Thrifty Drug in the Northwest

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justin karimzad
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Re: Thrifty Drug in the Northwest

Post by justin karimzad »

Other Giant T/Thrifty locations
-Riverside Shopping Center, 515 Harrison Ave. Centralia, WA: 16,365 sq. ft., opened March 27, 1975, featuring "year-round temperature control, background music, flourescent lighting and a color-cordinated interior". 4,000 shoppers showed up to the grand opening. Later Payless Drug and possibly Rite Aid (the Rite Aid down the street is probably a replacement for this store), now a Dollar Store.
-1315 Fourth Ave., Kennewick, WA: 18,900 sq. ft.,opened September 1, 1976. I think it is Cascade Marine now.
-Court Street Plaza, 1308 N 20th Ave. Pasco, WA: 20,100 sq. ft., opened June 5, 1975. This shopping center once had a gable-roofed Albertson's from 1967. Then in April 1975 Albertson's opened a new 30,000 square foot store next to the old one, and a shopping center with Giant T, Sprouse Reitz, Hancock Fabrics, and Sambos restaurant, among other stores, was developed adjacent to the store during that time. The old Albertson's is still standing, but is false-fronted and subdivided. The street signs along N 20th Ave. and Court St. are still the original tuning-fork style signs that once held an Albertson's sign at top that was rectangle with rounded edges, and the Giant T oval sign below. The 1975 Albertson's is still operating in the same building. The Giant T became Payless Drug, and is now Rite Aid.
-Spokane, unknown location: there was a Giant T there mentioned in the Court Street Plaza opening newspaper article.
-Seattle, two stores: one of them was probably the 145th St. location mentioned earlier in this thread.

After seeing newspaper ads and articles about Giant T, I noticed that the Giant T logo used in their ads was a very similar oval to Thrifty's, and read "Giant T Drug and Discount" instead of "Thrifty Drug and Discount Stores". Their street signs followed that format too. Giant T sold Thrifty-brand products and had the same chain-wide promotions as Thrifty, such as the company's 46th birthday sale, even though that pertained to Thrifty's inception. They also spilled the beans when they mentioned the executives for Thrifty Drug Stores present at the ribbon cutting of the Centralia Giant T. Giant T also used the awning signs that hung over the entrance like the ones Thrifty used, but instead of reading "Thrifty Drug and Discount Stores" with no oval read "Giant T" (with the Giant arched over the T) inside a Thrifty-like oval. The Kennewick Giant T described itself as being "part of the largest drug and discount chain in the west with more than 491 stores in nine states".
Last edited by justin karimzad on 20 Nov 2008 16:26, edited 2 times in total.
justin karimzad
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Re: Thrifty Drug in the Northwest

Post by justin karimzad »

There was a Thrifty Drug at 1371 Dewar Dr. in Rock Springs, WY as of December 28, 1978
Super S
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Re: Thrifty Drug in the Northwest

Post by Super S »

justin karimzad wrote:Other Giant T/Thrifty locations
-Riverside Shopping Center, 515 Harrison Ave. Centralia, WA: 16,365 sq. ft., opened March 27, 1975, featuring "year-round temperature control, background music, flourescent lighting and a color-cordinated interior". 4,000 shoppers showed up to the grand opening. Later Payless Drug and possibly Rite Aid (the Rite Aid down the street is probably a replacement for this store), now a Dollar Store.
The Rite Aid down the street is indeed a replacement for this store. I actually visited the dollar store a few months back, and if you look closely along the wall, you can tell where shelves were placed to block off the old pharmacy. It did not have a typical PayLess interior layout. This same shopping center has a former Safeway, now Goodwill, which aside from a repainting has most of its interior intact. Safeway moved to a strip mall almost across from the new Rite-Aid, in a former Bag-N-Save Foods.

Also, PayLess operated a store in Chehalis at the Lewis County Mall, which became Rite Aid and was replaced by a new store, possibly at the same time as the Centralia location. I believe the old Chehalis store was being remodeled into a movie theater, however I have not been in that mall in many years.
Dean
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Re: Thrifty Drug in the Northwest

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