Safeway Locations in Toronto

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Groceteria
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Safeway Locations in Toronto

Post by Groceteria »

Safeway briefly operated in the Toronto area. Anyone with info on specific locations?
drubinoff
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Post by drubinoff »

The Safeway I used to go to with my dad in the 1970s and early 80s was on Mount Pleasant Road just south of Eglinton. It was in a concrete apartment tower (Sutton Place?) adjacent to an AMC dealer. Parking was underground and there was a multi-level parcel pickup which was quite fascinating. After '86, they became IGA, and now I understand as of last year they were rebranded Sobey's. So, I believe it's still there (although the AMC dealer is not!).

I think about the time of high inflation (1980+/-), their paper bags had an illustration of an angry woman (who kind of looked like Alice from the Brady Bunch) holding a rolling pin...something about beating prices back.

I don't remember other Safeways around Toronto.

If you're interested in Toronto area supermarket concepts, you should check out the history of Knob Hill Farms, some info for which is posted on Wikipedia. They stacked your items in cardboard crates, which again, to a kid, was interesting.
dominion301
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Post by dominion301 »

According to Sobeys' website this store is still there: http://www.sobeys.com/search-store/stor ... _store=yes

I wonder if the store still has its parcel pickup?
jbcurio

Post by jbcurio »

While doing some research on another matter, I stumbled upon an ad listing all of Safeway's locations in Toronto as of June 1976 (the printer in the library wasn't working well, hence no ad).

No street numbers were given, so I'm making guesses as to what these locations may have become...

Weston: Finch and Weston
Willowdale: Leslie north of Finch (is this Galati Bros?)
Willowdale: Victoria Park and Van Horne
East York: Dawes and Gower
Toronto: Mt. Pleasant and Soudan (now Sobeys, formerly IGA)
Toronto: Runnymede and Dundas (there is a Price Chopper, formerly IGA, close to this intersection)
Scarborough: Huntingwood and Brimley (now Price Chopper?)
Richmond Hill: Yonge and Trayhorn
Brampton: Hwy 10 (Hurontario) and Steeles
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TheStranger
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Re: Safeway Locations in Toronto

Post by TheStranger »

jbcurio: Just noticed you finally were able to scan the ad. Here it is, from Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/jbcurio/3170037347/
Chris Sampang
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Re: Safeway Locations in Toronto

Post by Groceteria »

TheStranger wrote:jbcurio: Just noticed you finally were able to scan the ad.
Actually, that one is from 1960, which is pretty cool too, as I'd been given the impression that Safeway entered the Toronto market later than that.

EDIT: MY 1960 comment was based on the copyright at bottom, but I see that it was indeed 1978. Sorry.
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Re: Safeway Locations in Toronto

Post by Groceteria »

Ad from 1979 listing even more locations. This was probably Safeway's peak in Ontario. They sold their stores to the Oshawa Group following an unsuccessful attempt to purchase Dominion in 1984. Since Sobeys ultimately purchased the Oshawa Group stores, they owned lots of former Safeway locations in Ontario long before they purchased Safeway Canada in 2013. Several of the Ontario stores made the transition from IGA (under Oshawa) to Price Chopper (under Oshawa and Sobeys) to FreshCo (under Sobeys) and are still operating. as noted upthread, the Mt Pleasant Rd store, which was open at least by 1972 and was one of the first five locations, is still open as a Sobeys Urban Fresh.
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