Does anybody remember the CMA Store in Southern Calif.?

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wayne winterland jr.
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Joined: 12 Nov 2005 15:49

Does anybody remember the CMA Store in Southern Calif.?

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

Here's one that goes back aways to probably the mid to late 1950's.
About the same time as the old White Front Stores were operating in Southern California/ There was a competitor to one of the White Front Stores in Anaheim, Calif. I believe that it was located on South State College Blvd. and almost bordering the town of Orange and very close to where todays Angel Stadium Ballpark is now located. The store that I'm remembering and interested in is the one that was called CMA and those letters stood for Consumers Mart Of America. The president of this company was the very old actor George Raft. They had a similar format to the White Front Stores but other than that i don't remember too much about the store.
I was hoping that someone may remember this store and something else about it. I don't know if CMA had more than 1 of these stores or not but the one I remember was in the South part of Anaheim, Calif. near Anaheim Stadium.

thanks, Wayne Winterland Jr.
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romleys
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Cma in Northern California

Post by romleys »

There was a Consumers Mart of America (CMA) located @ 1077 East Arques Dr. in Sunnyvale, CA. I think it became the first Fry's Electronics store. There was also a CMA located @ 3199 Alvarado St. in San Leandro, CA. It became a Bay Mart discount department store and supermarket before turning into a Levitz Furniture store (which is still operating). Amazingly at the San Leandro location Levitz is re-using the Highway 880 (Nimitz Fwy.) sign which has a space age look to it. The sign was supposed to be viewable for miles around and it still is, hence you can see it on Hwy. 580 (about 3 to 5 miles away).
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Charles H:)
TheQuestioner
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CMA/Levitz

Post by TheQuestioner »

Interesting to learn more about the history of that Levitz. I knew it had been some defunct grocery chain once upon a time, but I had no idea that there was another identity to the store before that!

There's a Levitz in Santa Clara, CA, about 30 miles away, that has a similar vintage sign. It is by the intersection of Rt. 101 and Montague/San Tomas Expressway. Does anyone know if this began as a CMA too? If not, maybe Levitz liked the San Leandro sign so much the copied it at this other location.
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