Des Moines, IA

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tesg
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Des Moines, IA

Post by tesg »

(POSTER'S NOTE: This is a reply to a post in the "Store 1" thread in "General and Miscellaneous". I figured the subject matter fit more appropriately in here.)
danielh_512 wrote:Iowa as many of the Plains states are a mystery to me as to what chains operate there. It's usually smaller chains (ones we know nothing of out here in the Mid-Atlantic)....but Iowa, Des Moines specifically, Dahl's, Hy-Vee and Wal-Mart?
Well, here's the current lineup...

*Hy-Vee (14 stores in metro with a 15th under construction)
*Dahl's (12 stores as soon as the Ankeny store is completed)
*Fareway (7 stores in metro)
*Aldi (4 stores in metro...at least that I can think of...)
*Wal-Mart (4 supercenters in metro with a 5th under construction, 1 Sam's Club)
*Super Target (3 supercenters in metro)
*Costco (1 store in metro)

We had a few Supervalu indies in town as well until just a few years ago. The three I can think of all ran out of old Safeways (two Marinas and one later build...that one had the original 70's Safeway interior through the mid 90's). All closed. One was demolished for a Walgreens, one is a Hy-Vee Drugstore that doubles as a neighborhood grocery store (it's a Marina with a modern facade), and the other subdivided into a transmission place, a bar, a nickel arcade, and a tattoo shop. All of which I'm pretty sure have closed.

With the exception of the recent Albertson's experiment, all the major traditional supermarket chains were out of here decades ago. Supervalu also had a distribution center here that was closed a few years ago as the indies they serviced all fell to the Wal-Mart sword.

Across the state, it's gotten to the point where it's not much different. Hy-Vee, Fareway, Aldi, Wal-Mart, and Super Target are joined by Nash-Finch owned Econo Foods and an occasional Cub Foods. And THOSE are starting to disappear. The Quad Cities are a little more diverse with some Jewel-Osco operations on the Illinois side of the border. And Schnuck's just opened a store there. LOVE their interior.

Casualties over the years have included Thriftway, Safeway (the state is littered with old Safeway buildings), Albertson's, Easter's (another local chain which Nash-Finch absorbed) and Eagle Country Markets (that whole chain folded).

I should probably sit down and write brief histories on some of these over in "Specific Chains", kind of like the one I did for Fareway on the old board. And yes...take pictures!
benroethig

Post by benroethig »

To expand on what tesg is saying, Hy-Vee has been traditionally the major grocery chain in the plans part of Iowa while Eagles controlled the mississippi river valley with a few Econofoods mixed in. The void left by Egles has been mostly replaced by Hy-Vee. Here in Dubuque, The JFK Eagles (which was kiddy corner from Econofoods) was effectively replaced by a second Hy-Vee at Asbury plaza. Hy-vee also bought the big Eagles on S. Locust and just opened a 80k square foot monster on the same site. The little Eagles on the North end is still operated independently under the Eagle Country Market name. I expect this to eventually become a Fareway when a new grocery store (hopefully) opens in Riverside Plaza.

Econofoods is still around, but I don’t know how much longer. The chain’s Iowa operations currently include the last Cedar Rapids store, the Dubuque store and a couple in smaller communities, but the smaller stores started closing last month with the Manchester store. I expect the chain to be out of Iowa within 18 months. From there, there’s a cub a Ames and Iowa city. The Sioux City cub just closed. Clinton has a Jewel-Osco. Dahl’s is located in the Des Moines metro only with no known plans to expand and the Schnucks may or may not be a one off thing. They decided not to build a second QC location in Davenport and haven’t said anything about expanding into other Iowa metros or other parts of the Quad cities. From there you have a lot of independent grocers in the smaller communities.
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Post by jamcool »

Wasn't Eagle a chain formerly owned by Lucky? Their ads looked similar to Lucky's.
rich
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Post by rich »

Did Jewel ever extend further West than Quad Cities? They've receded from a huge territory that once included most of downstate Illinois, as well as Indianapolis and Bloomington, IN (mcuh of that was under the Eisner banner, at least originally). For many years, they were absent from Milwaukee, after once having had a significant presence there.

National Tea once had a Quad Cities division---did they ever extend as far as Des Moines? I think that divsion (along with Sioux City and Youngstown) was one of the first things they sold when Loblaw began shrinking the chain in the mid-70s, with some stores consolidated with Chicago.
benroethig

Post by benroethig »

As far west as Jewel got was 2nd street in clinton, about 15 miles from moline.
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Post by jamcool »

The Jewel banner went as far west as New Mexico at one time. Jewel-Osco was the new name for the Skaggs-Alpha Beta stores there when Jewel and American Stores merged (they are now Albertsons/SavOn)

There was also a Aldi-style chain operated by Jewel in CA called "Jewel T" during the 80s...it didn't last very long.
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Jewel T, Jewel in TX, and Eagle

Post by wnetmacman »

Jewel T actually outlasted the Jewel name in most of the markets it arrived in. Jewel T was also much like Save-A-Lot, who bought the chain from ASC prior to the ABS buyout.

The major difference between Jewel T and Save-A-Lot was that most Jewel T stores had no coolers, only dry goods. SAL has produce, fresh meats and breads. While not the highest class establishment, their prices are great, but the selection is limited (which is why the class of store is refered to as Limited Assortment).

Jewel in TX/OK/NM didn't last but about a year (from 1991 to 1992) before ASC sold the Dallas division to Albertsons, who subsequently converted almost all the stores to Albertstons (which, in most cases, only required changing the signs on the door).

Eagle Country Markets was owned by Lucky during the 60s and 70s. Lucky spun them off into their own company. I remember going into a couple of Eagle stores. They were mostly small, clean operations. Kinda sad to see them go.
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Post by storewanderer »

Albertsons didn't get the New Mexico Jewel units until taking ASC over. They operated as Jewel until 1998. In 1998, they were converted to Lucky. In summer 1999, they were converted to Albertsons (except Las Cruces and Santa Fe; Las Cruces went to Raleys (2 locations) and closed by 2001, and Santa Fe went to Smiths and is still operating)).
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Post by tesg »

Dahl's founder WT Dahl passed away Friday. He was 97.

Dahl started his first grocery in 1931, and his first "supermarket", the still-operating Beaverdale location, in 1948.

Dahl's, which Hoovers says was sold to its employees in 1970, operates twelve stores in the Des Moines area.
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Post by storewanderer »

Does anyone know what type of interior that Santa Fe Smiths (former Jewel/Lucky) has?

It is apparantly a reasonably high volume store.
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