Historical Information About ShopRite Locations (Past & Present)

[Max]

Out here in the chain's home region (San Francisco Bay Areas), I can think of two Safeway marina buildings that had murals:

- San Francisco at the namesake Marina Boulevard site, still there but moved from their orginal spot after a 1995 remodel of the store
https://www.alamy.com/mural-on-marina-s ... 77550.html


- Millbrae; marina building (which eventually got a false front at some point) was demolished and replaced with a newer Safeway sometime between 2011-2016, the mural was moved to a wall on the new building if I am not mistaken.

Here's a 1962 photo of the Millbrae setup, with the mural somewhat visible:
Safeway, Millbrae, California, 1962 by John, on Flickr

This is really fascinating. Thanks for sharing this information.

Would anyone happen to know if exterior murals were a common feature of Safeway Marina buildings or were they relatively uncommon?

[rich]

The Springfield Finast looks like a Safeway Marina design like this one from the Pleasant Family Shopping blog (below), which even has some mural work at the entrance. If so, it probably was under construction when Finast bought Safeway's NYC Division.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ei2Ik5quiI0/ ... and+or.jpg

There used to be a poster here named Gerry Maynes, who literally grew-up in NYC Division Safeway/Finast stores (his father was a store manager). Sadly, he died a few years ago. he probably would have known the lineage of the store.

Speaking of colonial prototypes....First National had one that was pretty close to the A&P Centennial. I couldn't find a photo, but one of their annual reports has a sketch on its cover: https://archive.org/details/firstnation ... al1962.pdf

Thanks very much for your response. I think it is extremely likely that Safeway finished construction of this supermarket before Finast's purchase of Safeway's NYC Division was finalized.

I would have been very interested in what Mr. Maynes had to say about this store and am sorry to learn of his passing.

I did not realize that Safeway built other Marina stores which had mural work at the entrances. How common was it to see mural work at the entrances of Safeway Marina supermarkets?

Regarding this particular location's mural work, the following link (from a grand opening advertisement for the Springfield Finast) describes what the different exterior mosaics portrayed:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 144471740/

If for some reason the above link does not work for you, its contents are as follows:

"SEE THE HISTORIC STOREFRONT MURALS:

'The Village Green' -- Springfield's Historic First Presbyterian Church -- Independence Hall -- George Washington's Headquarters."

Of the two mosaics which are still visible, it appears that one of them is of the Presbyterian church.

On a different topic which you addressed, the Finast colonial prototype was indeed pretty close to the A&P Centennial. However, what is really uncanny is how much the building which houses the ShopRite of Millburn looks like a Centennial. This resemblance was even more striking prior to the windows being covered up with those ugly stucco panels, as seen in a historic photo found in this article:

https://www.marketreportblog.com/2018/1 ... rn-nj.html

As I mentioned previously, the Millburn store appears to have been constructed for a very obscure chain called Mutual Super Markets:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 143495221/

There is always the possibility that A&P built the supermarket but decided not to open at the last moment. But based on my research, this seems highly unlikely, since I never read any articles mentioning A&P's intention to open a store at that site. The following article also states that the supermarket was constructed for Mutual:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 143495926/

Just as importantly, the above article mentions that the building's size is 29,000 square feet. I do not believe that any A&P Centennials (excluding those that were later expanded) were ever that large.

One last thing (which I touched upon in a prior post) was my surprise that another chain could build a store that so closely resembled the dominant prototype A&P was using at the time. Although I could be mistaken, I presume that store design prototypes cannot be copyrighted or trademarked (thus giving A&P no legal recourse in the event that a competitor built a similar looking supermarket).

Centennials generally ran about 19,000 sf. There was a 13K sf version that went into small towns and urban neighborhoods. They looked stubby because having a narrower building screwed up the proportions. It was common for these to have siding rather than brick, but the proportions still seemed off. There were a few larger Centennials—I’ve only ever seen a very few and only been inside one—they were probably about 25K sf. Again, the proportions seemed off—the stores seem too wide and the weathervane cupola seems too small.

Nominally colonial architecture was very popular in suburban subdivisions from the 30s into the 70s. Adding some colonial decor to a strip center or retail building was common in the 50s and 60s esp. in what were then upscale or moderately upscale neighborhoods, although this began even earlier—the Shaker Square shopping complex in Cleveland which opened in 1929 and received additions in the 40s and 50s had this look and has retained it despite many ups and downs. Forest Hills Plaza in East Cleveland, Ohio was built 1n 1939 and kept the colonial look for many years but has been altered in recent decades. There are countless other examples—the Park and Shop in DC and Edmondson Village in Baltimore are examples.

