[romleys]

Does anyone know if Big John's Market on Healdsburg Ave. in Healdsburg was a Safeway store? With its exact similarities to a marina store one would think this was a Safeway almost immediately. However, every person I talked to in Healdsburg say that the store was never a Safeway; instead it was always an independent market. With a Rite Aid down the road located @ 525 Healdsburg Ave. being a confirmed Safeway given an address and the exterior features (e.g. flat stone walls) it is odd that another Safeway would be built so close by. Then again look at the situation in both Martinez and Eureka where two 1960's stores were built on the same street and in close vicinity of each other.

[TheStranger]

Through a Google search, I found this photo of it:

http://www.daplus.us/ShowPhoto.aspx?abi ... ner=400240

the rectangular spaces seem to correlate exactly where Safeway lettering would have been...I'm thinking this definitely was a marina Safeway. It is almost a full mile south of the Rite Aid.

[storewanderer]

I am positive the independent grocer is a former Safeway.

It may have been for a short period.

[Groceteria]

I am positive the independent grocer is a former Safeway.

It may have been for a short period.

Agreed. There were several instances in the late 1960s of Safeway replacing stores less than ten years old, especially in smaller towns. There's even an article on that subject (specifically in Pacific Grove CA) in an issue of the Safeway company magazine that I have from about 1969.