Colonial Store, Manchester, Georgia...

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Crepehanger

Colonial Store, Manchester, Georgia...

Post by Crepehanger »

The Piggly Wiggly in Manchester, Georgia was the old Colonial Store. Asked my father last night, and he thought that the Colonial built there in the early-mid 1950s. Before that, Colonial was on Main Street in downtown--not sure where.

The Manchester Colonial Store lasted until 1978-1979 when the new Big Star opened. Today, that location is Lewis Jones. One of the things I remember about the old Colonial was coffee in the blue Colonial cans. Also, they often pre-bagged 4 loaves of private label bread for $1.

When, the Big Star opened, they had all sorts of buy one get one fee items. I worked at that Big Star from 1987-1988. That's when the deli opened. Talk about a big deal in a small town.
krogerclerk
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Post by krogerclerk »

I've been in the last Big Star in Manchester several times as a child, when my family would camp at FDR State Park. I know the store became an A&P after 1992, but I'm not sure when it closed. I would have expected Food Lion(or Harvey's) to have built in Manchester by now and possibly Ingles' which has locations as close as Barnesville and Hogansville.

Of course Meriwether Co is midway between Atlanta and Columbus and is now becoming an exurb of the two, with Manchester becoming Columbus oriented while northern Meriwether is more Atlanta oriented(and LaGrange and Newnan as well).

Big Star had several stores in towns that had little or no competition, Manchester, Montezuma, and Dahlonega come to mind. The Flint River Plaza in Montezuma flooded doing severe damage to the Big Star and A&P extensively remodeled the store afterwards to much applaud, but I think Harvey's has since opened. I'm not sure when Manchester and Montezuma BigStar/ A&P closed but Dahlonega survived until the Atlanta division of A&P closed and is now an independent, with a Wal-Mart SuperCenter as the only other grocer in town. While the Manchester store was still in business a Giant Food operated in town and is probably the tenant of the former Big Star/A&P.
Crepehanger

Big Star was transformed into an A&P...

Post by Crepehanger »

circa 1992. Today, the Lewis Jones store is where Big Star/A&P were. I think you are thinking of Giant Mart which used to be Colonial and is now Piggly Wiggly. There is an Ingle's in Woodbury but they've never come any further south in Meriwether County. Manchester has lots of problems, but they don't need a Harveys! :D

Big Star had little competition in Dawson and Ft. Valley. When I worked there, the meat manager drove from Ft. Valley to Manchester 5 days/week because when the Ft. Valley store closed, Manchester was the closest store that needed a meat manager.
Edric Floyd
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Re: Big Star was transformed into an A&P...

Post by Edric Floyd »

Crepehanger wrote:circa 1992. Today, the Lewis Jones store is where Big Star/A&P were. I think you are thinking of Giant Mart which used to be Colonial and is now Piggly Wiggly. There is an Ingle's in Woodbury but they've never come any further south in Meriwether County. Manchester has lots of problems, but they don't need a Harveys! :D

Big Star had little competition in Dawson and Ft. Valley. When I worked there, the meat manager drove from Ft. Valley to Manchester 5 days/week because when the Ft. Valley store closed, Manchester was the closest store that needed a meat manager.
IN Ft Valley, there were three supermarkets. All of the buildings are a minimum 20-30 years old.

I know which one was a Piggly Wiggly, that would be the current Harveys which relocated to the former FoodMax (which was the renamed PW). FoodMax (Brunos-ahold) closed the store in 2005.

Which of the other two markets in Ft. Valley was the Big Star? Is it the supermarket across from the OLD high school? That was a Harveys until a couple months ago when they moved into the old Foodmax (Piggly Wiggly).

Ft. Valley has a FOOD DEPOT on US 341 in Ft. Valley. It appears to have been there for a very long time.

