[Groceteria]

Hi gang. Is this a former A&P Futurestore? It's located in the 9600 block of North Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach SC, if that helps...

[wnetmacman]

There were two stores like this in Baton Rouge. Both of them were on the eastern side of town; one on Florida Blvd. next to the old Kmart. The other one was on O'Neal Rd in a shopping center. Both of them are the spitting image, except the stucco. The O'Neal store has been remodeled; the Florida one hasn't. Neither are currently grocery stores.

[krogerclerk]

The location is almost across from the Galleria center which houses a mid-80's greenhouse Kroger Sav-on. IIRC, this was an A&P Futurestore which opened in the late-80's, the only Futurestore prototype in South Carolina. The Carolinas A&P division closed before the Atlanta division and this location was the last A&P open in Myrtle Beach by the late 90's, as it was transfered to the Atlanta division until closing. BTW, in Columbia, SC the Fort Jackson Blvd Kroger Sav-on was an A&P Family Mart store originally while the nearby Bi-Lo on Garnetts Ferry is obviously a Kroger greenhouse. A complicated set of store exchanges resulted in Bi-Lo in a Kroger and the Kroger in an A&P. A&P Family Marts were also located in Greenville and Spartanburg until the late-80's.

Also, near the redeveloped Myrtle Square Mall was a KMart S/C with a Big Star, is this KMart still operating and is the Big Star still apparent or has KMart expanded into the space of the old Big Star(as they did here in Dalton, GA). Further south in Georgetown, a not very busy KMart operated with the Big Star label scar very prominent on the facade of its vacant neighbor. I believe this KMart probably closed durnig one of the company's bankruptcy closings.

[Groceteria]

Thanks for the confirmation. I thought I remembered it as a Futurestore; I believe it opened close to the (brief) time I lived in Myrtle Beach in 1986.

I knew about the Family Marts; I've been to the one in Columbia; if I'm not mistaken, there is another former FM in West Columbia or Cayce as well. Family Mart stores in Greensboro and Winston-Salem were also sold to Kroger. And the Kmart near the (not yet) redeveloped Myrtle Square is still there, although I didn't look too closely at it...

[parkave231]

A&P Family Marts were also located in Greenville...until the late-80's..

Where was this? I assume that if it's still a grocery, it's a Bi-Lo?

Aaaaah, memories of FutureStores and Family Marts.......I thought those commercials showing the kiosk with the store directory were so cool....until we actually got to the store and it never worked.

Matt

[krogerclerk]

I never knew where the Greenville or Spartanburg Family Marts were located. I had an old A&P ad that gave the addresses, but can no longer find it. A&P had 3 Family Marts in Georgia-Albany(Dawson Blvd), Warner Robins(Houston Rd) and Columbus(Airport Thruway). There was also 2 Family Marts in Alabama-Montgomery(not sure where) and Decatur(Beltline Rd). Florida probably had at least 40-most were sold to Kroger as the short lived Florida Choice chain, which lasted about 3 years, 86-89.
The Florida Choice stores mostly became Albertson's, Publix, Kash-n-Karry and Goodlett's. I've visted the Albertson's in Panama City that was a Family Mart, I'm not sure it ever was a Florida Choice. The only FutureStore to be in Florida was in Pensacola, the easternmost outpost of A&P's New Orleans division, though the Mobile and Pensacola stores have been closed for almost a decade.

Atlanta had several FutureStore locations, a large number eventually went to Publix. Off the top of my head, there was EastLake Pavillion in Marietta-now a Kroger, Woodstock Rd in Roswell(Publix), Roswell Road in Sandy Springs(a Big Lots), Snellville(the 1st in Atlanta-vacant), Lawrenceville(vacant), Duluth-Satellite Blvd(Bed, Bath, and Beyond),Decatur(actually had Sav-A-Center decor, now a Publix), and Roswell(Alpharetta St, a remodel of an older A&P, now Shoe Warehouse), and Holcomb Bridge Rd in Alpharette(vacant I believe). The banner was dropped after A&P stated the public perceived FutureStore as more expensive than the typical A&P-a problem for all A&P banners actually.

[Groceteria]

I've moved this to the "Chains" forum since it's gotten (a) quite interesting, and (b) quite A&P-centric...

At this point, I'll repeat my recent cry for anyone who may have actual vintage photos of A&P Futurestores in operation when they had their original decor to please 'fess up...

[Pete]

I know the location of one, in Wycoff, NJ, but it's not a futurestore anymore, of course, if it's even occupied.

