Fox Markets/Food Fair/Pantry Pride in Las Vegas

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wayne winterland jr.
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Fox Markets/Food Fair/Pantry Pride in Las Vegas

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

I rmemeber the Fox Markets name but was never in one as i lived in Orange County and didn't have any of their stores nearby. I remember the Food Fair Stores and even remember Food Fair Stores in Las Vegas, Nv.
I lived and grew up in Orange County in the town of Orange and I don't remember or recall having any Fox Markets in Orange County where I lived. I basically grew up in the Alpha Beta Markets area where my father was a Store Manager for them. I worked for Alpha Beta Mkts, Ralphs, Safeway, and Market Basket. Alpha Beta Mkts. and Safeway were the 2 worst companies to work for and as a member of Management for Ralphs Grocery Company they treated all of their Store Management Personnel as up and coming potentially new store managers but it was Market Basket that treated me better than any of the rest. I won't bash Alpha Beta Mkts. or Safeway but should you ever want to know how it was to work for these 2 companies then e-mail me at wwwjr1946@aol.com and i have some interesting stories about them and they are very factual and not just one sided. One of the stories has to do with having to serve on jury duty for 3 months. who knows you might enjoy the stories.

thanks, Wayne Winterland Jr.
Steve Landry
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Fox Markets of California

Post by Steve Landry »

Oh, thanks very much.

Do you remember what the stores looked like in Las Vegas?

Size, architecture (did they have rose colored marble on the front part of the store, one or two entrances, etc.)

:)
The Food Fair Empire
wayne winterland jr.
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Post by wayne winterland jr. »

Hi Steve

I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on because it was proably in either the 1950's ir 1960's that I rmemeber seeing the Food Fair Stores and I only remember one in particular and unfortunately I didn't go inside but had driven by it a few times but always at night.
I think that the size was probably somewhere between 18,500 to 20,000 sq.ft. Although I only saw the Food Fair Store at night the exterior of the store had some windows at the top of the front facace of the store with a wall going down the rest of the front of the building. I think that the entrance had 2 doors that were side by side each other in the center of the front of the building. I don't think that they had any rose colored marble on the front of the store. It was not a very new store at that particular time and I'm thinking that they may have bought this store from someone else. There were some metal support beams or poles holding up the outside overhanging roof but what i rmemeber most about this one store was that the outside of the store looked very dark and dirty and dingy looking as if they hadn't been taking very good care of the store. The parking lot lighting was so bad that you would have felt uncomfortable parking there if you had to walk very far to get to the store. I don't rmemeber what part of Las Vetas the store was in but it wasn't in a very nice neighborhood ( it might have been towards the downtown area of old Las Vegas). There were 2 busy streets on 2 sides of the store so the traffic pattern seemed busy. With all of the building that has gone on in the past 45 or 50 years I doubt if the building
ia still around. Maybe some locations withstood the test of time but may or not still be grocery stores but may be some other kind of business.
I wish that I had gone into that store so that I could have told you more about what I had seen. Hope what little I had to say answers some of your questions.

Nice visiting with you, Wayne
Steve Landry
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Post by Steve Landry »

Thanks again for your kind response :)

I am pretty sure it was originally a Fox Market. Food Fair bought all of the Fox stores (Ca., NV.) in the 1960's.

Food Fair was "introduced" to the idea of buying this company because they already owned casinos, resorts, hotels and golf courses in Las Vegas. They also owned several cattle ranches in the region. Their real estate division was vast (they were responsible for founding and developing Royal Palm Beach and the western part of West Palm Beach in Florida).

Now it is possible that they may have built a few original Food Fair stores pre Fox merger and of course post Fox merger.

Food Fair often built stores in a market pre merger action or franchised stores as a test for merger.

Anyway.............nice visiting with you also!!!!
The Food Fair Empire
wayne winterland jr.
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What casinos did Food Fair own in Las Vegas

Post by wayne winterland jr. »

