Bel-Air was one of the old store brands of Safeway until about the early 90s...but...if you're preparing a meal for someone, would you really want to tell them you're using frozen store brand pie? ;)J-Man wrote: Frozen Bel-Air Peach Pie.
I wonder though if you ever went to a family house party with the Bel-Air pie as the centerpiece. :DJ-Man wrote:I'm 54 and was born and raised in the Bay Area, so believe me, I remember Bel-Air, Empress, Town House, Truly Fine, Lucerne, etc. (And Lady Lee, Harvest Day, etc.) I'm sure I ate my share of Bel-Air frozen pies in my day.
Actually, that reminds me: After I made the photocopy of this article (and many others), I showed it to a friend on the way back to my apartment. She was also repulsed by the thought of kangaroo tail soup and chocolate covered insects!runchadrun wrote:Instead of being served frozen pies, I'm more bothered that the Donna Reed homemaker of the 50s might be serving chocolate covered grasshoppers and catterpillars, and kangaroo tail soup.
If you mean the location shown in the original article at the beginning of the thread, yes. It's at 15 Marina Boulevard in San Francisco. It's been expanded, and the interior has been remodeled a few times, but it still has its Marina facade. The murals have been relocated to the side of the store.Daniel wrote:Very cool articles! Is this location still open??
Is that "gas house" you're referring to...the old cylindrical building behind the Marina Safeway that was there when it was built (and is long gone now)?justin karimzad wrote:Legend has it that when the Marina Safeway was being constructed, neighbors vowed to burn the store to the ground as soon as it was completed and its shelves were stocked. They were angry that the store blocked their view of a turn-of-the-century gas house that was behind the store, and the murals were put in to pacify them.
I assume so. For those that haven't seen it;TheStranger wrote:Is that "gas house" you're referring to...the old cylindrical building behind the Marina Safeway that was there when it was built (and is long gone now)?
Page 59:The food chains are taking an increasing number of adventures into prestige stores.
Similar to conventional supermarkets in name only, prestige stores are traded-up in both exterior and interior design and fittings.
Safeway's Marina unit in the San Francisco Bay Area boasts a mosaic tile front.
This begs the question which seven Safeways (other than 15 Marina) in 1961 were "prestige" oriented - I'm pretty sure Safeway had build at least 20-30 marina-prototype stores by then, so it couldn't have been merely any store with the arch roof going on.Building and equipment costs are at a premium in prestige stores. Estimates made by Chain Store Age show that a prestige store will cost anywhere from $2-8 more per square foot for building and equipment, depending on how lavish a chain wants its prestige store to be.
Are prestige stores worth the extra money? "It depends on the area," is the candid comment of one chain executive. "If we plan to build a store in a high income neighborhood where the customers buy their food in specialty shops, we've got to build a prestige store to do maximum business."
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Prestige stores give the chain a chance to trade up into premium goods.
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Prestige stores also provide the chain with a showcase store. Customers visiting the store carry home a quality image. Safeway operates seven prestige stores in its Northern California Division. The chain's executives believe that its prestige stores expand the chain's overall quality image."
