Skaggs-Albertsons

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wnetmacman
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Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by wnetmacman »

I'm posting this here because these stores were in several regions.

In the late 1970's, in some areas, Skaggs partnered up with Albertsons and built stores called Skaggs-Albertsons. I'm thinking these stores weren't too much different from today's standard supermarket fare, but I didn't see one or go into it at the time, because the one nearest us was on the other end of town.

For that timeframe, and in the areas in which I lived, they were huge. The Longview, TX store (which is still open today as Albertsons) was nearly 60,000 square feet. Only one other supermarket in town was that big at that time. All the others were around 20,000 square feet.

Were these stores really that size everywhere? I also know that the main Albertsons on Johnston St. in Lafayette, LA was a Skaggs-Albertsons at one time as well.

After the Skaggs changeover, the Longview store had many different nameplates:

Skaggs-Albertsons - from opening until 1980
Skaggs Supercenter - 1980-1981
Skaggs Alpha Beta - 1981-1991
Jewel-Osco - 1991-1992
Albertsons - 1992-Present

I know a lot more of these are still operating, most as Albertsons. Any ideas?
Scott Greer
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by Groceteria »

FYI, photos of a former combo in Colorado here: http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtop ... f=21&t=558
wnetmacman
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by wnetmacman »

That appears to be their pretty standard setup. Unlike the later Albertsons stores, which varied in design and color, these stores were almost all exactly alike. After the break, at least in Texas, before they recombined, Albertsons was opening similar stores for at least a while. Albertsons started varying the look of their stores not long after this.
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Steve Landry
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by Steve Landry »

IMO, yes, they were huge. I never saw one that was smaller than 60,000sf (there could have been).

Most were (that I saw) larger.

And, wow, they were palaces! IMO, just gorgeous in every way and ahead of their time.

Every department that I had ever heard about was in there. Employees were so friendly and helpful.

That was then :-)
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terryinokc
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by terryinokc »

I worked for Skaggs Albertsons in Oklahoma City from 1974 until 1982. Also worked in a couple of Tulsa stores. The stores in this area were 55,000 sq ft. There were orginally 4 stores built in OKC...all in 1974-1975.
I agree...they were wonderful stores...more selection and variety than anything we had ever seen around here....
The first store that opened here had lines aound the block waiting to get inside...there was nothing here like it....lots of small IGA's, lots of Safeway's....and some tired independent stores.
The original store just recently closed.....it had been a continuously operating store since 1974---but with lots of name changes on the building..
Skaggs Albertsons
Skaggs
Skaggs Supercenter
Skaggs Alpha Beta
Jewel Osco
Albertsons
Albertsons Sav On
Williams Foods
Homeland

The store managers wore a gold sport coat when they were out walking around the store...the advertisements said "Meet the Man in Gold"...I remember that was printed on the Janet Lee milk cartons also.

They had blud colored paper grocery bags with white writing...very "upscale" in appearence.

Started out as a courtesy clerk....then cashier. Worked in the drug department on the floor and in receiving...and in the Camera Bar (lobby). Was front end manager when I left.
They paid really good wages....even above union scale I think...our stores were never union stores.

Homeland has taken over two of the original four stores....the one above mentioned is an empty building now...the other one was converted into several stores. The Homeland stores are very dull, not so clean, and not very busy. One of them still has the Albertsons pnk and blue neon on the walls....A later fifth store was recently demolished and a Wal Mart Market was built there.

In 1974 I started at Skaggs Albertsons with training before the store opened...I was a courtesy clerk....there was a cashier that was in my training class....she is still working at Homeland now...has been thru all the name changes...and worked for the company for almost 40 years,
Super S
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by Super S »

Were there ever any Skaggs-Albertsons combos in Boise? When I lived there, from 1984-1988, Skaggs did have several standalone drug stores. Albertsons, at that time, only had a few locations that had pharmacies. Many were in strip malls which also had a seperate PayLess Drug, but there was at least one (State Street & Gary Lane) that was in a strip mall with a seperate Skaggs store. I have wondered due to the fact that there were Buttrey-Osco combos in Boise. Osco ended up buying Skaggs (1986?), and at that point the Osco name was dropped from all of the Buttrey stores in the area, as it went up on the former Skaggs stores.

I seem to remember that, at that point in time, Albertsons only opened pharmacies in standalone stores, or in strip malls which did not have a drug store as a tenant. In fact, the only ones I remember having a pharmacy were the 16th & State store (on the site of the original Albertsons), and the Overland & Vista store (a standalone store which was a former Safeway, the pharmacy was a carryover from Safeway) The 16th and State store was rebuilt at some point in the early 1980s, which was after the combos would have disappeared.

It wouldn't make sense to me to have the combos where Skaggs had standalone stores, but the Buttrey-Osco presence could have affected this, given the fact that Boise was Albertsons hometown.
terryinokc
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by terryinokc »

There were stand alone Skaggs Drug Centers and Skaggs Albertsons in Tulsa for a while. After Skaggs Albertsons opened in 1974 or 1975, there were two Skaggs Drug stores open for a few years....one of them was an old downtown store...and another in a shopping center. The downtown store closed first...the shopping center store was remodeled and moved into a vacant grocery store (Humpty Dumpty) next door...and then re-opened as Skaggs Albertsons.
Tulsa also had a very large stand alone drug store....it was called Skaggs Thrifty City. They built a new building to add the grocery side to the Thrifty City....and then changed the name to Skaggs Albertsons.
pseudo3d
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

A 1979 ad shows the College Station Skaggs Albertsons becoming Skaggs Alpha Beta. It never had the Skaggs Supercenter name. From what I can tell, the Dallas, north Texas, Waco, and College Station Skaggs-Albertsons went back to American Stores/Skaggs. The San Antonio, Louisiana, and Florida stores went to Albertsons. I'm not sure if there were any Austin stores, and I'm pretty sure they weren't in Houston.
luckysaver
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Re: Skaggs-Albertsons

Post by luckysaver »

The popular "Super King" store in Claremont CA was built in the 1980s as a Skaggs Alpha Beta but not a Skaggs-Albertsons (a couple blocks away in Pomona CA was a 1950s era Alpha Beta). It was one of the locations sold to Lucky in 1991 when American Stores Company (Skaggs/Alpha Beta owner) bought out Lucky. By 1999 as part of the Lucky-Albertsons "marriage", it went back to being an Albertsons-Savon until the late 2000s when it closed and the independent chain Super King took over and remodeled the store extensively.

Skaggs Drug Centers was a unit of American Stores Company, which became part of Albertsons in 1999. Back in the 1970s when the partnership began, the corporate management never predicted that ASC and Albertsons would reunite many years later.
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