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Re: A&P's closures and market withdrawals of the late 1970s and early 1980s

Posted: 01 Nov 2016 23:55
by pseudo3d
wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Actually, I should mention that there are only two stores that were former Safeway stores turned HEB Pantry that I have know of, and add a third for one that was a Pantry after Randalls. (And that's not counting stores along I-35). There were no Pantry stores in A&P stores, because also the stores were suburban vs. urban.
I can name 4 that you aren't counting: Livingston (still HEB), Center (closed), Rockdale (closed) and Carthage (still HEB, and their furthest outpost in East Texas)
I was referring to the Houston division stores, though I didn't know H-E-B Pantry stores went that far north (to Carthage). I had always wondered about the Carthage store too, it had a rounded rectangle sign like H-E-B Pantry stores did, though it seemed to predate the Pantry prototype. Having it be a Safeway actually makes a lot more sense. That was definitely in the Houston Division (it went as far north as Waco, though Waco was originally Dallas Division). Like the others, they didn't become AppleTree before becoming H-E-B Pantry, and the few that did that had brief stays as Randalls.

Re: A&P's closures and market withdrawals of the late 1970s and early 1980s

Posted: 03 Nov 2016 16:41
by wnetmacman
pseudo3d wrote:I had always wondered about the Carthage store too, it had a rounded rectangle sign like H-E-B Pantry stores did, though it seemed to predate the Pantry prototype. Having it be a Safeway actually makes a lot more sense. That was definitely in the Houston Division (it went as far north as Waco, though Waco was originally Dallas Division). Like the others, they didn't become AppleTree before becoming H-E-B Pantry, and the few that did that had brief stays as Randalls.
Negative. Carthage was part of the Dallas division, and closed in April 1987 initially without a buyer. Within 2-3 months, it was purchased by a small store chain called U-Save Foods, who operated it for about 8 years. HEB Bought 4 of U-Save's stores, and converted them to HEB Pantry in about 1996-1997. 2 of the conversions have since closed (Nacogdoches and Center). Carthage is one of only 3 grocery stores in town (approx. 7000 population), so it does pretty well. As a Safeway, it did not have a Deli, Bakery or Pharmacy; it was just a standard supermarket.

Re: A&P's closures and market withdrawals of the late 1970s and early 1980s

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 00:00
by pseudo3d
wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:I had always wondered about the Carthage store too, it had a rounded rectangle sign like H-E-B Pantry stores did, though it seemed to predate the Pantry prototype. Having it be a Safeway actually makes a lot more sense. That was definitely in the Houston Division (it went as far north as Waco, though Waco was originally Dallas Division). Like the others, they didn't become AppleTree before becoming H-E-B Pantry, and the few that did that had brief stays as Randalls.
Negative. Carthage was part of the Dallas division, and closed in April 1987 initially without a buyer. Within 2-3 months, it was purchased by a small store chain called U-Save Foods, who operated it for about 8 years. HEB Bought 4 of U-Save's stores, and converted them to HEB Pantry in about 1996-1997. 2 of the conversions have since closed (Nacogdoches and Center). Carthage is one of only 3 grocery stores in town (approx. 7000 population), so it does pretty well. As a Safeway, it did not have a Deli, Bakery or Pharmacy; it was just a standard supermarket.
(Rereads post). I meant to say Rockdale's store, which IS almost certainly within the Houston Division guidelines as mentioned by my post which makes a lot more sense if you replace the word "Carthage" with "Rockdale".

Re: A&P's closures and market withdrawals of the late 1970s and early 1980s

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 15:55
by Ephrata1966
There was a Centennial A&P (not sure if it was originally a Centennial) in Irving at one time. It at one point was a Dollar General but I'm not sure if it still is or not. And I'm assuming it must have been something in between when A&P closed and Dollar General opened but I'm not sure what. I wonder if it was an IGA or another independent supermarket. Or maybe it was a Drug Emporium because I can name several of them that were in former A&P buildings.

