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What grocery store was this? (Modesto)

Posted: 20 Apr 2022 11:49
by retail_person_247
The building reminds me of Penn Fruit but I'm not sure if they even had any locations in California

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1110+ ... 21.0028027

Re: What grocery store was this? (Modesto)

Posted: 20 Apr 2022 17:50
by Groceteria
Lucky Stores, historically one of the largest chains in California. Penn Fruit never operated outside a few Mid-Atlantic/East Coast states.

Just FYI, Modesto is one of about 200 cities that is featured here on the site:

https://www.groceteria.com/place/califo ... d-turlock/

Lucky Stores:

https://www.groceteria.com/store/regional-chains/lucky/

Re: What grocery store was this? (Modesto)

Posted: 07 May 2022 13:33
by Jason B.
How extensive was Lucky's territory in California's Central Valley? Did Lucky exit the Central Valley market before its 1999 "merger" with Albertson's? If the Central Valley "Lucky" stored were re-branded "Albertson's" in 1999 and, if so, if any of those store locations were acquired by Save Mart circa 2006 (or was the 2006 Save Mart acquisition of Albertson's stores just limited to the San Francisco Bay Area?).

The Modesto 1217-10th St. Lucky store is reminiscent of the northern Berkeley-Shattuck Ave. Lucky store. See: https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=54bd1fdc ... orm=S00027

I wonder if the 1217-10th St. Modesto Lucky store also once had a tall pylon sign, which subsequently has been cut down?

Re: What grocery store was this? (Modesto)

Posted: 07 May 2022 21:07
by Groceteria
The Stockton and Modesto lucky stores were sold to Save Mart in the early 1990s IIRC and were thus unaffected by the merger; they were already operating as Save Mart (or S-Mart in Stockton due to a pre-existing Save-Mart chain there) long before 1999. Lucky also operated briefly in Fresno in the early 1960s. Save Mart purchased Albertsons locations in other parts NorCal (notably Sacramento) in 2006 but these stores were branded at Save Mart rather than Lucky.

The pylon sign with three square openings was common among Lucky locations in the 1950s. The three squares reportedly referred to “three square meals.“

Re: What grocery store was this? (Modesto)

Posted: 08 May 2022 03:06
by storewanderer
Lucky got all the way down to Madera before selling the central valley to Save Mart in 1997.

Lucky "kept" stores in Tracy (may have been under construction), Sonora, and Lodi (was also a recent expansion) in 1997.

Albertsons had a somewhat scattered but odd central valley presence from the mid 90's to the late 90's. They had nothing in Stockton or Modesto. NorCal Albertsons closed in Turlock in 2004 (80's Albertsons store). The NorCal Albertsons division at the time of sale to Save Mart had original Albertsons stores in Fresno (90's stores) Visalia (this was actually NorCal's newest store at the time of sale to Save Mart but it replaced an old unremodeled 80's store in the same lot also believe that is photographed on this site), Jackson (I think this was an 80's store expanded in the mid 90's to seem like a mid 90's store but maybe it was actually built in the mid 90's), and one other city I do not recall but it was a mid 90's new build store Save Mart did not convert. The SoCal Albertsons division at the time of sale to Supervalu had a store in Hanford and Porterville ( both Monte Mart).

Save Mart got some Albertsons stores in the central valley in the 80's. The unit on Wilson Way in Stockton is photographed on this site somewhere. Also the unit on Quail Lakes in Stockton is actually a former Albertsons they got at the same time.