NEW: Williamsburg VA

[Groceteria]

This is a quickie: http://www.groceteria.com/place/virgini ... liamsburg/

Unfortunately, there were apparently no city directories published before 1957. If I can access the phone books at some point, I'll flesh this out. It would be interesting to see how stores skirted the historic area.

[Andrew T.]

One of my online acquaintances lives in Williamsburg, so he might get a kick out of this. (Or not.)

It's interesting to see that Safeway made a belated, cursory, one-store attempt at securing a toehold in the city in the 1980s! This must have coincided with their push into NC that was just as halfhearted and short-lived. The building itself at 1320 Richmond Rd. is a fairly unassuming brick-and-shake roof structure and it still looks decently intact, split between Goodwill and Staples today.

[NoVa Grocery Buff]

There are two other stores on the West side of the city:

The short-lived second Ukrops in the area:
6610 Mooretown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23188

Another Harris Teeter:
6485 Centerville Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23188


Not seeing the second Ukrop's is what tipped me off to look into the topic a little further. Also of recent happenings, the Monticello Ave. Ukrops turned Martins, has now turned Publix. I was always curious about the Williamsburg area and the history of the stores there, thanks for doing this one!

[Groceteria]

It's interesting to see that Safeway made a belated, cursory, one-store attempt at securing a toehold in the city in the 1980s!

Safeway actually had a reasonable (though not huge) presence in the adjacent Tidewater/Hampton Roads area in the 1970s and 1980s, so Williamsburg, which is halfway between this region and their then-significant Richmond operations, was not really a surprising location choice. They departed about 1987-1988, and most of their stores ultimately became Farm Fresh locations. A few even lasted until the bitter end of that chain last year.

The few NC stores do seem to have been an expansion of the Tidewater/Hampton cluster.

[Groceteria]

There are two other stores on the West side of the city

Interesting. These probably never made it into the city directories. If you can verify some dates, I'll add them. Thanks!

[NoVa Grocery Buff]

No problem and I found out they are technically in York County so that may be the difference.

Info on the Ukrops:
Opened: Oct 4, 2006
-Progressive Grocer Article on its opening
https://progressivegrocer.com/ukrops-op ... g-va-store

Closed: January 31, 2009
-Local newspaper covering the Big Lots Opening in its spot referencing when Ukrops closed
https://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-bi ... story.html
-Pictures of its closing sign on the door and closed interior, and now reopened as a Big Lots
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanrules ... 561457204/
^This coincided with Ukrop's closing of its other outlying store(non-Richmond stores) that year.
Fredricksburg: Jan 30, 2009
Roanoke: Oct 24, 2009

Harris Teeter
Opening: July 13, 2016
https://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/06/ ... 520113.htm
https://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-ha ... story.html

[NoVa Grocery Buff]

It's interesting to see that Safeway made a belated, cursory, one-store attempt at securing a toehold in the city in the 1980s!

Safeway actually had a reasonable (though not huge) presence in the adjacent Tidewater/Hampton Roads area in the 1970s and 1980s, so Williamsburg, which is halfway between this region and their then-significant Richmond operations, was not really a surprising location choice. They departed about 1987-1988, and most of their stores ultimately became Farm Fresh locations. A few even lasted until the bitter end of that chain last year.

The few NC stores do seem to have been an expansion of the Tidewater/Hampton cluster.

Article from 1993 on Farm Fresh buying the Richmond area Safeway stores. I found it when researching my other post.
https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm- ... story.html

[Groceteria]

Ah, so Williamsburg evaporated with the Richmond stores rather than the Tidewater/Hampton ones. That makes sense...