Groceteria.com

I had never heard of this before (and didn't even know Piggly Wiggly had returned to the West Coast after its original division was taken over by Safeway around 1928). According to the Chain Store Age article here (from November 1964), it was constructed in mid-1962, but wasn't reaching its sales targets at the time of the piece's writing.

http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/csa/pwencino1.jpg
http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/csa/pwencino2.jpg

Anyone know where this location might have been, and what happened to it?

Piggly Wiggly apparently had a bit of a short-lived franchise boom in the early-mid 1960s, when they popped up in such far-flung locations as Redwood City CA and Greensboro NC after having disappeared from these markets decades before. I think a lot of these stores closed (or dropped the franchise) after only a few years.

Groceteria wrote:Piggly Wiggly apparently had a bit of a short-lived franchise boom in the early-mid 1960s, when they popped up in such far-flung locations as Redwood City CA and Greensboro NC after having disappeared from these markets decades before. I think a lot of these stores closed (or dropped the franchise) after only a few years.

Wow, Redwood City? Where was that Piggly Wiggly located?

As for Encino - here's another shot of it, from page 8 of the March 1965 CSA issue:
http://dtcwrt.earlracing.com/stores/csa/pwencino3.jpg

TheStranger wrote:Wow, Redwood City? Where was that Piggly Wiggly located?

Upon my last visit it was an Office Depot, right near the El Camino/Woodside Road interchange (1950 El Camino).

That was originally a Mayfair Market that opened in 1952 and closed for an unknown reason (I think even acording to the newspaper article) in 1961. I thought I read that this became a discount/drug-type establishment in 1963, though no name was mentioned. I guess that could have been a two-year window for Piggly Wiggly. This location was later a Payless Drug and, briefly, a Rite Aid, before becoming Office Depot, who then subleased the building to Bed Bath and Beyond. How exhausting for the poor building to have had so many tenant changes!

justin karimzad wrote:That was originally a Mayfair Market that opened in 1952 and closed for an unknown reason (I think even acording to the newspaper article) in 1961

Interestingly, when I went back and checked the date, the city directory source I used placed it as a Piggly Wiggly in 1955. I also show a Mayfair Market at 1085 El Camino in 1955 and 1960. The latter site now houses a big shopping center with a Safeway, as I recall, although I think the current center is a redevelopment of an older one at the same site.

The Encino store was located at 15821 Ventura Blvd and opened in June, 1962. As of 1979 it was a Boys Market.

There's now a hideous office building on that site which was built in 1983.

I was in this store the week it closed. It was called Boys Continental (note the article refers to it as Piggly Wiggly Continental). It looked almost exactly like the Piggly Wiggly when it closed which was in the early 80's. It was a cool but outdated gourmet-oriented store.