And those stores had cashiers at just about every checkout lane! Now you’re lucky if, out of 20 lanes, 3 are open ☹️

A part of A&P still lives on. Eight O’Clock Coffee can be found in grocery stores to this very day.

I always feel a sense of sadness about the loss of these old stores, and the people who lost their jobs. A lot of these places offered good paying jobs with all the opportunity you could want for advancement. I started with Winn-Dixie at the age of 19 and had a backroom management position within 6 months. It was not like store manager or assistant, but it was a big jump in a short time. WD is still around but most grocery stores don't pay too good now because of having to compete with big box stores. I was making about a dollar less per hour in 1988 than what good paying supermarkets start you out at now, and that money would be a whole lot more now with inflation accounted for. You could live off your wages.

I'll write it again: it's virtually impossible not to enjoy the RR videos. Thanks for the memories (for some) and for the history for all!

The last remnant of A&P is Eight o'clock coffee which is headquartered in Landover, MD. I remember as a kid my mother buying it in bags of whole beans and getting it ground in store.

I miss A & P. It is where my mother did most of her grocery shopping.

I have fond memories of shopping with my mother at our neighborhood A&P Store in the 1940's. We would always go early in the morning; I hadn't yet started going to school. I remember the smell of 8 O'clock coffee as we walked into the front door. There was a Woolworth's store next door to the A&P, and my mother would buy oil cloth there to use as kitchen table cloths. There was also a National Tea store in our neighborhood, but my mother preferred A&P. Even as a young child, I noticed the National Tea store was poorly lit and never seemed to have good fruits and vegetables, while the A&P was brightly lit, and it was fun to shop there. I grew up in Milwaukee, and remember when Kohl's was only a grocery store. However, Kohl's was only located outside of the city in areas which soon would become suburbs. It seemed so odd when Kohl's began opening stores that sold clothing. I could never get it out of my head that they were a grocery store and never shopped in their clothing stores when I was older and on my own.

A&P was the only one of those I remember. Also, their store brand was named Ann Page. A&P used to carry these deals where you can get an entire set of encyclopedias when you shopped there. Green Stamps. They would have a different volume each week or so until the set was accumulated. I have an old set of 1959 Golden Book encyclopedias for kids and that is where they initially came from.

The first Kohl's food store they show was our neighborhood store my Mom shopped at in the 1970's. We also walked through the parking lot on the way to both junior high and high school. How awesome to see my old neighborhood on the channel.

So many of those stores I never heard of. Pretty interesting hearing of Kohls starting out as a grocery store.

I miss our local A & P. As a little kid in the 80s, I remember befriending some of the workers there - Jack worked in the freezer aisle (he also lived down the street from us), Darla worked in health & beauty aids, and Donna worked checkout. Funny how I still remember these details 30+ years later. 🙄🙂😄

In the 70s in Colorado Springs i remember Skaggs and Albertsons and Shakey's Pizza. My earliest memory of a grocery store was A&P in the 1960s. I remember the cash registers and S&H Green Stamps.

2:47 I grew up near an Alpha Beta supermarket (it was on Vincent Ave. in Covina CA). Mom shopped there on a regular basis. I remember being annoyed when they raised the cost of a candy bar from a dime to twelve cents. I can still clearly see that place in my mind's eye, even though we moved away in 1979 when I was in high school.

I live in Detroit,Michigan. I remember,when Detroit had 6 supermarket chain stores. They were: 1. A&P 2. Chatham Complete Food Centers 3. Farmer Jack Supermarkets 4. Great Scott!Supermarkets 5. Kroger 6. Wrigley's Supermarkets

My dad was manager of A&P, here in Canada. Brings back many memories of being in the store on Sundays. Back when stores didn't open on Sundays.

Service was better back when the owner of the store might actually visit the stores. Things have really gone downhill since investment groups bought everything.

If your over 70 you probably remember when you went to the corner grocery store with a paper list that you gave to the clerk. The clerk would pick items off the shelves behind him and put the goods in a paper bag. Average bag of groceries. $5. Supermarkets were very few even in the big city.

I was raised in San Jose, CA. in the 50's. There was a grocery store right across the street from where we lived called "Dick's Super Market". It was owned by Dick Yee and his family. They opened it in 1948 and was one of the biggest new Markets around. It was always busy ! I moved away from San Jose in 1964. I googled the store recently and saw that it was a dilapidated structure waiting to be torn down. Competition eventually killed off the rest of their stores and the last one closed in 2001. It really sort of broke my heart. I remember as a 9 year old going to the store with my older sister so we could go to their fountain which was in the front of the store. We would order a hamburger and a cherry coke ! So many memories of my youth . We knew the family that owned the store and they knew us. You don't have that anymore .

