Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

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StoreLiker2013
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Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by StoreLiker2013 »

I tend to think of Safeway's two formats aimed at large stores over 35,000 square feet as being the last of the most-interesting Safeways of all time.

They are the Super Store (1977-1988) and the Marketplace (1988-1994) and both had very interesting interiors as well as exteriors. The Marketplace format was adopted when Safeway had been recovering from a hostile takeover attempt two years earlier that, in the process, caused them to sell off nearly half of all their stores nationwide as well as close down numerous subsidiaries here and worldwide. Safeway also converted some of their older underperforming stores to "Food Barns" (best described as no-frills, discount stores) in the early/mid 1980s.

Over here, Safeway converted their 1964-built Beaverton store to a "Food Barn" in 1983, while the company's seven-year-old Hazel Dell store became a "Super Food Barn" in 1984.

~Ben
Super S
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by Super S »

StoreLiker2013 wrote:I tend to think of Safeway's two formats aimed at large stores over 35,000 square feet as being the last of the most-interesting Safeways of all time.

They are the Super Store (1977-1988) and the Marketplace (1988-1994) and both had very interesting interiors as well as exteriors. The Marketplace format was adopted when Safeway had been recovering from a hostile takeover attempt two years earlier that, in the process, caused them to sell off nearly half of all their stores nationwide as well as close down numerous subsidiaries here and worldwide. Safeway also converted some of their older underperforming stores to "Food Barns" (best described as no-frills, discount stores) in the early/mid 1980s.

Over here, Safeway converted their 1964-built Beaverton store to a "Food Barn" in 1983, while the company's seven-year-old Hazel Dell store became a "Super Food Barn" in 1984.

~Ben
I have never heard of the "food barn" concept. Did these have any special interior features? I once lived in Hazel Dell and sometimes shopped at that Safeway in the mid-90s. Nothing really seemed different about that one, it was pretty typical at the time.

Safeway built a ground-up Marketplace at Jantzen Beach which stil retains some of those features. This one still has old signage up and I think remodel plans are on hold until plans for a new I-5 bridge nearby are figured out. Some plans call for demolishing the Safeway as well as the former Waddle's nearby.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by klkla »

In the 1980's Safeway tried doing a discount 'no frills' format called Food Barn and a liquor store called Liquor Barn (that was somewhat similar to today's BevMo).

Both stores generally used smaller Safeway properties that were no longer profitable operation as a Safeway. A lot of the Liquor Barn stores were profitable. The food Barn concept didn't work very well.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by Super S »

klkla wrote:In the 1980's Safeway tried doing a discount 'no frills' format called Food Barn and a liquor store called Liquor Barn (that was somewhat similar to today's BevMo).

Both stores generally used smaller Safeway properties that were no longer profitable operation as a Safeway. A lot of the Liquor Barn stores were profitable. The food Barn concept didn't work very well.
So did the Food Barn stores actually operate under that banner, or were they still under the Safeway banner? The Hazel Dell store is still open today as a regular Safeway and seems to be doing just fine.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by klkla »

Super S wrote:So did the Food Barn stores actually operate under that banner, or were they still under the Safeway banner? The Hazel Dell store is still open today as a regular Safeway and seems to be doing just fine.
They did operate under the Food Barn banner. I think one of the divisions that was closed in the mid 80's might have been all Food Barn. Kansas City comes to mind but I'm not certain.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote:
Super S wrote:So did the Food Barn stores actually operate under that banner, or were they still under the Safeway banner? The Hazel Dell store is still open today as a regular Safeway and seems to be doing just fine.
They did operate under the Food Barn banner. I think one of the divisions that was closed in the mid 80's might have been all Food Barn. Kansas City comes to mind but I'm not certain.
Yeah, Food Barn was the spin-off of Kansas City in the late 1980s. It went bankrupt around late 1993/early 1994 and closed their stores in March 1994, right around the time (a few months) AppleTree (Houston) did the same. Unlike AppleTree, Food Barn probably purchased the name as part of the deal.
xsafeway
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by xsafeway »

In the Washington DC Division the full name of the Food Barns was "Price Slasher Food Barn" with Price Slasher in a smaller font on the street signs.

