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Re: Thriftimart in Valley Plaza

Posted: 21 Aug 2009 18:43
by klkla
Gunter Caddington wrote:
This Smart and Final was never a Thiriftimart. The S & F opened about 10 years ago. If memory serves me correctly it replaced an auto parts store but not 100% sure about what it was before S&F.
Hi--I must respectfully disagree.

There was a Thriftimart in Valley Plaza where the Smart and Final is now. I used to live in North Hollywood from 1957 to 1978 and still visit on occasion.

The Thriftimart closed in the 1970's and was converted to a Builder's Emporium store.
Thriftimart had another store on Lankershim Blvd. not too far away (That became a Safeway, then a Vons and is now a Superior Warehourse store AFAIK). It's strange that they would operate two stores so close together. Did they operate concurrently?

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 24 Aug 2009 17:05
by Gunter Caddington
I believe the Lankershim (between Oxnard & Erwin) and the Valley Plaza Thriftimarts (Laurel Canyon at Kittridge) operated concurrently, although as you point out they were fairly close together. As Valley Plaza was nearby, we seldom had need to venture farther east to Lankershim. Not sure when the Lankershim store became a Safeway, as I moved to Northern California in 1978.

I should take some of my memories of the Valley Plaza store over to Thriftimart Stores thread under the California Markets board--it was kind of a quirky store, with a great neon chaser sign before the top was lopped off for the installation of the "Big T".

Thriftimart had another store on Lankershim Blvd. not too far away (That became a Safeway, then a Vons and is now a Superior Warehourse store AFAIK). It's strange that they would operate two stores so close together. Did they operate concurrently?
Gunter Caddington wrote:
This Smart and Final was never a Thiriftimart. The S & F opened about 10 years ago. If memory serves me correctly it replaced an auto parts store but not 100% sure about what it was before S&F.
Hi--I must respectfully disagree.

There was a Thriftimart in Valley Plaza where the Smart and Final is now. I used to live in North Hollywood from 1957 to 1978 and still visit on occasion.

The Thriftimart closed in the 1970's and was converted to a Builder's Emporium store.
Thriftimart had another store on Lankershim Blvd. not too far away (That became a Safeway, then a Vons and is now a Superior Warehourse store AFAIK). It's strange that they would operate two stores so close together. Did they operate concurrently?

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 15 Oct 2009 18:54
by EDEW
This practice was very common in the 50's and 60's

Atlanta, Ga
Campbellton Plaza (1950's): Kroger and Colonial Stores

Macon, Ga
Shurlington Plaza (1950's) : Piggly Wiggly and A&P
Westgate Mall (1961): Piggly Wiggly and Colonial Stores

Warner Robins, Ga
Williams Plaza (1958) : Big Apple/Food Giant and Winn Dixie Kwik Chek
Houston Mall (1970) : A&P and Winn Dixie

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 06 Nov 2009 16:43
by bm10k
Holliday Village Mall in Great Falls, MT Had a Buttery's And Albertsons
both stores would close in the 80's

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 20 Nov 2009 19:45
by maynesG
Hi, here is a strange one. Yes there have been many shopping centers with two supermarkets, but how many can say that they have had two supermarkets run by the same chain at the sametime? According to todays Wilmington News Journal (Delawareonline.com/article/20091120/Business/01120358) The merchantsSquare ShopingCenter on The Gouvennor Printz Highway oipppenedin theearly sixties with two Acme Markets on each side of the mall. The mall has been empty for nearly twenty years. But it clears up a mystery for me, I never could figure out which empty building that obviously were supermarkets was the Acme .One was larger the other smaller, both looked like models Acme ran in the area. Food Lion is going to build a store at this location thus the article and the mystery solved!

