A fantastic night view of a Food Fair supermarket, circa 1960, when the company cracked the ¾ of a billion dollar mark in sales and had more than 400 stores. To me, this store shines for a number of reasons, including the superb signage and metalwork and the “open ‘til” digital clock. All were hallmarks of Food Fair in the late fifties and sixties (in prior years the stores featured a neon clock face on the famous grooved pylons to inform shoppers of closing time). The pseudo-stained glass above the awning tops it off to great effect.I don’t know about you, but if my local grocery store looked like this, I’d forget to buy stuff on purpose just so I'd have to make extra shopping trips!
Food Fair had the highest average volume per unit of any chain at the time and had grown explosively and by the mid-60's would be the 4th largest chain in terms of sales following A&P, Safeway, and Kroger. The chain would be a dominant player in the mid-Atlantic region from Washington to New York and in Florida, alas, only to fade as quickly as it emerged. The last Pantry Pride, remnant of Food Fair, closed in the Miami region in the early 90's, a sad end to a storied beginning.
ReplyDeleteI have never really seen a grocery store with that 60s apartment building look to it. That is really unusual. I like it!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Thanks for bringing us up to date on the fate of Food Fair. It's a shame that FF didn't find a way to thrive as Safeway and Kroger have, or at least survive like A&P.
ReplyDeleteDidi - Re the apartment bldg look, do you mean the stained glass?
Is that what that is? Stained glass? My mistake. They looked like multicolored bricks I have seen on apartment buildings from the 50s and 60s.
ReplyDeleteMost likely they were large, translucent panels coated with different colors and painted "divider lines" to give a stained glass look.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in the Chicago area, I remember many 1950's era 6-flats and 8-flats with decorative elements above the main entrance that looked like they might have used similar materials, so I think your "apartment building" analogy is pretty close!
That's exactly what I was thinking of. I should have said smaller buildings usually in the three, six or ten apartment range.
ReplyDeleteFood Fair arrived in the Washington, DC market to find the Food Fair name already in use by a local chain. Food Lane was the banner Food Fair operated under in its early years in the region. When Grand Union bought the local Food Fair chain, the Food Fairs became Grand Union and the Food Lanes became Food Fair. Food Fair didn't fare as well in the Washington-Baltimore region as it did in the New York City, Philadelphia, and South Florida markets. The primary reason was local Giant Food of Landover, MD was a pioneer in many of the same many of the areas that Food Fair had pioneered in Philly and NYC-large modern supermarkets(for the era), building its own shopping centers, and branching into other retail ventures. Giant's counterparts to Field's was Giant Department Stores and Super Giant stores combining groceries with general merchandise and clothing. Also, Giant would operate Giant Drug Store stand alone drug stores before adding instore pharmacies to its Giant Food supermarkets, Something Special gourmet food store and Pants Corral apparel stores. By 1979 Giant could also make the claim of being the first supermarket chain to have scanning in all its stores. By then Giant had overtaken Food Fair's claim to fame of the highest volume per unit of any major chain. Food Fair had changed to Pantry Pride by the mid-70's and would stay in business in the Washington-Baltimore region until the mid-80's, just after the 1982 bankruptcy of Food Fair. The company emerged from bankruptcy, and took the Pantry Pride name as the corporate name. Then came the Revlon takeover and Ron Perlman, and the remaining company was slowly dismantled with the final Pantry Pride closing in 1993 in the Miami suburb of Sunny Isles Beach.
ReplyDeleteThe "pseudo-stained glass" you mentioned are actually refered to as "clerestory (pronounced CLEAR story") windows." Very popular in that late 50s/early 60s, their presence was meant to give the illusion from the outside of an additional story (or stories) beyond what actually existed inside. Used to great affect in the mall near my boyhood home in New Brighton, Minnesota -- Apache Plaza, built in '61, razed and replaced by a Wal-Mart in '04 ... the a-holes.
ReplyDeletewww.apacheplaza.com
Drew- Thanks for pointing that out. I had mostly seen the term "clerestory" used to described a raised section of a roof with windows on two sides (like an old trolley car),but it definitely applies to the facade of this store. And it also closely resembles the great photos you referenced on the Apache Plaza site.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Up here in Philadelphia, you can still tell a lot of the Food Fair/Pantry Pride and JM Fields locations by the the raised pylons (for Food Fair) and the front facade (for JM Fields)
ReplyDeleteMike - You're probably referring to the "grooved" pylon Food Fair used in the 50's. Very distinctive, as was the JM Fields design with the curved-top panels.
ReplyDeleteThanks!