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

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runchadrun
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Post by runchadrun »

jamcool wrote:Per http://www.lileks.com/bleats/index.html...

A mediocre Dustin Hoffman movie circa 1977 called "Straight Time"...one scene includes a 70s era sign of defunct chains...Wards, Thrifty, Woolworth and FAZIO'S!!! Where in LA was this mall?
The actual pic is at http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/07 ... ghin/9.jpg It's the shopping center (not really a mall) on La Cienega north of I-10. The Fazio's was an A&P, then Shopping Bag, then Fazio's. It's now a Circuit City.

See this thread for more about this shopping center: http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... &highlight
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Post by Dean »

Watched E.T. with the family over the weekend. Don't think I had watched it since the original release!

Noticed that when E.T. went to the frig...right before he drank all the COORS...he snacked on a prepackaged salad from former SoCal chain The Boys.
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Post by Dean »

Daniel wrote:There was another episode of Friends where someone took a Vons brand Mac and Cheese from the cupboard. Amusing, because like you say, the show was set in NYC.
Noticed on a rerun last night...that there was VONS BBQ lighter fluid on top of Joey and Chandler's frig. Think also the charcoal.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by drpep »

Years ago when I watched Adam-12 they would be dispatched once or twice a season to the same supermarket over the shows run. I always tried to see what products were on display and if a store name was shown.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Daniel »

Yes, the producers of Adam-12 were usually very good about obscuring store names. I remember one episode where they filmed at a liquor store, they had put black trash bags over the sign!
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Pauldell71 »

I would like to add the shot inside an A&P in the movie big chill. They went shopping and were in the frozen food aisle. you can see the manager in the office wearing his red manager's coat from the late 70's/early 80's. I believe the store was somewhere in North Carolina as I think the movie was filmed in the outer banks.

There is also a movie with Sigorney Weaver where she is shopping in a food store and is at the checkout. it is definitely an A&P, Waldbaum's, super fresh or farmer jack I don't remember the name of the movie and I didn't even see the whole thing.

there is also an episode of Will and Grace where they are driving in a cab and pass and A&P which I believe is now the food emporium in union square.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Dean »

Found the following:

The North Hollywood, California Drug Emporium store was regularly used in the TV series "Malcolm in the Middle" as the "Lucky Aide" store where Lois worked.

from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Emporium
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by runchadrun »

Dean wrote:The North Hollywood, California Drug Emporium store was regularly used in the TV series "Malcolm in the Middle" as the "Lucky Aide" store where Lois worked.
That's a former Safeway. Safeway moved to the former Thriftimart up the block, it later became a Vons, and is now a Superior Warehouse.
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Post by Dean »

ieguy441 wrote:
ascjon wrote:In an early episode of Friends (season 2 I think), Lady Lee (Lucky) milk is featured during an informercial in which Joey is trying to open a carton of milk. I always loved that since the show was set in New York.
I remember that too! Quite a few TV shows featured Lady Lee products, most of them taking place where there was no Lucky.
Just saw this episode...and caught the LUCKY graphics immediately.

Funny thing too...is that JOEY was supposed to be on Days of Our Lives. That show is filmed in Burbank at the NBC Studios. Not New York. Went to see LENO a time back...the outside waiting area is where they film mall scenes from the show. Coffee house facades, etc.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Groceteria »

Two interesting NYC glimpses caught my eye recently:

A mid-block A&P, from "John and Mary" (1969):

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A Shopwell on the first floor of a multistory building, from "Plaza Suite" (1971):

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These are some of my favorite kinds of stores: chain supermarkets that were adapted to an urban environment in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Daniel »

I was just watching the CBS show "Swingtown" and saw a Lucerne milk on the table. While it was 70's design with the huge "L" with the flower above it, this show takes place near Chicago -- I don't think Safeway was in Chicago, were they?
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Groceteria »

Daniel wrote:I don't think Safeway was in Chicago, were they?
No, but neither was Fedco, and they talked about shopping there on "Roseanne", which was set in some mythical part of Illinois. Of course, they also did so while eating barely-disguised Ralphs products, as mentioned earlier :)
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Jeff »

There is a new (Stride?) gum commercial filmed outside a supermarket. Its easy to recognize the Pollo Campanero and Arco station in the parking lot.

This is the Former Gable Safeway / Vons current Super A Foods located on 4th and Soto in East Los Angeles.
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Post by jimbobga »

As for he A&P scene in The Big Chill , since the majority of the movie was filmed in Beaufort, SC, the interior would have been the A&P on Ribault Road in Port Royal, a "suburb" of Beaufort.

Winn-Dixie on Bullsboro Road in Newnan, GA, was looming in the background during the parking lot scene in Fried Green Tomatoes where Kathy Bates rams a car carrying a couple of younger ladies.

In Driving Miss Daisy trips to "the Piggly Wiggly" are mentioned, but the store shown in the movie is an old black-front A&P, possibly the one on Euclid Avenue in LIttle Five Points.

Plaid Stamps were given at A&P stores in Florida until the mid-sixties. THere was a stamp redemption store immediately next to the A&P in PineRidge Shopping Center in Cocoa, Florida. It seems like the redemption store closed around 1965. It was at the same time that Publix stopped giving S&H Green Stamps, and Winn-Dixie also ceased giving TopValue stamps. If this happened all over the country at the same time or not, I have no idea.
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Re: Supermarkets in the Movies and TV

Post by Groceteria »

jimbobga wrote:In Driving Miss Daisy trips to "the Piggly Wiggly" are mentioned, but the store shown in the movie is an old black-front A&P, possibly the one on Euclid Avenue in LIttle Five Points.
Yes, it was Euclid Avenue in Little Fie Points (see attached). I don't know if this store was ever actually a Piggly Wiggly or not, although I'm pretty sure it started out as some sort of supermarket; it looks a little like an early Big Star to me, similar to one in Athens.

The bonus features on the DVD show some interior shots that weren't used, but these seem to have been filmed on a set. Also, if you look closely at the shots in the movie, the sign reads "PIGGLY VIGGLY". Trademark issue?

BTW, I'm going to ask that we direct the trading stamp discussion into this thread. I'll try to move some of the posts there later when I have more time.

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