Colonial Stores in Georgia

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dcgrocery
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Post by dcgrocery »

Yes, the first thing that came to mind was SEARS, even before I counted the letters. Our local one had the same plain rectangles which were white and had black letters. THe one in Maryland was located in a city called Clinton. Built in the mid 60's and closed by early 80's. Ours did not have the wavy canopy design, but that might just be a local variation. Please let us know what you find out. For all I know it could be something totally different. A lot of independent stores had simple wording like "DRUGS", which also would have fit the squares and the name of the chain could have been in the letter box. Who knows...
Paper or Plastic
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Post by Paper or Plastic »

Edric Floyd wrote:I have an update for the Macon Georgia INGLESIDE AVENUE location that I posted.

I have a friend who grew up within blocks from that store. She is in her mid 50's and gave me lots of info.

The store was definitely a Colonial Foods Store when she moved into the neighborhood as a little girl in 1963. No idea on when the store was opened but the store was closed no later than 1970. A local drug store called HARRISON's moved into the building and stayed there at least into the late 80's when Harrison's closed. As I said in my original post, when I moved to Georgia in 1994, there was a Big B express drug store. Big B was one of several drug store chains in the area until it merged with Revco and later Revco merged with CVS and all of the smaller stores were closed in the late 1990's.

During the 1970's and 1980's the building was divided into smaller shops which included the drug store space, antique stores (This is an antique shopping district today) and an Ice Cream Parlor.

The building was remodeled when it was divided but the tall post that used to have the Colonial Foods sign with "the rooster logo" as my friend calls it was kept. If you look at the photos, that is the post that reads "Blue Plate" which is one of the restaurants in the building.

The Blue Plate is in the space that was formerly the drug store.

My friend was very sure that the Ingleside Avenue location was closed before any other store changed to the Big Star format. There were two Piggly Wiggly's and an A&P within a couple of miles of this store in the 1960's.
I moved to Columbus and was raised there untill 1990.. Gaylords.. "Gotta go to Gaylords, (bap bowbow gitar riff ) " Remember Howards Brandiscount ?? I think they were owned by Lowes .
Crepehanger

Colonial Store in Thomaston

Post by Crepehanger »

I grew up about 30 miles from Thomaston. I'm not sure about the picture you posted, but I do know that Colonial which then became Big Star in Thomaston is the Lewis Jones/now Piggly Wiggly in the middle of town. Don't have a picture.

As far as Columbus, there was a colonial store in the St. Francis Shopping Center. Today, it is vaguely recgonizable and is the North Columbus Athletic Club. The other picture on Victory Drive sparks a memory. I remember that as being a Howard Brothers in the mid and late 1970s.
Edric Floyd
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Re: Colonial Store in Thomaston

Post by Edric Floyd »

Crepehanger wrote:I grew up about 30 miles from Thomaston. I'm not sure about the picture you posted, but I do know that Colonial which then became Big Star in Thomaston is the Lewis Jones/now Piggly Wiggly in the middle of town. Don't have a picture.
OH! But I have a picture!

The current Piggly Wiggly in Downtown Thomaston, GA

This explains the sign "food market" as that was part of the original Lewis Jones sinage! (I did not think about that until now!)
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Piggly Wiggly and Lewis Jones had to be former competitors.
And I have photos of the former Piggly Wiggly location a few blocks away. Which included a faded note saying the store would move around the corner.

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Crepehanger

Lewis Jones and Pig did compete with one another...

Post by Crepehanger »

in Thomaston. There was also a WD there as well that closed. I want to say it closed 3-4 years ago.

Really a shame about Lewis Jones. It was such a great store.
Edric Floyd
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Re: Lewis Jones and Pig did compete with one another...

Post by Edric Floyd »

Crepehanger wrote:in Thomaston. There was also a WD there as well that closed. I want to say it closed 3-4 years ago.

Really a shame about Lewis Jones. It was such a great store.
I have photos of the Winn Dixie in Thomaston. It was a Farmer Furnature store for a while but is now vacant. On the other end of the shopping center (possibly former k-mart?) is divided into a home and tractor supply store and a SAVE-A-LOT grocery store.
andysj500

Post by andysj500 »

Your Macon, GA Piggly Wiggly sure looks like a 60s/70s era Colonial/Big Star. Another one of very similar design (with the same corrugated steel facade, square front canopy and posts, and note the front position of the posts) is on my website.

http://www.geocities.com/ussenterprise1 ... rkets.html
Swifty
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Post by Swifty »

The 'Meats' sign in the former Thomaston Pig brings me back to the interior of Food Giant. Big Ominous Stencilly Letters. Although the Food Giants generally had more color around their section headers.

There was one other Big Star in Columbus - and that's on Macon Road where Badcock Furnishings is. It's previous incarnation was a Lewis Jones.

Lewis Jones was a pretty interesting store. They sold no alcohol and were not open on Sundays. I also have memories of seeing the Lewis Jones semi trucks all over the state - especailly on I-85 north of Atlanta. We once asked what they were doing, and the answer we got was that they were getting fresh produce from around the state for their stores.

Lewis Jones sold to some private investors a few years ago who immediate did away with the things that gave it its niche. They began selling beer and wine and they began opening on Sundays. All of their locations - except the one on 13th Street soon closed, and I believe the operator of the Piggly Wiggly stores in the area took over the operations of the 13th Street location.

It's since found its niche again by selling local and regional products.

(This according to my mother who shops there).
Swifty
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Post by Swifty »

Edric Floyd wrote:
dcgrocery wrote:The Maingate Plaza discount store sign looks just like one we had here in Maryland. It was a SEARS catalog store. Ours was about that size too. They sold appliances, sewing machines, vacuums and hardware, carpets. etc. That would be my guess.
that's a great guess! The amount of letters would make it that!

I hadn't thought about it being a Sears store because of its size and the original Sears at Columbus Square Mall is fairly close to this location. The mall is demolished now but the old Sears section is still standing, it is at least as old as maingate plaza.

I wonder if Columbus Georgia had two Sears stores at one time. I know Macon, Ga had a traditional Sears Dept store downtown (moved to mall in 1975) and a smaller catalog and appliance store a couple miles away. Anything is possible.

Next time I work in that area (could be anytime, anyday) I will take some time to properly reasearch this. Old phone books at the library could help.
I'll have to ask someone to make sure, but I'm almost positive it wasn't a Sears. From what I remember people telling me, Sears was originally downtown, and moved to Columbus Square Mall when it was built in the '60s. I'm pretty sure Columbus has always only had one Sears location.
Crepehanger

Lewis Jones

Post by Crepehanger »

I had the same vague memory of Big Star on Macon Road. Thanks for refreshing my mind. I, too, knew of only one Sears in Columbus.
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