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 15:13
by Ephrata1966
maynesG wrote:Hi, here is a strange one. Yes there have been many shopping centers with two supermarkets, but how many can say that they have had two supermarkets run by the same chain at the sametime? According to todays Wilmington News Journal (Delawareonline.com/article/20091120/Business/01120358) The merchantsSquare ShopingCenter on The Gouvennor Printz Highway oipppenedin theearly sixties with two Acme Markets on each side of the mall. The mall has been empty for nearly twenty years. But it clears up a mystery for me, I never could figure out which empty building that obviously were supermarkets was the Acme .One was larger the other smaller, both looked like models Acme ran in the area. Food Lion is going to build a store at this location thus the article and the mystery solved!
Merchants Square actually opened in 1951-1952. The Strawbridge & Clothier was replaced by the Concord Mall store sometime between 1981-1983. That store is now Macy's, but the old store was abandoned until it was just torn down. A while back I heard they were tearing it all down for a Giant/Super G and Happy Harry's. That was coming from a real estate site. I saw Merchants Square had a Marshalls, but I wonder when it closed. The sign is still up, and it had their later logo.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 13 Dec 2009 18:29
by maynesG
Hi, that's another strange one. Marshals which about ten yearts ago or so was to open in one of the old Acmes in the center. They went far enough to place a sign over the empty store but,m in one of the many arguments between the county and Frank Ancierio who then owned the center, it just never happened!
Gerry

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 14 Dec 2009 00:25
by Ephrata1966
maynesG wrote:Hi, that's another strange one. Marshals which about ten yearts ago or so was to open in one of the old Acmes in the center. They went far enough to place a sign over the empty store but,m in one of the many arguments between the county and Frank Ancierio who then owned the center, it just never happened!
Gerry
That made my day! Thanks! I love to know about cancelled stores. Marshalls has been around since the 80's, and not much has changed. They were bought by T.J. Maxx in 1995 though. In 1994 or 1995 they changed their logo.

Do you know if Merchants Square ever had a Budco or AMC cinema?

Looking in Google Maps, the building on the end next to Marshalls is shaped like a 40's Acme. Maybe they expanded into the space next door. There is a Marshalls in Wilmington next to the current Super G/Giant. I wonder if it was a replacement for the Merchants Square store. The center opened in the early-mid 90's (around 1994-1997) I would say. That was when Super G opened stores in PA. They were divested in 1998 when Ahold bought Giant-MD. Marshalls now has a store in Glen Mills (PA) with HomeGoods inside.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 08:01
by maynesG
Hi, The AMC was across the governor Printz Highway from the center and adjacent to a Firestone also closed. The area south of the center in the city of Wilmington just never recovered from the riots of the 1960!s , or from the year of martial law took place afterwards. It also killed an A&P down the road that couldn!t survive beccause of the strife and restricted movements of that miserable time.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 30 Dec 2009 02:19
by krogerclerk
Toco Hills(Atlanta/DeKalb) represents a modern shopping center with two currently operating supermarkets. Neither are original to the shopping center which originally had an A&P, now an Office Depot. Kroger added an early 80's greenhouse store that has been expanded in remodled several times over the last 3 decades and Publix arrived in the late 90's. A&P moved across the street in the mid 70's to a store that presently is an LA Fitness after a stint as Harris-Teeter(99-01). It's unusual in that it didn't become a shopping center with 2 supermarkets until the 90's.


Kroger:
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/ ... a=&s=w&n=0

Publix: http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/ ... a=&s=w&n=0

Former A&P Centennial:
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/ ... a=&s=w&n=0

former 1970's A&P:
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/ ... a=&s=w&n=0

Unfortunately there is little left to attest to the former's life as A&P.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 31 Dec 2009 01:52
by rich
I think that former A&P was remodeled to become an H-T, but never opened. The one A&P that did open as an H-T was in downtown Decautur and that had a very short, but popular life. I doubt that was open for even a year.

Was the H-T on Briarcliff at Johnson Road ( I think it's Elm Hill Plaza) also a former A&P? There's an old centennial just down the hill on Johnson and I wondered if the later H-T (now Kroger) may have been a replacement, or perhaps it was a Big Star that A&P acquired and used to replace the centennial.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 00:17
by krogerclerk
I'm not sure if the LA Fitness ever operated as Harris-Teeter, but A&P closed in the market in early summer 1999 and Harris-Teeter sold its Atlanta area stores to Kroger at the end of 2001. Harris-Teeter and Publix initially acquired the largest number of former A&P(and Big Star) sites in 1999, while I believe Kroger only acquired 2 sites-Brookhaven and Stone Mountain.

