If you could bring a defunct store back.....

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werememberretail
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by werememberretail »

To me, being from the East Coast I'd bring back Food Fair/Pantry Pride, Penn Fruit and Grand Union (the latter in its full Glory, red dots and all , not the C&S version of today)
Penn Fruit I'd envision as I said in an earlier to be like a larger Upscale store like Wegman's or Whole Foods, emphasising high quality perishables. reflecting their roots.

Food Fair because it deserved, like Penn Fruit, a longer life. They'd be more like a Shoprite type operation. with good specials
Grand Union because it had a great format, but if it were brought back, they'd be more price competitive
Steve Landry
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by Steve Landry »

yeah........weremember........you get my vote :-)

For me, of course, it would be the "Fabulous Food Fair" days before Friedland's sons took over. This was a time when the company was unstoppable with innovation. A time when their growth was unprecedented for such a relatively new company. They were poised to surpass the "Big Daddies" of the grocery business (A&P, Safeway & Kroger) with way fewer stores.

The first Food Fair (with a pharmacy) - J.M. Fields - and auto/gasoline service, combination I saw blew me away.

Grand Union / Grand Way also was incredible!!!!

And on a much smaller scale......Penn Fruit with it's unique looking stores!!
The Food Fair Empire
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submariner
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by submariner »

Just a little late-night musing...

Alternate history:

In 1986, Lucky Stores spun off it's GEMCO division. As a new company, GEMCO struggled to find its place in the late 80's discount arena. After closing all but their California stores in 1989, GEMCO went on a massive rebranding campaign, focusing on its strength as California's largest hypermarket chain. Shifting their focus to higher-quality items at reasonable prices, GEMCO became the primary competitor to Target stores. By 1995, GEMCO and Target were in an all-out retail war. GEMCO's grocery offerings soon rivaled that of Vons' Pavilions chain and GEMCO soon became the 'trendy' place to shop in California. In 2000, Kmart completely pulled out of California after years of dismal sales and being shuffled to fourth place with the mass intrusion of Wal-Mart stores. 2005 saw a growth spurt not unlike the Kohl's chain as GEMCO ventured out of California again into Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Today, GEMCO operates over 200 stores in 10 states from the west coast all the way to Illinois. Filling a gap above Walmart's supercenters and the midwest stalwart, Meijer; GEMCO continues to operate clean, bright stores that are well stocked with designer label items at easy-to-handle prices. GEMCO's food selection continues to rival higher quality grocery stores with service departments tailored to the neighborhood where they are located. Citing the successes of Meijer, Walmart Supercenters, and GEMCO, Target never opened a hypermarket of their own; however they continue with the rollout of smaller "Markets" in most of their stores. Kmart Supercenters never evolved west of the Mississippi. After an unsuccessful invasion attempt, Walmart currently operates only a small handful of mainline stores in central California, and has no plans of operating any supercenters in the state.

GEMCO plans to expand to the east coast by 2015. However, GEMCO does not plan to enter the gulf coast region, citing Walmart's strong presence.
gemco.png
gemco.png (32.02 KiB) Viewed 12333 times
Last edited by submariner on 12 Jul 2010 23:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Aaron
"his foxtail-wielding skills are unparalleled, dust bunnies fear his name"
werememberretail
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by werememberretail »

submariner wrote:Just a little late-night musing...

Alternate history:

In 1986, Lucky Stores spun off it's GEMCO division. As a new company, GEMCO struggled to find its place in the late 80's discount arena. After closing all but their California stores in 1989, GEMCO went on a massive rebranding campaign, focusing on its strength as California's largest hypermarket chain. Shifting their focus to higher-quality items at reasonable prices, GEMCO became the primary competitor to Target stores. By 1995, GEMCO and Target were in a all-out retail war. GEMCO's grocery offerings soon rivaled that of Vons' Pavilions chain and GEMCO soon became the 'trendy' place to shop in California. In 2000, Kmart completely pulled out of California after years of dismal sales and being shuffled to fourth place with the mass intrusion of Wal-Mart stores. 2005 saw a growth spurt not unlike the Kohl's chain as GEMCO ventured out of California again into Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Today, GEMCO operates over 200 stores in 10 states from the west coast all the way to Illinois. Filling a gap above Walmart's supercenters and the midwest stalwart, Meijer; GEMCO continues to operate clean, bright stores that are well stocked with designer label items at easy-to-handle prices. GEMCO's food selection continues to rival higher quality grocery stores with service departments tailored to the neighborhood where they are located. Citing the successes of Meijer, Walmart Supercenters, and GEMCO, Target never opened a hypermarket of their own; however they continue with the rollout of smaller "Markets" in most of their stores. Kmart Supercenters never evolved west of the Mississippi. After an unsuccessful invasion attempt, Walmart currently operates only a small handful of mainline stores in central California, and has no plans of operating any supercenters in the state.

GEMCO plans to expand to the east coast by 2015. However, GEMCO does not plan to enter the gulf coast region, citing Walmart's strong presence.
gemco.png
Wow that wa s a great and realistic mock wiki. I wish tht was true. Though I am from the East. I started learning about Gemco's stores back in the 90s. I from that moment on was facinated with them. If they were still around they most certainly would uses THAT logo!
werememberretail
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by werememberretail »

Steve Landry wrote:yeah........weremember........you get my vote :-)

For me, of course, it would be the "Fabulous Food Fair" days before Friedland's sons took over. This was a time when the company was unstoppable with innovation. A time when their growth was unprecedented for such a relatively new company. They were poised to surpass the "Big Daddies" of the grocery business (A&P, Safeway & Kroger) with way fewer stores.

The first Food Fair (with a pharmacy) - J.M. Fields - and auto/gasoline service, combination I saw blew me away.

