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Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 01:28
by steps
Hey all, I recently visited this Ralphs and noticed the decor is a package I have never seen. The department signs were moved next to there original spaces which looks to be Ralphs 80's font. White and Pink neon throughout the store.

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Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 04:10
by submariner
Nice catch! looks like a similar package from the former Huntington Beach store... do you have any more pictures?
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Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 19:21
by steps
I have one more since I got distracted from shopping for some grocries. I will be stopping in again soon to get some more photos of the entire store. The store itself is run down in a low/middle class area but has a service deli, bakery, service meat and service seafood.

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Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 30 Jan 2010 19:49
by klkla
steps wrote:Hey all, I recently visited this Ralphs and noticed the decor is a package I have never seen.
I had forgotten all about that design. It was Ralphs standard interior for many years, mostly during the 90's. There was a time when well over half of their stores would have had this interior.

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 19:13
by runchadrun
That's actually the sign package that was used in the Alpha Beta-to-Ralphs transition (the store was a Boys but the transition was the same). They would close the store for a couple of days and install this package while Ralphsifying the rest of the store. As each store got fully remodeled they would go with the complete Ralphs look. They probably haven't bothered to remodel that store since it's not an a very good area of town.

The Huntington Beach store above is different. Notice that they have a fancy sign for Produce and not just block letters on the wall.

The store on Vanowen and Sepulveda (now a Fresh & Easy) had the same look up until it closed.

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 19:19
by steps
runchadrun wrote:That's actually the sign package that was used in the Alpha Beta-to-Ralphs transition (the store was a Boys but the transition was the same). They would close the store for a couple of days and install this package while Ralphsifying the rest of the store. As each store got fully remodeled they would go with the complete Ralphs look. They probably haven't bothered to remodel that store since it's not an a very good area of town.
Boys does ring a bell. The exterior of the store is trimmed in green paint which reminded me of Alpha Beta and not Ralphs. I am puzzled though, wasn't this site always a Ralphs? I remember seeing a photo of Crenshaw/Rodeo Ralphs opening day. Did Boys have this store for a time before Ralphs took over the store again?

On a side note, was there a grocery store next door to the Rite Aid that now sits vacant?

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 21:41
by Groceteria
runchadrun wrote:That's actually the sign package that was used in the Alpha Beta-to-Ralphs transition
That would explain why I vaguely remember seeing it in a Cala or Bell somewhere in the Bay Area as well.

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 02 Feb 2010 23:48
by greebs
The Ralphs was actually across the street on the corner of Crenshaw and Rodeo. The Boys opened in 1955.

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 10:42
by runchadrun
greebs wrote:The Ralphs was actually across the street on the corner of Crenshaw and Rodeo. The Boys opened in 1955.
Oops. I was thinking of the one at La Brea and Rodeo.

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 22:26
by steps
greebs wrote:The Ralphs was actually across the street on the corner of Crenshaw and Rodeo. The Boys opened in 1955.
The building across the street that was a "Urban Clothing store" now Dentist office IS the former Ralphs location?

Re: Ralphs - Crenshaw/Rodeo

Posted: 11 Jul 2010 02:12
by Tortuga One
The original Ralphs Supermarket was located catty corner to the Current Ralphs. Currently there is a Shell Gas Station and the Department of Probation on the former site of the original Ralphs. The former Ralphs was located on Crenshaw between Exposition and Rodeo. Photos of the old store can be seen via the Internet, Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL).

Also during this last week, it was announced in Curbed LA that the Los Angeles City Council has approved a new shopping center complex on the site of the current Ralphs at Crenshaw and Rodeo. The center will be anchored by Ralphs and Target. The current Ralphs operated as a Boys Market until around 1992 (plus or minus), when it was converted to Ralphs after the merger of Boys/Alpha Beta/Food4Less/Viva and Ralphs. This Ralphs' current decor was from around 1995, using some of the previous Boys Market's Pink Neon elements as Boys had been keeping up this market. It had been previously remodeled sometime in the 1980's. It was one of the few markets (The Boys) to have a full service deli. To the right of the Ralphs is a row of stores that include a former Thrifty Drug Store, now a Rite Aid and a vacant retail store that one housed Akrons. I assume the entire complex is being demolished to make way for the Ralphs. The article mentioned November 2010 as a time when construction would begin. The LAPL also has a photo of the Ralphs when it operated as a Boys.