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When did Safeway's Washington DC division become "Eastern"?

Posted: 04 Nov 2016 00:14
by pseudo3d
Safeway of old, and I mean Safeway of not "Pre-Albertsons" Safeway or even "Pre-Burd" Safeway but "Pre-KKR Safeway", had city names for its divisions, every one (see "New Way at Safeway 1958", a document on archive.org that some of you may have seen). Some of them survive to this day (Denver, Portland, Seattle) though some were obviously lost along with the way, either being consolidated at some point (San Diego) or sold off (Salt Lake City, Little Rock, Kansas City). When did the Washington DC division become "Eastern"? It sure wasn't after the New York division was sold off in 1961 to Finast (though despite this, the Washington DC and New York division were never contiguous). I can't seem to find if the Eastern Division was created in 2001 when Genuardi's was folded into the Washington DC division, either.

Does anyone know? Did it happen in 2001 with Genuardi, or was it earlier?

Re: When did Safeway's Washington DC division become "Eastern"?

Posted: 11 Nov 2016 13:04
by klkla
I don't know the exact date but probably around 1986-1987. If I remember correctly Richmond, VA was a separate division that was merged into the D.C division becoming the Eastern Division.

This is about the same time Safeway closed it's San Diego division based in National City and merged it with the L.A. division. IIRC

Re: When did Safeway's Washington DC division become "Eastern"?

Posted: 12 Nov 2016 16:14
by pseudo3d
klkla wrote:I don't know the exact date but probably around 1986-1987. If I remember correctly Richmond, VA was a separate division that was merged into the D.C division becoming the Eastern Division.

This is about the same time Safeway closed it's San Diego division based in National City and merged it with the L.A. division. IIRC
That sounds right. Safeway's Wikipedia article mentions that there were a number of DelMarVa-area stores that were shut down in the late 1980s (including newer stores), and they did switch some stores in divisions, I'm pretty sure Waco, TX's Safeway stores were part of the Dallas division, and those stores went to Houston.

It definitely would make sense for some divisions to close or be sold outright and others to be consolidated. Clearly, like the consolidation of Houston and some Dallas stores, the original "Safeway Southern California Division" didn't really last for a long time, just like Albertsons and some of their ill-fated divisions (Mid-South).