Frederich's Discount Center

[Steve Landry]

I am so embarrassed...........I have been spelling this company's name incorrectly for so long...lol

Anyway, attached is a foto of one of their stores in Miami Florida before being purchased by Food Fair (courtesy of Don Boyd's website).

As you can see, these stores were indeed huge.

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/84981158

[Steve Landry]

wow..35 views and no comments? hee hee :)
Edric.............where are you?

[krogerclerk]

All references to this illusive predecessor to Food Fair have always been Frederick's. The stores were obviously ahead of their time, being fairly large for the era and pioneering supermarket pharmacies.

Did the pharmacies continue into the Food Fair era? All the Pantry Pride stores I had even been in in South Florida were small and lacking a pharmacy, so at somepoint, Food Fair pursued a more conventional format.

Did these larger locations morph into JM Fields? That would be a possible reason for lack of any Food Fair/Pantry Pride stores having the square footage and the pharmacy. The fact that Frederich's banner includeds Discount Center does not necessarily mean the stores were an early hypermart/supercenter pioneer. Supermarkets were the original discount format and many supermarkets considered themselves to be discount centers until the late 50s- early 60s era.

[Steve Landry]

Hi krogerclerk, thanks for your response :-)

Yes, they were quite ahead of their time. Under Food Fair's ownership, I managed one of these behemoths in the N.W. and S.W. section of Miami. One store had the manager's office suspended from the ceiling, 3/4's encased in glass (what a view!).

For a short time the pharmacies continued. There was labor union battle (I believe there was a specific pharmacist's union involved) that resulted in Food Fair closing all the pharmacies. I do not know if all J.M. Fields under a different relationship had pharmacies but, the Fields/Food Fair combo in Hallandale (Diplomat Shopping Center) had a pharmacy in the J.M. Fields side of the store and of course Food Fair had in-store pharmacies in other regions.

A good portion of the Pantry Prides were in the 25,000 sqft. range, having morphed from Carl's to Food Fair to Pantry Pride. And of course some new build Food Fairs were in that range too. But, there were many stores that were in the 30,000 sqft. and larger range. These were new build Food Fairs, Pantry Prides and of course all the old Frederichs. Cutler Ridge, Hallandale and S.W. 8th St. and 127th Av. in Miami come to mind.

To my knowledge, none of the Frederichs morphed into J.M. Fields. There is some connection that I am trying to investigate that links Shell City Stores (gigantic foot prints) with Frederichs and then eventually Food Fair. This would make sense, given Food Fair's historic interest in these formats (they tried for years to buy Korvettes).

Hypermarket? No, I agree. They were huge stores selling food along with guns and shoes but not big enough to be classified as a hypermarket. Shell City? for sure was large enough to be classified as such.

BTW....Walter Frederich was the founder of Frederich's Discount Center stores, claiming to be the "Finest Food Store in the World".

[Edric Floyd]

wow..35 views and no comments? hee hee :)
Edric.............where are you?

Hello, I'm awake Steve.


Frederich's is a little before my time. I remembered the name only from discussion on this site. I do remember Food Fair before becoming Pantry Pride. That photo reminds me of many older shopping centers around South Florida that were near the end of their run while I was in elementary school in the 1970's. These were usually former Pantry Prides by the time I paid attention to anything.

Also, I grew up mostly in northern Broward and Southern Palm Beach county. A lot of buildings with simular construction to the one in the photo were vacant or run down during the 1980's and are 90% likely to have been either renovated or replaced due to storm damage or redevelopment. Every time I return to the area where I grew up it becomes less and less familiar. There are few landmarks left.

Even my childhood home was bulldozed for "modern" redevelopment.