What I remember about a&p was smell ground coffee when you went in! They specialized in 8 o'clock coffee! Coffee grinders at the checkouts ! Big mistake they made in my hometown was they moved from the old downtown out to highway east of town! They alienated their customer base! There was still one pure grocery store left in town and it closed a couple of years ago! No one would ever open again as a grocery store because of the location ! I don't think anyways! I think at that end of town might stayed with it because of the convenience, but, the parent company was having financial issues ! Their competing with Meijer's ,Wal-Mart ,and Aldi's!

The research you put into these videos is amazing. Very enjoyable videos.

When I grew up in Stockton, CA, we had Alpha Beta, Lucky's, Payless Drugs, Safeway... along with Gemco, KMart and the BIG 3... Montgomery Wards, JC Penney and Sears! The good ole days, with variety and CUSTOMER SERVICE! 🤗 Now days, just merger, merger, merger... corporate greed, AMAZON and CONGLOMART! 😝

When I was a kid in Northern California, my mom did 90% of our grocery shopping at Lucky. Their store brand was Lady Lee, and we had so many Lady Lee things in the house. They gave out Blue Chip Stamps, which she preferred to Green Stamps. I used to stick the stamps in the book for her, and I remember going to the Blue Chip Stamp store with her to redeem them.

I remember A&P and Standard and Marsh in Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm 70 years old!

My mom was all in for Bi-Lo, she even had a check cashing card. I remember before UPC codes we unpacked the groceries methodically as she checked everything off the receipt.

I have never heard of any of these Grocery stores except A&P which were plentiful in my area. Ths sad part is Grocery stores are dying. Prices rising so fast many can't feed families like they could just 2 years ago. A Lb of bacon is $10 in my Grocery store.

It was like walking down memory lane seeing and hearing a good portion of these stores names! Thanks for sharing!

I lived in Alhambra Ca in 1979. I shopped at Alpha Beta. I loved that grocery store. It carried a wide array of brands. The employees were friendly and helpful. Thanks for sharing.

I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We had a couple of the Kohls grocery stores in the 80’s. Then, they closed. We had Austin’s, Sure-Way, Cub Foods that all went out of business. We have two Piggly Wiggly stores that are family owned. A Copps and Pick N Save that is part of Kroger. Festival Foods has been expanding throughout the state. They started in southern WI. Sad to see all the other stores close.

As much as I like this channel's content, I love the comment section more❤!! Thanks everyone who takes time to share memories, they are so precious in these copy-and-paste everything times...

As a baby boomer in central Illinois , I remember our small town had numerous stores - A&P , Grab It , Kroger , Jewel-Osco , Piggly-Wiggly , IGA , Eisner , plus a few small corner stores & locally owned bakeries . ( " Chuckles " candy was made in our town 😊 ) From 40+k population to about 27k now because factories closed and then most stores soon followed .

I only knew the A&P as a child. Moved south then started shopping at Bi-Lo, their produce was fresher than every other store. Miss the Bi-Lo

Thanks R.R.😊

I was just talking with my "express shopper" the other day I said if you do not have that kind of coffee, I'll just tale 8 O'clock coffee" She was confused. I said, "you know, A&P brand coffee". She didn't have a clue. I said, "you know Atlantic and Pacific". Nope, crickets... I'm feeling really old

My grandmother shopped at the local A&P as late as the 70's before it closed.

I sense a recurring theme here. Most all of these stores were able to survive and even thrive for generations but almost none of them could survive the changing times of the 2000's . What was so different about the time after 2000 ? It should have made things more profitable with the advent of the computers but one thing that the ages before had that was lost in the 2000's.....customer service with a smile. The customer went from being the most important part of a business before 2000 to being something that the business owners could stand to lose because they had so many that they concentrated more on profit and less on customer satisfaction. And boy does it show!!!!

so many people today complain about poor service offered these days, but don't take into account all the facts. back in the day, working on a grocery store was a profession. people were paid a fair wage and received good training. now, people aren't paid enough to live on and training is an hour or two. store management doesn't care about staff or customers. worker's are on food stamps and welfare despite working full time. there's no incentive to work hard since a good job isn't rewarded. instead, companies have constant turnover. if people want to bring back the service of yesteryear, they also need to support worker's rights, fair pay and benefits. also, the more you support your small, local shops the better chance you have of seeing good service. the little grocery near me is twice as expensive as whole foods or Walmart, but pays workers well and gives great service, including walking groceries to your car with a genuine smile.