Grand Union / Grand Way also was incredible!!!!

And on a much smaller scale......Penn Fruit with it's unique looking stores!!
Food Fair had the momentum and who knows? had they stayed a food store operator rather than delving into every this and that. they would have survived. and probably have been a more national chain than even A&P Kroger or Safeway ath their repective Zeniths. They probably might would have been a good merger canidate for a Kroger or later an Ahold if the Friedlands would've stayed humble.

Goldsmith seemed to have ADD with Grand Union. It couldve gone on to greater heights, but Goldsmith wanted a quick buck and the food business was not doing it. Had he had more patience, GU, especially with the Glazer redesign and pricing campaigns might have achived national status as well

And Penn Fruit could have been an ever bigger industry darling if they weren't knocked out by Acme in the price wars and switched to an upscale format, they would have rivaled the likes of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's as a " hip" grocer.
Ephrata1966
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Eckerd or Bradlees (or Yankees as I call it)! Just because of personal preferences, for old times sake. I still have a hard time accepting both of them as out of business.
werememberretail
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by werememberretail »

Ephrata1966 wrote:Eckerd or Bradlees (or Yankees as I call it)! Just because of personal preferences, for old times sake. I still have a hard time accepting both of them as out of business.
If you want to bring Bradlees Back There's a Gem Mint condition vacant store in Bordentown NJ you can set up shop in, Seriously the store looks like it never closed save for fading paint
Ephrata1966
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Whoops, I didn't realize this had to be a supermarket. I know many ex-Eckerds have not been remodeled much at all. But their decor has changed. And both CVS and Rite Aid have closed plenty of the Eckerds they bought, even after converting them. This is not to mention the countless stores they closed before either buyout...
maynesG
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by maynesG »

Hi again!
I am not sure that Food Fair could have survived even with out
the corruption into this century. As a kid they were known for great Dairy and a great Kosher Deli. They also were known for stores that smelled like a dirty mop and had poor shelf conditions.
Walbaums pre A&P had surpased them in both Dairy and Kosher Deli, and In North Jersey, Kings was eating their lunch.
Finast in conn and Westchester county were runing high volume clean stores. In New Jersey they were milking the cow with the old Safeways. Doing strange things like removing service Delis in a lot of storesto stop shrink not adding Bakeries well after their competitors had. They were slow in New Jersey to expand frozen Foods and were still ussing wrapped produce till the day they left the state. They beat both Food Fair and Grand Union were ever they competed in places like Closter and in Ridgewood NJ.
The truth was the Shop Rites and the Pathmarks gave the consumer what they wanted in New Jersey variety and great prices. That was why these chains died.
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by Steve Landry »

"They also were known for stores that smelled like a dirty mop and had poor shelf conditions."

True.......but not under the leadership of Sam. These conditions quickly (though inconsistently) and sadly spread throughout the company under the reign of his kin.

And, you are probably correct about their ability to survive. There was so much ill will created without Sam actively at the helm that few wanted them to survive.
The Food Fair Empire
krogerclerk
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by krogerclerk »

I remember being fascinated with the Pantry Pride on Key West when I was in 87 or so. It was smallish with the sidewalk being the only thing between it and the road. It had parking on the side, yet was busy and even had scanning and not in a "touristy" part of the Key. The Pantry Pride signage reminded me of A&P's colonial style signs on many of their centennial builds, so I assumed it was one of their nameplates until venturing in and not seeing any A&P brands. The building design itself was nondescript in a mid-century way, meaning it reminded me of Winn-Dixie's and Colonial Stores of similar vintage. I can't say that I remember the pricing structure itself, but don't recall balking at the prices the way I did once in a Publix near St. Petersburg. I don't remember any service departments, just the core grocery, meat and produce with some general merchandise. A year or so later, I read of Perlman's junk bond purchase of this company, and Revlon, into one company, Revson, in which he more or less gutted Pantry Pride for its cash flow. Only then did I learn of the past of Food Fair and its rapid rise and fall, and how by the 1960's they were the number 4 supermarket chain in the nation, with far fewer stores than third place Kroger, having the highest average store volumes in the grocery industry at that time. It was a chain of which I was too late to appreciate, but somehow at least had the chance to experience one store.

From Google Street View, I believe this is the store, on White Street near downtown:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 7,,0,-0.88
Last edited by krogerclerk on 25 Jul 2010 18:51, edited 1 time in total.
werememberretail
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by werememberretail »

Ephrata1966 wrote:Whoops, I didn't realize this had to be a supermarket. I know many ex-Eckerds have not been remodeled much at all. But their decor has changed. And both CVS and Rite Aid have closed plenty of the Eckerds they bought, even after converting them. This is not to mention the countless stores they closed before either buyout...
well, since I didn't specify (my mistake) i'm not going to be prejiduice against non food retail establishments so name any as you like it!
Steve Landry
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by Steve Landry »

Hey Kroger,

I'm not sure, but I think someone told me that, that store might have been originally a Carl's Market. It really is very old, no room for anything but center store stuff. I'm betting that it was around 16,000 sqft. (maybe smaller, huh?)
The Food Fair Empire
GaryED44
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by GaryED44 »

Without a doubt to me "Market Basket" The original one in Southern Ca. I'll always remember going to the one near the house in Santa Fe Springs. Good people, always friendly great place to shop

Gary
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Re: If you could bring a defunct store back.....

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:I think there have been discussions about it on here before but Sage's was a chain that operated in San Bernardino/Riverside Counties in Southern California and was way ahead of it's time in offering one stop shopping. They had great customer service and a great restaurant/bakery. I actually didn't mind being dragged to the grocery store with my mom as a kid as long as we were going to Sage's.
Was that the discount department store operated by Walgreens, or is it a different store?
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