Groceteria.com

Okay, so here: "The Palm Springs Market Basket opened in 1959. According to Jensen's web site the Palm Springs location opened in 1985.", you are speaking of the store on Sunrise and Tahquitz?

Because................I was told that this store was a Vons before it was a Jensens. I'm confused...lol :)

In 1981 or 1982 I stopped by the Market Basket regional offices on Eastern Ave. in Los Angeles and picked up a salesman's store list. I discovered the list a couple of weeks ago and had completely forgotten about it. The exact date is faded but I must have picked it up around the time they were selling their stores just out of curiosity.

In any event, they list three locations in the PS area at that time:

73601 Highway 111 Palm Desert (Which we have established is the current Jensen's)


68401 Highway 111, Cathedral City (Instantly recognizable as MB late 70's early 80's architecture - although slightly altered)


2475 McCallum Way, Palm Springs, CA
This one has me confused. I cannot find such a street in Palm Springs. I'm guessing that the street name may have been changed over the years but don't know for sure. Any of you Palm Springs experts have any ideas?

I think the Palm Springs mystery might be solved.

McCallum way became Tahquitz Canyon Way at some point. There is a Vons very near the address (to the far right in this photo):


However, the exact address matches Kaplan College, which I think is in the same shopping center (the building all the way to the left):


Does anyone in Palm Springs area know if the building above is in fact Kaplan College and therefore the old PS Market Basket?

The locals here have told me that the Vons at this center was a bowling alley. No info on what Kaplan was before.

Side note:

I am told that the Jensens at the corner of Tahquitz and Sunrise (which is moving soon to Palm Canyon Dr. at the Smoketree Commons Center) was a Vons AND before that was a Market Basket. Additionally, when Jensens vacates, a Fresh & Easy will move in.

That store is in the Palm Springs Mall. Its a very small mall anchored by a Gottschalks.

Steve Landry wrote:No info on what Kaplan was before.

Kaplan matches the address exactly. Are both Kaplan and the bowing alley in the same center?

2475 McCallum Way comes up in a 1985 Millers Outpost ad in the LA Times and is listed as "2475 Tahquitz-McCallum Way" A 1959 article mentions the construction of a 30,000 sqft Market Basket at the southwest corner of McCallum and Farrell. A 1961 article says that the shopping center also contains the Palm Springs Bowl and Thrifty Drug with a BofA under construction.

Palm Springs Bowl opened in 1961 at 2315 McCallum and that address comes up as late as 1970. That is the same address as the current Vons (2315 Tahquitz). The bowl was 25,000 sq ft when it opened.

I drove by the Cathedral City store a couple months ago and it is currently a furniture closeout store. And on the corner diagonally opposite to the pink Jensen's at Sunrise and Tahquitz there was a sign that a new shopping center was being planned and that Vons was one of the anchor tenants. I would assume that would replace the Tahquitz Vons.

Wow.....thanks for the info. I will have to drive by Tahquitz and Farrell to see what could be there now.

The sign at Tahquitz and Sunrise that indicates a new developement with a Vons is "dated". The property is in a complicated probate and Vons decided to pull out. Why that sign is still there is everyone's wonder.

Currently, Safeway has no plans to replace that tired old store.

"A 1959 article mentions the construction of a 30,000 sqft Market Basket at the southwest corner of McCallum and Farrell."

Is this article referring to the 2475 address?

Hard to tell if the Kaplan College was a grocery store because of the integrated appearance into the mall. I do not see any indications of a loading doc, so maybe if this was indeed a Market Basket it may have been built before the addition of the Mall?

Also, on Farrell (part of the Mall), there is a Ross (older looking facade like the Kaplan College and Vons) and an Office Max (newer looking facade) that are good size buildings. Could one of these have been the Market Basket?

Across the street from the Mall on Farrell, there is a large empty lot that has been razed that looks to be previously of commercial use.

Steve Landry wrote:"A 1959 article mentions the construction of a 30,000 sqft Market Basket at the southwest corner of McCallum and Farrell."

Is this article referring to the 2475 address?

There was no address listed, just the corner. The mall was added in about 1980 so the loading dock may have been removed in the process.

VONS/Safeway is attempting to move their Palm Desert location to the vacant Mervyn's down the street. It was listed in the local paper that it is going to the Planning Commission.

Comically, the current site (which this thread began) was completely LIFESTYLED. Now...potentially moving!

Further down the street (Highway 111) the VONS at that site closed.

The former Mervyn's would be a HUGE VONS!

Dean wrote:VONS/Safeway is attempting to move their Palm Desert location to the vacant Mervyn's down the street. It was listed in the local paper that it is going to the Planning Commission.

Comically, the current site (which this thread began) was completely LIFESTYLED. Now...potentially moving!

Further down the street (Highway 111) the VONS at that site closed.

The former Mervyn's would be a HUGE VONS!

So they want to move the old Palm Dessert Safeway on Highway 111 into the Mervyn's building? I think it was one of the very first lifetyle remodels at least five years ago so hopefully they have already made their return on investment. Safeway moved into a closed Mervyn's in Las Vegas some time ago on Maryland Parkway and leased out some of the extra space. They are also converting a closed Mervyn's near San Jose into a Safeway right now.

Which store closed on Highway 111 closed?

The VONS on 111 near The River closed.

Dean wrote:The VONS on 111 near The River closed.

That was also in Palm Desert?