Safeway in Lander, Wyoming, with Circle S logos

Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Moderator: Groceteria

Post Reply
kr.abs.swy
Contributor
Posts: 41
Joined: 01 May 2006 21:24

Safeway in Lander, Wyoming, with Circle S logos

Post by kr.abs.swy »

I ran into something yesterday that I wanted to share. I was in central Wyoming and saw the Safeway stores in Riverton and Lander. The Lander store still has circle S logos intact on both sides of the front of the store and also on the sign! The store is a marina that is in pretty good shape. It has the early 1990s (more or less) decor package on the inside. I was pretty sure that I would never see a store with the Circle S again.

When I looked up the store before I left and saw that it had no bakery, bank, Starbucks, etc., I knew that I was going to be running into an older store. I didn't realize that it would be a store that time had forgotten!

The checker who rang me up said that if they hadn't started construction on a new store within a year or two, Safeway would return the land to the local school district. Lander is a town of about 7,000 people and the only other grocery store I saw was "Mr. D's," which was a new Associated Foods store. The Safeway itself was reasonably busy, especially for a Saturday evening and given its size.

It will be interesting to see what Safeway decides to do with this store. The Lander and Riverton stores are 25 miles apart and are kind of isolated outposts in the Safeway empire; they are part of the Denver division and are about two hours from Casper, which, I believe, would be the closest other Safeways. The Riverton store is probably around 25 years old but had a nice interior, with the decor package that came before the Lifestyle package. However, Riverton is a town of 10,000 people with a Super Wal-Mart, Smith's and the Safeway -- arguably one more store than it should have. Neither the Smith's or the Safeway were busy on a Saturday afternoon. The Wal-Mart didn't feel all that busy to me either, at least compared to the Wal-Marts I'm used to. It was a hot and stormy day, so everyone might have just been staying home. Anyways, the bakery in the Smith's store didn't have ANY doughnuts out, and the Safeway only had a few dozen. The Safeway didn't have an ATM. It is sad because these are both reasonably new stores ... the Smith's from sometime in the 1980s and the Safeway probably a little older than that, but in good shape. Ironically, the Smith's had one of the best-stocked magazine sections of any grocery store I've ever been in, with titles that you'd expect to have to go to Barnes & Noble to find -- I would guess that this is probably the very best place to browse through magazines in Riverton.

Anyways, while the Lander store probably does a pretty good business, with only the Mr. D's store to compete with, the Riverton store seemed like it was struggling, so it wouldn't be a huge surprise for Safeway to decide to pull the plug on these stores, given their relative isolation. We'll see. Incidentally, the sign in the Riverton store said "Serving Riverton since 1941." Riverton is not the wealthiest city in Wyoming, so buying groceries at Wal-Mart is probably more attractive here than in the average market -- the Safeway Lifestyle concept would be a tougher sell here.

Back to the Lander store, while I was waiting in line at the checkout, the "E" in the "Thanks for Shopping SAFEWAY" sign fell off the wall. It was hilarious ... it fell down and landed on a freezer. That gave me the perfect chance to whip out my camera phone and take a few additional interior photos without acting like a spy. As you can see, it's a sweet little store ... marina roof, not hidden, wood beams, and in pretty good shape.

Here is the link to my pictures: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandin ... share&Ux=0

