Safeway Store Brands

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runchadrun
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Post by runchadrun »

Could it just be a difference in how things are labelled? Today we see "distributed by" and "manufactured for." Could things have been different in the past where the actual manufacturer was listed on the packaging?
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TheStranger
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Post by TheStranger »

When I went to one of the Martinez Safeways on Monday, I saw some Dairy Glen milk, with the labeling identifying its origin as "Lucerne" in "Pleasanton, California."

Which is to say, there wasn't a mention of Safeway on the jug at all.

Generally though I think Safeway puts its name on almost all of its store brand products now.
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Post by tkaye »

TheStranger wrote:When I went to one of the Martinez Safeways on Monday, I saw some Dairy Glen milk, with the labeling identifying its origin as "Lucerne" in "Pleasanton, California."

Which is to say, there wasn't a mention of Safeway on the jug at all.

Generally though I think Safeway puts its name on almost all of its store brand products now.
I have only seen Dairy Glen labels with Omnibrands (more recent) or Glencourt, Inc. as the distributor. I think Safeway puts its name on the standard private label products, but not the budget brands, which have Omnibrands or Glencourt labeled as the distributor.
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Post by tkaye »

TheStranger wrote:Actually that poses a really good question: how many Safeway store brands originated outside the company? Lucerne is the most prominent (and most enduring) example.
I had a chance to go back to the library and catch up with some more issues of Safeway News the other day. One issue from the late '70s had an article about the origins of several of their store brands. Edwards was mentioned and there was even a photo of the man who started the Edwards Coffee Co. A couple of their private label spirits were named after employees -- if I recall correctly, there was a brand of whisky named after a former Safeway accountant. Mrs. Wright's was derived from "Julia Lee Wright," an older Safeway brand that I've seen in ads from as late as the '50s -- the article said that company historians didn't know whether Wright was a real person. (To me, that would suggest that the Julia Lee Wright name may have originated outside Safeway.) Lucerne was Safeway's exclusive supplier of butter in the 1920s and was on the verge of bankruptcy when they bought the plant.

Getting back to White Magic, Safeway claimed that the detergent was the first product anywhere to be manufactured with a proper UPC label (not an experimental one) around 1973 -- years before they actually implemented scanning in their stores. I question how true this is, though -- how about that first pack of Wrigley's gum that passed over a scanner at a Marsh supermarket checkstand?
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runchadrun
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Post by runchadrun »

tkaye wrote:Mrs. Wright's was derived from "Julia Lee Wright," an older Safeway brand that I've seen in ads from as late as the '50s -- the article said that company historians didn't know whether Wright was a real person. (To me, that would suggest that the Julia Lee Wright name may have originated outside Safeway.)
According to an LA Times ad, in 1930 Julia Lee Wright was named director of the Safeway Homemakers' Bureau, something of a home economist corps where you could write to her about recipes, meal planning, etc, and a member of the bureau would reply. The ad I'm looking at says that she "has received her training in home economics in several of the leading universities and has a splendid record of achievment all over the West and in the Hawaiian Islands." There's also a picture of a rather dour woman--defintely no Betty Crocker! In 1932 she broadcast grapefruit recipes over the NBC network. A 1936 LA Times article refers to her as the "well known home economist of the bay region" and that she would be giving a demonstration of making homemade bread that afternoon. So my guess is that she was an actual person, unless there were various home economists who went around using that name to promote Safeway.
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Post by tkaye »

runchadrun wrote:So my guess is that she was an actual person, unless there were various home economists who went around using that name to promote Safeway.
That wouldn't surprise me -- or it was a stage name. Many radio and television home economists used pseudonyms. Here in Seattle, we had "Katherine Wise" on KOMO radio and TV... that name was actually a trademark of the stations.
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Safeway Lucerne Yogurt-Downsizing Containers

Post by Jason B. »

Has anyone noticed that the Safeway Lucerne brand is in the process of downsizing its single-serve plastic yogurt containers? They have been 8 ounces for as long as I can remember. Now they're being replaced with 6-ounce containers (the net weight that Yoplait has used for many years). July 2008 was when the last of the 8-ounce containers disappeared in the Lafayette, Calif. Safeway store.

