Search found 663 matches

by rich
08 Jan 2007 00:42
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Bob's Big Boy former L.A. locations
Replies: 47
Views: 50310

Re: upthread. The US franchises in Asia usually started up in good years for these chains and managed to thrive under good local management. The Dunkin Donuts franchisee also has Swensen's and sometimes operates them under the same roof. Shakey's survived in Thailand until a few years ago. Kenny Rog...
by rich
05 Jan 2007 18:58
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Bob's Big Boy former L.A. locations
Replies: 47
Views: 50310

Sizzler has been aggressively franchising in Asia.
by rich
28 Dec 2006 11:22
Forum: History: USA Southeast
Topic: Safeway in NC
Replies: 28
Views: 28745

A lot of people from the DC area go to the Outer Banks. This may have been a attempt at capitalizing on this, as part of a long-term strategy of moving beyond Richmond. Chains often have gone into or stayed in resort areas that ordinarily wouldn't have made sense from a short-term business model--Gr...
by rich
23 Dec 2006 04:58
Forum: History: Miscellaneous and Not Region-Specific
Topic: Extinct Supermarket Merchandise
Replies: 177
Views: 94796

Steak-ums, another 70s icon!

Mars bars are still with us and Moon Pies probably will never disappear from the Southeast.
by rich
22 Dec 2006 19:53
Forum: History: Miscellaneous and Not Region-Specific
Topic: Extinct Supermarket Merchandise
Replies: 177
Views: 94796

All kinds of possibilities: remember "speghetti" squash and "monkfish" (still around as fake crab & lobster), circa 'mid 1970s. Salad bars: After they swept less expensive restaurants and workplace cafeterias, they started to appear in supermarkets, esp. in metro areas. Now, ...
by rich
15 Dec 2006 16:53
Forum: History: Specialty Retail Chains
Topic: Goodbye, Tower Records
Replies: 18
Views: 14579

It's interesting that they turned to franchises for the international operations. They made some significant mistakes, like having their two largest Bangkok stores a few blocks from each other and trying to operate very small stores in other locations. They somehow screwed up in Singapore where they...
by rich
25 Nov 2006 01:29
Forum: History: USA California
Topic: Watts, CA: (former) Safeway
Replies: 12
Views: 8586

Safeway continued to operate a large number of inner city locations in DC after the riots--they still had dozens of stores in DC in the early 70s. You can see former marinas in a number of DC neighborhoods--one on Rhode Island Ave NW was operating until fairly recently (even though it was a mile awa...
by rich
22 Nov 2006 01:20
Forum: History: USA Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Safeway International
Replies: 15
Views: 13051

In 1990, Safeway Interntaional was gone from DC. They di a lot of store closings right around then, so its elimination may have been part of a bigger restructuring. That's about when the very small Safeways in DC (DuPont & West End) became "Town House" stores.
by rich
21 Nov 2006 14:50
Forum: History: Department Store Chains
Topic: Barker's Department Stores - NYC Metro
Replies: 3
Views: 3976

Barkers' parent Franklin Stores apparently acquired King's and used the King's name for all of the stores. According to another site, Barker's had stores in:New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Texas and New Orleans. Source: htt...
by rich
19 Nov 2006 11:16
Forum: History: USA California
Topic: Pavilions history
Replies: 36
Views: 18913

Pavillions #2 was in Arcadia (and is still open, though it was remodeled a few years ago). It was a large exsiting Vons with a semi-upscale clientele (Arcadia has a mix of middle to uppermiddle income areas) and probably was seen as a good candidate for the original upscale meets warehouse-ish forma...
by rich
17 Nov 2006 01:30
Forum: History: Miscellaneous and Not Region-Specific
Topic: Chains Expanding Far From Their Home Turf
Replies: 24
Views: 18327

Other geographic oddities: Kroger in the Twin Cities (a very small, ground up operation that began in the early 60s and lasted until the early 80s; not sure of the supply base) and their shortlived and rather small DC operation (originally the Foodtown chain, plus stores they added). Loblaw (Buffalo...
by rich
17 Nov 2006 00:58
Forum: History: USA Midwest/Plains
Topic: Safeway in Missouri and Environs
Replies: 7
Views: 6117

I used to track these things and I believe that Kroger did have some sort of hiatus in Memphis. It may be that they were supplied from elsewhere and one division gave up while another moved in later--in recent years, they had no stores in areas of Mississippi that you'd expect to be covered if they ...
by rich
17 Nov 2006 00:29
Forum: History: Miscellaneous and Not Region-Specific
Topic: Chains Expanding Far From Their Home Turf
Replies: 24
Views: 18327

The moves of Grand Union & Food Fair into Florida were natural extensions of going where their shoppers retired. Winn-Dixie's Nashville stores (supplied out of Louisville) were their attempt at bridging their empty territory. Fisher Foods (parent of Fazio) also owned Dominick's in Chicago--far f...
by rich
14 Nov 2006 18:42
Forum: History: USA Midwest/Plains
Topic: Safeway in Missouri and Environs
Replies: 7
Views: 6117

St. Louis is about 250 miles from KC. Safeway had stores in Columbia (about halfway) in the mid-80s. There isn't much between Columbia & St. Louis and until fairly recently most chains stuck to a radius of 100-150 miles from their distribution centers. Memphis & Little Rock are even further ...
by rich
13 Nov 2006 16:30
Forum: History: Restaurant Chains
Topic: Stouffer's Restaurants
Replies: 16
Views: 16417

Biggar was Stouffer's son-in-law, not nephew His grandfather was John D. Rockefeller's physician.

More trivia--Vernon Stouffer led a syndicate that owned the Cleveland Indians in the 60s--they kept the franchise in Cleveland, but did little to attract & retain better players.