Vintage Supermarkets in Movies and TV (Old Ones Only Please)

[speedy]

"The Long Goodbye" with Elliot Gould has several shots inside and out of the Thriftimart that used to be on Lankershim in North Hollywood. It was filmed around 1973. This is one of the stores where my family shopped back then. Although I was only 10 or so, I remember the buzz at the time the filming took place.
If I remember correctly, this store later became a Safeway (moved from prior location of 1/2 a block south after Safeway bought Thriftimart) and then a Vons. I think it's an Ethnic supermarket now.

[danielh_512]

I figured that store in "The Deer Hunter" was an independent, but something interesting to note was the sign on the outside read Eagle Super Market. I wonder since the movie was set in Clairton, PA (south side of Pittsburgh), if that was a nod to Giant Eagle somehow.

[runchadrun]

There's a new Progresso Soup commercial with a woman at the checkout. This is defintiely a HOWS Market. It's not the Granada Hills store (the signs are in the wrong place) but there are only 5 stores in the chain.

As I think I mentioned upthread, a Johnsonville Brats ad was also filmed at a HOWS.

[Jeff]

That store looks like the Hows in San Marino, which is small like that and a low ceiling.

[Jason B.]

There was an IGA store in the 1983 ABC-TV movie, "The Day After." As I recall, it ironically was having a "grand opening." Presumably the store was in Lawrence, Kansas or somewhere else in the Kansas City metro area. There was an exterior shot and some scenes inside the store as customers hoarded all of the inventory and traded the latest news about the deteriorating international situation. This chilling TV movie about a nuclear attack and its aftermath was one of the most-watched ever.

[Groceteria]

There was an IGA store in the 1983 ABC-TV movie, "The Day After."

I have that on DVD and will try to get some captures up before too long. I remember seeing the movie the night it aired in a large auditorium on my college campus. It was one of the creepiest pieces of film I'd ever seen up to that point.

[greebs]

The Incredible Shrinking Woman with Lily Tomlin opens with a supermarket scene. This was the Mayfair Market in Eagle Rock which was next to a Sav-On. The Mayfair is now a Super A market. There is a scene inside the market midway and then close to the ending is a chase outside in the parking lot.

[Groceteria]

"The Day After" location was Rusty's IGA at the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Lawrence KS. It's apparently no longer there, per the IGA website. It really was shot on location, though.

As a side note, the just-named CEO of IGA used to work in this store when he was in college.

Video captures:

[Dave]

There's a new sitcom on TBS that's based in a grocery store. See this article in Progressive Grocer: http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progre ... 1003439239

[runchadrun]

There's a new sitcom on TBS that's based in a grocery store. See this article in Progressive Grocer: http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progre ... 1003439239

The show is filmed in a Jon's in Reseda which would be located at 18135 Sherman Way and is this former Vons. (Whenever Jons takes over a Vons, which seems to happen often, all they do is change the V to a J.) Before that it was a Food Giant/Food King.
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2& ... ne=3105419

[Groceteria]

Whenever Jons takes over a Vons, which seems to happen often, all they do is change the V to a J.

I often wondered if Safeway actually had some stake in Jons for this very reason.

The movie "Go" had exterior shots from a Safeway turned Vons that was signed (in the movie, at least) as "Sons". I wonder if this might have been a Jons as well.

And, as has been discussed before, the Carls Jr. "clueless guy in the supermarket" spots were also shot in a Jons that appeared to be a former Marina Safeway.

Video capture from "Go":

[TheStranger]

I wonder where that gable is...also do wonder if that was CGI work in coloring the old Safeway front letter square plates, or if they were actually like this due to the film crew painting it over.

It'd also be nice to see a screencap of that old Carl's Jr. commercial...

This "letter replacement" thing is nothing new though: I can't find the photo of it, but I think in Sioux City, IA, there's a former Safeway that became Fareway, and they just had a contractor build a new R in the same font as the 1970s Safeway sign and rearrange the individual letters.

---

As for that new supermarket sitcom, here's an article on it:
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=3 ... ategory=20

[Groceteria]

I wonder where that gable is...also do wonder if that was CGI work in coloring the old Safeway front letter square plates, or if they were actually like this due to the film crew painting it over.

I imagine the store itself had very likely been repainted that color, probably unrelated to the filming. This was a really low-budget film, and I don't think they would have gone to much effort to use CGI for something like that.

An earlier post (maybe on the old message board) suggested this store was somewhere in southern LA or Orange County, if I recall correctly. I don't think a specific address was ever mentioned. The store was definitely a functioning supermarket that was operational at the time of the filming, though.

[Dave]

...This "letter replacement" thing is nothing new though...

Completely off the subject, but I wonder how many former Ramada Inns there are renamed "Armada Inn" after they lost their flag.

[kg4peq]

...This "letter replacement" thing is nothing new though...

Completely off the subject, but I wonder how many former Ramada Inns there are renamed "Armada Inn" after they lost their flag.

Funny you should bring that up. I noticed the one on I-95 near Route 288 has finally taken down the sign. You probably know the one I'm talking about. Since they actually swapped the entire cube that housed the individual letters "R" and "A" to form "ARMADA", if you were viewing the sign from the other direction it read "RAMAAD". Embarassing.