As to the origins of the Sage Plaza H-T/Kroger on Briarcliff, it appears to have been a former Winn-Dixie site(but I'm not 100% sure on this), obviously a rebuild, since the store is 2 floors. I hadn't even known the centennial was located virtually across from the store, as I've never used Johnson as a cut through, using RockBridge more often. The angle and the trees had obscured the view from Briarcliff on my passes through.

I don't recall nearby Ansley Mall when Kroger was still an anchor, as I had only seen the store as SupeRx->Treasury Drug->Revco->CVS time frame. But Big Star had a location on the north side of Ansley facing Monroe Drive while the ex-Kroger was on the south side facing Piedmont. Were the two supermarkets in the mall at the same time prior to Kroger moving to the neighboring greenhouse on Monroe next to Ansley Mall? The Big Star made the transition to A&P, but closed before the 1999 market exit and was razed for the current Publix. Both the Kroger and Big Star were located next to one another on 1845 Piedmont near Cheshire Bridge and Rock Bridge Rds prior to Ansley Mall, so that would have been an interesting move that 2 rivals relocated in tandem to the same shopping center from previous neighboring locations.

Here's a current view of the original Piedmont strip location of Kroger and Colonial/Big Star:
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/ ... a=&s=w&n=0

and a vintage view:
http://atlantatimemachine.com/commercia ... prings.htm

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 20:20
by rich
I used to stop at the Caribou near the Toco Hills A&P and I don't think H-T got beyond "coming soon" before they sold out. The purpose built H-T on Ponce next to Home Depot (later a Whole Foods) had a similar evolution--"coming soon" for a long time and then the signs disappeared and the local stores were soon sold.

Ansley would have opened at a time when two supers in a center still would have been typical. Kroger routinely relocated stores during that era even if they'd been around for less than 10 years, so I could see them having simply moved from Rock Springs. They must have done a lot of short-term leases, although they also had location agreements with pioneer shopping center developers like Visconsi-Jacobs-Visconsi (later just Jacobs of Cleveland Indians fame) and DeBartolo from the early 50s onward. Colonial seemed to blanket Atlanta in its heyday so they might have been happy to keep both stores running in that area. Kroger & Colonial also anchored Stewart-Lakewood Plaza, which has been speculated to have been an Ansley sibling. Kroger later moved to a nearby location and then off to Sylvan Road. Colonial's HQ and Atlanta DC were a short distance away--that building sported Colonial markings until it was finally sublet a few years ago.

The centennial on Johnson is an odd location. OTOH, A&P went through a period of looking for spaces that were a little away from major shopping areas or in between two sizable ones. Their surviving DC store (a Super Fresh on Yuma Ave NW) is in a similar kind of location--barely visible but close to the decent sized Spring Valley business district.

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 04:07
by luckysaver
San Clemente CA (I-5/Camino de los Mares): Ralphs and Trader Joe's. Behind Trader Joe's is another shopping center anchored by Stater Bros (former small sized Lucky).

Irvine CA: Ralphs and Trader Joes are also together (Sand Canyon/Irvine Blvd). Trader Joe's and Smart & Final in Irvine (Culver/Walnut)

luckysaver

Re: 2 Supermarkets In One Shopping Center

Posted: 02 Jan 2011 23:56
by Gary21228
Ingleside Shopping Center in Catonsville, MD opened in 1957 with an Acme at one end and a Giant at the other. The Acme closed in 1982 when they pulled out of the Baltimore area (except for Harford County). For most of the ensuing years it was an Erol's TV/Video store until it was leased by Safeway in 1995. The Acme was not torn down, but was stripped of its walls and the structure was expanded outward from the original footprint (to about 60,000 sq ft.), taking out several smaller stores in the strip in the process. The building retained its pylon until Safeway's rebuild began. The current Safeway opened in 1996.

The Giant (store #36) was their first Baltimore location and was closed with the expiration of the lease in 1995, by concidence about a month after the passing of Giant's legendary CEO Izzy Cohen (son of the company's founder). Giant was beginning to phase out stores without pharmacies, and #36 was blocked from having a pharmacy due to the presence of Rite Aid in the center, who acquired original tennant Read's Drug in 1977. The Giant was torn down and replaced with a new Rite Aid.