20 Famous Grocery Stores From The 1970s, That No Longer Exist!

20 Famous Grocery Stores From The 1970s, That No Longer Exist!
Explore the nostalgia of the 1970s with our latest video showcasing 20 famous grocery stores that have disappeared over time. Join us as we take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about these iconic chains that are no longer around today.

[@quiltr141]

A&P - love the smell of fresh ground 8 o’clock coffee. I was too young to drink coffee but loved the ground coffee smell.

[@Femur15]

Wasn’t 8 o’clock coffee their staple?

[@quiltr141]

@ - it was.

[@Femur15]

@@quiltr141 it’s in the Bunn as we speak. Best coffee there is.

[@quiltr141]

@@Femur15 - absolutely the best coffee.

[@dariandavis7228]

A simpler time A better time

[@REPAIRANDSUPPORT]

I miss the simpler times, too. Now, I have a phone ringing, beeping and chirping at me all day long with things for me to do.

[@janelinley3624]

Loved A&P❤

[@fanaticat1]

Me, too!

[@juanitataylor6947]

Saw dust floor as kid with grand parents

[@luisreyes1963]

Wished I worked at A&P when I was younger.

[@lindacurtis3513]

Shopped A&P in Fayetteville, NC in '70's

[@fanaticat1]

@@lindacurtis3513 I used to go to the one in Cliffwood NJ and the one in Holmdel NJ

[@BobHolepit]

I remember the A&P in Morgantown' W V. Mom and Dad shopped there when I was a kid. Wonderful memories Can still smell the coffee grinder. What a wonderful time that was ❤️

[@fanaticat1]

I miss Path-Mark supermarkets

[@gregpetridis3762]

That was my first job!

[@robertlubel734]

i shopped at Alpha Beta back in the 1960's, also food for less too. Other stores i shopped at that no longer exist are MayFair, Hughes and Smiths food king.

[@Jiltedin2007]

Before Smith's was Food King, they were Food Giant back in the Early 70's. I don't know if you remembered the old Food Giant.

[@starmnsixty1209]

​@@Jiltedin2007sure they were the same company. Sometimes, they can be confusingly close in name yet not be connected.

[@kylebritt1225]

Worked at A&P and Colonial Store while in high school & college during the late 60's and early 70's. Hard work but rewarding. I still miss the smell of fresh ground coffee and service from real butchers. (That was when you carried the customer's groceries to their cars so shopping carts (buggies) weren't an issue in the parking lots.)

[@Debra-e4k]

I remember shopping at Winn Dixie when I got older, loved the staff and groceries

[@jeffking4176]

Plenty of WINN✔️DIXIE stores here in Florida. 🙂

[@starmnsixty1209]

​@@jeffking4176must be a very regional bunch now. They've been gone here over 20 years now 👍👍👍 Let's not try to be a know it all, shall we?

[@starmnsixty1209]

​@@jeffking4176👎

[@alfonsoalfonso647]

You forgot GRAND UNION Supermarket. They sold Funk & Wagnals Encyclopedias, and had a fun Horse Racing game for customers. It was the anchor store, in a strip shopping center by my house. Staff was always friendly. Miss the place.

[@jeffking4176]

He left out a number of good chain Grocery stores.😐

[@icosthop9998]

​@@jeffking4176 yes

[@ProfessorGamez]

Ah...Grand Union 😊

[@jaybobred6552]

There's an Eagle Country Market in Dubuque, Ia. When the company went belly-up in 03, a company bought the rights to the name and kept this store going. Shopping this store is an enjoyable walk down memory lane.

[@pamelamays4186]

There was a Big Bear supermarket here in San Diego, California.

[@helenabrus191]

Thanks for the memories; remember the Alpha Beta and Lucky stores in Long Beach, CA which were my go-to stores back in the early 80s.

[@houseofno]

I miss A & P, Winn-Dixie, K & B, Eckerd's, TG & Y, Sears and Leonard Krower, National Canal Villere.

[@Jiltedin2007]

I loved Lucky Supermarkets most when I was raised in Montebello. I'll never forget the Lucky's in Montebello on Wilcox Avenue and Via Campo, right off the Pomona Freeway(CA-60).

[@petuniasevan]

When we moved to Northern California in 1979 my mother took to Lucky's Supermarket right away. She shopped there until she moved away.

[@Jiltedin2007]

@@petuniasevan Lucky was bought out by Albertson’s in 2000 here in Los Angeles. Albertson’s is now a part of Vons Supermarkets.

