Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Uh...California.

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klkla
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Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by klkla »

I was looking at the recent thread about Safeway in Palm Springs and tried to research a little about it, but something else came up that I thought was interesting. A 1960 build Mayfair Market that at 30,000 sq ft. was the largest supermarket in the Coachella Valley at the time.

https://digital.lib.calpoly.edu/islando ... annotation
https://digital.lib.calpoly.edu/islando ... annotation

The store closed in 1978 when the new owner of the shopping center decided not to renew the lease because he wanted to redevelop the shopping center.

According to the article linked below:

"The neighborhood market was the first in town to offer 24-hour shopping service. In recent years, according to Stephanoff [Mayfair store manager], the store grossed about $3,5 million in annual receipts*. “We're not closing due to poor business." he added. "But simply because we couldn’t get our lease renewed.”

"Bulker [new owner of the shopping center] said he didn’t extend the Mayfair lease because. “I’ve held the property for five years with very special plans for improvement. Within the next two months, I hope to finalize some of these plans. He said he wants to change the shopping center’s name to Brighton Village Shopping Center, which he hopes will become a local and tourist oriented shopping complex complete with a “high quality food store, retail apparel stores, several restaurants including my own. Forty Carrots, a health food store.” He said his present plans include a
411-foot "theme tower" and extensive landscaping that will "encourage people to come in and stroll around."

His plans never panned out and the shopping center was torn down in 1987 and has sat vacant for for over 30 years.

Article about store closing:
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19780330. ... N--------1

Google Maps view of the property. Google places the location a little further north than it actually was. The shopping center was on the east side of Palm Canyon between the dry creek and Mesquite Ave.:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/940+S ... 116.544546

History about the shopping center:
https://www.trenops.com/1950s-the-camer ... lden-mile/

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/20 ... /28843937/

As of two years ago the site was set to become The Cameron, a collection of 80 two-story town-homes, 22 live-work units and 15,000 square feet of retail. I'm not sure what the status of that project is.

*$3.5 million annual sales equates to about $67,000 a week. Typical sales for Mayfair at that time would range from about $50,000 to $120,000 weekly but taking into account the seasonality of the Palm Springs area I would guess it was probably a very good store for them in the winter and spring.
explorersea
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Re: Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by explorersea »

Kikla really good detective work there, I was aware there was a Mayfair at that location on South Palm Canyon when I started visiting the desert in the late 80s, but the site has been barren for quite a long time. Safeway left the 350 South Palm Canyon location sometime in the late 60s early 70s leaving the Alpha Beta at Ramon/Sunrise being the closest grocery to downtown I can think of.
klkla
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Re: Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by klkla »

Is this the Alpha Beta? It's also a good example of the moderne architectural style:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/74239093827851128
explorersea
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Location: Beautiful Pacific Northwest

Re: Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by explorersea »

yes, that is the Alpha Beta at Sunrise and Ramon in Palm Springs, Ralphs tore down the old store and built a respectable new store that fits the area
Steve Landry
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Re: Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by Steve Landry »

Yep, and they designed that Ralphs to honor the original architecture of the Alpha Beta.

I managed that Ralphs for a while and also the Ralphs Fresh Fare on Palm Canyon and Sunrise (about a mile down the road).

:-)
The Food Fair Empire
jleyerle
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Re: Mayfair Market Palm Springs

Post by jleyerle »

They are starting work on the condos--it's changed developers (again) to Toll Brothers.
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