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Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 01 Feb 2009 21:42
by romleys
Upon researching it seems that there were 71 Thrifty Junior Drug Stores operating in 1991. While these stores were smaller it makes me wonder how many locations were acquired by Rite Aid and exactly how many remained operating until the Rite Aid takeover?

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 00:34
by steps
The Thrifty Jr. on Figueroa (not sure of the cross street) near USC is a Goodwill now. The goodwill store still has the oval street sign.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 02:40
by storewanderer
71!? Wow.

I know there were some in San Francisco and the oddball up in Kings Beach (Lake Tahoe). I don't know of any others in Northern California. Maybe there were a lot of them in the Los Angeles City Limits.

Thrifty/Payless did strike a deal with Wells Fargo sometime in the mid 90s to take half of large size bank branches and open new Thrifty Jr. Stores, but I don't know what happened with that or how many stores actually opened.

Sav-On also had a concept called "Sav-On Express" which from my understanding was used primarily on the former CVS Stores that Sav-On purchased in SoCal in the late 80's or early 90's. I think I was in a Sav-On Express somewhere in SoCal but I may be imagining it.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 03:19
by Andrew T.
I wonder how small the Thrifty Jr. stores were?

A smaller "sub" format seems to have been a common thread among quite a few chain drugstores. Out east, SupeRx operated a few "SupeRx Express" pharmacies that seem to have been located chiefly in small towns. (Cue the scan from the 1993 Princeton/Bluefield, WV phone book...)

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 12:04
by Daniel
I had a friend who worked at Thrifty in the 90's, and I seem to remember him mentioning a Thrifty Jr. in LA that was tiny, only around 1,500 sq. ft. This store was brought up because they routinely refused shipments of trailers of 12-pack Cokes and similar things that kept being sent there even though they had nowhere to put these items.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 13:02
by TheStranger
romleys: The SSF Thrifty Jr. which you photographed recently did not make it to the Rite Aid merger and was already Kragen by 1993-1994 or so, not exactly sure when.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 16:11
by Dean
The Thrifty Jr. in the Lake Arrowhead Village is now the Post Office.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 16:33
by Jeff
There was a Thrifty Jr in San Gabriel. This store was larger than most TJ's, but still about 1/2 the size of a Thrifty store, I would say in the neighborhood of 10k sq feet or less. It was on San Gabriel and Las Tunas, and was closed, then Demo'ed.

Wasnt the current Rite Aid on National and I-10 next to the Vons at one point a Thrifty Jr? I remember it having Thrifty Junior signs for a time.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 19:37
by luckysaver
On your Rite Aid weekly ad, look on the fine print on the bottom of the liquor page (last page). It lists all the west coast stores where merchandise in the ad is available stock on hand or not available at all. I'm sure most of these stores listed were ex-Thrifty Jr.

The operating subsidiary in California for all Rite Aids is Thrifty-Payless Inc.

luckysaver

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 02 Feb 2009 22:49
by storewanderer
That list of small stores without all advertised items available in the Rite Aid ad is mainly smaller Payless Stores. I'm sure all of the Thrifty Jr. Stores that still operate are listed, but they do not make up the majority of the list.

I remember another Thrifty Jr. in downtown San Diego somewhere near (not within; that was Longs) Horton Plaza.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 03 Feb 2009 18:51
by Dean
storewanderer wrote:That list of small stores without all advertised items available in the Rite Aid ad is mainly smaller Payless Stores. I'm sure all of the Thrifty Jr. Stores that still operate are listed, but they do not make up the majority of the list.

I remember another Thrifty Jr. in downtown San Diego somewhere near (not within; that was Longs) Horton Plaza.
Agree.

The Loma Linda CA site listed is a replacement store in a shopping center with Clark's Nutritional Foods. Thrifty was originally located across the street, with Alpha-Beta. A-B vacated, Stater Brothers demolished the place, and built a replacement store for Stater Brothers. The former Stater Brothers became Clark's. This RiteAid site MAY be limited, given the enormous Seventh Day Adventist population of the town. Possibly, alcohol and tobacco products are limited, given their beliefs. FYI=Loma Linda is the ONLY town in the US that has SUNDAY mail delivery versus Saturday...given the sabbath on Saturday.

Palm Desert CA is listed. Yet, there are three (3) in PD...so hard to determine which one they are referencing...as no address is given. The site on 111 was a Thrifty "Senior", for sure.

La Puente CA had a Thrifty Jr. on Hacienda Boulevard. It was in the center NEXT to Alpha-Beta, turned VIVA, et al. I don't see ANY RiteAid listed in La Puente on Hacienda, so I assume the site was vacated.

Whittier CA had a Thrifty Jr. in "uptown". It was on the corner...Greenleaf, and ? It has a brick facade. Nice building. Last time I drove by...it was vacant.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 03 Feb 2009 21:11
by Jeff
Dean wrote: Whittier CA had a Thrifty Jr. in "uptown". It was on the corner...Greenleaf, and ? It has a brick facade. Nice building. Last time I drove by...it was vacant.
I know which building, block south of Hadley. It has been empty since Thrifty left (there is another Rite Aid about a block away). It was gutted a long time ago, but recently work was done to gut it even moer.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 04 Feb 2009 11:47
by runchadrun
According to a 1986 Times article there were 27 Thrifty Jr stores. This was when Pacific Lighting (parent of Socal Gas Company) bought the chain. Later that year Thrifty bought Drug King (15 stores) and Guild Drugs (13 stores) and converted most of them into Thrifty Jr. There were also a few Thrifty Jr locations inside Ralphs stores.
Jeff wrote:Wasnt the current Rite Aid on National and I-10 next to the Vons at one point a Thrifty Jr? I remember it having Thrifty Junior signs for a time.
Yes.
storewanderer wrote:Sav-On also had a concept called "Sav-On Express" which from my understanding was used primarily on the former CVS Stores that Sav-On purchased in SoCal in the late 80's or early 90's.
Right. Were there any Savon Express stores that weren't former CVS stores?

The few Thrifty Jr's I've seen that have been converted to Rite Aids are like those CVS->Savon Express->CVS stores: there's nothing to distinguish from the outside that they are small versions of their big brothers but when you go inside you realize how tiny it is. Another former Thrifty Jr that is still in business as a Rite Aid is on the corner of Ventura and Haskell in Encino.

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 06 Feb 2009 21:48
by javelin
There's a small strip mall at 1308 E. Main Street, Barstow, CA that has an odd store with a sign "ice cream parlor" and has a mostly empty interior that looks a lot like an old Thrifty's but it's less than half the size of a regular store. The main anchor, whatever that was, is now a 99 cent store. What used to originally be there?

Re: Thrifty Junior Drug Stores

Posted: 06 Feb 2009 22:04
by Jeff
runchadrun wrote: Right. Were there any Savon Express stores that weren't former CVS stores?
Chad, see if you can find anything about an Albertsons that opened on Imperial Hwy at Rose Dr. Its now a Stater Bros. In that small center, there is a tiny CVS that once had to have been a Sav-on Express. Question is, when did the center open? I beleive it had to have had opened after or about the time CVS left.