[@petuniasevan]

@@Jiltedin2007 Yeah, the supermarket conglomerates keep growing. I have lived in Wisconsin for about 30 years. I saw the Copps family sell their venerable chain of grocery stores to Roundy's back in 2001 or so, then Roundy's sold to Kroger (large ohio valley/midwest/southern grocery chain, the biggest in the USA) nine years ago.

[@Jiltedin2007]

@@petuniasevan We have Kroger here in Los Angeles, but they’re called Ralph’s, we also have another division of Kroger here called Food for Less Supermarkets.

[@petuniasevan]

@@Jiltedin2007 I remember both of those; Kroger now has their tentacles in every region!

[@lindaschubert8439]

I remember shopping at Thorofare Supermarkets when I was growing up. Was about the only store my family went to. They permanently closed in 1982. Sure do miss that store!

[@davidbaise5137]

When Pathmark opened in Jersey it was a big deal. Also Shop-Rite.

[@Jiltedin2007]

Five now forgotten Supermarkets in Los Angeles not mentioned are: 1. Boy's Market 2. Crawford's 3. Food Giant 4. Hughes 5. Mayfair

[@Brianscoronet]

There was a Mayfair market in Salem Oregon in the 60's, also a Piggly Wiggly.

[@Jiltedin2007]

@@Brianscoronet I remembered a Mayfair in Montebello, California, where I grew up, in the 70’s and one more in Hollywood in the 90’s. But that’s the extent of it for me.

[@Jiltedin2007]

@@Brianscoronet I remembered a Mayfair in Montebello, California, where I grew up, in the 70’s and one more in Hollywood in the 90’s. But that’s the extent of it for me.

[@reedberry]

Don't forget Market Basket

[@Jiltedin2007]

@@reedberry Like the one in Montebello on Whittier and Montebello Blvds.? In 1983, it became Ralph’s Supermarket.

[@NijimaSan]

My first job out of high school was a bag boy at Alpha Beta back in ‘89. I have very fond memories of going to Gemco with my parents when I was a small boy. My mother lamented Gemco’s demise for many years after it went away.

[@Abandoned1673]

I miss A&P Grocery Store from my childhood

[@reedberry]

Grocery store fun fact: While actress Suzanne Somers was laughing it up with her two roommates in the classic sitcom "Three's Company," her husband, Alan Hamel, was doing TV commercials for Alpha Beta. Actress and TV personality Stephanie Edwards, known for hosting Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade on television for nearly 40 years, did TV commercials for Lucky.

[@lee120458]

There are two Big Bears stores still in Atlanta, GA .

[@Hodaggium]

Red Owl fun fact, there's still one store calling itself Red Owl in Green Bay.

[@frankwafer6919]

🙂Thank you for this gem of our wonderful past!💯💜💙🖤💥👍🤍!

[@bgibson135]

I was too young, or don't remember shopping in an A&P grocery, but there was a certain style of building that I still recognize as being a former A&P.

[@Katclem47]

Our A & P became a Super Fresh, which then became an Acme.

[@Bro-w7k]

Miss the old days.

[@stevendaniel8126]

My mother was a cashier at the A&P in Sanford, Maine when she met my father, who was on leave from the navy during WW II - 1943.

[@viggycat8592]

A&P had the BEST chocolate chip cookies from the bakery!

[@davidyoung8521]

Worked at a mom and pop chain of one in the mid 1970s. The pressure from the big chains was evident. It survived into the late 80s mostly because it was the only store for fifteen miles

[@careygrant493]

Kroger bought them all.

[@Loydstardeli2017]

Really,

[@itsjustme7487]

The closest Kroger to me is nearly 200 miles away there used to be several in my hometown.

[@icosthop9998]

What is WalMart doing that is so GREAT ❔️ I like the vintage cars being shown. 😊 👍

[@donaldjones5712]

The government needs to stop this merger between Kroger and Albertsons!

[@CatrinaDennison]

Didn't know that

[@VintageVermilion]

I remember my mom shopping Safeway, Del Falco’s, MayFair and Big Bear here in San Diego. Nowadays everything is basically under one or two conglomerates.

[@kellykaufman8459]

As a child, I remember Red Owl in the Denver area, then, moving to Southern California, I became familiar with Alpha Beta. Moving north to Santa Cruz, I was last in an Alpha Beta store in Capitola, CA, in August, 1986.

