NEW: Safeway in NYC

[Groceteria]

I'm pretty excited about this one. Safeway had a brief (twenty years, 1941-1961) run in New York, and I think this should pretty much capture every location, with only a few stragglers. I have also included the pre-acquision Daniel Reeves locations and post-acquisition First National stores.

https://www.groceteria.com/place/new-yo ... y/safeway/

There will almost certainly never be a complete NYC location list for all chains; the data just is not out there. But I wil be doing some "partials" based on what's available.

[Steve Landry]

I am pretty sure that 4028 E. Tremont Ave. store in the Bronx was an A+P.

I used to walk by it everyday as a kid from the nearby P.S. 72 elementary school.



BTW......................extraordinary work!!!!!

[Groceteria]

I am pretty sure that 4028 E. Tremont Ave. store in the Bronx was an A+P.

From the look if it today I'd say you may well be right. Looks like A&P may have taken over the space after Safeway was done with it in the 1940s. May even be a new building.

And thanks! There will most likely never be a complete location list for NYC (nor for LA, Chicago, or Philly) because the data is just not there. But I'll at least do what I can with components. I lucked out finding the data for this one.

EDIT: This location was bigger than the average Daniel Reeves when it opened because it was a combination store (i.e. it had a meat department). Safeway seems to have held on to the combination stores and eliminated or enlarged the smaller ones when they took over.

[Groceteria]

1933 ad for Reeves "combination markets" (55 of their 700 locations at the time).

[Steve Landry]

I am pretty sure that 4028 E. Tremont Ave. store in the Bronx was an A+P.

From the look if it today I'd say you may well be right. Looks like A&P may have taken over the space after Safeway was done with it in the 1940s. May even be a new building.

And thanks! There will most likely never be a complete location list for NYC (nor for LA, Chicago, or Philly) because the data is just not there. But I'll at least do what I can with components. I lucked out finding the data for this one.

EDIT: This location was bigger than the average Daniel Reeves when it opened because it was a combination store (i.e. it had a meat department). Safeway seems to have held on to the combination stores and eliminated or enlarged the smaller ones when they took over.

That whole area of food stores was in flux when I was a kid.

It is a blurry memory of A&P, Bohack, Safeway, Finast and I think a Grand Union somewhere.

Farther out was Korvettes, Pathmark and Food Fair.

[pseudo3d]

I'm pretty excited about this one. Safeway had a brief (twenty years, 1941-1961) run in New York, and I think this should pretty much capture every location, with only a few stragglers. I have also included the pre-acquision Daniel Reeves locations and post-acquisition First National stores.

https://www.groceteria.com/place/new-yo ... y/safeway/

There will almost certainly never be a complete NYC location list for all chains; the data just is not out there. But I wil be doing some "partials" based on what's available.

As I was discussing in my "end of the line supermarkets" thread, it's rare that anyone does "slow" conversions anymore, even if it's the whole chain, much less divisions.

However, I do have a question. Was "Safeway-First National" actually used on stores, or was it used to advertise both store brands? When Remke Markets bought bigg's from SuperValu, they advertised as "Remke Markets bigg's" but that wasn't actually a store name, it was dual-branding on advertised until the bigg's stores were rebadged as Remke Markets.

When Safeway started to divest many of its divisions, the acquiring companies continued to operate the stores as Safeway until they got rebranded as Furr's or AppleTree or whatever.

[Groceteria]

Was "Safeway-First National" actually used on stores, or was it used to advertise both store brands?

I honestly cannot say. Newspaper ads and articles refer to them as "Safeway First National stores" (or sometimes "First National and Safeway First National stores") through about 1963, but it does seem a little odd that they would have re-signed them so briefly. It could very well have been just an advertising thing until they got all the signs changed, particularly since there seem to have been some stores in the region branded just as First National at the time as well.

[Steve Landry]

Was "Safeway-First National" actually used on stores, or was it used to advertise both store brands?

