PayLess Drug Stores

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Dean
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PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

Noticed the old commercial on YOU TUBE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGCb6lmQq_4

The Victorville CA site on Palmdale Road had the pharmacy in the same spot. Front left-hand side. The site is currently a huge thrift store...and the pharmacy area is used for displaying electronics!

The Colton CA site @ 1210 Washington closed at the merger with Thrifty. For a period, it became PayLess Liquidation Center. Was a neat blend of stuff that they were trying to liquidate due to the merger. Site is still vacant...in a sense. Noticed that on the door, Rite Aid has their logo, and "FTS Depot" listed. The store is filled with pallets of merchandise, shelving and stuff...even a delivery truck is parked inside! (you can see everything...the windows are not covered). Still has the PayLess color strips along the walls. I guess a sort of a centralized distribution center. I assume the landlords enjoy the rent...even though the site is not generating traffic.

The Redlands CA site on Orange Street also became a PayLess Liquidation center. It is currently Office Depot. Still has the patio/garden area to the side!

The San Bernardino CA site on 2nd Street, across from Carousel Mall, is vacant. Still has the OLD PayLess color strips along the walls.
Last edited by Dean on 14 Apr 2009 20:02, edited 1 time in total.
Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

The Corona CA location off Lincoln @ the 91 is currently Office Depot. CARDENAS Market in the same center was originally LUCKY.

The San Juan Capistrano CA location @ 11890 Plaza Drive was converted to Rite Aid. Still has the pharmacy in the front left side. Site received a complete Rite Aid remodel. Yet, NO Thrifty Ice Cream scooped on site! When recently there...I asked if I was missing it somewhere in the store! They referred me to the Rite Aid across the street...32121 Camino Capistrano. This site is an OLD Thrifty. STILL has the REDISCOVER THRIFTY signage throughout the store! Surprised that both sites coexist. Especially since the PayLess site was remodeled, and the Thrifty was not.
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enginecapt
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by enginecapt »

31890 Plaza Drive
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Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

enginecapt wrote:31890 Plaza Drive
I assume you mean that the correct street address is 31890.

I pulled the address from the receipt...which I am looking at! I guess that they don't care that the address of 11890 is listed on the receipt!

Additionally, they have the Rite Aid on Camino Capistrano listed as Camaino Capistrano!
Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

The Apple Valley CA location on Bear Valley Road is now Big Lots!

The garden area is fenced in for shopping carts.

Site still has the original flooring, and same ceiling with all the same lighting.
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores-San Francisco-Alemany Blvd.

Post by Jason B. »

The Post newspaper (city?) of October 11, 1967 reported that the largest store in the Pay Less store chain would soon open at 3975 Alemany Boulevard in San Francisco. The article reported that the 109,000 square-foot store was built on an eight acre site that formerly was the California Evergreen Nursery. A 750 car lot was constructed, including parking places on the store roof. A key feature was moving ramps that would take customers and their carts to the cars. According to the article, this was to be the first installation of "Movators" in the United States; the two moving sidewalks were called "Sandvik Movators." [The MacArthur/Broadway center at Broadway & MacArthur in Oakland, constructed in the mid-1960s, also had a special means to transport customers and their shopping carts from the roof-top parking lot.] William L. Gherra was then Pay Less president.
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storewanderer
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by storewanderer »

That store was not 109k sq ft by the time Rite Aid got it. I wonder if that includes the grocery space that was originally Albertsons, later Lucky.
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Groceteria »

storewanderer wrote:That store was not 109k sq ft by the time Rite Aid got it. I wonder if that includes the grocery space that was originally Albertsons, later Lucky.
Agreed. 109K sounds like perhaps the whole center.
Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

I became familiar with this chain during the KMart ownership years.

While shopping there, I got the feeling that it was a "smaller" KMart with a pharmacy.

Were the sites as large, with the same appeal, prior to KMart's ownership?
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

The Rancho Cucamonga CA site (Haven @ 210) has been a number of things over the years since it was vacated.