Lander Safeway
Picture 1: The sign on the side street
Picture 2: The Circle S, old-school main street sign. You can see an Arctic Circle far in the background.
Picture 3: The Ace Hardware store across the street. Is this an old Safeway?
Picture 4: A small sign on the back of the store, well-weathered
Picture 5: The front of the store, with both of the Circle-S logos
Picture 6: The Circle-S on the left side of the store
Picture 7: The Circle-S on the right side of the store
Picture 8: The local Pamida. Check out the 'I' ... it doesn't quite match the PAM-DA. It must have been painful for ShopKo to run these stores ... ShopKo (er, Shopko, per their new logo) usually runs a pretty good department store but some of the Pamida stores are, uh, a little dumpy.
Picture 9: An old Sinclair sign 10 miles north of Lander
Picture 10: The "Thank you for shopping at SAFWAY" sign after the E fell off while I was in the checkout line (from cameraphone)
Picture 11: "SAFWAY" minus the E. (from cameraphone)
Picture 12: The "Thank you for shopping at SAFEWAY" sign before the E fell. (from cameraphone)
Picture 13: Inside the Lander store (from cameraphone)
Picture 14: Great picture of the inside of the Lander store. I was lucky to get this with my camera phone without being hauled to Safeway jail; the store was crawling with employees. (From cameraphone)
Picture 15: Inside the Lander store (from cameraphone)

Riverton Safeway
Pictures 16, 17 and 18 ... the parking lot wasn't quite as empty as these pictures make it look, but it was close. (Picture 18 from cameraphone). The interior package on this store is one of my alltime favorites.

Enjoy the pics!
jamcool
Veteran
Posts: 213
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 16:10

Post by jamcool »

The "SAFEWAY" font on the main street sign in Lander seems to be of recent heritage..maybe the original panel was taken out by Wyoming's weather!

Love those mosaic "circle S"'s...have a 60s coolness to them.
User avatar
steps
Veteran
Posts: 178
Joined: 02 Jan 2006 21:06
Location: Hollywood
Contact:

Post by steps »

I noticed the "E" wasnt the first letter to fall off haha. Very kool pics.
Pavilions, the new, the unusal, the BEST of everything!
User avatar
TheStranger
Veteran
Posts: 719
Joined: 18 Sep 2006 01:26
Location: California

Post by TheStranger »

jamcool wrote:The "SAFEWAY" font on the main street sign in Lander seems to be of recent heritage..maybe the original panel was taken out by Wyoming's weather!

Love those mosaic "circle S"'s...have a 60s coolness to them.
I wonder how many total of those mosaic signs (let alone Circle S signs) are up, the lifestyle marina on Mission Street in SF has it, as does a falsefronted gable on Oakland...one store I know that did have it recently but got demolished was the 7th/Fulton store. And I can't forget about that pair up in Eureka.

Up in the northwest/rockies area, Cheyenne, WY still has the circle S signs too from what I recall seeing last year on the forum.

Looking at this photo...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.j ... nn_speed=1

That freestanding Circle S sign is reminiscent of one somewhere in Oregon that I've posted photos of here before...not exactly the same design though.
Chris Sampang
StoreLiker2006
Veteran
Posts: 209
Joined: 20 Nov 2006 18:59
Location: Oak Grove, Oregon
Contact:

Post by StoreLiker2006 »

The 16th picture in Jim's collection reminds me of the recently overhauled Safeway in Hillcrest Heights, MD in 1999. That one had originally been rebuilt - on the same site - during the summer of 1979.
User avatar
storewanderer
Veteran
Posts: 569
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 03:24
Location: Western United States
Contact:

Re: Safeway in Lander, Wyoming, with Circle S logos

Post by storewanderer »

It appears Lander is being replaced by a new store. http://www.cornerstone-em.com/cornersto ... ctions.asp

The auction of the old store is in April.
Photobucket now allows for comments on each photo! http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/
User avatar
tesg
Veteran
Posts: 179
Joined: 06 Nov 2005 17:07
Contact:

Re: Safeway in Lander, Wyoming, with Circle S logos

Post by tesg »

It took some digging, but I found a source confirming Lander is getting a new Safeway. It's a bullet point on the last page in the center column.

http://www.wyomingeda.org/Newsletters/W ... r_2009.pdf
Safeway is building a brand new “Lifestyles” store that will double the size of the current store and also double the number of employees.
The new building is 45,000 square feet. It's next to the new Holiday Inn Express. Pop in 228 N 10th St, Lander, WY on Google Maps and go to Street View and you can actually see the partially constructed new store.
Post Reply