Page 2 of 2

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 15 Nov 2016 23:52
by Andrew T.
Finally, the crown jewel of Springfield: 712 W. Commercial Street. There was no doubt about the pedigree of this:
712_W_Commercial.jpg
It's an almost pristine Safeway marina of the 1960s, still serving groceries under auspices of the local Price Cutter chain to this day. It features loopy wings, and only one entrance...the far corner is built out, and I assume from the configuration of the lot that it had always been this way. The seven panels for the S-A-F-E-W-A-Y lettering (and the portal by the entrance for the circle-S symbol) are plainly visible.
712_W_Commercial_2.jpg
Inside the beams had been painted and the decor was fairly new, but it still left a dramatic visual impression. Although it's hard to make out in the picture, there was something a bit odd about the ceiling, too: It featured large 2'x4' rectangular tiles in a drop-style framework.

Super S once created a thread about a period photo of a Safeway in Texas that had an identical ceiling design. Perhaps it's to clear the sprinkler plumbing?

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 16 Nov 2016 14:36
by Groceteria
Andrew T. wrote:Assuming this was a Safeway design, I wonder if others like it exist?
I have seen some others. May have photos. I'll look when I get home.

AS I recall, Most of the ones like this I've seen were originally Safeway/Super S combos, but this doesn't look big enough.

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 18 Nov 2016 10:09
by wnetmacman
I only ever shopped at one Marina store in Texas, in Henderson. IIRC (because it was last Safeway in 1980), it also had the drop ceiling. It spent another 15 or so years as a Brookshire Brothers store before moving down the hill to a former 9000-series Kmart that closed in 1994. It had standard flat side wings, however.

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 06 Apr 2017 01:21
by pseudo3d
pseudo3d wrote:Albertsons operated in Springfield, MO briefly. It pulled out in early 2002 as part of the closure of the Mid-South Division. It looks like it only had one store, at 218 South Glenstone Avenue, which has now been converted to a bank.
Had to be more than that, for sure, anyway, been looking more into Smitty's...seems like briefly it was "Smitty's by Albertsons" (advertised in papers with "by Albertsons" just in Helvetica) before officially becoming Albertsons...it might have been a marketing thing like the LLC Albertsons were "Albertsons Market" in all but the outside.

The Smitty's-MO stores by the 1990s seemed to have gotten rid of the more esoteric items that would've been difficult for Albertsons to handle, like lawn and garden (despite the fact that during this time Albertsons was building garden centers), clothing, electronics, automotive, etc. but did include full-service restaurants ("Smitty's Restaurant") that actually hired cooks and servers (what they served, I don't know). In October 1996, Smitty's No. 10 opened in Joplin (this was probably the last Smitty's built, or so I thought), and according to the newspaper, "Smitty's Supermarkets Inc. has opened Smitty's No. 10 at 20th Street and Maiden Lane in Joplin. The new 75,000-square-foot facility includes a Smitty's restaurant with meeting room, postal station, pharmacy, bakery and Pasta Express". (Pasta Express seems to have been a local chain that still seems to be in existence, a 1997 article indicates that they closed two stores inside Smitty's in Joplin) Also note that the Smitty's-MO stores were large but not too large for Albertsons (not 100k+ superstores here).

I don't know what Albertsons did with the Smitty's Restaurants spaces, probably converted them to camera centers or video rentals (if the store didn't have them). Nor do I know what they served. I found another 1994 article (by the way, I'm using Newspapers.com and the OCR text) that refers to the restaurants.

The (*) includes known restaurants.

(*)218 S. Glenstone Avenue (mentioned last page, extensively renovated and expanded into offices for Great Southern Bank)
(*)1570 West Battlefield Road (extensively renovated facade-wise, abandoned for years but now Mercy Home Health and Hospice, and a social security office)
(*)3260 East Battlefield Road (now another Price Cutter, the gas station "Kum & Go" does not look like a recycled Albertsons Express)
(*)400 S. Massey Blvd. (Price Cutter)
(*)4228 S. National (now Bistro Market by Price Cutter, which sounds a lot like a knockoff of "Market Bistro by Price Chopper" in the Northeast though without the niceties)
(*)1850 S. Maiden (aforementioned Joplin store, now Price Cutter)
300 Ichord Avenue (in Waynesvillle, also a Price Cutter)

Price Cutter bought most of the Albertsons stores out. Ironically, the Price Cutter store now called Smitty's, at 601 S. Jefferson in Lebanon, is one I can't find anything on being Smitty's originally.