[dooneyt63]

Pensacola, FL had an A&P Futurestore like the one pictured. The building still looks pretty much the same. Two or more supermarkets tried the space after A&P shuttered the Futurestore. Curiously, it closed well prior to the closing of two old colonials in the city. The lack of luck subsequent supermarkets had there tells one it was not the best site selection. It was first a Jitney Jungle after A&P left, I think. This represented that chain's return to the Florida market a good bit prior to the ill-fated Delchamps acquisition. Then it might have become a County Market. Most recently, it was an IGA outlet called Apple Market. It is now an antique mall named Apple Market antiques. The mall utilizes several store fixtures including a couple of old open refrigerator cases for display cases. This was a really neat concept for A&P. Too bad it didn't help them turn a strategic corner.

[todd]

This was an A&P Future Store on N. King's Hwy. ....remember going into it in mid-80's maybe. It is near the Galleria area and Resturaunt Row. In it's day, it was quite revolutionary.

[jbarn02]

When this store closed does it still have all the suppport equipment in it like the cash registers and the stands and the feeezers and ect. David when you visited this store, did you look throught the window and see if any of the equipment remained like the POS registers?

[Rob_L]

From what I can remember, the first A&P FutureStore was a prototype that opened in Allendale, NJ (about 10 miles from their Montvale, NJ corporate offices).. It had to have opened right around mid 82.. It was a one of a kind in the Northern NJ market, they were scanning (almost nobody was at that point), glass greenhouse front, etc....

[Swifty]

Surfing the net gave me this website:

http://www.johnmcleanarchitect.com/Projects.htm

It shows some Futurestore prototype images.

In the Southeast, I'm pretty sure that they had Futurestores in Panama City, FL, some in the Louisiana area, as well as Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA.

I wish I'd visited one to report on it. Does anyone remember what made the Futuresotre so...I dunno...futuristic? What exactly was the purpose of the concept?

[Groceteria]

Does anyone remember what made the Futuresotre so...I dunno...futuristic? What exactly was the purpose of the concept?

It was a stark, black and white decor package, very "1980s high tech" and some argued very cold and uninviting. The concept was designed to give A&P a more upscale brand ID, focused on fresh produce, deli, etc. It wasn't terribly successful.

From "Supermarket News" (24 December 1984):

The Futurestore is an upgraded version of the combination stores the Tengelmann group has been opening successfully in Austria, Haub said, but with a totally different design and layout. He said the fact that Tengelmann will inaugurate a small supermarket in the Duesseldor area near here next month, decorated in black and white by a separate design team, is "pure coincidence."

Haub said the initial Futurestore startup cost had proved to be no higher than that of a conventional market, and that maintenance costs are proving to be lower, partly because of the adoption of energy-efficient halogen lamps. The only problem encountered so far is the cleaning of white surfaces and panels, which he said may be solved by using silicon paint.

Haub lauded the layout of the three Futurestores opened by A&P in Allendale and in Baton Rouge, La., based on a total separation of the entrance from the exit, with the service departments in the middle. "It's the most advanced format in America," he said.

From the Atlanta Journal (7 August 1985):

The two new grocery stores in Gwinnett County don't look like A&Ps, don't price like A&Ps and don't merchandise like A&Ps, even though the Futurestore Food Markets are owned and operated by the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Inc.

The stores, at Highway 29 and Pleasant Hill Road and at Highway 78 at Killian Hill, have glassed-in green-house style storefronts, black and white interiors, individually lighted shelves, misted fresh produce and over 15,000 items to choose from. They are definitely upscale without a hint of the warehouse pricing recently promoted in older stores.

From The Charlotte Observer (21 June 1987):

A&P this year has opened a store in Charlotte and Fayetteville and three in Raleigh. The new Charlotte store on Hickory Grove Road is a 40,000 square-foot, $2.5 million "FutureStore." A FutureStore, Mills says, is an upscale store with a variety of food and product lines not sold in conventional grocery stores. For example, the Hickory Grove Road store features gourmet, health and fancy foods. The Hickory Grove Road store is identical to a FutureStore that opened in Myrtle Beach in late 1986.

"The uniqueness of the store is that it has beautiful architectural design, but everything is in black and white," Mills says. "The only color in the stores is in the products."

[jimbobga]

In addition to FutureStores in the Florida panhandle, there was a FutureStore that opened in Merritt Island, Florida in the late 70's. The store reamined open for about five years. Located across from Merritt Square Mall, the store shared a parking lot with Cook's Discount Store. Although the store's only competition was a 1973 Publix located pretty much out-of-sight behind the mall, the area was not located near a substantial amount of housing, and access was difficult. A beautilful black, white, and chrome building, the store was too far back from the highway to attract the attention it deserved.