A&P/Family Mart

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jbarn02
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Post by jbarn02 »

Does anyone know what kind of POS system A&P uses and what happens to the old equipment?
Rockinrandall

A&P pos equip.

Post by Rockinrandall »

When the Family Marts first opened they used the NCR 255 system (non-scanning version), when they remodeled in 1989 and went to the Sav-A-Center package they switched over to IBM systems (systen was REALLY bad) as it was this system had been discontinued by IBM, and was a pain to get repaired, they kept this system until they closed. As far as I know they left all the equip. in the stores...most of it was worn out anyway, and as was stated by another person, the buildings were in such bad shape, I doubt any of it would be usable.
apteafan

A&P and FamilyMart-Sav-a-center in Georgia

Post by apteafan »

While A&P will never return to GA, it still holds vacant land in Warner-Robbins, GA.

A listing of vacant stores and parcels can be found at http://www.aptea.com
Edric Floyd
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Re: A&P and FamilyMart-Sav-a-center in Georgia

Post by Edric Floyd »

apteafan wrote:While A&P will never return to GA, it still holds vacant land in Warner-Robbins, GA.

A listing of vacant stores and parcels can be found at http://www.aptea.com
The property in Warner Robins is actually a small corner parcel in the parking lot of the former FAMILY MART store here (I live in the area)

The listing on the APTEA website lists the address as 515 Houston Street which is incorrect. Its North Houston Avenue (not street and pronounced "HOUSE-TON" "How" not pronounced like the city in Texas but more like the street in New York city)

The corner listed has gasoline islands still in the ground but whatever gas station or building that was there was removed long before I moved here in 1994.

The Family Mart store remained open until A&P pulled out of Georgia in 1999. THAT PARCEL IS OWNED BY the "First Baptist Church of Garmon Street". However the supermarket building remains standing and is boarded up (refer to photos in earlier post) And the parking lot is the occasional location of a carnival.

I got the property information from the Houston County Tax Assessors Office. http://www.qpublic.net/ga/houston

The Garmon Street Baptist Church may be planning on moving their small Church to this location. No word on when this will happen.


This is the map of the parcel. the original Family Mart parcel (highlighted in gray) at the corner of Green Street and Houston Ave was divided in the front. The South corner was an Auto parts store that opened in 1996 and closed in 2002 and is currently being remodoled into a laundrymat. The north corner (highlighted in red) is the parcel still owned by A&P as vacant land. It is part of the parking lot of the supermarket.
http://64.234.218.46/ga_houston.html?pa ... rs=roads#3

Click on Aerial Photography to view the area and the property lines.

FYI across the street from the Family Mart is a free standing ECKERD drug store. If you scroll SOUTH on the map you'll find a former Winn-Dixie at Houston Rd and Oakview Next to old Mall (the WD is now a furnature store) and if you scroll NORTH on the map to Elberta Road, you'll find three supermarkets: on the Left, a former FOOD WORLD (Brunos)-later BIG LOTS, now vacant. And next to that on the left is a former FOODMAX (Brunos) now PIGGLY WIGGLY (Southern Family Foods) and on the right is a shopping center with a former ZAYRE and a PIGGLY WIGGLY that was a variety of stores over the years including CVS Pharmacy until CVS built their free standing store in the parking lot (on that corner) The supermarket is now a SAVE-A-LOT, The ZAYRE space was a furnature store that later moved to the WinnDixie space to the south. The Zayre space has been vacant for years.
jtellaw

Post by jtellaw »

Did A&P have a different circular for the Family Mart W-R store? I do have a Atlanta ROP ad, but does the FM ad look different from Metro Atlanta's Foodmarket circulars and ads?
Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

jtellaw wrote:Did A&P have a different circular for the Family Mart W-R store? I do have a Atlanta ROP ad, but does the FM ad look different from Metro Atlanta's Foodmarket circulars and ads?
In Atlanta, they called it A&P Foodmarket and here in Warner Robins, it was "Family Mart Sav-A-Center" with no mention of A&P. We had no television commercials while Atlanta did and A&P was also a sponsor of WSB Channel 2's "Family 2 Family" charity service (We get Atlanta Television via cable down here).

The ONLY advertising here was via the circular put in our mailbox AND inserted in the local newspaper. They were under the Family Mart name. I don't know if they were the same in appearance with the A&P ones in Atlanta, but ours were clearly labled Family Mart Sav-A-Center.

I did have their shopping card which was a combination of check cashing card and one used for discounts (although it was rarely required for anything on sale unlike Kroger which requires the card for EVERY sale item) and the card was identical in appearance to the A&P cards at the time but again, mine was clearly labled under the Family Mart name.
jbarn02
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Post by jbarn02 »

Anything new on this location?
Swifty
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Mystery!

Post by Swifty »

I just checked the A&P Real Estate section this weekend...and discovered something that intrigued me.

In Columbus, Georgia, they have some property available at 5601 Forest Ave. Naturally, I just assumed that this was referring to this store on Floyd Rd (the only colonial-style building in Columbus), and they'd just gotten the address wrong.

But the more I thought about it - and the more I Google-mapped it, I realized that maybe...just maybe...A&P was actually planning on updating a store in Columbus before they pulled out.

