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Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 08:05
by pseudo3d
Just ran across them in this article. From what I can gather, they were a chain of 10 stores that Vons purchased from Cullum Cos. (of Tom Thumb fame...it would ultimately share the Safeway umbrella by 1999) and were converted to the Vons name soon after. Since Cullum had bought Pantry Stores at the same time as Hinky Dinky, and documentation suggests Cullum ran HD into the ground as they funneled most of the profits into Tom Thumb, I would imagine Pantry Stores was in poor shape and unfit to be Vons stores without significant investment.

Anyone know more about it?

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 07 Jun 2016 12:48
by klkla
pseudo3d wrote:Just ran across them in this article. From what I can gather, they were a chain of 10 stores that Vons purchased from Cullum Cos. (of Tom Thumb fame...it would ultimately share the Safeway umbrella by 1999) and were converted to the Vons name soon after. Since Cullum had bought Pantry Stores at the same time as Hinky Dinky, and documentation suggests Cullum ran HD into the ground as they funneled most of the profits into Tom Thumb, I would imagine Pantry Stores was in poor shape and unfit to be Vons stores without significant investment.

Anyone know more about it?
There stores were actually very nice. But most of them were pretty small and ten stores was not enough to make a dent in the Southern California market.

The biggest store was in Anaheim Hills. It had a much better bakery and deli program than Vons.

They had a store in Arcadia which is now a 99 Ranch Market. That store was closed when they built the Pavilions behind it (there's a thread about this store having recently been converted to Vons on retailwatchers.com).

The small Pavilions in Pasadena was a Pantry and still looks almost exactly as it did as a Pantry.

That's all I remember about it. I think one of the small Pavilions operating in Newport Beach may have also been a Pantry.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 03:51
by Jeff
There was one in Hacienda Heights. It was on Azusa and became a Vons market. It closed in the 90s and is now an Asian market. It's across the street from PHM.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 09:00
by Steve Landry
klkla wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Just ran across them in this article. From what I can gather, they were a chain of 10 stores that Vons purchased from Cullum Cos. (of Tom Thumb fame...it would ultimately share the Safeway umbrella by 1999) and were converted to the Vons name soon after. Since Cullum had bought Pantry Stores at the same time as Hinky Dinky, and documentation suggests Cullum ran HD into the ground as they funneled most of the profits into Tom Thumb, I would imagine Pantry Stores was in poor shape and unfit to be Vons stores without significant investment.

Anyone know more about it?
There stores were actually very nice. But most of them were pretty small and ten stores was not enough to make a dent in the Southern California market.

The biggest store was in Anaheim Hills. It had a much better bakery and deli program than Vons.

They had a store in Arcadia which is now a 99 Ranch Market. That store was closed when they built the Pavilions behind it (there's a thread about this store having recently been converted to Vons on retailwatchers.com).

The small Pavilions in Pasadena was a Pantry and still looks almost exactly as it did as a Pantry.

That's all I remember about it. I think one of the small Pavilions operating in Newport Beach may have also been a Pantry.

Do you think it's possible that the Pavilions "Place" (I think it's just Pavilions now) near Beverly Hills (I want to say Beverly Glen and Beverly Bl.?) was a Pantry Store? It's the one that had a weird parking garage next to it.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 08 Jun 2016 12:09
by klkla
Steve Landry wrote:Do you think it's possible that the Pavilions "Place" (I think it's just Pavilions now) near Beverly Hills (I want to say Beverly Glen and Beverly Bl.?) was a Pantry Store? It's the one that had a weird parking garage next to it.
That store was originally a Safeway and came to Vons when they acquired Safeway's Southern California division in 1988.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 18 Jun 2016 11:29
by J-Man
Just ran across them in this article. From what I can gather, they were a chain of 10 stores that Vons purchased from Cullum Cos. (of Tom Thumb fame...it would ultimately share the Safeway umbrella by 1999) and were converted to the Vons name soon after.
The one in Duarte was always a Pantry-- never converted to Vons. It became many things after it closed -- subdivided into a stationery store and an office, an independent junior market, and eventually a Fresh and Easy. It's now empty.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 22 Oct 2019 23:40
by steps
Ran across this picture in one of my Facebook groups of the Pasadena Pavilions as The Pantry. For years I assumed this was previously a Safeway since it was a Pavilions Place. I see they didn't just use "Place" on the smaller acquired Safeway stores in better areas.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 24 Oct 2019 21:35
by klkla
steps wrote: 22 Oct 2019 23:40 For years I assumed this was previously a Safeway since it was a Pavilions Place. I see they didn't just use "Place" on the smaller acquired Safeway stores in better areas.
I'm pretty sure they first used the Pavilions Place moniker on the stores acquired from Safeway before applying it to that store. IIRC they kept some stores operating under the Pantry name for a couple years before gradually changing them to Vons or Pavilions (or just closing them altogether).

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 04 Jan 2020 17:42
by somuchtoseeanddo
I believe the smaller Pavilions locations were originally called "Pavilions Place." The Pantry pictured is on California Blvd, just west of Lake Ave in Pasadena. It is not a very large store and as mentioned, was originally a "Place". Also, Panty's offices were located in Pasadena at Del Mar and Raymond near the Humane Society.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 08 Apr 2020 02:52
by luckysaver
Jeff wrote: 08 Jun 2016 03:51 There was one in Hacienda Heights. It was on Azusa and became a Vons market. It closed in the 90s and is now an Asian market. It's across the street from PHM.
99 Ranch Market took over immediately after Vons closed - until a recent remodel (2019), they retained some of the features and store fixtures that Vons had (it was a Bill Davilla era store, so it never had the Safeway "lifestyle" features). On the other side of Colima Rd is 168 Market, which is 99 Ranch's discount format (the building used to be an Albertsons-Savon, which first opened in 1986 and closed during the Supervalu era). The large seafood restaurant/Chinese BBQ shop to the left of 99 was originally Longs Drug.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 08 Apr 2020 02:58
by luckysaver
klkla wrote: 24 Oct 2019 21:35
steps wrote: 22 Oct 2019 23:40 For years I assumed this was previously a Safeway since it was a Pavilions Place. I see they didn't just use "Place" on the smaller acquired Safeway stores in better areas.
I'm pretty sure they first used the Pavilions Place moniker on the stores acquired from Safeway before applying it to that store. IIRC they kept some stores operating under the Pantry name for a couple years before gradually changing them to Vons or Pavilions (or just closing them altogether).
I think the Pavilions Place name was also used at the Heathercliff store in Malibu.

The huge Vons shopping center in Huntington Beach is ironically called Pavllions Place. It was originally a Pavilions to begin with and was converted to Vons after the merger with Albertsons, around 2015. After the merger, several Pavilions stores were converted to or renamed Vons including Arcadia and Simi Valley.

Re: Vons Pantry Stores

Posted: 05 Jul 2020 15:17
by somuchtoseeanddo
The Monrovia Pavilions on Foothill Blvd. was also converted to VONS.