Lafayette, LA

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wnetmacman
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Lafayette, LA

Post by wnetmacman »

So I'm finally (late) jumping into the game. I've acquired a subscription to Newspapers.com (until my wife finds out!) and have been playing around in the newspapers of a couple of places I've lived, including my current town, Lafayette.

Lafayette is one of the most interesting in supermarket history, because at one given time or another, all of the major chains below have had a presence here, though some more limited than others:
  • Albertsons (and Skaggs)
  • Kroger (neighborhood 60's, Superstore AND Family Center, plus a Greenhouse for adequate confusion)
  • A&P
  • National/Canal Villere/The Real Superstore
  • Weingarten, and by later acquisition, Safeway
  • Delchamps
  • Winn-Dixie
  • Piggly Wiggly
  • Kmart (both Kmart Foods/Allied and a Super Kmart Center)
  • Walmart, which now includes a closed Supercenter (No boos from the crowd, please)
I don't know of any other city that has had such a diverse grocery history (and to be down to only 3 on the list now) over the years. I'm also finding that some stores I wasn't even aware of existed, including one of the Krogers that is a hidden building in the same shopping center with the Superstore that replaced it.

I'll be working on this over the next few weeks; I'm pretty excited about it. If it works well, I may also do Longview, TX, which doesn't quite have the long list, but it is storied.
Scott Greer
wnetmacman
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by wnetmacman »

I have a bit of a preview here. This spreadsheet covers locations of all the chains that have operated in Lafayette since 1955. There may be corrections later depending on what else I find. All I can say is that Lafayette is a very interesting place. Narrative of all of this to come.

https://1drv.ms/x/s!AosfK_GqChQ0gdUWw6j ... Q?e=XjJ0ig
Scott Greer
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by Groceteria »

This is looking quite intriguing!
pseudo3d
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by pseudo3d »

2863 Ambassador Caffery had to have been renovated before 2016...it had the "Albertsons Market" signage on the aisle markers when I visited in 2015, indicated it might have been renovated prior to the buyback of NAI.

https://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot ... te-la.html

A few other questions/notes:
- Were the Weingarten stores sold to Safeway in 1982? I know that the sale of the stores was in December 1983-January 1984, that's when Grand Union dismantled the chain (except for one location in Houston they kept open due to lease requirements until 1986).
- I thought I read somewhere that all the Kroger stores in Baton Rouge were sold to A&P in the mid-1980s, guess not if the Lafayette stores (which were sold around the same time) went to National. Were both markets part of the Southwest Division, or were they Delta?

As for the question posed your original post, I would say College Station-Bryan had a diverse grocery history as well (though not AS impressive), with all the following appearing since 1970:
Albertsons (inc. Skaggs and Jewel Osco)
Brookshire Brothers (coming back!)
H-E-B
Kroger
Piggly Wiggly
Randall's
Safeway (by extension AppleTree)
Walmart
Weingarten (co-existed with Safeway)
Winn-Dixie
wnetmacman
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: 14 Feb 2020 11:37 2863 Ambassador Caffery had to have been renovated before 2016...it had the "Albertsons Market" signage on the aisle markers when I visited in 2015, indicated it might have been renovated prior to the buyback of NAI.

https://safewayalbertsonstexas.blogspot ... te-la.html
Further work was done in 2016 to remove the liquor store and move a few more things around.
pseudo3d wrote: 14 Feb 2020 11:37 - Were the Weingarten stores sold to Safeway in 1982? I know that the sale of the stores was in December 1983-January 1984, that's when Grand Union dismantled the chain (except for one location in Houston they kept open due to lease requirements until 1986).
The four Weingarten stores became Safeway in 1982, almost literally overnight. All were closed when the Houston division decided they were 'too old to support' in 1986. To be fair, of the four, only one had been built after 1980. The other three were indeed painfully small and with no room to expand. Two are still supermarkets today.
pseudo3d wrote: 14 Feb 2020 11:37 - I thought I read somewhere that all the Kroger stores in Baton Rouge were sold to A&P in the mid-1980s, guess not if the Lafayette stores (which were sold around the same time) went to National. Were both markets part of the Southwest Division, or were they Delta?
Baton Rouge (and Opelousas) were abruptly closed in 1983 or so after a strike. Opelousas was never reopened as a supermarket. Some, but not all, of the BR stores were sold to A&P, but only Oak Point Market in Central remains open as a supermarket. Lafayette's final two stores were indeed sold to National in 1986 along with the two Family Centers in New Iberia and Morgan City; they were not affected by the BR pullout.
Scott Greer
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote: 25 Feb 2020 16:57 Further work was done in 2016 to remove the liquor store and move a few more things around.
From a 2017 Street View, it still looks from the outside just as it did in 2015, the liquor store (complete with "Liquor" signage and separate doors) is still there, with even the LLC-era "Albertsons Market" signage on the doors.

2018, however, does have the liquor store signage gone. What did they do with the space?
wnetmacman
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Re: Lafayette, LA

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: 26 Feb 2020 10:54
wnetmacman wrote: 25 Feb 2020 16:57 Further work was done in 2016 to remove the liquor store and move a few more things around.
From a 2017 Street View, it still looks from the outside just as it did in 2015, the liquor store (complete with "Liquor" signage and separate doors) is still there, with even the LLC-era "Albertsons Market" signage on the doors.

2018, however, does have the liquor store signage gone. What did they do with the space?
They walled it off. It isn't accessible from inside the store. Albertsons was slow in removing the signs; the store was closed off well before the signs were removed. This was the only store in Lafayette built with the Garden area.
Scott Greer
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