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I read somewhere Lucky operated supermarkets and their other retail entities in Washington state. Whatever happened those operations?

luckysaver

From previous posts here on Groceteria, I know that Lucky acquired Big Bear stores here in the Seattle area. I believe these Big Bear Stores were not related to others across the county. But Lucky operated in the Seattle area until about 1985 or 86. The operations were then sold to Associated Grocers. AG then sold them to various member stores. Some of these stores included Johnny's, Olson's, Thriftway, Food Giant. Some were also sold to Larry's Markets before Lucky decided to totally pull out of the market. But here in 2009, a number of those locations became QFC. Also included in the mix is the West Seattle Metropolitan Market.

Off the top of my head I remember shopping at Lucky stores in Kent, Ballard and Tukwila. The Lucky "key buy" and mixed format never did well in Washington (racks of clothes near the checkout lanes for example). I remember the stores as being very clean, but never very busy. Attaching a picture of an old Luckys in Tukwila at Southcenter Mall to the left of the Pay N Save in the photo (remember those Pay N Saves, loved them, miss them, but that's another blog).

From another thread;
http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... =21&t=2500

From Storeadventures' Flickr photo stream, an unidentified location in Seattle;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/storeadven ... 681501024/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/storeadven ... 684838594/
I think that store is the Greenwood store at 8500 3rd Ave NW in Seattle;
http://activerain.com/image_store/uploa ... 865872.JPG

I was at Southcenter a couple months ago. Even though the mall has received a big addition, that Penney's looks almost the same today except for the current JCPenney sign.

Crossroads in Bellevue also had a Lucky store which had been through a number of previous iterations as a grocery store before that, including Market Basket (part of Marketime Drugs, which later became part of Fred Meyer,) Mayfair and Big Bear, then a 1990 map shows a store called Market Place (Probably one of the Associated Grocers operations, I would assume) there. The building now holds a Michaels Arts and Crafts store, which was there when I moved here in 1994.

The 1972 Tacoma phone book says that the Seattle regional headquarters for Lucky was located at 1400 E. Pine St. That building appears to be long gone.

As for Tacoma, there were locations at:
2420 N. Proctor St: This store was built in 1965; later became Queen Anne Thriftway and now Metropolitan Market. Current Google Street View

Tacoma Mall (4502 S. Steele St.), Space 615: This store opened with the mall in October 1965 as a Thriftway. Photos of Thriftway prior to opening are here. I don't have an exact date when Lucky took over, but it was obviously before 1972.

4824 South Tacoma Way: Built in 1959. Since the Tacoma Mall store was less than a mile down the street, this location closed around 1973 and has been used by a paint store and then a printing company. You can see that the exterior is relatively unmodified. Rear view showing modernist wall design.

618 N. First St., listed as Lucky Store #357 on one of the building permit cards. The building was constructed 1925 as an automobile dealership; this portion has been occupied by grocers since 1931, while the upper level is still a Chevrolet dealer. Lucky inherited this store from Big Bear, which had taken over the site in 1948. After Lucky left town, the store got a remodel before becoming the Stadium Thriftway, which it is today. There are lots of photos of the early Big Bear days here and here. As the photos show, the interior is dominated by massive supports for the auto showroom above. Here's the exterior today. The interior hasn't changed too dramatically since those photos from the late '40s.

Highland Hill Shopping Center (5915 Sixth Ave.) Big Bear opened this store in 1955. Grand opening photos are here. This building became a Pay 'n Pak home improvement warehouse in 1975 and was greatly remodeled and expanded for a Lamonts (later Gottschalks) department store in 1987. Since Gottschalks folded, it has been an L.A. Fitness gym.

13320 Pacific Ave. S., Parkland. Another Big Bear store that opened in 1955. Lucky expanded it considerably, as can be seen from the current view of the building. After Lucky left, it was a Pay 'n Pak until that chain folded, and has since been the Parkland Saar's Market Place. Current Google Street View

When Mayfair Markets sold their area stores to Lucky in 1975, they picked up locations at 4315 Sixth Ave. and 9820 Pacific Ave., which were both built in 1966. The Highland Hill store closed after the Sixth Avenue Mayfair was acquired. The Pacific Avenue store still has the original Mayfair sign tower out front. This store was adjacent to a Pay 'n Save. Isn't there a former Mayfair-Pay 'n Save location in Bellevue with a similar vintage sign out front? Both of these ex-Mayfair stores became Thriftway outlets for a time in the late '80s and early '90s. The Sixth Avenue store was demolished in 1995 to make way for a Walgreens.

Lucky's final two stores were built in the late '70s. James Center (6901 S. 19th St.) opened in 1977 and Lakewood Center (9314 Bridgeport Way S.W.) opened in 1978. Both developments also included a PayLess of Tacoma drug store. The James Center store operated as a Thriftway in the late '80s and early '90s. It was demolished and replaced with a Stock Market Foods in 1994. While QFC acquired Keith Uddenberg's Stock Market locations, this store was converted to a Fred Meyer Marketplace instead. The Lakewood store became a Pay 'n Pak home center, swallowing up the adjacent drug store, and following their demise, has been a QFC. Here's an aerial photo of the former Lakewood store.

It is true that QFC acquired the Keith Uddenberg Stock Market Food locations and some of their Thriftways. But this was when QFC was still independent. However until the merger with Fred Meyer, QFC kept some of the Stock Market locations branded as Stock Market Foods. I don't know if they wanted Stock Market to be QFC's discount concept. Some were also sold off to other retailers before the Fred Meyer merger. It was after the Fred Meyer merger that the remaining Stock Market Foods became Fred Meyer Marketplace stores. Also I should add that before the Fred Meyer merger, operated a couple of stores under the Thriftway banner. One was in East Renton and another in Port Orchard. After the merger, QFC was no longer part of Associated Grocers and the East Renton and Port Orchard stores were re-bannered as QFC. The East Renton store was not remodeled. A new QFC was built nearby but both co-existed for awhile. The East Renton store became a IGA. I don't know if that is still around.