Great former Safeway in Dallas

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Groceteria
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Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by Groceteria »

729 West Jefferson Boulevard in Dallas:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7432196 ... 56!6m1!1e1

It has a wider than usual version of the classic 1940s Safeway facade as well as an added "modernization" on the parking lot side that was based on a late 1950s prototype. I'd love to see a photo of this one from around 1960.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by Andrew T. »

Oh, that is a great store! They basically turned the original side profile into a new "front," while leaving the art deco fluorishes of the original front intact.

The step-down roof profile is very similar to what Kroger built for a short time around 1953/4. Probably just a coincidence, even if the chains did briefly compete against each other.

Another interesting Dallas Safeway is the store at 2919 Cedar Crest Boulevard. It looks fairly nondescript at first glance, but the building has 1950s-era fieldstone details on the left side and an odd square on the facade that may be covering over a portal for the circle-S logo. I want to say that a couple DC-area Safeways from that era also had a portal like this, though I don't have pictures.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by pseudo3d »

Andrew T. wrote:Oh, that is a great store! They basically turned the original side profile into a new "front," while leaving the art deco fluorishes of the original front intact.

The step-down roof profile is very similar to what Kroger built for a short time around 1953/4. Probably just a coincidence, even if the chains did briefly compete against each other.
While A&P dropped out in the three way race in the 1970s, Kroger and Safeway competed in Dallas up until the time Safeway's Dallas division was shut down in the late 1970s. Winn-Dixie was also in the area, too.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:While A&P dropped out in the three way race in the 1970s, Kroger and Safeway competed in Dallas up until the time Safeway's Dallas division was shut down in the late 1970s. Winn-Dixie was also in the area, too.
Safeway's Dallas division was shut down in 1987. Winn Dixie did not enter until 1976 with their purchase of Kimbell, Inc., the parent of Buddies stores. The Buddies name didn't fully disappear until the early 80's, though the stores were remerchandised as WD almost instantly after their takeover. The architecture of WD in Dallas was modern. Safeway built stores almost right up to the end, with stores only open a year or less closing at the end, plus some 'moldy oldies' that hung on that long as well. A&P left in 1975 or so; barely late enough to get to the capsule logo there.

I've seen another Safeway store similar to this in El Dorado, AR. The original barrel roof store had a vestibule apparently added to the side before Safeway moved out:
https://goo.gl/maps/HfogTxX66j22
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:While A&P dropped out in the three way race in the 1970s, Kroger and Safeway competed in Dallas up until the time Safeway's Dallas division was shut down in the late 1970s. Winn-Dixie was also in the area, too.
Safeway's Dallas division was shut down in 1987. Winn Dixie did not enter until 1976 with their purchase of Kimbell, Inc., the parent of Buddies stores. The Buddies name didn't fully disappear until the early 80's, though the stores were remerchandised as WD almost instantly after their takeover. The architecture of WD in Dallas was modern. Safeway built stores almost right up to the end, with stores only open a year or less closing at the end, plus some 'moldy oldies' that hung on that long as well. A&P left in 1975 or so; barely late enough to get to the capsule logo there.

I've seen another Safeway store similar to this in El Dorado, AR. The original barrel roof store had a vestibule apparently added to the side before Safeway moved out:
https://goo.gl/maps/HfogTxX66j22
Yes, I meant late 1980s, and yes, they did build stores right up to the end. Come to think of it, I don't think Winn-Dixie had many stores in the Dallas side of town, it was more Fort Worth, really. From what I've read of Buddies, they had a lot of hardware items in their stores, which Winn-Dixie got rid of shortly afterward.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:From what I've read of Buddies, they had a lot of hardware items in their stores, which Winn-Dixie got rid of shortly afterward.
Even as far east as Longview, the Buddies stores had a huge amount of hardware. They sold lawn mowers, a huge amount of home goods, and other items. It was a really big deal.

I remember vividly when the stores were redone; the Buddies stuff was moved to a different store on the other side of town, and they named it Buddies Handy Man Center.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by Ephrata1966 »

This store was replaced sometime in the 70's (or possibly late 60's?) by a larger Safeway a few blocks south. In Bing Maps aerial view, zoom out from the earlier Safeway building and you can see the later Safeway building. I'm assuming the later Safeway closed in 1987 with the Dallas division but I have no proof. It later was a Carnival supermarket which has since closed. Unfortunately I don't have the address of this later Safeway.

I wonder... could the earlier Safeway have been an Eckerd or other drugstore after Safeway left? I suspect so because the only other Peter Piper Pizza that I know of was in the former Eckerd building in The Woodlands... and sort of ironically, the Eckerd/PPP was attached to a former Safeway that never became AppleTree but was an H-E-B Pantry Foods. PPP didn't last long at this site (it only was open from about 1997 to 2000). In 2002, H-E-B demolished both of the attached buildings to build a traditional H-E-B when the Pantry Foods concept was phased out. The H-E-B there today is still relatively small, but there's a much larger, more upscale H-E-B "Woodlands Market" behind Woodlands Mall not far away.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by wnetmacman »

Ephrata1966 wrote:This store was replaced sometime in the 70's (or possibly late 60's?) by a larger Safeway a few blocks south. In Bing Maps aerial view, zoom out from the earlier Safeway building and you can see the later Safeway building. I'm assuming the later Safeway closed in 1987 with the Dallas division but I have no proof. It later was a Carnival supermarket which has since closed. Unfortunately I don't have the address of this later Safeway.