(I moved to the area in 1994)
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Post by Edric Floyd »

krogerclerk wrote:I've been in the last Big Star in Manchester several times as a child, when my family would camp at FDR State Park. I know the store became an A&P after 1992, but I'm not sure when it closed. I would have expected Food Lion(or Harvey's) to have built in Manchester by now and possibly Ingles' which has locations as close as Barnesville and Hogansville.

Of course Meriwether Co is midway between Atlanta and Columbus and is now becoming an exurb of the two, with Manchester becoming Columbus oriented while northern Meriwether is more Atlanta oriented(and LaGrange and Newnan as well).

Big Star had several stores in towns that had little or no competition, Manchester, Montezuma, and Dahlonega come to mind. The Flint River Plaza in Montezuma flooded doing severe damage to the Big Star and A&P extensively remodeled the store afterwards to much applaud, but I think Harvey's has since opened. I'm not sure when Manchester and Montezuma BigStar/ A&P closed but Dahlonega survived until the Atlanta division of A&P closed and is now an independent, with a Wal-Mart SuperCenter as the only other grocer in town. While the Manchester store was still in business a Giant Food operated in town and is probably the tenant of the former Big Star/A&P.
You just answered a long standing question about the ONLY supermarket in the town of Montezuma. It is a Harvey's market and it really is a small store. There was a CVS Pharmacy next door (possibly a former Revco before CVS bought them) and that moved into a free standing store across the street. The drug store next to the Harvey's has been vacant ever since. There is also a Family Dollar store in the shopping center.

Here are photos (edited into post 09/22/06)

They are currently doing renovations of the store. Including walling in some windows and new doors.
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Most of the city of Montezuma was flooded in 1994 but the area recovered very nicely. But I have to say that the town's only supermarket really looks worn. I have not been inside the Harveys but the exterior reminded me of a small Winn Dixie. But I never asked if they operated there. Knowing it was an A&P makes sense.

There is a much older supermarket building closer to Downtown Montezuma that was long closed and looked like it could have been a Colonial.

At train tracks on the edge of Downtown Montezuma. Now a NAPA auto parts & hardware store. It recently opened as a NAPA store.

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Last edited by Edric Floyd on 22 Sep 2006 17:50, edited 2 times in total.
krogerclerk
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Post by krogerclerk »

I'm pretty sure Montezuma had a Colonial until the 70's or 80's, most Georgia towns of 3000 or more did at one point during their peak. I believe Manchester had an A&P that had closed in the early 70's, a small pre-Centenniel supermarket. A&P had the second largest number of stores in Georgia during the 1960's-early-70's, but had some odd gaps in marketing.
For instance, Dalton and Calhoun had A&P in the pre-World War II era, but they did not survive the transition to supermarkets. Rome had 2 cetennial stores and Cartersville had a centennial store that survived into the 1970's.
Chattanooga, TN had 3 A&P stores to survive until 1972, but they were not centennial stores.

I recently learned Colonial had been as far west as Birmingham, AL in the 1960's. I knew Colonial had locations in Gadsden, Phenix City and Dothan and I think Lanett and presumed they were the western fringe of the Atlanta division. It leaves the possibility of Anniston, Auburn, Opelika, Talladega, Sylacauga, Eufala and several other towns near the Georgia border. Oddly, Big Star was the dominant grocer in Gainesville, GA when A&P acquired the Atlanta division from Grand Union. A&P held onto market leadership until the late 90's and closed with the division in 1999.
Griffin, GA is the first Big Star store in Georgia, replacing the Rogers banner. A Colonial/Big Star survived there until the mid-80's.
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Post by Edric Floyd »

I added photos of the locations discussed in this thread. I'll add more when I can find them. I know I have photos of the stores in Ft. Valley and Manchester. I was in Montezuma today.

Gas prices aside, it's kinda fun working all over the state allowing me to take these photos.
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

Edric Floyd wrote:Gas prices aside, it's kinda fun working all over the state allowing me to take these photos.
I know what you mean. I've done a boatload of property inspections in my day. Need anyone in Virginia? :)
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