Other things to note:
- A 2002 article [http://www.semissourian.com/story/64900.html] mentions Cape Girardeau, MO being a different division than the Springfield stores seems to be correct. It seems like the Springfield stores were not in the Mid-South division at all but rather Great Plains, run and supplied out of Tulsa.
- Albertsons bought 10 stores of Smitty's in 1998 but in 2002 only had nine, so one must have closed somewhere down the line. The store closed in 2002 was in Republic, MO.
- The Republic, MO store (a strange store with a not-very-deep parking lot, located at 878 US Highway 60 W) was under construction in 1997 so at some point one of the Smitty's stores was sold or closed and the number was not replaced. Seems like it was built for construction that never materialized. It is now a church today.
- There's one more Joplin store that was open as an Albertsons when they sold out to Price Cutter.
- Price Cutter supposedly did operate all stores at PC in 2002, so the ones that closed happened later.
- The list above reflects the Smitty's stores I could find, not the Albertsons stores as they were sold to Price Cutter.

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 06 Apr 2017 09:26
by rich
Groceteria wrote:
Andrew T. wrote:Assuming this was a Safeway design, I wonder if others like it exist?
I have seen some others. May have photos. I'll look when I get home.

AS I recall, Most of the ones like this I've seen were originally Safeway/Super S combos, but this doesn't look big enough.

Keep in mind that a number of chains had small format versions of their combo/super stores from the 60s/70s. Kroger, Jewel & National come to mind--these would have been 20-25K sf stores most often in urban neighborhoods or in small markets--particularly those with distinct subareas (e.g., town vs. gown in a college town which is where I saw the small Kroger).

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 20:34
by pseudo3d
While trying to dig around for the store numbers, I discovered Albertsons kept the restaurants! A 2000 newspaper refers to "Albertsons Restaurant" as a meeting for clubs inside the 4228 National store.

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 08 Apr 2017 11:23
by pseudo3d
OK, I found the 10 Smitty's stores as they existed in 1998.

No. 1: 218 S. Glenstone Avenue (mentioned last page, extensively renovated and expanded into offices for Great Southern Bank)
No. 3: 1570 West Battlefield Road (extensively renovated facade-wise, abandoned for years but now Mercy Home Health and Hospice, and a social security office)
No. 4: 3015 Turkey Creek Road (now Frank Fletcher Ford Lincoln, appears to have been closed and reopened as such during Albertsons tenure, operating as car dealership since at least 2003)
No. 5: 3260 East Battlefield Road (now another Price Cutter, the gas station "Kum & Go" does not look like a recycled Albertsons Express)
No. 6: 400 S. Massey Blvd., Nixa, MO (Price Cutter)
No. 7: 2707 E. 32nd Street, Joplin, MO (smaller stores including a Mexican restaurant, closed entirely as of 2004)
No. 8: 4228 S. National (now Bistro Market by Price Cutter, which sounds a lot like a knockoff of "Market Bistro by Price Chopper" in the Northeast though without the niceties)
No. 9: 300 Ichord Avenue (in Waynesvillle, also a Price Cutter, opened ~1995)
No. 10: 1850 S. Maiden (aforementioned Joplin store, now Price Cutter, opened 1996)
No. 11: 878 W. Hwy 60, Republic, MO (opened 1997, closed 2002, now a church)

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 27 Oct 2017 15:50
by pseudo3d
No. 2, 3101 S. Glenstone I was surprised to find it became a Kmart (recently closed). Was Smitty's-MO that big enough to have one of its stores become a Kmart? After all, the Kmart looked a bit strange to be built by their own hand. Sadly, no. It turns out that it was a Venture and Smitty's operated adjacent to it presumably as a leased food department/adjacent supermarket with its own entrance, leading me to guess it's an Office Depot today. No. 2 was replaced by the East Battlefield Road store, which was 86,000 square feet.

Re: Stores in Springfield, Missouri?

Posted: 27 Oct 2017 16:56
by wnetmacman
pseudo3d wrote:No. 2, 3101 S. Glenstone I was surprised to find it became a Kmart (recently closed). Was Smitty's-MO that big enough to have one of its stores become a Kmart? After all, the Kmart looked a bit strange to be built by their own hand. Sadly, no. It turns out that it was a Venture and Smitty's operated adjacent to it presumably as a leased food department/adjacent supermarket with its own entrance, leading me to guess it's an Office Depot today. No. 2 was replaced by the East Battlefield Road store, which was 86,000 square feet.
Venture was not consistent with its grocery supplier; in some places A&P did it, and in others, they just took who they could get. Kmart operated Kmart Foods in a similar fashion, except that in Venture's cases, the food vendor had their name at the front door, unlike Kmart.