Groceteria.com

In the 1980's Jewel ran an operation in Southern California called Jewel T. It was super no-frills and they advertised it as such. They would cut open a case of whatever and put the case on the shelf and if you wanted something, you would grab it from that "display." The logo was the same as the current Jewel logo but with a capital T at the end.

The only location that I remember was in Arcadia on the northeast corner of Duarte and Baldwin. It's now a 99-Cent Only store.

I guess that I just missed the Jewel T stores in Southern Calif. as I moved out of state in 1979. I grew up and lived in Orange, Calif for 34 years before moving but I do remember when Jewel Tea operated their Jewel T vans that you saw being driven throughout various areas and they reminded me of small stepvans like the UPS trucks. Did you ever see any of these Jewel Tea Trucks?

Haha. I remember going to the one in Arcadia all the time. It was the only one around these parts. I still live in Monterey Park and my mom when I was young used to take me there all the time. So, there werent many around.

I think it's safe to say that ASC had the Jewel T stores outside of Southern California. I lived in Texas at that time, and they were all over that area. Jewel T was essentially a Save-A-Lot without a meat department. The store I saw the most is still in business as a S-A-L today, although it has been relocated. I know ASC sold most of the Jewel T stores in my to S-A-L when they sold the Dallas Alpha Beta division to Albertsons in the early 90's. (but that's another story all together)

Anyone remember these stores? Apparently a spin off of Jewel. They never carried produce, no meat, only a few dairy items, everything they sold was in boxes or (usually dented) cans, and when you checked out, you'd put everything in cardboard boxes-no shopping bags.

Several locations in Southern California...went under in the early 80's. Jewel-Osco makes no mention of this store on their website's history (but they have the Lucky logo?!). Reminded me of a smaller Grocery Outlet...kinda ironic given the Lucky fiasco.

Obvious why they went under, given the rise of full service supermarkets.

Here's another escoteric "Dave" question. Jewel was founded in 1899 and was based in Chicago originally.

Does anyone know how great their reach was in, say, the 1940's? There was a Jewel Tea in Richmond, VA in 1946 on West Cary Street. The timing and location lead me to believe that it may well have been a national retailer rather than a local copy, as that area had a lot of "national one-offs" for Richmond, like the only Montgomery Ward (a catalog store).

Back in the day, Richmond was considered to be an ideal test market for a lot of things (I don't know why, exactly, maybe because tobacco carried the local economy through thick and thin, and for a long time it was the largest city between Washington and Atlanta). Beer in cans was supposedly first sold here (Krueger). I keep running into little retail presences that were national or regional with perhaps one or two Richmond locations where they might have much larger presence in all of their other markets.

Dave wrote:Does anyone know how great their reach was in, say, the 1940's? There was a Jewel Tea in Richmond, VA in 1946 on West Cary Street. The timing and location lead me to believe that it may well have been a national retailer rather than a local copy, as that area had a lot of "national one-offs" for Richmond, like the only Montgomery Ward (a catalog store).

There was a location in Charlotte at some point in the 1930s/1940s as well. I believe they were still in the actual tea delivery business at that time, and I'm pretty sure that's what these one-off locations were all about. If they had any retail presence at all, I'd imagine it was limited to tea and related items.

The early history of Jewel has always been difficult to locate. They went into retail stores much later than other "tea companies" like A&P or National. An old Moody's stock manual dated their entry into grocery stores to the 30s. My guess is that they had some stores to support their delivery routes (which covered a hugh part of the country) and might have used them as outlet stores, but that the grocery business was rooted in Chicago and modestly grew from there into Wisconsin (to at least Milwaukee) and the Quad Cities. They bought Eisner in the 50s (downstate IL & into Indiana), Star in Boston during the early 60s and Buttrey at about the same time. They continued to have delivery routes in places where they had no stores for years afterward. In Cleveland (where they didn't have grocery stores), the delivery routes continued to about 1970. They had a major competitor there in Cook Coffee, which also operated the Pick-n-Pay super market chain. Like Jewel, Cook Coffee had a delivery business that coovered a much larger territory than their grocey stores.

I can remember a Jewel T in Old Forge PA back in the early 1980's. The A&P recently closed and Jewel T was in that building for a very short time. We had no other Jewel T location in this area.

The 99 Cent Only Store in Arcadia is on the NW corner of 2nd Ave. and Duarte Road, and when I moved to the area in 1987 it was an Alpha Beta. There used to be a 99 Cent Only store on the NE corner of Duarte and Baldwin, but it closed several years ago.

J-Man wrote:The 99 Cent Only Store in Arcadia is on the NW corner of 2nd Ave. and Duarte Road, and when I moved to the area in 1987 it was an Alpha Beta. There used to be a 99 Cent Only store on the NE corner of Duarte and Baldwin, but it closed several years ago.

I stand corrected. I lived on Arcadia Ave and Baldwin for a few months in 1988.

What's on the corner of Duarte and Golden West now? It was a Pantry and it closed around the time the Pavilions opened next door.

Its an Asian supermarket there I beleive.

Yes, that's right. It's in a shopping center called President Plaza. I didn't know about its previous incarnation as a Pantry. The Pavilions was already there when I got here in 87 (as was the one in Monrovia.) And there was still a Pantry in Duarte (NW corner of Huntington/Mt. Olive.)

I made an error, too-- the 99 Cents Only store (né Alpha Beta) is on the SW corner of Duarte/Second.

Here is a live local (http://local.live.com/) look at the former Jewel T in Arcadia. I dont know what is there today, but at the time this was taken, it was empty:

There was a Jewel-T store in La Habra, CA on the southwest corner of Beach Blvd. and La Habra Blvd. I remember shopping there as a kid. It was the first warehouse-type chain around. I remember having to pack your own groceries in the recycled cardboard boxes they provided.
The location is now a Salvation Army store (I think!)