I wonder... could the earlier Safeway have been an Eckerd or other drugstore after Safeway left? I suspect so because the only other Peter Piper Pizza that I know of was in the former Eckerd building in The Woodlands... and sort of ironically, the Eckerd/PPP was attached to a former Safeway that never became AppleTree but was an H-E-B Pantry Foods. PPP didn't last long at this site (it only was open from about 1997 to 2000). In 2002, H-E-B demolished both of the attached buildings to build a traditional H-E-B when the Pantry Foods concept was phased out. The H-E-B there today is still relatively small, but there's a much larger, more upscale H-E-B "Woodlands Market" behind Woodlands Mall not far away.
The Eckerd theory wouldn't surprise me, because I knew of a similar situation in Longview, TX. On S. Green St. in the 1400 block, there is a building that is currently a Michoacana Meat Market. This store was Eckerd in the 70's, and the store just south (in the adjacent parking lot) was a Safeway. Safeway closed this store before 1982, when Eckerd moved down to S. High at S. Mobberly into the High St. Plaza adjacent a new Winn Dixie. The Safeway store was abandoned for a good while, but has served as a produce distributor and a church. The Eckerd building was Goodwill for a good number of years before becoming Michoacana.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by pseudo3d »

Eckerd did co-locate with a lot of Safeway stores in Houston (The Woodlands, that store on 249 that later became Randalls for a short time and then H-E-B Pantry, the one at the corner of 290 and Beltway 8, the one near the Heights that's now Foodarama, Galveston I'm pretty sure, and heck, even the Culpepper Plaza store in B/CS) but I'm not sure if this arrangement spread to other divisions.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Eckerd did co-locate with a lot of Safeway stores in Houston (The Woodlands, that store on 249 that later became Randalls for a short time and then H-E-B Pantry, the one at the corner of 290 and Beltway 8, the one near the Heights that's now Foodarama, Galveston I'm pretty sure, and heck, even the Culpepper Plaza store in B/CS) but I'm not sure if this arrangement spread to other divisions.
Beyond the Dallas division, during the 70's and 80's and the height of both companies' expasion, the only real overlap was Dallas. I do know that beyond Dallas, Eckerd and Winn Dixie had a lot of overlap and co-existence, as WD didn't do pharmacies until the late 80's.
Ephrata1966 wrote:I wonder... could the earlier Safeway have been an Eckerd or other drugstore after Safeway left? I suspect so because the only other Peter Piper Pizza that I know of was in the former Eckerd building in The Woodlands... and sort of ironically, the Eckerd/PPP was attached to a former Safeway
It could have been a former Safeway that SWY still held the lease on, thus the commonality. As we all well know, it isn't unusual for grocers to sublease property but hold the main lease or even own the property to control competition. I do believe the Longview stores I mentioned were of that arrangement.
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Eckerd did co-locate with a lot of Safeway stores in Houston (The Woodlands, that store on 249 that later became Randalls for a short time and then H-E-B Pantry, the one at the corner of 290 and Beltway 8, the one near the Heights that's now Foodarama, Galveston I'm pretty sure, and heck, even the Culpepper Plaza store in B/CS) but I'm not sure if this arrangement spread to other divisions.
Beyond the Dallas division, during the 70's and 80's and the height of both companies' expasion, the only real overlap was Dallas. I do know that beyond Dallas, Eckerd and Winn Dixie had a lot of overlap and co-existence, as WD didn't do pharmacies until the late 80's.
Ephrata1966 wrote:I wonder... could the earlier Safeway have been an Eckerd or other drugstore after Safeway left? I suspect so because the only other Peter Piper Pizza that I know of was in the former Eckerd building in The Woodlands... and sort of ironically, the Eckerd/PPP was attached to a former Safeway
It could have been a former Safeway that SWY still held the lease on, thus the commonality. As we all well know, it isn't unusual for grocers to sublease property but hold the main lease or even own the property to control competition. I do believe the Longview stores I mentioned were of that arrangement.
Unlikely that Safeway had any part in PPP in The Woodlands, as while Safeway did initially hold onto the leases after the AppleTree spinoff, those were divested fairly early on. It's unlikely that Safeway still held onto that little spot since their competitor moved into the main grocery space, and H-E-B did tend to own their Pantry stores or at least exert a lot of control over them (besides, if it was leased separately, it would've been that much harder to take it down when the store rebuilt). The last thing they'd want is some other grocer moving next to them. The PPP store(s) I'm familiar with in Waco (which I have never heard anything good about) was originally located in a part of an old department store (Cox's) and then renovated a former Luby's.

That's not to say that grocers won't hold onto these things years after the fact...Albertsons in Waco held onto their store for a decade after it closed (despite being becoming Harmony Science Academy, it was later sold to them), and Lucky actually had a defunct Eagle that it was sub-leasing, and Albertsons was still hawking the space on its website nearly two decades later.

As for the other Eckerd-near-Safeway stores I mentioned, Culpepper Plaza went away shortly before AppleTree left in 2002 (I'm not sure it was replaced), the 290/BW8 store closed prior to CVS (I don't think it ever rebranded), which all happened at the same time as the successor grocer Kroger left that spot, the Heights store Safeway absorbed it later (I believe so), the Galveston one not sure, the Tomball one wasn't adjacent directly and is now a Goodwill (same with Culpepper).
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Re: Great former Safeway in Dallas

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:That's not to say that grocers won't hold onto these things years after the fact...Albertsons in Waco held onto their store for a decade after it closed (despite being becoming Harmony Science Academy, it was later sold to them), and Lucky actually had a defunct Eagle that it was sub-leasing, and Albertsons was still hawking the space on its website nearly two decades later.
Winn Dixie's 2005 bankruptcy was largely based on rejecting hundreds of old leases that they had held onto for years and years to keep competition out, including several of the Texas stores that they closed a few years earlier. It opened up large chunks of real estate throughout their operating area.
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