[TheStranger]

This store is the grocery I go to the most and as the years have gone by, it serves as a time capsule of some sorts, with its 1980s decor package that has never been removed even after multiple Safeway remodeling packages (the 1990s pastels, the 2000s lifestyle variations, and the Albertsons-era bright white with color accents).

I actually asked one of the cashiers last year or so about the history of the location, and he informed me the store has been on a month-to-month lease since 2012 or thereabouts! According to the staffer, this store was set to close once the chain got a new store built at the now-closed El Camino/Spruce site (former White Front) that they had from approximately 1987 to 2014. The new-build project there has been in limbo since then, while this 1973-era store soldiers on and is located feet away from an in-progress condo/mixed use complex that took over a former Union 76 and carwash footprint.

I want to say the current Safeway logo was added in 2019; before that, the 1980s Square S and the 1990s serif Safeway text labeling were used at the front of the store.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/csampang/ ... 0296457383

_DSC0477 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

_DSC3016 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

_DSC2176 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

_DSC3889c by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

_DSC4586 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

[Jason B.]

The analog clock photo reminds me the downtown Livermore, Calif. Safeway had a similar clock in the late 1980s. As I recall, it was above the main exit door of the store. Next to the clock was a long rectangular advertising space. (Actually the clock and the advertising space were one long panel, if I recall correctly.) One of the ads that I remember in the space next to the clock was for the KRON-TV "NewsCenter 4" news team.

[Groceteria]

That one has been one of my favorites since I started doing the site more than 20 years ago back when I still lived in San Francisco.

A few photos from 2010 and 2015:

[TheStranger]

With the planned Safeway rebuild at the Spruce/El Camino White Front site (which had a store from about 1987-2014), I'm wondering how much longer the Chestnut Avenue store will hang on.

I hope it sticks around for a while more as it has done decent business for a long time and isn't really near any direct competition (the former QFI/Bell 2 blocks away has been the Asian-oriented Pacific Super for about 8 years now).

[storewanderer]

With the planned Safeway rebuild at the Spruce/El Camino White Front site (which had a store from about 1987-2014), I'm wondering how much longer the Chestnut Avenue store will hang on.

I hope it sticks around for a while more as it has done decent business for a long time and isn't really near any direct competition (the former QFI/Bell 2 blocks away has been the Asian-oriented Pacific Super for about 8 years now).

For some reason I thought this store was already closed. Good to see it is still open. The interior looks much more corporate than the odd cobbled together version of this interior La Junta has.

It would probably make sense to keep both this store as well as the new store open at this point. But at the same time with the lease situation, someone could come in and decide to do something else entirely with the land too (apartments, etc.).

[TheStranger]

With the impending opening of the brand new store at South Spruce and El Camino (essentially a replacement for the old 1987-2014 location in that same lot that was in the White Front building next to Service Merchandise), the Chestnut Avenue location's last day is June 23, 2026.

Signage is now up for the final day:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthSanFranci ... ng_to_the/

Store will have been in service for 53 years or so by the time it finally ends its time as a Safeway. It's wild that the last remodel occurred over 40 years ago!

[TheStranger]

Since last week, the 30 Chestnut store has had an ongoing clearance sale (items 50% off or more). When I went a few days ago, they were still replenishing milk in the fridges, but that seems to have stopped now as of my most recent visit yesterday.

Store's final day is the 23rd, with the new Spruce/El Camino store opening up on the 24th.

[Jason B.]

Please post updates (and take photos, if you can) about the final days of this "1980s Safeway time capsule."

[TheStranger]

Please post updates (and take photos, if you can) about the final days of this "1980s Safeway time capsule."

Actually will be doing so shortly.

Today (23rd) was supposed to be final day...nope, they apparently closed on Friday, June 19th at 7 PM forever, per paper signs that were hastily affixed.

Was able to get some pics that I'll post in a bit (and had to tell a couple of local kids who biked by the entrance the bad news, as they did not know the store closest to them was already a goner a full 2 or 3 days before the planned final day).

---

Meanwhile, still 34 or so hours until the new store at Spruce/El Camino opens. That store is located more on the western corner of the lot directly at the intersection and across from See's Candies' main factory and HQ (obliterating a parcel that used to have a Firestone tire shop and Union 76 station that closed by the late 90s), very different from the old Safeway on the site from 1987-2014 that faced El Camino but was hundreds of feet away from it due to the large parking lot in place.

That original Spruce/El Camino Safeway was a subunit of the old White Front/Treasury building there that was built ca. 1965, with its then neighbors from the 1980s onward being Longs (later CVS) and Service Merchandise. Much of that old parking lot remains undeveloped but likely will become condos, with most of the old White Front area still not built on yet save for maybe the westernmost edge where Longs/CVS once was.

Interestingly a few feet east of the new Safeway complex is a Staples that, when I was a kid, was a long-abandoned Pay n Pak Hardware. Just northeast of that was a Century Theaters that closed in 2003-2004 when the larger Century at Tanforan opened a quarter mile down; the building was finally demolished 5 or 6 years ago after a brief plan by the longrunning Brentwood Bowl alley to move there was nixed, with this old spot already having condos being built on the land. (Brentwood Bowl then remodeled at its original El Camino site and is now Hometown Bowl, but still operational)

[TheStranger]

My photos of the closed store.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/csampang/ ... 0334362110

DSC_1471 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

DSC_1474 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

DSC_1475 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

DSC_1476 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr

DSC_1477 by Chris Sampang, on Flickr