Also, I find it interesting that Hancock Fabrics (which was mentioned not too long ago in this thread) was once owned by Lucky Stores. The geographical stretch of Hancock Fabrics was way beyond that of Lucky though. There was a strip center in Houston built in 1974 that was originally anchored by Eagle (no-frills grocer also owned by Lucky) and Hancock Fabrics.

It kind of surprises me that Jo-Ann Fabrics never bought Hancock Fabrics. There's a long list of fabric chains that Jo-Ann bought over the years. House of Fabrics was one. Cloth World (or The Cloth World as it was otherwise known) was acquired by Jo-Ann and this was a pretty big milestone. In the 70's, Cloth World started opening much bigger stores than any other fabric chain up to that time (with a bigger emphasis on crafts as well as fabrics), but left their older, smaller stores alone (most of the larger new stores were Cloth World's first entry into a town and not relocations). A lot of these larger stores were in former supermarket buildings (I know of at least one in a Centennial A&P building) or former five-and-dime buildings (the Kresge and Grants stores closing in the 70's come to mind). Also one was a former Two Guys food center that had closed before the main Two Guys store next to it.

Not until the mid-late 80's did Jo-Ann (which had long overlapped with Cloth World's territory, but usually the two didn't have stores close enough for closings to happen due to the merger) start opening stores of comparable size and with a wide crafts selection. In the past 10-15 years, Jo-Ann has closed or relocated a lot of their older stores, but dozens of small, old Jo-Ann stores (yes, even stores that opened as Cloth World BEFORE the larger Cloth World format debuted in the 70's) are still open.

Only in the past three years or so has Jo-Ann made an effort to replace the signs at older stores so that all the stores have the same logo, even though the current logo has been in use since at least the late 90's. So in the past few years, it's gotten harder to tell which stores were acquired from other chains or not (there was one short-lived logo that I believe debuted with the Cloth World conversions) but there still are usually identifying clues. Before these more recent signage changes, there were four different logos floating around that Jo-Ann was using at different locations. And that four isn't even counting the fact that there are several variations on the current logo as used on store signage. For example, some stores are labeled "Jo-Ann ETC/experience the creativity" and for the stores without the ETC designation, different combinations of the words "fabrics" and "crafts" are used at different locations. Strangely, the Jo-Ann in Brick, NJ (this store was originally a 1950s Acme, then a larger Cloth World, then Jo-Ann) had its early 90's signage replaced in the early 2010s, but the store closed anyway not too long afterward. And the store was freestanding and not in a strip center, so no, the logo change wasn't due to a strip center facade remodel or anything like that.

Re: A&P's closures and market withdrawals of the late 1970s and early 1980s

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 16:02
by BillyGr
Ephrata1966 wrote:Only in the past three years or so has Jo-Ann made an effort to replace the signs at older stores so that all the stores have the same logo, even though the current logo has been in use since at least the late 90's. So in the past few years, it's gotten harder to tell which stores were acquired from other chains or not (there was one short-lived logo that I believe debuted with the Cloth World conversions) but there still are usually identifying clues. Before these more recent signage changes, there were four different logos floating around that Jo-Ann was using at different locations. And that four isn't even counting the fact that there are several variations on the current logo as used on store signage. For example, some stores are labeled "Jo-Ann ETC/experience the creativity" and for the stores without the ETC designation, different combinations of the words "fabrics" and "crafts" are used at different locations. Strangely, the Jo-Ann in Brick, NJ (this store was originally a 1950s Acme, then a larger Cloth World, then Jo-Ann) had its early 90's signage replaced in the early 2010s, but the store closed anyway not too long afterward. And the store was freestanding and not in a strip center, so no, the logo change wasn't due to a strip center facade remodel or anything like that.
I seem to remember that the ETC was used (at least here) when they started opening the larger stores that had more than just fabric and sewing (the craft type stuff), to make it easier to know which stores had that stuff and which ones didn't.