Groceteria.com

Groceteria wrote:Apparently, this Sunday's "Desperate Housewives" (probably a re-run) centers around a hostage situation in a supermarket. I guess I'll be watching (or more likely fast-forwarding through) this show for the first time just to see if there's anything interesting.

If you still have access to the old message board, I think it was discussed there. The name of the store in the show is Field's Market and my recollection (from the board, not the show since I don't watch it) is that it was in the Valley, and the only Field's Market I could find in the Valley is at 23221 Saticoy St, Canoga Park. That store is a former Food Giant.

As I had a day off from work this past week, I watched a little TV during the day. As I was flipping through channels, I found that Portland TV station KPDX shows reruns of old episodes of COPS during the day. By old, I am talking about late 80s, as they still were using pre-1991 Caprices for police cars. Anyway, I did not catch where this was at, but at one point the officers walked into an Alpha Beta store to ask questions. It definitely was a typical 1980s store, although I don't know how typical of Alpha Beta, as I have never been inside one of their stores.

In last night's episode of The Simpsons, "Homerazzi," they went shopping at Fancy Farms which was a parody of Bristol Farms.

Dean wrote:The cul-de-sac used on KNOTS LANDING is actually a street near the Knollwood County Golf Course in the Granada Hills section of Los Angeles. Not near the beach, as the TV shots depicted! There is a market near the area (probably Balboa & Rinaldi) that was used periodically. Think it was ALPHA BETA.

I was in this area today. Had been quite some time. The market indeed is an old ALPHA BETA. It is now HOWS (the "new" Hughes). The address is 11900 Balboa Boulevard.

In regards to the cul-de-sac used on the show...the street is Crystalaire Place. Off McLennan.

The Gerald Ford for President campaign in 1976 included a brief shot of a supermarket in at least one television ad. It flashes so quickly and shows so little of the store's interior decor that I doubt the sleuths on this website can identify the chain (assuming that it was a chain grocer).

About the only major feature I saw was a big sign that says, "Value of the Week."

Any guesses regarding whose store this is?

See http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/ti ... html#movie
WATCH A FORD AD, "Feeling Good About America"

Just a warning -- that "Feeling Good About America" song can be addictive!

Geico has a new commercial...the second in their Michael Wallace "Geico Chevrolet" Busch Series ads...where Michael's "cousin" is trash talking. There's a brief scene where the kid is "putting him in the wall" in the freezer section of an older looking store.



Pretty funny ad.

tesg wrote:Geico has a new commercial...the second in their Michael Wallace "Geico Chevrolet" Busch Series ads...where Michael's "cousin" is trash talking. There's a brief scene where the kid is "putting him in the wall" in the freezer section of an older looking store.

Pretty funny ad.

that store looks to be BEACHES in Downey, CA. I have interior shots of this store but i wasnt sure if there was interest in this store to spend time posting the pics.

steps wrote:that store looks to be BEACHES in Downey, CA. I have interior shots of this store but i wasnt sure if there was interest in this store to spend time posting the pics.

It's actually been discussed to some extent on the main site and here, plus on the old message board. Incidentally, the name of the store is actually "Beachs" with no "e" and no apostrophe, although I have absolutely no idea why, other than to guess that the owner was slightly spelling- and punctuation-challenged.

More photos, of course, are always welcome.

Groceteria wrote: Incidentally, the name of the store is actually "Beachs" with no "e" and no apostrophe, although I have absolutely no idea why, other than to guess that the owner was slightly spelling- and punctuation-challenged.

I read one time that a spelling error is how the MERVYN'S department store chain earned the spelling MERVYN'S.

The owner's name was Mervin. He intended on naming the chain Mervin's.

When the sign company came with the sign...it was spelled with the Y. The owner was content...and didn't have them change it!

Groceteria wrote:Incidentally, the name of the store is actually "Beachs" with no "e" and no apostrophe, although I have absolutely no idea why, other than to guess that the owner was slightly spelling- and punctuation-challenged.

The news reports on the opening of the Downey (1966) and Rosemead (1968) stores have apostrophes. The last news article from the LA Times archive is from 1973 (the manager of the Rosemead store was stabbed to death) and it had the apostrophe. Growing up in the area in the 80s I don't ever remember seeing the apostrophe on the Rosemead store. So either it was a lazy sign maker, or the copy editor at the Times inserted the apostrophe so it would be gramatically correct.

To my knowledge, the Rosemead Beachs doesn't have an apostrophe (neither do my doesnts at that case).

Also, this store the last time I went about 2-3 years ago was not remodeled. I go to the CVS a lot across the way too.

Not sure if this is the right place for this and I apologize if it isn't. Saw a commercial for State Farm auto insurance a few days back where somebody comes out of a supermarket to find his name scratched into the door of his car. There was a shot of the front of the store and the name on the building was "Jon's Marketplace" with a sort of a yellow arrow shaped "V" in the middle of the "J" in Jon's. My questions are could this be a Von's and that and if so where would that store be? Probably never get a chance to visit there but I'm just curious.

Actually, there is a Jons chain the LA area too, and they seems to allow LOTS of location shooting in their stores. Several of these Jons stores USED to be Vons, which made re-signing them very easy, I assume, since the Jons logo is almost indentical:

http://www.jonsmarketplace.com/

This chain (and its use in location shooting) has been discussed a good bit in another thread, so I'm going to close this and direct further discussion to that one:

http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=5

Edric Floyd wrote:On the "Odd Couple" TV show you may see an exterior shot of Felix walking out of a GRISTEDE'S market in Manhattan.

I was just watching an episode on DVD and noticed a prescription in a Sav-On Drugs bottle in one shot. Felix must've gotten it filled when he was on vacation in LA...

Per http://www.lileks.com/bleats/index.html...

A mediocre Dustin Hoffman movie circa 1977 called "Straight Time"...one scene includes a 70s era sign of defunct chains...Wards, Thrifty, Woolworth and FAZIO'S!!! Where in LA was this mall?