[@pip12111]

Pantry Pride. North Florida. Loved the Mississippi Muds

[@bgibson135]

We lived in Swansboro, NC but either every week or at least every two weeks we would drive about 16 miles into Jacksonville, NC to shop at the Colonial Store, and also at the Roses or Sears stores in New River Shopping Center. At some point the Colonial Store started giving Gold Bond Stamps with your purchases. You got more stamps with larger purchases. You collected these stamps in little booklets, like S&H Green Stamps, and when you had filled a book or more, you would go to a redemption center to redeem them for some item... like a lawn mower, or a portable radio. I think our redemption center might have been in New Bern, NC. You could also buy a volume of the Golden Book Encyclopedia (a children's encyclopedia with a lot of colorful pictures). I don't recall if they added the next volume, every week, or monthly, but there were 16 volumes in the set (and 5 or 6 Atlases, which we didn't get to buy). The covers of these encyclopedias were iconic. At one time they also offered a piece of a Golden Wheat Pattern (dinner ware). One week might be a cup & saucer, the next would be a dinner plate, and the next week a salad plate or a soup bowl. And at some point you could order the special pieces like the sugar bowl, creamer and/or the gravy bowl. And finally, Rick Tash, a TV personality from a Wilmington, NC TV station came up one Saturday and this was a special event. I think I got a free balsa wood toy airplane that you would put together. It had a rubber band powered propeller. *Surprisingly to me, we still have a couple of Roses Department Stores in Fayetteville, NC. How have they survived?

[@DaveB4529]

Red Owl still survives in Green Bay, WI as Mason Bros Red Owl on 9th St. - a charming & nostalgic neighborhood. I recall sitting in the kiddie seat in the cart as my mom navigated a 2 aisle IGA around '69 or '70 (at 3 or 4 years old), begging for a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's syrup because I thought the bottle was cool...she told me "No - too expensive" but the yellow screw-on cap was stamped '99C' with that purple ink...

[@chrismayer3919]

I remember back in the 80s going to ABCO for groceries. When they died, I switched over to Safeway.

[@REPAIRANDSUPPORT]

Waldbaum's was here on Long Island. There was, albeit briefly, Edwards as well. Krasdale morphed into CTown, here. PathMark reopened one store in Brooklyn. It was supposed to expand under owners who had worked for the original company, but it never did. At 60, there are almost no stores left that were around when I was a kid. It's like my whole world went away.

[@bgibson135]

In Fayetteville, NC we had a couple of Krogers, which I think left our area around 2000 and also a BILO ( HQ Greenville, NC) which also left in the early 10s. The BILO had a great "green grocer" section and that is where I first realized that the quality of different vegetables was cyclical (both within a single season, and from year to year). You might be able to buy large avocados one season cheaply, and next year they were all small and more expensive. I do remember buying 12 limes for $1 at another grocer one year.

[@armandisip2287]

I remember FINAST (FIrst NAtional STores) supermarkets in Nassau County, NY. They had a conveyor belt that brought your groceries to the curbside so you could load them into the car!

[@REPAIRANDSUPPORT]

I remember that conveyor belt at a supermarket about 1968. I think it was in East Meadow.

[@gobbsmacked9777]

Lucky! The best.

[@vicordecastro2851]

_ 1st grocery I went to & got 2 bags of groceries, paper bags, with only 10 dollars in hand - what can you get for 10$s now, a dozen eggs, some bananas & expiring loaf of bread if you're lucky ?!?

[@samiam2180]

I miss the old deli's with wooden floors and pickle barrels. There, they wrapped your deli food in white paper, taped with masking tape and marked the price with a black crayon pencil❤

[@donovanlong648]

I live in Alabama, does anyone remember Bruno's, they were a huge sponsor of Major Golf Tournaments, also as a young man I worked for Win Dixie, they just got bought out by Aldi, so sad...

[@stephaniewalker8561]

@@donovanlong648 thank u I didn't know Winn Dixie got bought by Aldi loved winn Dixie

[@icosthop9998]

I like the vintage cars being shown. 😊 👍

[@barbarajohnson83]

I have lived in MI my entire life and the only store on this list we had was A &P. We had Farmer Jack, Chathams, Kroger, Meijer, Pack N Save, and Great Scott.

[@debbiehalwas2551]

Hey Tim it looks my comment about this video got deleted. I am unsure why as I have been a long time follower and subcriber. any way my comment was I LOVED this video about cruising and look forward to when you and Miss T go and share that content. I am from Alberta Canada and have never gone on a cruise so it should be very exciting.

[@kathyr2792]

I think you're commenting about a different video. This one is about supermarket chains that are no longer in existence.

[@petuniasevan]

3:14 Alpha Beta. My mother shopped there, at the one on Vincent Avenue in Covina CA in the 60s and 70s. I went with her often enough to remember a lot of details... and the 12-cent candy bars! I was in an Alpha Beta in 1977 when the news was announced over the PA system that Elvis had died.

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

Burger Chef, Boston Road, Springfield, MA, great food!

