Sacramento: 6021 Stockton (Wing Wa Supermarket)

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 22 Jan 2007 16:02

http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/sac.htm
http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores2/113/dcfc0129.jpg

Storewanderer thinks that this is an ex-Lucky, judging from the pylon shape. I'm not sure.

klkla · Post by **klkla** » 23 Jan 2007 15:55

I saw the photo before I read your text and my first thought was, "Cool, an old Lucky"

I would guess it is but don't know 100% for sure.

TheStranger · Post by **TheStranger** » 31 Jan 2007 15:16

Actually, now that I think of it, I'm not sure this could have been an old Lucky - there was a Lucky down the street at Stockton and McMahon (5924 Stockton), later Albertsons, and now a DD's discounts. But that could be a replacement store for this one, if this was Lucky.

I did get more photos of this place on January 28th (all now up in my site's Sacramento section).

Here's an alternate view of the pylon:

That section of south Sacramento, the Lemon Hill/Elder Creek area, has quite a bit of older retail buildings - a gabled supermarket at 6418 Stockton was originally the local Food City chain (not to be confused with the national chain), was later Mike's (an independent with still one location up in Carmichael), then Khanhingtong Supermarket, and after a change of ownership this past November, New Asia Supermarket.

Right next to this supermarket, at 6035 Stockton, is a former Kinney Shoes building, now a restaurant and the Khanhingtong Oriental herbs retail unit (they used to operate both this and the old Food City).

And as mentioned earlier in the post, there's old 1970s Lucky at McMahon and Stockton. I actually went there twice before it closed, when it was Albertsons.

I did some research in the Sacramento Bee archives and found out that Wing Wa began operating at 6021 Stockton in 1987 or so; in 1989, the owners were hit with a $70K fine for accepting food stamps for non-food items (the largest in the county ever at that time). Obviously they've managed to get past those hurdles and continue operating - and Wing Wa has been nicely featured in several Bee articles since then.

That ceiling does look a bit more vintage than two decades old...

justin karimzad · Post by **justin karimzad** » 31 Jan 2007 20:14

I agree that this has the original ceiling, and that the place is obviously from the 1950s. I'm also inclined to think that this was never a Lucky. Some features typical of pylon/barrel-roofed Lucky's of the 1950s that are missing here are a hard plaster ceiling, a lower ceiling over the front checkstand area, and a full forced-air climate control system (instead of two space heaters). Also, another trademark of the barrel-vaulted Lucky's was to have the barrel roof flat on the front and back, so that it looked something like an airplane hanger, rather than curved as this is. And of course, who can miss the lack of Lucky's squares/tiling on the pylon. Although, all of the features that I mentioned seem to have been only true of the 1950s Lucky's in central california that were probable designed/built by the same firm(s). The former Lucky in Bakersfield featured on this site does not have all of those characteristics, although it is closer to southern california, so was probably designed by a different firm. Still, I can't be certain that this was never a Lucky.