Safeway in NC

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 19 Nov 2006 08:17

Safeway had one store in Nags Head, NC on the Outer Banks that was pretty isolated by anyone's standards at the time it opened (as I recall in the early 1980's).

Sometimes you don't have to go too far as the crow flies to make a big leap in terms of entering a different market. Ukrop's has one store in Fredericksburg, two in Williamsburg, and is buidling one in Roanoke in addition to their 25+ stores in Richmond. My understanding is that the Fredericksburg store could be doing better and Williamsburg is doing well. However, these are vastly different markets than Richmond.

andysj500 · Post by **andysj500** » 27 Dec 2006 23:37

Safeway had one store in Nags Head, NC on the Outer Banks that was pretty isolated by anyone's standards at the time it opened (as I recall in the early 1980's).

Where exactly was this Safeway and do you know what it is now? The architecture of 80s era Safeways suggests that the store might be Seamark Foods' Outer Banks Mall location.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 28 Dec 2006 08:44

andysj500 wrote:
Safeway had one store in Nags Head, NC on the Outer Banks that was pretty isolated by anyone's standards at the time it opened (as I recall in the early 1980's).
Where exactly was this Safeway and do you know what it is now? The architecture of 80s era Safeways suggests that the store might be Seamark Foods' Outer Banks Mall location.

That's it.

rich · Post by **rich** » 28 Dec 2006 11:22

A lot of people from the DC area go to the Outer Banks. This may have been a attempt at capitalizing on this, as part of a long-term strategy of moving beyond Richmond.

Chains often have gone into or stayed in resort areas that ordinarily wouldn't have made sense from a short-term business model--Grand Union in the Adirondaks, A&P on Cape Cod and the nearby islands. The Pick-n-Pay chain in Cleveland's only "out of town" expansion was to Sandusky, a town that served as a hub for places where Clevelanders often spent time during the summer.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 28 Dec 2006 19:46

rich wrote:A lot of people from the DC area go to the Outer Banks. This may have been a attempt at capitalizing on this, as part of a long-term strategy of moving beyond Richmond.

Chains often have gone into or stayed in resort areas that ordinarily wouldn't have made sense from a short-term business model--Grand Union in the Adirondaks, A&P on Cape Cod and the nearby islands. The Pick-n-Pay chain in Cleveland's only "out of town" expansion was to Sandusky, a town that served as a hub for places where Clevelanders often spent time during the summer.

Maybe. Safeway had a store or two in Rocky Mount before they went to Nags Head.

Post by **Groceteria** » 29 Dec 2006 12:27

Dave wrote:Maybe. Safeway had a store or two in Rocky Mount before they went to Nags Head.

So apparently the few NC stores were associated with Richmond rather than Norfolk. Any idea if Safeway ever had a Tidewater presence? I'm thinking there may have been some discussion on this in the past, but I can't find anything on a search.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 29 Dec 2006 18:02

Groceteria wrote:
Dave wrote:Maybe. Safeway had a store or two in Rocky Mount before they went to Nags Head.
So apparently the few NC stores were associated with Richmond rather than Norfolk. Any idea if Safeway ever had a Tidewater presence? I'm thinking there may have been some discussion on this in the past, but I can't find anything on a search.

As I recall, Rocky Mount was part of the Richmond Division. I really don't recall if Safeway was in Tidewater or not. There were plenty of other chains in Tidewater that didn't make it to Richmond, both yesterday and today.

Post by **Groceteria** » 13 Apr 2007 21:29

I'm wondering (a) if anyone's ever visited the Seamark location in Nags Head, and (b) if there's anything recognizeably Safeway about it anymore.

I may be down that way in a few weeks and I was wondering if it was worth a visit that would be several hours out of my way.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 14 Apr 2007 06:25

I've been there a ton of times, both when it was a Safeway and under it's current incarnation as Seamark. The last time I visited was at the beginning of last May and I'll probably be there again around the first of May this year.

I'm not the best judge of whether or not it retains it's original "Safewayness", but I noticed last year that it seemed to me to still be laid out in much the same manner as it always has been, down to the coffin frozen food cases in the center of the store. They probably have thrown some paint on the inside over the years, but it always had that sort of resort feel about it anyway so it may well retain some of the original decor.

I don't know if it's worth a several hour detour or not, but there certainly are other attractions in the neighborhood. It sure was when I used to go to Hatteras Island some years back. We'd make at least one day a "Safeway Day" to drive the hour and a half each way to reprovision ourselves midweek.

Post by **Groceteria** » 19 Mar 2008 10:07

The Seamark Foods location in Nags Head closed in November 2007, but when I was down there this weekend, the space just happened to be open for a one-time home show, so I got to go inside. There was nothing noticeably Safeway left inside; Seamark had apparently done some extensive remodeling.

I've added an external photo below.

Question for Dave: do you know where any of those Rocky Mount locations were?

storewanderer · Post by **storewanderer** » 21 Mar 2008 05:24

This store was also operated as Farm Fresh in between Safeway and Seamark. The owner of Seamark managed the store as both Safeway and Farm Fresh. The store became Seamark in 1989.

Maybe the interior was from Farm Fresh?

Post by **Groceteria** » 21 Mar 2008 12:44

storewanderer wrote:Maybe the interior was from Farm Fresh?

Looked more recent than that. Not more contemporary or stylish, mind you, but just more recent :)

storewanderer · Post by **storewanderer** » 21 Mar 2008 21:55

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klocean/253862153/
It appears this is a picture of another location which opened in 1993 and also has coffin freezers.

ajsanjua · Post by **ajsanjua** » 06 Feb 2009 16:56

Ran across this website randomly - it seems that Safeway recently HAD at least two stores in NC, though I can no longer find them on their corporate website.

Does anyone know why they would put an isolated store in NC?

http://www.geospot.com/gs/Info?xsi=/gsd ... 8776.xsent
http://www.geospot.com/gs/InfoDetail?wh ... at=Safeway

Post by **Groceteria** » 06 Feb 2009 18:14

I am absolutely certain that, while there may be stores named "Safeway" at those addresses, they are not in any way connected with the chain, particularly the one in Maxton, a town which can barely support a good convenience store. A database glitch is the most likely explanation. The address pops up as something named "Safeway" and the database driving the site connects it with the chain by mistake. Since there's no human intervention, it pretty much never gets caught. This happens a lot.

Either way, I'll bet my house that there were never branches of the Safeway chain in those locations.

Groceteria.com

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