was “urban renewal”. If the term were coined today, one might think it meant restoring historic buildings for modern-day uses. Unfortunately, the phrase at the time essentially meant tearing blocks of vintage buildings down and building new stuff in their place. Thousands of wonderful old buildings all across America fell to this process from late 50’s

Stop & Shop, Bigger & Better

Stop & Shop was as aggressive as any major chain in replacing their small urban grocery stores with larger shopping center-based stores through the late fifties and early sixties. As the photos above show, they carried this out using an interesting variety of architectural designs, with an obvious focus on their large, block-lettered logotype. They made a number of acquisitions during the period,

Stop & Shop - The Postwar Years

By 1945, Stop & Shop had nearly 450 stores, most of which operated in the self-service format. In September of the following year, the company formally changed its name to “Stop & Shop, Inc.”. The photos above are typical of the company’s stores of the early postwar period, showing two urban locations – Springfield and Lynn, Massachusetts, and an early shopping center location in Fitchburg,

The Early Days of Stop & Shop

Stop & Shop, a fixture on the New England retail landscape and long its dominant grocery chain, began humbly with a single store in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1914. Founded as Economy Grocery Stores by Julius Rabinovitz, the chain grew rapidly but soon began losing money. In 1920, Rabinovitz sold the business to his brother Joseph. Joseph’s son Sidney was a Harvard graduate with considerable

The Safeway in Winter

Here’s a nice winter scene for early January – the brand new Leadville, Colorado Safeway, which opened in December 1971, is shown here in a photo taken soon afterward. There’s plentiful snow on the peaks – both the majestic Rocky Mountains in the background and the store’s own peak – the shallow, sloped roof that became one of Safeway’s stalwart designs in the early 1970’s. A simple design, but

Happy New Year!

…and welcome as we begin a new year of Pleasant Family Shopping, where we take a look at and discuss America’s great chain store history – old discount stores, supermarkets, and maybe even the occasional department or specialty store thrown in just for grins! Illustrated in artistic black-and-white, lifelike natural color and (wherever possible) super-saturated color, as in the photo above!A