[@LeRoi715]

in Canada also A&P was there .Loved.

[@nancydaley9646]

My father had an A&P in the 1930s in Hartford Ct. He had a store cat named Minnie (the Moocher). He watched the 1936 hurricane come through and blow out storefronts.

[@rogertemple7193]

Here in Oklahoma where i live it would be defunct grocery stores such as Foodland, Foodway and Bestyet Thanks for the Memories.🇺🇲🏪🇺🇲

[@jefffuller9918]

I have 3 shop rites, 2 Stop and Shop, and 1 Acme, which isn't close. Wow what choices.

[@hanschristianbrando5588]

Lucky aka Food Basket always had the best selection and the best prices, and was usually the most fun to go to. Big Bear was a rip-off, but I miss it anyway. Also Alpha Beta, whose prices were okay. What I really miss, though, is the row of ten check stands that would all be going except one; now it's the exact opposite. And the meat packaging machine where you'd see it get wrapped in cellophane and the sticker put on. Grocery shopping was civilized in those days.

[@2pugman]

You forget to showcase the American Stores, later known as ACME Markets. My father ran three stores over time and finished in a "huge" store with six registers ! My brother and I grew up running thru the store on Sunday's when my parents were there doing paperwork. At that time, the manager did everything. No bookkeeper or an asst mgr. In the late 1940's and thru the 1950's, the cashier removed all the items and placed them on the counter to be rung up. The customer did not have to do anything.

[@luisreyes1963]

I remember shopping with my parents at Omni many years ago in Chicago.

[@Starphot]

I remember Furr's as my neighborhood store and then also a cafeteria chain with the same logo. Wise stores with the owl left Colorado in the late 1960's but I spotted one in New Mexico on trips in the 1990s. We had a Miller's with the rectangular building with a domed top. These buildings lasted another 20 years in places as other businesses used those buildings after they closed. Skaggs was a drug store with dry goods, some office stuff and toys. Skaggs closed here in Denver in the 1990s. You may add Safeway to the list later as if the deal with Kroger goes through, 89 Safeway and 2 Albertson's stores will close due to divestment in Colorado.

[@marin.cmoreno7028]

There there were a lot of people that put their kids to school through A&P supermarkets and other supermarkets to in the 60s and the 70s

[@dcasper8514]

I guess it was in the front door & out the back door.

[@hxycdsa576]

You can add spartan and farmer jack grocery stores.

[@deborahasher176]

I miss the A&P Spanish Bar cake. It was the best.

[@ernestclements7398]

And now we are seeing stores such as Jewel / Osco Operated by Albertsons/ Safeway. And Marianne Operated by Kroger/ Roundys being bought by Piggly Wiggly. Kroger will still be around, ( my nieces husband is an executive with their Fresh Thyme division) just not in Northern Illinois.

[@billysmith5721]

GRAND UNION

[@WilliamARandolphJr-sk7dl]

when I was growing up I would go with my late mom shopping between A&P, Safeway & Colioal stores BUT what was NOT said was the supermarket chain of Urkop's or Sigel's

[@kimkelly5512]

I remember Alpha Beta, Lucky market. Boy's market. And so many others.

[@JoeKasino1947]

What's going up will come down. Just a matter of time. During the " old days " , we used shop at these groceries in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, A&P , Red Owl , National and Kohl's. 😎 🇮🇹🇺🇸 🦌

[@MaureenDeVries-wd9mh]

Red Owl? Does anyone in the Twin Cities remember?

[@katsiduzynski488]

Yes the Red Owl on Grand Avenue ended up being managed by Jim Kowalski and his wife, they made the Red Owl's into Kowalski's high end markets with all kinds of Kowalski's labeled foods - among them -- Taco sauces, Chocolate bars, wine and bakery that was fabulous and a beef line at the butcher counter.

[@michaelmartin2276]

Notice how each of these were popular and neighborhood favorites ? They all seem to have been part of the same company at some point in their history.

[@kali3665]

I miss Market Basket. They had good food and good service. Pity.

[@thomassharp2719]

I hope your not talking about the one in Del Paso Heights in Sacramento California ? That place was a dump !!

[@kali3665]

@@thomassharp2719 No, mine was closer. North Hollywood, California. THAT was a good one.

[@samiam2180]

A&P, Acme, Pathmark IGA, SuperFresh and my town's little store, Stewarts🎈😪💙

[@johntracy72]

Austin had 3 Skaggs Alpha Beta stores until 1989 when Albertsons bought them. I worked at the south Austin location across from Crockett High School.

[@KyleSmith-d3u]

There are a few Lucky stores in the San Franscisco area

[@thomassharp2719]

The new Lucky Stores is owned by the Save Mart Corporation.

