[TheStranger]

Was browsing an article from several years ago and came across this piece on Fresno urban decay:
https://calmatters.org/california-divid ... mmunities/

This photo was in the lede:


The caption is as follows:
"A man rides his bike by a discount store in west Fresno on Monday, June 8, 2020. The building had one time been a Safeway grocery store, which was part of a bustling economy in west Fresno. In recent decades, however, businesses moved north, leaving behind blight and decay. Craig Kohlruss, The Fresno Bee"

I was trying to compare it to the Fresno list on this site but hadn't found it yet (and the article makes no mention of what street that store was on). Would anybody here be able to identify it further based on that photo?

[Groceteria]

My first guess based on the context of the article and the neighborhood was 354 C St. and that does appear to be it.

[storewanderer]

We have interior photos at Google Maps. The business is "Discount General Merchandise" 370 B Street Fresno, CA.

The floor is quite old.

Shelving along the walls looks drugstore like.


Liquor license - https://www.abc.ca.gov/licensing/licens ... E=%2016185
Active to "Rudys Elm Pharmacy" from 1977-2016.
Yet Google Maps going back to 2008 show this as "discount general merchandise" and no sign of a pharmacy.

Maybe Safeway pre-1977?

[TheStranger]

One of the interior pics provided to google maps shows some lettering on the wall for Pinatas, unclear if this is reused old lettering from the Safeway era though:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KP7Y6AsvFjntrNn3A

[Groceteria]

Per my Fresno research from 25 years ago it was gone before 1970. I’m on vacation right now but I’ll see if I can pin that date down with newspaper sources when I have time.

[jmenglish27]

Newspapers.com turns up nothing for 370 B Street, but 354 C Street does return a restaurant and a dry cleaning business operating somewhat concurrently in the late 60s.

Looking back further, the store is indeed a Safeway in the 1940s, but the property is listed for lease in a 1951 ad. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 171404492/ The following year is when it starts showing up in job postings as a dry cleaner.

Anyway, here's a couple great ads from the era when it was an active Safeway...
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 71405064/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 171405173/