Kroger Thriftown Discount Dept. Stores
Posted: 06 Oct 2023 20:32
Has anyone ever heard of this chain?
Apparently it was Kroger's true discount dept. store division
Kroger had their family centers, hypermarkets with a full supermarket and discount dept store section, similar and comparable to todays Walmart Supercenter,
But they also had Thriftown, full on discount department stores, with no supermarket portion.
I first heard about this on the Pleasant Family Shopping blog.
It is, in fact, mentioned in Kroger annual reports from 1967 & 1968:
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... =Thriftown
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... up?q=Thrif
Believe it or not, I actually found a PHOTO of a Thriftown store in operation on Google Images / Facebook.
I didn't save it, and I can't find it anymore, no matter how I phrase my search. I think that the original image either got deleted, or the group that it was posted in became private.
Here's my artists rendition of what said photo looked like (not sure if this is actually going to display properly): I also found this old news report via Google News Archive which states
"larger discount stores which do not sell food or drugs are operated under the Thriftown and Value Village names"
I currently have no idea what Kroger's Value Village is as I haven't looked into it.
Here's the Google News article:
https://books.google.com/books?id=S_0rA ... wn&f=false
I found a supposed location using Google News Archive too:
https://books.google.com/books?id=y3wqA ... wn&f=false
It's in the middle of a city...? Using historic aerials proves that noting has really changed here since the 1960's
Does anyone else out there know anything about this chain?
Apparently it was Kroger's true discount dept. store division
Kroger had their family centers, hypermarkets with a full supermarket and discount dept store section, similar and comparable to todays Walmart Supercenter,
But they also had Thriftown, full on discount department stores, with no supermarket portion.
I first heard about this on the Pleasant Family Shopping blog.
It is, in fact, mentioned in Kroger annual reports from 1967 & 1968:
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... =Thriftown
https://archive.org/details/krogercoann ... up?q=Thrif
Believe it or not, I actually found a PHOTO of a Thriftown store in operation on Google Images / Facebook.
I didn't save it, and I can't find it anymore, no matter how I phrase my search. I think that the original image either got deleted, or the group that it was posted in became private.
Here's my artists rendition of what said photo looked like (not sure if this is actually going to display properly): I also found this old news report via Google News Archive which states
"larger discount stores which do not sell food or drugs are operated under the Thriftown and Value Village names"
I currently have no idea what Kroger's Value Village is as I haven't looked into it.
Here's the Google News article:
https://books.google.com/books?id=S_0rA ... wn&f=false
I found a supposed location using Google News Archive too:
https://books.google.com/books?id=y3wqA ... wn&f=false
It's in the middle of a city...? Using historic aerials proves that noting has really changed here since the 1960's
Does anyone else out there know anything about this chain?