South Florida GRAND UNION

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Edric Floyd
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South Florida GRAND UNION

Post by Edric Floyd »

When I grew up in South Florida, Grand Union had a huge presence until the mid 1980's.

Most of the GU locations sat vacant for years, even decades.

Most today are unrecognizable from its Grand Union days. The three Grand Union's that were in Boca Raton were replaced with PUBLIX stores. One was extensively remodeled in the 1980's, the other two were complete rebuilds on the site were the Grand Union once stood.

ONE exception is this store in Deerfield Beach Florida, built in 1970
http://boxstr.com/files/4219455_yxcq6/GUDeerfield1.JPG
http://boxstr.com/files/4219456_5speg/GUDeerfield3.JPG
http://boxstr.com/files/4219457_fybph/GUDeerfleid2.JPG

The Northeast corner of Hillsboro Blvd and Federal Highway is a mostly un-altered original Grand Union built in 1970.

The store closed when Grand Union pulled out of Florida in the 1980's. This location was a PHAR-MOR store for a few years and has been the Deerfield Antique Mall since the very late 1980's.

A look at the photos (taken on 11/28) and you'll see the building is currently being worked on. The front awning was wood shingles from the Grand Union days and it appears they are in the process of installing new tiles as construction equipment and trailers were parked on the side parking lot. The center piece of the front awning was added by the Deerfield Antique Mall when they took over the space.

The supermaket always had a narrow parking lot in front and had additional parking on the side. This was an L-shaped shopping center with smaller shops on the right side of the supermarket facing US-1.
Last edited by Edric Floyd on 01 Dec 2008 07:33, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Landry
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Re: South Florida GRAND UNION

Post by Steve Landry »

Great fotos Edric.

Were there any Grand Union / Grandway combos around there?
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Edric Floyd
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Re: South Florida GRAND UNION

Post by Edric Floyd »

I never knew of any Grand Union/Grand Way combos. However, there were a few Grand Unions that shared small shopping centers with Zayre.

I knew of two in Fort Lauderdale which I mentioned a couple years ago on other threads here.

North Andrews Avenue (North of Oakland Park Blvd). The GU would close and become a Post Office employee annex (not open for public service) and the Zayre became an Ames then a Winn Dixie Marketplace in the 1990's.

Broward Blvd and I-95 just west of Downtown Fort Lauderdale. The GU was briefly a BASICS grocery store before closing in the mid 1980's. The Zayre closed before the Ames merger and the entire center was bulldozed when I-95 was widened around 1990 and a park and ride lot sits in its place.

Most of the Grand Union's I remember were free standing or they were the ONLY anchor of a small shopping center.
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