In the Richmond Division they only converted one store to Food Barn, Colonial Heights in Feb-March 1983. Some time later I believe they planned to convert it back to Safeway I am not sure it was ever completed, they may have closed permanently.

In the DC Division the first Food Barn was in Pikesville MD (just outside Baltimore). In 1981 they converted a store in Alexandria and one in Hyattsville to Food Barns. Then there was a another round of conversions involving multiple locations: Marlow Heights, Herndon, Bowie, and Capitol Plaza to name a few. About the same time they converted a few 1940s era stores to Food Boxes. Eventually the Food Barns, Food Boxes, and Town Houses were grouped together into a single "district".

The Food Boxes did not last long (too expensive for their neighborhoods is what I heard), some of the better Food Barns were replaced by new stores (Bowie for example was replaced by a Market Place store), while Hyattsville and Alexandria were converted back to Safeways. The Alexandria store lasted into the 1990s before closing permanently. The remaining Food Barns became victims of an improving economy as people started shopping more in traditional stores.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by Super S »

klkla wrote:
Super S wrote:So did the Food Barn stores actually operate under that banner, or were they still under the Safeway banner? The Hazel Dell store is still open today as a regular Safeway and seems to be doing just fine.
They did operate under the Food Barn banner. I think one of the divisions that was closed in the mid 80's might have been all Food Barn. Kansas City comes to mind but I'm not certain.
But did they use that name in Oregon (Beaverton) and Washington (Hazel Dell)? Or did they use this format with the Safeway name?
StoreLiker2013
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by StoreLiker2013 »

Super S wrote:
klkla wrote:
Super S wrote:So did the Food Barn stores actually operate under that banner, or were they still under the Safeway banner? The Hazel Dell store is still open today as a regular Safeway and seems to be doing just fine.
They did operate under the Food Barn banner. I think one of the divisions that was closed in the mid 80's might have been all Food Barn. Kansas City comes to mind but I'm not certain.
But did they use that name in Oregon (Beaverton) and Washington (Hazel Dell)? Or did they use this format with the Safeway name?
They did use the Food Barn moniker with the Safeway name. Food Barns were intended to be discount, no-frills food stores.

~Ben
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by StoreLiker2013 »

Going a bit OT, weren't there any new post-1977 Safeways in the Portland/Vancouver region that were less than 35,000 sq. ft.?

~Ben
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by rich »

The KC Food Barns weren't necessarily in former Safeways 9the one I remember was in a vacant former Wal-Mart), but they were must have had Safeway sourcing because a lot of the merchandise was Safeway house brands.
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Re: Safeway Super Stores and Marketplaces (1977-1994)

Post by pseudo3d »

rich wrote:The KC Food Barns weren't necessarily in former Safeways 9the one I remember was in a vacant former Wal-Mart), but they were must have had Safeway sourcing because a lot of the merchandise was Safeway house brands.
From what I know of AppleTree (which spun off in a similar circumstance), AppleTree never built any new stores because it had so much debt following the buyout from Safeway. One of their stores did receive an extensive renovation/expansion but that was it. It just didn't have the capex or buying power to stay viable and filed for its bankruptcy in 1992 before going from 50 stores to 6 in 1994 (this was after they had already shed another 50 stores), and a good chunk of their stores were long-outdated 1950s stores. The second incarnation more or less lived on as a local supermarket with the same name and remaining stores until the late 2000s when the last few were sold off.

Food Barn went bankrupt in 1994 but I don't know if the name changed or not. They could have also actually expanded post-Safeway, and I believe AppleTree also had Safeway items through the first few years of its life before it sold off the DC and used third party suppliers.
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