Thriftimart Locations

Uh...California.

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11ball
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Posts: 6
Joined: 31 Mar 2010 13:17

Re: Thriftimart Locations

Post by 11ball »

Culver City/Mar Vista

Opened in new Centinela Plaza (located betyween Washington Blvd and Washington Place) in April, 1964
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RXSQ
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Posts: 23
Joined: 26 May 2009 16:43
Location: Riverside, CA
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Re: Thriftimart Locations

Post by RXSQ »

RXSQ wrote:In the early 1960s, a Thriftimart grocery store (with the huge red neon 'T' on the roof) opened in a new shopping center located at 6350 Van Buren Blvd. in the Arlington area of Riverside, CA. The center also included a Thrifty Drug (w/ adjoining coffee shop), W.T. Grant and Security Pacific National Bank along with a few smaller stores.

The Thriftimart became Safeway in the early 1980s and is now a Cardenas Market. The building that housed W.T. Grant is now an A.J. Wright and the old Thrifty Drug is now Rite Aid.

Within the past few years, the entire center received an extensive makeover and no longer sports the 1960s look. Here's a "bird's eye" view of the shopping center today (with the old Thriftimart building on the right): http://tinyurl.com/mtttq4
2011 Update: Found a 1960s photo showing the large, rooftop T at the Riverside location:
Image
Riverside - 6350 Van Buren Blvd. by RXSQ, on Flickr
SwedeinLA

Re: Thriftimart Locations

Post by SwedeinLA »

There was also a Thriftimart with the big T sign on the corner of Warner and Springdale in Huntington Beach. It later turned into a Liquor Barn.
ValleyGuy

Re: Thriftimart Locations

Post by ValleyGuy »

When we moved into the then-new area of Northridge called Porter Ranch in the 1960s, the Granada Hills Thriftimart was the closest store to our house. It was in a huge shopping center (Chatsworth and Zelzah) that also contained a Thrifty Drug, a bowling alley, a United California Bank, and the usual shopping center stores.

And we really couldn't miss it - the gigantic "T" was lit up at night as previous commenters have mentioned about other Thriftimart locations. We lived on a hill, and back then - before all the trees grew and the 118 freeway was built - we could clearly see the lit-up sign from our front yard. And, once the "energy crisis" of the '70s came about, they turned off most of the red neon in the T, keeping just the outline. That was a subtle message to me as a kid that we needed to save electricity!

My mother didn't really like shopping there, as she thought it wasn't very well run and the floors were never clean. She preferred Hughes, though that was much farther to drive in her non-air-conditioned car. As soon as the Dale's at Devonshire and Reseda opened around 1970, she pretty much never went to Thriftimart again.

If anyone remembers the kids TV host Sheriff John, he made an appearance there once when I was really little. My mother drove me down there, and he was standing outside surrounded by kids. Mom stayed in the car, and I just wandered up in awe of seeing him in the flesh. He was handing out marshmallow Easter eggs, and I distinctly remember clutching a green one in my hand that he had given me. It was a warm day, and when I got back to the car my entire palm was coated with gooey green sugar. Mom was not too happy about that.

Ah, the simple days.
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