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PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 13 Aug 2010 20:05
by storewanderer
7 stores still open. All are closing.

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 14 Aug 2010 11:38
by submariner
Is there an article on this? I found an article on the San Jose Mercury News updated the 13th to the contrary:

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15773495

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 14 Aug 2010 16:00
by storewanderer
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/ ... 1281931200^

That one came out earlier in the day. The Mercury News one came out later.

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 00:23
by Gunter Caddington
Sorry to hear about PW; another family chain bites the dust. My friends always refered to the store as Joey Franco's--and not PW.

Years ago, PW had a store in Fremont on Walnut Avenue near Paseo Padre Parkway--not far from the BART station. They had taken over an Alpha Beta store lock, stock, and barrel after the Lucky merger; I guess the Walnut Avenue location was too close to an existing Lucky on Stevenson Blvd for this store to become a Lucky, too.

I remember the staff at PW being very friendly--but the store was always devoid of customers. I didn't shop there very often, but I do remember them giving some pretty good discounts on the remaining Alpha Beta branded items. PW put in some new checkstands, and were promising other improvements--but I don't know if they ever made them. A much larger Raley store had opened about a block away and that might have been the cause of PW's lack of success in Fremont. PW lasted about a year or so. After PW left, the space was split into two unequal halves (about 75/25) and a Drug Barn operated in the larger side for many years. (The smaller space is now an Urgent Care clinic).

The building itself had Orange-Red tiles on the outside, with an AB insignia in some of the tiles. The ABs lasted throughout the PW era, but were replaced with new tiles of the same color (or were skillfully painted over) when Drug Barn moved in.

Drug Barn left a few years back and recently Smart & Final moved into the site. Previously, the Smart & Final was in a former Marina Safeway on Fremont Blvd & Blacow Road down in the Irvington District of Fremont--that is now a 99 Cent Only Store (which I've posted about elsewhere).

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 07 Sep 2010 05:22
by TheQuestioner
Interesting to hear the history about the Fremont site. I know the strip center you are talking about, with Smart & Final and the Urgent Care clinic. I could tell it used to be a supermarket but couldn't tell just what.

I was told by long-time locals that the Alpha-Beta was a different, now-demolished building, a few blocks away, behind the Nation's Burger. They had said it was demolished in the mid to late 90's, and the site was still bare as of 3-4 years ago when I last visited. I recall seeing a vacant footprint with bricks & pavement around the outer perimeter, as well as old light poles with section signs on them (like A-2, B-3, etc...) in the area they said was Alpha-Beta. Was that some other supermarket? This place was basically near Beacon St. and Fremont Blvd, although State St. is the closest cross street.

I always got the impression a lot more retail used to be in that area, it is kind of forlorn and vacant, with the Nation's almost alone, and a weird 60's era Chinese Wonton place in the parking lot. Seems like a lot of that part of Fremont had very different retail 30 years ago. I understand that the center with Raley's was once a pseudo-mall, and the hospital was an Emporium department store. Also heard something similar about the shopping center with Safeway and Rite Aid over in Union City.

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 07 Sep 2010 12:08
by romleys
That was the Albertsons/Payless.

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 14:40
by Gunter Caddington
TheQuestioner wrote:Interesting to hear the history about the Fremont site. I know the strip center you are talking about, with Smart & Final and the Urgent Care clinic. I could tell it used to be a supermarket but couldn't tell just what.

I was told by long-time locals that the Alpha-Beta was a different, now-demolished building, a few blocks away, behind the Nation's Burger.
romleys wrote:That was the Albertsons/Payless.
Hi, guys!

I know the site you're both mentioning. I always thought it was a former Nob Hill location, but I could easily be wrong as I never went into the store. Maybe both Nob Hill and Albertsons were in there at different times.

Going under the assumption it was a Nob Hill, I thought the store was closed because of the opening of the new Raley's store on Paseo Padre Parkway. But as I found out today from the Raley's website, Raley's didn't acquire Nob Hill until 1998 (keeping the Nob Hill name on the acquired stores). The closure/demolition of the "maybe" Nob Hill and the construction of the Raley's happened several years before the acquistion.

