Short-living Safeways of the late 1930s: The Grocery Trade in Transition

Though refrigeration technology and retailing practice would have had impacts, it may be bigger parking lots that changed grocery stores more than anything between 1935 and 1955. The change is striking in the two stores serving the same close-in neighborhood, one opening in 1936 and the other just 15 years later in 1951.

June 19th, 1936

Successor store, just 15 years later
November 13th, 1951

In researching the Ericksons Supermarket on 12th Street, I found an old Safeway I had missed. At the corner of State and 13th, recently a pastry shop and Sassy Onion Catering, is an old Safeway (top image). The front has had a stone facade applied and new storefront system, but the corner detailing at the roof is still there.

March 7th, 1936

June 12th, 1936

The building type appears to match or closely resemble the one used a year later that is now Christo's.

May 15th, 1937

August 6th, 1937

Neither the pastry shop site nor the Christo's site had off-street parking lots. With more and more driving, customers likely began expecting this amenity. 

Within five years, these two stores were abandoned and new stores built which had small off-street parking lots, one at 14th and State (the old Capital Market) and the other at Broadway and Market (Northwest Hub). Another store, gone now but on 935 South Commercial, which had opened as a Pay n Takit in 1932, was remodeled, and may have had room for a small parking lot.

April 9th, 1942

Detail, with bicycle ("save tires"!) and new addresses

But this new template didn't last very long, either. In November of 1951 the store at 14th and State closed and the new supermarket on Center Street at 12th opened. (Second image, at top.)

Others followed. In 1952 or 53, the store at Broadway and Market closed. A car dealership took over. (So it is nice, as with Santiam Bikes, that bike shops have replaced car dealerships!)

April 17th, 1953

This period between 1950 and 1955 appears to be the genesis locally of the "supermarket." In an open letter regarding a labor dispute with Berg's Market (now Howard Street Charter School), union members listed Salem grocery stores. Erickson's and Safeway, and perhaps others, were now building on the "supermarket" template. Other markets remained small, like the Broadway Grocery (now Barrel and Keg). There is quite a mix in types and forms.

December 18th, 1953

We'll look more closely at the Center Street store of 1951 as well as the store that replaced 935 South Commercial in 1955 in the next post. Above all, they had huge parking lots.

Previously on Safeways, building a progressively more refined and detailed history:

• The first one, rather skeletal, "Safeway's Movement in Town Tells us Lots about Salem's History" (2014)
• More on Christo's, the Capital Market, and Northwest Hub old Safeway buildings, "Christo's and Capital Market: Old Safeways Still Useful, Tell Development Story" (2015)
• On Safeway and Skagg's, "History Piece on Safeway Buildings Tells more about Local Store Origins" (2021)

And other chains:

• On the Berg's Market, now Howard Street Charter School, "Veterans Hall Litigated, Abandoned Before Bergs Market at New Howard School Site" (2018)
• On Ericksons Supermarket, "At Oxford Park site Ericksons Supermarket building now home to Fitts Seafood and Santiam Wine" (2021)

And all notes, including some on old corner stores, tagged "grocery history."