Groceteria.com

Here's a definitive list of all of Safeway's private labels and their product categories, as published in the October 1968 issue of Safeway News -- I'm sure it will flog everyone's memory banks.

Dairy Products: Lucerne, Party Pride
Eggs: Lucerne, Cream o' the Crop
Coffee: Safeway, Edwards
Canned Fruit: Town House, LaLani
Canned Vegetables: Town House
Margarine: Sunnybank, Empress
Shortening: Royal Satin
Cookies & Crackers: Busy Baker
Candy: Roxbury
Dried Fruit: Town House
Desserts: Jell-Well
Canned Fish: Sea Trader, Prince Paul
Jams, Jellies, Olives: Empress
Peanut Butter: Nu-Made, Lucerne
Bakery Goods: Skylark, Mrs. Wright's
Soft Drinks: Cragmont
Fresh Produce: Safeway
Pickles: Zippy
Salt: Sno-White
Spices: Crown Colony
Sugar: Candi Cane
Bleach, Cleaners: White Magic
Paper Goods: Truly Fine
Nylon Hosiery: Truly Fine
Photo Service: Safeway
Frozen Food: Bel-Air, Manor House, Captain's Choice
Flour, Mixes: Kitchen Craft, Mrs. Wright's
Mayonnaise, Salad Dressing, Oil: Nu-Made
Bacon, Lunch Meat & Wieners: Safeway
Soap, Detergent: White Magic, Brocade, Su-Perb
Aluminum Foil, Plastic Wrap: Kitchen Craft
Health & Beauty Aids: Safeway, Truly Fine

I miss Cragmont Dr. Skippy. Last time I drank it was around the early 90's at a store in northern california.

This would be a good spot to link to Storewanderer's Safeway Private Label page:

http://www.geocities.com/coolstorephotos/safewaypl.html

Don't forget their budget label, Scotch Buy..which has been reborn as "Simply Red"

jamcool wrote:Don't forget their budget label, Scotch Buy..which has been reborn as "Simply Red"

Apparently Scotch Buy wasn't around in 1968, since that was the whole list as published. And the new budget label is Basic Red -- I think a certain British music group would have legal issues with a Simply Red trade name!

Here are some others. These might have been earlier/later than '68.

Fresh Eggs Breakfast Gems
Generics Scotch Treat forerunner of Scoth Buy
Beer Brown Derby
Vinegar, 2nd Tier Canned Goods Piedmont
Processed Cheese Food Breeze
Mellorine Joy-Ett
2nd Tier Detergents/Cleaners Par

Special thanks to my good friend terryinokc for pointing these out to me.

Speaking of Lucerne, saw this little blurb in doing a UC Calisphere search, in a text mostly speaking about Earl Warren:

Fry
Was your father in politics?

FClifton
No.

Fry
What was he in?

FClifton
He was just a worker for the Lucerne Cream and Butter Company first, and then it merged with Safeway and he went with Safeway for years.

Not sure the link is available for non-university students, though.

Wow, that list brings back memories - we always bought a bunch of Cragmont soda to put in the cooler when we went on vacation.

And since you mentioned Scotch Buy - I always thought the character on the label looked just like the late Mike Douglas!

Looking through an old Family Circle magazine from 1950, there's an ad for White Magic Bleach. At the bottom of the ad it says in small print: "Home Needs Company, Head Office: Los Angeles, Calif." Was this a company Safeway bought out?

I searched through the LA Times archive and the only reference I could find was a display ad listing the "Home Needs Company Bleach Plant" in Los Angeles as a supporter of war bonds. The ad was dated on the first anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. I also looked through the NYT and WSJ archive and found nothing.

Interesting. Perhaps they went bankrupt and Safeway bought the White Magic trademark to use as a store brand? Who knows... The ad does use generic terms like "your grocer's shelf", which would indicate that at least in 1950 White Magic was sold in places besides Safeway.

Actually that poses a really good question: how many Safeway store brands originated outside the company? Lucerne is the most prominent (and most enduring) example.

Actually, I think several of the brands we know as Safeway Brands were this way. I've seen advertisements in old magazines from the 40's and 50's that are like this.

The main one that comes to mind is Edwards Coffee......and I had also seen the White Magic one. There are several more.....if I can come across some older magazines, I'll look for the others and post them.

Don't know if Safeway bought the companies/manufacturers, or if they were somehow related to Safeway all along.

terryinokc wrote:Don't know if Safeway bought the companies/manufacturers, or if they were somehow related to Safeway all along.

Could be that Safeway was also acting as supplier to other chains. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that A&P did some of that with its house brands on a limited basis.

In addition to the previously mentioned Edwards Coffee, this magazine also has an ad for Town House Grapefruit Juice with "Regent Canfood Company, Head Office: San Francisco, California" at the bottom of the ad. Also, I saw an old Crown Colony spice tin with some other company listed as the manufacturer when I was looking in an antique store.

That's an interesting thought that they might have been supplying other stores. I don't think any chain would do that nowadays.