NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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Groceteria
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NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by Groceteria »

New addition: https://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/c ... /hamilton/

I've also tweaked the whole Cincinnati area a bit and will be doing more: https://www.groceteria.com/place/ohio/cincinnati/
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by BatteryMill »

On the Ohio Liquor board website, I saw two Kroger sites that weren't listed here (331 S Front, 201 B St). What's the scoop on those?
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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BatteryMill wrote: 03 Dec 2022 01:35 On the Ohio Liquor board website, I saw two Kroger sites that weren't listed here (331 S Front, 201 B St). What's the scoop on those?
No idea. There weren't listings for them in the years I surveyed. Do you have dates, maybe?
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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Groceteria wrote: 03 Dec 2022 12:42 No idea. There weren't listings for them in the years I surveyed. Do you have dates, maybe?
https://www.comapps.ohio.gov/liqr/liqr ... older.aspx

The listings (both store #337) have no date affixed to them, but for the most part said website has permits dating back to stores which closed in the early 1970s.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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A little more checking: the Front Street location was indeed a Kroger/SuperX combo that opened in 1971 and closed ca. 1974. It was repurposed into the current criminal justice building starting in 1975 (that opened in 1977). It's the rare store that opened and closed between two snapshots. Kroger did several of these "urban" stores in the 1960s/70s (there was one in my hometown) and most apparently did not succeed.

The South B Street address looks from Street View to maybe have been a 1920s/30s location if anything. It's a small corner store with housing above. The same address on North B seems to be a vacant lot that was formerly occupied by a small warehouse or factory building.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by Groceteria »

From the Journal-News (28 January 1971):
The_Journal_News_Thu__Jan_28__1971_.jpg
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by Steve Landry »

13,000 sq ft for BOTH stores??
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by rich »

Probably just a poorly re-written press release. Kroger's standard store size was 19K sf at this point. 13K sf would have been shopping space, which is how they label it, with the rest being backroom. I'm guessing it doesn't include SuperX.

Chains like Jewel and National had 20-25K sf combo stores (the Broadway Jewel in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood is an altered example of this)--the drug store part was incorporated into the super (no separate entrance like this) and very small. Basically a prescription counter and slightly expanded HBA & GM. This looks like an entirely separate SuperX, which was the norm and would have been about 10K sf.

Kroger built urban neighborhood stores somewhat randomly during the 60s, often with SuperXs next door. There's one in Cleveland that lives on as an indie. Some were huge for their time ---they had a big one in Toledo (~30K sf) whose site was later redeveloped as a Farmer Jack. They had something similar in Youngstown, which is now an empty lot.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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Groceteria wrote: 03 Dec 2022 15:09 A little more checking: the Front Street location was indeed a Kroger/SuperX combo that opened in 1971 and closed ca. 1974. It was repurposed into the current criminal justice building starting in 1975 (that opened in 1977). It's the rare store that opened and closed between two snapshots. Kroger did several of these "urban" stores in the 1960s/70s (there was one in my hometown) and most apparently did not succeed.

The South B Street address looks from Street View to maybe have been a 1920s/30s location if anything. It's a small corner store with housing above. The same address on North B seems to be a vacant lot that was formerly occupied by a small warehouse or factory building.
Thank you for the tip. On that topic, it seems that store #95 in the Toledo/Columbus division (2076 W Central Ave) also tracked as 2767 W Central Ave, yet on your spreadsheet the latter site only ever tracked as an A&P.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by Groceteria »

Not 100% sure I understand your question the way it’s phrased, but if you’re referring to the Toledo spreadsheet, there is an A&P listed at 2767 (1966-1975) and a Kroger listed at 2070 (1951-1965). Are you saying the Kroger occupied the A&P space at some point before or after? That location is a pretty much unmodified centennial A&P, and I can’t imagine Kroger taking over that building in 1975. Maybe they planned a new build there but never followed through?
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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Groceteria wrote: 05 Dec 2022 09:01 Not 100% sure I understand your question the way it’s phrased, but if you’re referring to the Toledo spreadsheet, there is an A&P listed at 2767 (1966-1975) and a Kroger listed at 2070 (1951-1965). Are you saying the Kroger occupied the A&P space at some point before or after? That location is a pretty much unmodified centennial A&P, and I can’t imagine Kroger taking over that building in 1975. Maybe they planned a new build there but never followed through?
Again, I have no evidence for Kroger operating there. Though with that and the 337s in Hamilton, I am assuming that the Kroger team may have made a liquor transaction over at the A&P site and it ended up on the record. Or perhaps it was just an error since we have two instances of stores with the same numbers and one not existing as a Kroger.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

Post by rich »

The original Kroger on Central would have been the Colony store, which was replaced by the former Big Bear nearby at 3918 Monroe. Perhaps they took over the A&P to prevent competition or because they considered it as a location to replace the Big Bear and their Westgate store (this location was midway between the two). Not long after, they built the store on Monroe near Secor, which may have been a very early greenhouse. It was the first store I ever saw with Kroger-Savon signage. It replaced Westgate and the Colony store seems to have closed shortly thereafter.

Footnote to the short duration---Kroger did this in suburban locations, too. they had very shortlived stores in Twinsburg and North Olmsted Ohio (Cleveland area) during this same period--I think both buildings still stand but are greatly altered. And back in the late 50s/early 60s, they had stores in Woodmere and Shaker Heights that quickly vanished---the Woodmere store was a long running Super Valu and then a Whole Foods. The Shaker Heights store might be the current Walgreen's. The never had much luck in the more affluent suburbs east of Cleveland.

The background info for Hamilton-Fairfield seems to be for Des Moines.
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Re: NEW: Hamilton/Fairfield OH, 1925-2020

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rich wrote: 01 Jan 2023 23:32 The original Kroger on Central would have been the Colony store, which was replaced by the former Big Bear nearby at 3918 Monroe. Perhaps they took over the A&P to prevent competition or because they considered it as a location to replace the Big Bear and their Westgate store (this location was midway between the two). Not long after, they built the store on Monroe near Secor, which may have been a very early greenhouse. It was the first store I ever saw with Kroger-Savon signage. It replaced Westgate and the Colony store seems to have closed shortly thereafter.

Footnote to the short duration---Kroger did this in suburban locations, too. they had very shortlived stores in Twinsburg and North Olmsted Ohio (Cleveland area) during this same period--I think both buildings still stand but are greatly altered. And back in the late 50s/early 60s, they had stores in Woodmere and Shaker Heights that quickly vanished---the Woodmere store was a long running Super Valu and then a Whole Foods. The Shaker Heights store might be the current Walgreen's. The never had much luck in the more affluent suburbs east of Cleveland.

The background info for Hamilton-Fairfield seems to be for Des Moines.
Actually, there were locations earlier than that if we go by Groceteria's sheets. Additionally, since locations with similar numbers have happened on the Kroger sheet I'm working on, we have speculated that it is a matter of Kroger selling a liquor license to a nearby gas station.
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