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Does anyone else know of any Food Baskets?

Are these ANY relation to the FOOD BASKETS that were in Southern California (primarily San Diego I believe)? They were acquired by LUCKY...(see LUCKY details on main page of this site).

When Lucky entered San Diego in the 1950's there was already a company that operated two markets in the area called Lucky so they couldn't use their own name. They decided to call their stores Food Basket in San Diego county for that reason. They didn't buy the chain from anyone, most were built from the ground up.

The Food Basket's owned by Lucky in San Diego were not related to stores operating under the same name in other parts of the country.

klkla wrote:When Lucky entered San Diego in the 1950's there was already a company that operated two markets in the area called Lucky so they couldn't use their own name. They decided to call their stores Food Basket in San Diego county for that reason. They didn't buy the chain from anyone, most were built from the ground up.

The Food Basket's owned by Lucky in San Diego were not related to stores operating under the same name in other parts of the country.

Hey, thanks for that! The FOOD BASKET in San Marcos CA (corner Rancho Santa Fe Rd & San Marcos Boulevard) ultimately became LUCKY. When a replacement store was built across the street...the former LUCKY became SAV-ON. (I assume both are now Albertsons & CVS) In the VONS center on the other corner...there was a PAYLESS Drug Store. It is now a health club.

I have moved these posts and started a new thread since the developing discussion was (a) not about the New York Food Basket chain, which was the original topic, and (b) was starting to be about specific locations rather than general information on the chain.

I promise to be everyone's best friend if you'll all make my life easier by (a) starting new topics as needed rather than appending off-topic discussions to old ones, and (b) starting them in the correct forum.

Sorry for the rant here. It just seems that we have lots of new people on the board lately, and I'd caution them to please read the guidelines for each forum carefully before doing a lot of posting. It's made things a little difficult for me on a week when I don't have a lot of extra time and energy to devote to the board.

Thanks for your assistance,
David

Found an intact price tag/label from the San Diego-based Food Basket markets.

Made me wonder how many Food Basket sites there had been...as well as when LUCKY folded them into the LUCKY chain?

Dean wrote:Found an intact price tag/label from the San Diego-based Food Basket markets.

Made me wonder how many Food Basket sites there had been...as well as when LUCKY folded them into the LUCKY chain?

Lucky operated 30-40 Food Baskets in the San Diego area and had the #2 market share (Behind #1 Vons and #3 Safeway) when I moved away in late 1984. Unfortunately I don't know when they changed their name. I just remember going to San Diego once after many years and suddenly there were Lucky's in San Diego.

klkla wrote:

Dean wrote:Found an intact price tag/label from the San Diego-based Food Basket markets.

Made me wonder how many Food Basket sites there had been...as well as when LUCKY folded them into the LUCKY chain?

Lucky operated 30-40 Food Baskets in the San Diego area and had the #2 market share (Behind #1 Vons and #3 Safeway) when I moved away in late 1984. Unfortunately I don't know when they changed their name. I just remember going to San Diego once after many years and suddenly there were Lucky in San Diego.

thanks!

If you moved in '84, and they were still Food Basket...wondering if the name was changed with the American Stores acquisition of Lucky...in the late '80s.

Food Basket was a 6-store chain that Lucky bought in 1956.

It looks like they dropped the Food Basket name in late 1988. I spent a spring break in Pacific Beach in 1990 or 91 and my recollection is that the store carried both the Lucky and Food Basket names.

runchadrun wrote:Food Basket was a 6-store chain that Lucky bought in 1956.

It looks like they dropped the Food Basket name in late 1988. I spent a spring break in Pacific Beach in 1990 or 91 and my recollection is that the store carried both the Lucky and Food Basket names.

Hey, as always, thanks for the info!

Now...my mind continues to wander (which I do often!)...did good 'ol Stephanie Edwards do the ads for Food Basket as well?

Rather than ONLY AT LUCKY...did she reply ONLY AT FOOD BASKET ?!

Would LOVE to see one of those video ads!

Dean wrote:Now...my mind continues to wander (which I do often!)...did good 'ol Stephanie Edwards do the ads for Food Basket as well?

They had the same advertising campaigns for both chains.. I remember FOOD BASKET... THE LOW PRICE LEADER. They also carried the same brands (Lady Lee I think it was) and had the same interior designs.

I recall Edwards' appearance in Food Basket ads here in San Diego. When I was a kid, my parents got both LA and San Diego TV stations, and the ads were the same except for the name difference.

An original Food Basket location in Encinitas closed within the last year. Kind of had a bizarre swap of names over the years. Food Basket >> Lucky >> Alpha Beta >> Lucky >> Albertson's. It's a shame it closed. It had the original layout and flooring from the early '70s.

Here's their logo from a 1984 newspaper ad:

runchadrun wrote:Here's their logo from a 1984 newspaper ad:

Wow! thanks as always!

The Low Price Leader was a Lucky line as well. Don't recall Lucky using More Than Lower Prices.

Tried to find a Food Basket commercial on youTube...to no avail. Not sure if it is on there or not!

Would love to see Stephanie Edwards pushing Food Basket!

Dean wrote:

runchadrun wrote:Here's their logo from a 1984 newspaper ad:

Wow! Thanks as always!

The Low Price Leader was a Lucky line as well. Don't recall Lucky using More Than Lower Prices.

Tried to find a Food Basket commercial on youTube...to no avail. Not sure if it is on there or not!

Would love to see Stephanie Edwards pushing Food Basket!

The More Than Lower Prices tag was used at Lucky, as well. In fact the campaign was a disaster. Lucky was trying to woo higher income shoppers and present itself as having higher quality perishables (than they actually did) on a par with Vons and Ralphs. People shopped at Lucky for one reason and one reason only: LOW PRICES! They had done such a good job creating this image that they were never successful at postitioning themselves differently.

A Food Basket television commercial from 1982 has just appeared on You Tube. See: https://youtu.be/zNfuYDQ2Yn8?t=255

Start watching at 4:15. This TV spot (30 seconds in duration) apparently appeared on XETV (Tijuana/San Diego). It features Stephanie Edwards at the "Lady Lee" dairy plant. It shows paper Lady Lee milk cartons on an assembly line. The ad refers to "Food Basket: The Discount Supermarket."