It's interesting that Safeway re-designed the 8-ounce yogurt container not too long ago. I guess it's easier to re-design a container than to re-tool the filling plant. (It makes one wonder if they ended up with unused 8-ounce containers.)

Does anyone know how long Lucerne yogurt has been sold in 8-ounce single-serve containers? Was Lucerne yogurt sold in non-plastic containers at one time (say 50 years ago)?
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Re: Safeway Lucerne Yogurt-Downsizing Containers

Post by runchadrun »

Downsizing of products has been happening a lot lately...Dreyer's ice cream is now 1.5 quarts instead of 1.75 and I can't find 6-packs of 24oz Pepsi bottles anymore, they are now 500ml.
Jason B. wrote:Does anyone know how long Lucerne yogurt has been sold in 8-ounce single-serve containers? Was Lucerne yogurt sold in non-plastic containers at one time (say 50 years ago)?
The first reference I could find to Lucerne yogurt was from 1957 where it was sold in a "half pint carton" (8 oz) for 17 cents. Ads from the 50s and 60s alternately call it a "half pint carton" and "half pint cup". It doesn't say what the cup or carton is made of. It was marketed as an alternative to sour cream and was not nearly the mass-market item that it is today. The annual per capita US yogurt consumption in 1960 was 4 ounces.

A 1950 Knudsen ad which describes yogurt says it's sold in "sanitary single service cartons" and the picture is of a cylindrical package, as opposed to today's cup where the mouth is larger than the base.
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Re: Safeway Lucerne Yogurt-Downsizing Containers

Post by tesg »

Jason B. wrote:Has anyone noticed that the Safeway Lucerne brand is in the process of downsizing its single-serve plastic yogurt containers? They have been 8 ounces for as long as I can remember. Now they're being replaced with 6-ounce containers (the net weight that Yoplait has used for many years).
They're one of the last to go this route. Most labels, national and local, have been heading this way for the past couple of years.
bm10k
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by bm10k »

Just Looked At a Canadian Safeway Ad
They Still Sell Edwards Coffee Up There
And They Also Have The Empress Brand Also
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Brian Lutz
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by Brian Lutz »

At the Safeway bakery plant up here, there's an old "Home of Mrs. Wright's" sign at the front gate that I've been meaning to get a picture of for a while now, but I never seem to have my camera when I'm over near there. I'll have to try to get that and post it.
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by terryinokc »

I was in a flea market last weekend in Muskogee, OK.....there were four quart-size glass Cragmont bottles....but no mention of Safeway. Embossed on the necks of the bottles was "Marlboro" and the labels were Cragmont brand.....made by Marlboro Beverage Company in California. Later versions of the glass Cragmont bottles were embossed with "Cragmont" and were listed as a Safeway Guarantee Product.
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by terryinokc »

Sorry....forgot to mention....at this same place they had Ozark brand Charcoal and Charcoal Lighter Fluid....both the with Safeway Guaranteed Product. (Sorry about the typo on guaranteed above!)
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by Rob72830 »

terryinokc wrote:I was in a flea market last weekend in Muskogee, OK.....there were four quart-size glass Cragmont bottles....but no mention of Safeway. Embossed on the necks of the bottles was "Marlboro" and the labels were Cragmont brand.....made by Marlboro Beverage Company in California. Later versions of the glass Cragmont bottles were embossed with "Cragmont" and were listed as a Safeway Guarantee Product.
Terry, how do you get to that flea market? I live not too far from Fort Smith and would love to go up there and look around for other Safeway collectables. Also may be able to take some pictures of some of the old Safeway/Homeland stores. Thanks a lot. Robert
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Brian Lutz
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Re: Safeway Store Brands

Post by Brian Lutz »

OK, after putting this off for way too long, I finally managed to have my camera with me when I was in the neighborhood of the Safeway bakery plant in Bellevue, and grabbed a picture of the sign:

Image

I apologize for the fence in the way of the picture. Even so, looking at this picture, the sign seems to be in surprisingly good condition considering how old it must be by now.
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