I honestly cannot say. Newspaper ads and articles refer to them as "Safeway First National stores" (or sometimes "First National and Safeway First National stores") through about 1963, but it does seem a little odd that they would have re-signed them so briefly. It could very well have been just an advertising thing until they got all the signs changed, particularly since there seem to have been some stores in the region branded just as First National at the time as well.

I never encountered a store building sign with those combinations.

I do remember seeing Safeway signs changed to Finast.

[pseudo3d]

Was "Safeway-First National" actually used on stores, or was it used to advertise both store brands?

I honestly cannot say. Newspaper ads and articles refer to them as "Safeway First National stores" (or sometimes "First National and Safeway First National stores") through about 1963, but it does seem a little odd that they would have re-signed them so briefly. It could very well have been just an advertising thing until they got all the signs changed, particularly since there seem to have been some stores in the region branded just as First National at the time as well.

Well, that's a little different since "Safeway-First National" was used to describe the particular converted stores even if no signage was changed.

As an aside, I remember during the last few years before the reunification, Albertsons LLC marketed its stores as Albertsons Market (same logo as the United-owned stores) and had interior signage like that as well, but no exterior signage. They did open a store around that time (Denham Springs, since closed) that didn't have it either.

[mjhale]

Other than the ShopRite on NJ 124 in Springfield (Street View), are there any remaining identifiable Safeway stores in the NYC area? I remember coming across the Springfield ShopRite completely by accident and wondering when Safeway was in the NYC area. Researching this former Safeway was what led me to Groceteria and other retail history sites.

[Groceteria]

Other than the ShopRite on NJ 124 in Springfield (Street View), are there any remaining identifiable Safeway stores in the NYC area? I remember coming across the Springfield ShopRite completely by accident and wondering when Safeway was in the NYC area. Researching this former Safeway was what led me to Groceteria and other retail history sites.

Identifiable as Safeway stores in general? Yes. Several 1950s pylon stores and other artifacts. A lot of them are drug stores now.

Identifiable as Safeway “marina” stores? Not many, because they left the region when they were basically just getting started with that prototype. There are a few, notably the ShopRite you shared.

[stevehowell]

There is another former Safeway turned Finast presently a Foodtown on rte 36 in Atlantic Highlands NJ. By looking at google maps you can tell was one that opened at the very end of Safeway NY region. In fact the Springfield location was the very last new Safeway in the entire NY location before was sold to Finast. Former safeways in Long Branch NJ a Fine Fare now, as well as former Safeway now Foodtown in Red Bank, i believe former Finast in Sea GIrt NJ also presently a foodtown was once a Safeway .

[stevehowell]

Does anyone have a listing of all the NJ and NY locations outside of NYC. They had a sizeable amount of NY stores on Long Island as well as Westchester County NY

[Max]

I sincerely apologize if I violated board rules with this post, as I am merely trying to provide helpful information for anyone who has not read the thread titled "Historical Information About ShopRite Locations (Past & Present)". In the twelfth post of that thread, I provide detailed information (along with links to clippings from Newspapers.com) about the history of the ShopRite of Springfield (which was discussed above). For anyone who has not read my post about the Springfield ShopRite, here is an abbreviated version of that history:

*On October 15, 1952, Safeway opened its Springfield supermarket at 727 Morris Turnpike. The store was not a Marina Safeway.

*The Springfield Safeway was destroyed by fire on the evening of September 2, 1960.

*Safeway built a new supermarket to replace the one that was destroyed. But because Safeway's New York Division was purchased by Finast in 1961, Finast acquired a new store in Springfield which was intended to be--but never was--a Marina Safeway.

*On February 7, 1962, the Springfield Finast opened its doors. I do not know the exact closing date of this particular Finast, although it was still open on June 5, 1972.

*The ShopRite of Springfield opened on April 9, 1975. Per historic aerial images, it was expanded twice: first between 1970 and 1979 and subsequently between 2002 and 2006. (It is possible that the first expansion of the building was done by Finast instead of ShopRite.)

Again, I apologize for repeating what I wrote in another thread, but I chose to do so because there are people who may never look at the thread about ShopRite history but would still be interested in the history of this particular Finast-turned-ShopRite.