BillyGr wrote:Perhaps (looking at the info you have posted) the reason for the IGA and Piggly Wiggly both being in the ad is that this new group (Milgram), since they were taking over 6 different stores, some of the stores were running under one name and the rest under the other?
It would sound logical with the two that you posted (one previously listed as Thriftway IGA and the other as Piggly Wiggly).
That's possible, but it's hard to know for sure. My take-away is that the IGA references in the ad simply indicate that Milgram relied upon IGA as a supplier...it's a mere coincidence that some of the stores it was re-opening had been IGA affiliates under Thriftway a few years earlier!
I dug into local newspaper archives again, and deciphered the rapid turnover of owners that affected these stores in the 1970s:
First: In December 1970, the 3 Thriftway IGA stores in Joplin (including 2609 E. 7th) were sold to John Askew Enterprises of Fayetteville, AR, who rebranded them under the Piggly Wiggly name in 1971.
Second: In May 1971, Karbe's Piggly Wiggly (an operator of 9 stores, including 1701 S. Main)
also sold out to John Askew Enterprises. Since these stores were Piggly Wigglies to begin with, no rebranding was required.
Third: In November 1972, John Askew Enterprises sold its Piggly Wiggly stores (30 of them, including the ones it had just acquired) to Milgram Food Stores of Kansas City. Milgram reopened the stores under their own name in February 1973, 2609 E. 7th and 1701 S. Main included.
Fourth: Milgram ran into a spat of trouble in the second half of the 1970s. 2609 E. 7th closed in June 1976 "due to the fact that fixtures in the store would cost too much to replace" (exact quote from the newspaper). 1701 S. Main closed in December 1977. Several other local stores are closed, whittling Milgram's presence in the Joplin area from six stores to two. By the end of 1980, even those were gone.
Interestingly, I discovered that the Thriftway name in Joplin was revived by Fleming in 1983 when they took over Safeway's local stores.