I would guess that many chains had colonial prototypes—I’ve seen Acmes like this. The Pick-n-Pay chain in Cleveland had at least one free standing store like this. National Tea had a very few stores like this—I recall one in Alliance, Ohio.

[Groceteria]

I would guess that many chains had colonial prototypes—I’ve seen Acmes like this. The Pick-n-Pay chain in Cleveland had at least one free standing store like this. National Tea had a very few stores like this—I recall one in Alliance, Ohio.

Safeway (particularly in the DC area) and Grand Union as well.

[Groceteria]

I’ve split the centennial A&P discussion into a separate thread here:

viewtopic.php?t=4847

[Max]

I’ve split the centennial A&P discussion into a separate thread here:

viewtopic.php?t=4847

Thank you for doing that and sorry for going off-topic. I made some appropriate edits to the first post of the separate thread which you created. And below is a reproduction of the ShopRite-specific information that I wrote (which had been part of the first post of the new thread you created):

Although it looks nothing like a Centennial on the outside, shopping at the ShopRite of Netcong feels reminiscent to shopping at the Morristown, NJ Centennial A&P (that was discussed elsewhere on this message board many years ago). The interior of the Netcong ShopRite is about 1.6 to 1.7 times the size of the Morristown A&P, and a tiny ShopRite will invariably attract more customers than a small A&P would have, but putting those factors aside, I get very much of a "Morristown A&P" vibe when I go to the ShopRite of Netcong. (And I mean that in an extremely positive way.) Since the interiors of the Morristown and Pluckemin, NJ A&Ps (both of which were Centennials that closed in 2013) were quite similar, a shopping trip to the Netcong ShopRite is--more broadly--probably reminiscent to shopping at just about any A&P Centennial store during those supermarkets' later years.

Because I did not do this when I originally discussed the ShopRite of Netcong, below are some clippings from Newspapers.com relating to that supermarket's September 1965 opening:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145370128/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145369785/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145369881/

[Max]

While Village and RoNetco operate a decent number of vintage supermarkets, Saker ShopRites, Inc. is extremely aggressive about replacing its older stores. Most of their locations have a very cookie-cutter appearance--and not in a good way--with exteriors I find unattractive and interiors that have ugly exposed ceilings. (I do not think that exposed ceilings are always ugly, though I usually hate it when the HVAC units are visible, as I find that to be too much sensory overload.)

Saker is currently the largest operator of ShopRite supermarkets. Although I do not know when the Saker Family began operating grocery stores, Foodarama (the company run by the Sakers) joined the Wakefern cooperative no later than 1956:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145789320/

In 2006, the Saker Family assumed near-total control of Foodarama (taking the company private in the process) and subsequently renamed the business Saker ShopRites, Inc.:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 145786601/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 145786646/

(Note that the above article incorrectly states that Foodrama was founded in 1958. Also, it is possible that the Sakers now have 100% control of the company.)

The next ShopRite I am going to discuss was not initially a Foodrama supermarket. The specific store to which I am referring is the longtime ShopRite at 1801 Route 35 in Belmar, NJ (in Monmouth County):

https://www.marketreportblog.com/2021/0 ... ar-nj.html

This supermarket was erroneously believed to have started out as a Penn Fruit location. As it turns out, despite the fact that the building looks identical to the stores Penn Fruit was building, this supermarket was always a ShopRite and was always planned to be a ShopRite:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 144501228/

On February 26, 1964, Maurice Holtzman opened the ShopRite of Belmar-Wall (as it was called back then):

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 144500955/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 144501054/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 144501086/

Here is how the supermarket looked when it was brand new:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 144500676/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145878036/

According to this article, the ShopRite of Belmar was acquired by Foodarama in May 1966, when Mr. Holtzman joined that company:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/asbu ... 145787388/

I was unable to ascertain when most the windows of this supermarket were unfortunately covered up.

The old Belmar ShopRite--which to be honest, was not in the best shape--finally closed on May 18, 2021. The following day, Saker opened one of its cookie-cutter, "World Class" stores as a replacement (located diagonally across the street from the old ShopRite):

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.1699114 ... &entry=ttu

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145782719/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 145783298/

The former ShopRite building remains vacant. I believe that there was some speculation (or more accurately, wishful thinking) that Saker would convert that building into another Dearborn Market. (Dearborn Market currently has only one location--in Holmdel, NJ--which Saker acquired in 2015. In contrast to so many Saker ShopRites, the Holmdel Dearborn Market is housed in a very attractive and old-fashioned building.)