This struck me as odd for a couple reasons -

1) I'm unaware of A&P ever replacing any store in the Atlanta region outside of metro-Atlanta. I'm not even sure they did any advertising other than a weekly newspaper insert outside of metro-Atlanta. As far as I know, the A&P Foodmarket concept never made it beyond metro Atlanta.

2) I went into that Floyd Plaza store in the late '90s before it closed. They had removed the former interior signage from the previous remodel (circa 1983) and had just begun to repaint it. I remember seeing a green stripe along the top of the wall - similar to the A&P designs of the '90s (where they put the word 'Fresh' in front of everything.) Why would they remodel it if they were going to replace it?

I'm still trying to find out exactly when A&P purchased the propety in Columbus. And it's a fairly large 6.7 acres, too. So it would have been a decent sized store, assuming that's what they were going to do with it.

Excluding Family Mart, I believe the largest store thay had in the area was just north of 20,000 sq. ft. And all of the stores dated from at least the 1960s - maybe earlier. And none of them were ever replaced. They would just occasionally receive a fresh coat of paint.

When I contacted A&P about the history and planned usage of the property, they didn't have any information on it. I can't say I really expected that they would know anything about it.

Still - I'd love to get my grubby little paws on the plans they had for that property.
Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

jbarn02 wrote:Anything new on this location?
No change on this location.

(I live in the area)

I even checked the tax assessor while I was doing other business and as I posted previously, the only part of the Warner Robins Family Mart that is still owned by A&P is a small corner of the original parcel. A site that may have been used as or planned as a gas station. (the gas Islands and a concrete slab remain on this ground.) This is on the N.E. corner of the front parking lot and it is on this section of the parking lot that still has the Family Mart sign on it. The sign was never removed when this store closed nearly 8 years ago. This corner parcel at 517 Nouth Houston Road- pronounced HOUSE-TON (still owned by A&P) has an assessed value of $109,000

515 N. Houston is the main parcel (that contains the actual store building) is still owned by a local Church. It was assessed at $1,878,300.00.

The building remains standing and is the same as in previous photos posted. The sinage is still there, the building is still boarded up and grass/weeds are still growing through the cracks in the pavement.

A couple times a year, the front parking lot of the Family Mart is used as a carnival.

513 N. Houston Rd, The SE corner parcel of the original Family Mart property was once a "Discount Auto Parts" store that opened around 1995 and closed when this company merged with Advance Auto Parts. There was an Advance Auto Parts less than a mile away in both directions, and with the Family Mart closed by the time of the merger, they closed this store.

The former Auto Parts store parcel is now owned by "Bunch of Bubbles Inc" and is a laundromat that opened a couple months ago. This property was assessed at $330,000
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

Edric Floyd wrote:... the only part of the Warner Robins Family Mart that is still owned by A&P is a small corner of the original parcel. A site that may have been used as or planned as a gas station. (the gas Islands and a concrete slab remain on this ground.)...
A&P may still own it because of environmental problems if it was a gas station; the site could be undergoing testing or remediation. On the other hand, if it's a large enough parcel, maybe they're land banking it to sell to a drugstore or something like that.
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Groceteria
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Post by Groceteria »

Hey all...

I've split the general Warner Robins stuff into a separate topic here:

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=925
Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

updated photos of the Family Mart building here in Georgia.

http://www.edricfloyd.com/oldschoolreta ... ymart.html
Swifty
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Post by Swifty »

Edric Floyd wrote:updated photos of the Family Mart building here in Georgia.

http://www.edricfloyd.com/oldschoolreta ... ymart.html
If nothing else, Family Mart was consistent. That looks identical to the former location in Columbus.

Thanks for the photos. Can't wait to see more of the A&Ps
u-save
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Post by u-save »

Edric:
I'm suprised that nobody ( another supermarket chain, that is) picked up this store, it seems pretty nice-sized the Was this A&P/FM store in an area with lots of competition (Kroger, etc) or was the store in a bad/declining neigborhood? Judging by the number of old grocery store sites, it seems that the neighborhood was in transistion.
Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

u-save wrote:Edric:
I'm suprised that nobody ( another supermarket chain, that is) picked up this store, it seems pretty nice-sized the Was this A&P/FM store in an area with lots of competition (Kroger, etc) or was the store in a bad/declining neigborhood? Judging by the number of old grocery store sites, it seems that the neighborhood was in transistion.

I haven't been to this site (or online much) for a long time. Sorry for the long delayed response to the question.

The area where the Family Mart is located isn't a "bad" neighborhood, but the trend has been to move most retail to the more "affluent" and newer areas to the west. The nearby mall was "dethroned" by a new mall built in 1995 and most retail followed each other close to the newer mall. Kroger never had a store on the north side of town where the Family Mart was but even they built their second store near the new mall.

As for competition, this store had a Piggly Wiggly turned Food World turned FoodMax (all under one ownership) and turned again to Piggly Wiggly under current ownership (Southern Family Markets). For a few years, the store also had Big Star, Red Apple and Winn Dixie for competition. The first two were long gone when I moved here in 1994. The Winn Dixie had relocated west and closed two years after the Family Mart. The Family Mart was by far the largest supermarket in town right until the end.

Wal-Mart didn't begin building supercenters here until 2000 and we now have three of them in addition to TWO very popular (and more upscale) Kroger and Publix stores each (with another under construction) So even if the Family Mart building was taken over by someone, I doubt it would have lasted.
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