Trader Joe's entered finally, took a large portion of the building.
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by marshd1000 »

In the 1970's, PayLess Drug bought some locations of Gov Mart Bazaar stores in the Seattle area. These locations were about the size of a Fred Meyer in that era. PayLess did not operate the food side of the buildings. Bazaar kept those. They also sublet the clothing section out to another operator but it seemed to operate as part of PayLess.
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by luckysaver »

Dean,

Trader's has about 85% of that building. The former rightside entrance is up for lease (I mentioned it in a post somewhere).

The Rowland Heights store on Colima/Fairway is now Design Concepts Furniture. It was a Chinese-run home furnishings store after Payless closed. That store closed because Rite Aid wanted to keep the 1967 Thrifty store on Colima/Nogales. By the way, the Fairway store was much cleaner and nicer than the Nogales store (Nogales remodeled last year and gone are all the old Thrifty decor they kept from 1997). I remember Payless carrying Thrifty-Payless brand products and Thrifty brand Ice Cream but not Thrifty brand products. The Nogales store carried Thrifty brand products, some Thrifty-Payless products but no Payless brand.

The large Diamond Bar CVS on Diamond Bar Blvd first opened as a Payless in 1970. Its right across the street from Kmart.

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Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

luckysaver wrote:Dean,

Trader's has about 85% of that building. The former rightside entrance is up for lease (I mentioned it in a post somewhere).

The Rowland Heights store on Colima/Fairway is now Design Concepts Furniture. It was a Chinese-run home furnishings store after Payless closed. That store closed because Rite Aid wanted to keep the 1967 Thrifty store on Colima/Nogales. By the way, the Fairway store was much cleaner and nicer than the Nogales store (Nogales remodeled last year and gone are all the old Thrifty decor they kept from 1997). I remember Payless carrying Thrifty-Payless brand products and Thrifty brand Ice Cream but not Thrifty brand products. The Nogales store carried Thrifty brand products, some Thrifty-Payless products but no Payless brand.

The large Diamond Bar CVS on Diamond Bar Blvd first opened as a Payless in 1970. Its right across the street from Kmart.

luckysaver
Glad when TJs finally moved in...as the site kept changing hands often.

Oh yeh, the Rowland Hts PayLess. Truly was a nice store. Yes, odd that RiteAid kept the Nogales site, versus the nicer PayLess. I assume the older site did more business...and a better location?

The Albertson's in that center, had been a very nice LUCKY as well.

I enjoy the McDonald's sign on the corner of the center. Only one around that I have seen...that has Asian writing. Possibly the same over in the Monterey Park area also?

Lastly, the Diamond Bar CVS...opened as PayLess? It became Sav-On after? It was Sav-On before CVS.
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by luckysaver »

Dean,

As for Payless Diamond Bar, LATimes archives has Payless drug ads in the mid 1970's that listed Diamond Bar as a store location. I know it was 1970 because of a plaque on the sidewalk right by the front entrance. When it first became Savon, it may have been one of those Savon Home Centers with or without the garden center (West Covina had one). The Nogales Thrifty was probably doing better than the Colima Payless, which may be why Rite Aid kept Nogales and not Colima.

I've been to the Rowland Albertsons when it was Lucky much nicer at that time than the Walnut store. It was more of the combo Lucky-Savon types rather than just a Lucky with a Savon pharmacy. It kept Lucky's decor until around '05-06 when it remodeled with the Quality Guaranteed decor.

Rowland McDonalds - Asian characters reflect the fact that there is a major Asian population along Colima and most of its customers are Asians (Chinese and Korean). I first visited that McDonalds in the mid 1990's, typically for breakfast and after that, shop at Lucky. The shopping center is the nicest in Rowland Heights at the time, with mostly American businesses back then until Asian businesses started taking over the smaller spaces one by one and leaving only a few American businesses left in the center.

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Dean
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Re: PayLess Drug Stores

Post by Dean »

The Hesperia CA site was on Main Street.

It is currently Albertson's.

The site had closed. It was demolished for a Lucky/Sav-On COMBO store. During construction, Lucky was acquired by Albertson's. Site therefore was opened as Albertson's. Last time I was there...it still had the LUCKY decor, even tho it never opened as a LUCKY!
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