Hi Steve

I wasn't aware of Food Fair's casino ownership. I knew that grocery store chains often owned their own cattle ranches and operations like that. I used to read my dad Progressive Grocer Magazines and any other kind of grocery business publication and I just enjoyed reading about all of the other grocery chains across the nation of course that was when there were lots of medium and large size grocery chains across the nation instead of just a few 3 or 4 large grocery chains like Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons, and Walmart. It's sad to have seen the demise of grocery chains like Food Fair, National Tea. Alpha Beta Markets, Lucky Stores, Market Basket, and several others that were namesakes in many homes across the nation. Were Food Fair Stores headquarted in Philadelphia?
I remember that American Stores was in that area and maybe i'm getting the two chains mixed up. I enjoy talking about the grocery business and i was in it for about 25 years then I went into management for Big Lots Stores. I was beginning to burn out in the grocery store business and was glad to have a change of jobs in the retail business sector but not directly related to the grocery business. It gave me a more rounded knowledge of retailing instead of just the grocery business.
I still have my father's original 2 wheel hand truck for unloading trucks and this hand truck is from 1949 and he used it at the same store where he became store manager for over 19 years and I also his old (and still in good condition) quikmrk marker for pricing groceries and a holiday trifold wallet from Alpha Beta Markets as well as several long service award pins which my dad received. So I still have some good memories of my dad and also the grocery business that i grew up in and worked in.

nice visiting with you, Wayne
Steve Landry
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Food Fair

Post by Steve Landry »

Yes, they were headquartered in Philly and later Ft. Lauderdale.

They began in 1900 in N.Y.C., moved to Harrisburg and later Philly.

They were the highest volume (per store) supermarket chain store in the USA. Their acknowledged growth was prolific (probably ONE of the reasons for their implosive demise).

:)
The Food Fair Empire
rnaikens
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Re: Fox Markets of California

Post by rnaikens »

I'd like to see more about the "25 stores" in Nevada. They never had that many in Las Vegas. There wasn't that many supermarket type grocery stores in Clark County in the early 60's.

I have an ad from January 30, 1962 that lists three locations; 5th and Oakey (22 E Oakey), 1310 E College (Lake Mead Blvd) and Boulder Hwy in Henderson. Henderson was so small they didn't list an address on Boulder Hwy.

Main & Oakey is soon to be torn down. Smith's did a major remodel in the 80's and completely changed the facade. The only thing original was the upper stock room.

1310 E Lake Mead probably looks exactly the same now as then. Never went into the business that's there now.

I'm guessing the Henderson store was at 1545 Boulder Hwy. I think Gary Tobler told me that store was a Food Fair before Gary's dad made it a Marketbasket.

You can see pictures at http://www.myspace.com/raikens
Last edited by rnaikens on 12 Jan 2008 23:50, edited 2 times in total.
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Groceteria
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Re: Fox Markets of California

Post by Groceteria »

1971 Food Fair/Pantry Pride locations in Las Vegas (from a spreadsheet I have but don't remember where it came from):

2021 N Civic Center
1401 N Decatur (PP)
1310 E Lake Mead
3651 S Maryland (PP)
22 E Oakey
1024 W Owens
1221 E Sahara
2925 E Sahara (PP)
3830 W Sahara (PP)
2909 W Washington
Henderson (no address)

I don't know how many (if any) of these would ever have been Fox Markets. Almost all of them became Smith's as of 1974, per the spreadsheet.

Here's the spreadsheet in question, if anyone cares, or wants to claim it:
http://www.groceteria.com/forboard/vegas.pdf

I can't vouch for its accuracy. It looks like there may be some gaping holes.

(BTW, I'm splitting this Las Vegas discussion into a separate topic in the proper forum.)
Steve Landry
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Re: Fox Markets/Food Fair/Pantry Pride in Las Vegas

Post by Steve Landry »

Hi Rnaikens,

Could not find the foto you mentioned that is on your website.

The 25 stores in Nevada I mentioned was culled from an article I read. I will try to locate it. Some of the 25 stores may have been sold by Food Fair as undesireable after the merger.
The Food Fair Empire
rnaikens
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Re: Fox Markets/Food Fair/Pantry Pride in Las Vegas

Post by rnaikens »

Sorry about the pics, myspace don't do tiffs, so I have to convert.

The 50 locations in Nevada are interesting. Maybe some were in rural nevada or Reno? Wondering if some of those locations could have been non grocery business's like cstore's?

Would be interesting to investigate further.

Plug for the County Library on North LV Blvd. They recently bought a microfishe-pc scanner. It is waaaaay better than the old readers and can output to a USB key.
Steve Landry
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Re: Fox Markets/Food Fair/Pantry Pride in Las Vegas

Post by Steve Landry »

Hey Rnaikens,

Actually, there were only 25 Fox stores in Nevada, but 50 in "Greater" Los Angeles area (1 in Palm Springs area)
The Food Fair Empire
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