I agree with you about the surrounding neighborhood. It is rather barren. But, I think this is more of a result of grand development schemes never coming to fruition instead of large scale demolition. Despite City Hall being located in this area, this is kind of an orphaned part of Fremont. Too far north to be considered Irvington, and too far south to be part of Centerville.

The shopping center with the Raley's store has an interesting history. Now called the Gateway Plaza, it was once known as the Fremont Fashion Center with a much different makeup of stores. I found this helpful link with the history of the center ... http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/2 ... padre.html

The center was built in 1968 as BART was under construction. Legend has it that the thinking behind the center was that BART commuters could do their shopping conveniently next to the Fremont BART station and head for home. When the first section of BART opened to Fremont in 1972 (and system wide in 1974), the tired commuters weren't interested in shopping--they simply headed home (and shopped elsewhere on the weekends). The center went into decline.

Two stores worth calling out--Safeway and Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. Both were closed by the time I moved to Fremont in 1985. The Safeway is now a 24 Hour gym. But Farrell's was another matter. Looking through the grimy windows, it appeared that Farrell's was abandoned in the middle of the night! The tables and chairs were still there, the candy counter appeared to be stocked with some sort of non-perishable merchandise (either the perishables were removed or rotted away by the time I looked in), and sagging decorations still hung from the ceiling. The whole mess was cleared away when the building was remodeled for the current center.

Re: PW Markets Closing all stores

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 21:31
by justin karimzad
Gunter Caddington wrote:
TheQuestioner wrote:Interesting to hear the history about the Fremont site. I know the strip center you are talking about, with Smart & Final and the Urgent Care clinic. I could tell it used to be a supermarket but couldn't tell just what.

I was told by long-time locals that the Alpha-Beta was a different, now-demolished building, a few blocks away, behind the Nation's Burger.
romleys wrote:That was the Albertsons/Payless.
Hi, guys!

I know the site you're both mentioning. I always thought it was a former Nob Hill location, but I could easily be wrong as I never went into the store. Maybe both Nob Hill and Albertsons were in there at different times.

Going under the assumption it was a Nob Hill, I thought the store was closed because of the opening of the new Raley's store on Paseo Padre Parkway. But as I found out today from the Raley's website, Raley's didn't acquire Nob Hill until 1998 (keeping the Nob Hill name on the acquired stores). The closure/demolition of the "maybe" Nob Hill and the construction of the Raley's happened several years before the acquistion.

I agree with you about the surrounding neighborhood. It is rather barren. But, I think this is more of a result of grand development schemes never coming to fruition instead of large scale demolition. Despite City Hall being located in this area, this is kind of an orphaned part of Fremont. Too far north to be considered Irvington, and too far south to be part of Centerville.

The shopping center with the Raley's store has an interesting history. Now called the Gateway Plaza, it was once known as the Fremont Fashion Center with a much different makeup of stores. I found this helpful link with the history of the center ... http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/2 ... padre.html

The center was built in 1968 as BART was under construction. Legend has it that the thinking behind the center was that BART commuters could do their shopping conveniently next to the Fremont BART station and head for home. When the first section of BART opened to Fremont in 1972 (and system wide in 1974), the tired commuters weren't interested in shopping--they simply headed home (and shopped elsewhere on the weekends). The center went into decline.

Two stores worth calling out--Safeway and Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. Both were closed by the time I moved to Fremont in 1985. The Safeway is now a 24 Hour gym. But Farrell's was another matter. Looking through the grimy windows, it appeared that Farrell's was abandoned in the middle of the night! The tables and chairs were still there, the candy counter appeared to be stocked with some sort of non-perishable merchandise (either the perishables were removed or rotted away by the time I looked in), and sagging decorations still hung from the ceiling. The whole mess was cleared away when the building was remodeled for the current center.
Another Fremont resident also told me that the Albertson's/Payless building was last a Nob Hill Foods.