Jeff wrote:I ran across this picture on a Burbank memories website about Unimart. I dont know what it was. I beleive we mentioned that this site was later a White front.
Unimart was a membership department store (like Gemco, I suppose). Their ads disappeared in 1969. Unimart was owned by Food Giant, which was acquired by Vornado, who owned Two Guys and Builders Emporium. Except perhaps for Burbank (for which I found no info), all of the stores became Two Guys stores, and many of them became Fedmarts and then Target.
Check out the Norwalk store at 11600 Alondra. It looks like the vintage Burbank store picture.
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... &encType=1
Other stores from 1969:
Culver City, 10820 Jefferson--Target.
Northridge, 8999 Balboa, which is the newly-rebuilt Target. It turns out this is a former Fedmart. All this time I thought it was a Gemco.
Alhambra, 2120 W Main--Target
Commerce, 5600 Whittier--Target
La Mirada, 14200 Rosecrans--looks like it's been torn down.
Pomona, 2301 W Valley--some kind of warehouse
Manhattan Beach, 1200 N Sepulveda--Target
Long Beach, 2270 Bellflower--Target
Oxnard, 2401 Saviers--Albertsons
I believe the Burbank store was a Lockheed facility at some point before it became Fry's. Unless you're flying over it taking off from BUR (and by then it's too late), it doesn't have the greatest visibility. I couldn't find any reference to any White Front in Burbank, though that doesn't mean there wasn't one.
Is the Joann Fabrics in West Covina the one that's attached to Kmart? I remember from another post that I can't find that it was the entrance to Kmart Foods or the like.
Update: The West Covina Joann Fabrics that's part of the Kmart building was a Vendome Liquor (opened in November 1978), then a Liquor Barn. The building was built in 1961 as a discount store called Save-Co which had 6 stores in the chain: Pico Rivera, West Covina, Anaheim, Torrance, San Diego, and Tucson. They also had a store in North Hollywood in 1963 (now the Target at Vineland and Victory). Their parent company was Shoe Corporation of America. Save-Co was around from about 1961 then became Cal Stores around 1967-1969. Cal Stores disappeared around the end of 1974. In 1961, A&P approcahed Save-Co about operating the grocery concession in the stores, but it doesn't appear that anything came of it. In 1970 someone wanted to build a heliport (offering service to LAX) in the West Covina parking lot.