[@CDRivera2010]

Alpha Bata didn't go of business till 1984 in Cal I remember shopping at the store in Pacific Grove Ca it was turned into a Albertsons

[@cantgetright6508]

Piggly Wiggly still alive and well here in Louisiana

[@bgibson135]

We still have Piggly Wiggly and IGA, which are very similar. I would call them "country" grocers.

[@johntracy72]

I remember a Jitney Jungle in Laurel, Mississippi.

[@msmegs93]

Bohacks in Brooklyn, NY- the 1970's

[@stephaniewalker8561]

What u don't hear about is winn Dixie grocery store

[@lilliansomer9517]

Atlanta had a lot of Winn Dixie stores when I moved here in 1962. The last time I saw one was in Panama City.

[@stephaniewalker8561]

@@lilliansomer9517 there was one in Georgia when I left in 1990 I shopped there all the time miss that store

[@pepawg2281]

This was back in the days when you had your bunch of bananas weighed by the produce clerk who marked the price on it with a grease pencil!

[@MrBencher446]

I used to shop at A&P, IGA and Dexter Davidson.

[@gurujr]

A&P put my dad's mom and pop grocery store out of business. Whatever goes around comes around.

[@deniselittles4160]

OMG I remember the A and P and the piggy vwiggy

[@jeffreybaker100]

In Western NY there were 3 Supermarkets that were big Bells, Super Duper, and Park Edge

[@dcasper8514]

Never heard of any of them.

[@jeffreybaker100]

​@@dcasper8514those Supermarkets were in the Buffalo area

[@Loydstardeli2017]

❤farmer jacks potatoes salids,& barbeque ribs

[@Loydstardeli2017]

Kroger is a small grocery store compare to meijer& walmart & sam club& costco etc etc

[@Packard1947]

I remember seeing Vincent Price at Alfa Beta supermarket. 😊

[@dcasper8514]

I wonder what he might have been hawking ?

[@loriparks8657]

A & P and standards grocery store chain

[@vickiemitchell9188]

What about Food World?

[@thomassharp2719]

Purity Market and Farmers Markets were great stores.

[@greenjayltd736]

Who remembers Finest grocery store.

[@chrismayer3919]

Fazios- isn’t that where Kermit the Frog shops at? 🐸

[@nobull4414]

Forgot Thriftymart from southern California. Anyone remember the jingle?

[@donpippin3173]

Worked for Thriftimart for 10 years in the 70s 80s

[@nobull4414]

@@donpippin3173In the late 60's, my mom took my brother and me shopping at Thriftymart on Bellflower Blvd in Long Beach.

[@rhondajones8094]

We haveFood Fair still in this area in Ohio and West Virginia

[@mr.shortyduwop]

Well here in whiteville NC. and there are a few more North Carolinas towns still a have a Hills grocery store but not many left just a few sprinkle here and there as of October 20th 2024.

[@karenchilders2449]

There were Big Bears in Huntington, WV.

[@deanegger2396]

Thirftway, Fred Meyer, before Kroger takeover, Kienow’s, Tradewell, plus all of the Mom and Pop grocery stores in the different communities. I miss them. Customer service was always courteous and helpful. I refuse to shop Walmart, Target, any store affiliated with Kroger including Freddy’s. It’s nothing more than a monopoly for groceries now.

[@jimhoward4749]

i grew up in La mesa Ca, we had a safeway store 3blocks from my house my mom would send me to pick up half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread she would give me a dollar and i would come home with change....who remembers those days

[@dcasper8514]

WOW !!!, that has to be a long time ago.

[@jamesbosworth4191]

Safeway does indeed still exist. In fact, in much of Northern Cal, they are just about the only one.

[@johnetheridge5833]

In my neighborhood grocery stores are called deli’s and bodega’s

[@jeffking4176]

TRI CITY GROCERS. [St.Louis Missouri area] Also: BETTENDORF’S [ bought out by SCHNUCKS].

[@ronaldraymond461]

They forgot Grand Union

[@JamesRayJr-k8o]

What ever happened to the In and Out stores? Please reply 😊😊

[@HotRod12667]

Hughes, Market Basket, Vons.

[@Shakespearelover1717]

I remember a Hills as a variety store. Was this a separate business?

[@monmixer]

Had them all in Southeast Ohio. Hill's, Big Wheel, Big Bear, A&P, Harts which was bought by Big Bear in the 80's. Then they built the Ohio Valley mal and not long after that, maybe 6 years a Wal-Mart was built. Killed them all with in a 30 mile radius.

[@karenchilders2449]

Food Fair in Barboursville, WV.