Alpha Beta was the first grocery store I went to, with my parents, after our family moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California in 1963. Other grocery stores that no longer exist here in San Diego are Big Bear, Lucky's (which originally was Food Basket) and Safeway. One local two store grocery chain which no exists is Wrigley's.

The Memphis pop-rock band Big Star took its name from the supermarket chain mentioned in this video. The band was not well- known when together but their music is cited by many artists as an inspiration. Their song September Gurls is a thing of beauty.

I remember Delchamps, Jitney Jungle, Bruno's & Food World well. We had them all around down south. Delchamps and Food World were our favorites.

Chatham's and Farmer Jack were missing from the list. They were both based in Michigan. There was a Chatham's not far from the house I grew up in and that is where we did most of our grocery shopping. There was also an A&P nearby. The A&P was the first to close and not long after I moved away Chatham's closed their doors as well. It was a long time before another grocer set up shop in that neighborhood.

I am so glad you started with Kohl’s! Growing up in the greater Milwaukee area, this was our favorite grocery store. The department store was right next door. I remember getting a slip of paper with a number on it from the cashier. Then we’d pull our station wagon up to the front of the grocery store and a clerk would take the claim check and load our groceries into the car.

In Western NY I remember A&P. which sat next to a Your Host Restaurant. Both were there for a long time. Then Bells and Super Duper grocery stores came in.

My dad worked at the A&P bakery in Charlotte NC in the 60's and early 70's. He made the Spanish Bars.

In the 70s and 80s my town had Alco, K-mart, Target, Sears, JcPenney, and Montgomery Wards. Then Walmart came to town. Our population has more than double since 1980. Walmart is the only department store left.

Born and raised in Greenville, SC so I'm very familiar with BI-LO. The store was always my mom's go to store. It was cleaner and smelled better than the Ingles down the road. The original BI-LO my mom shopped at for the majority of my childhood is now a Big Lots. We did move to another part of town in my teens. That BI-LO is now a gym. Definitely have fond memory of going up and down the isle with my mom back in the 90s, begging for brands I had seen while watching TV 😊 I didn't know Khol's was a grocery store in the beginning. One of the first ones we got in our neck of the woods was put in the spot where K Mart had been. We shopped there sometimes for clothes.

My grandmother and aunts shopped Mars in Dundalk, MD for decades. Once I got my own place I did the same. I thought they had good prices. My primary reason for shopping Mars was because it was a local, family owned business.

I remember going to Sparkle grocery stores with my grandma. Happy memories 😊 We also had Fazio and Apples in our neck of the woods. (Ohio) I've actually never heard of any of these except A&P. Very informative!! Thank you!! 😊

Was hoping to see mention of former Michigan based chain Farmer Jack that was bought by A&P and then closed down when the later couldn't find a buyer for the chain. Still miss them!

Kroger is still alive and kicking in the eastern U.S.! That's pretty remarkable as most grocery stores just don't hang on that long. When living in the deep south we always went to Piggly Wiggly which I LOVED! I recently was in Charleston, SC and by golly, it's still a top notch store to shop at! Love 'The Pig' :)

I have lived in the Lehigh Valley PA area the entire 56 years of my life. I remember A&P here in Bethlehem having two stores near Bethlehem Steel since the steel ran 24/7 and thousands worked there. We also had a few "Two Guys" which was my favorite for their blueberry pie and electronics dept. In Allentown, "Falks" was a great mom and pop grocery store. As others have stated, customer service is non-existant today especially in grocery stores. BTW....I miss S&H Green Stamps, the books and the fun of going to their local store and picking out radios or whatever I could buy with the saved books.

I worked for Pantry Pride, (Food Fair Stores) during the late 1960's and 70's in Baltimore, Maryland. We had over 400 stores and the chain went bankrupt in 1978. It got me through college as I worked my ass off .

My dad worked as an assistant manager for Alpha Beta when I was a little kid in Northern California. The store he worked in must have been the first one I remember. We'd go to the store and Dad would ring up and bag our groceries! I remember local chain stores in California like Gemco and Lucky's. We had a Market Basket in Whittier, California, that became a Ralph's and later a Pic N' Save, which was renamed Big Lots!. The building is still there, right next to a Grocery Outlet store. A local store I saw only in Whittier where I grew up was called King Cole Market. It was on the west side of town and was built in the 1950s, so it was a bit beat up by the '80s. I remember it always smelled like rotten fish in there and the king mascot looked creepy.

I remember Fairway Markets, Table Supply, Good Deal, Path Mark, Goodings, Giant Food Stores, Superfoods and Champs Markets.

My family has older friends who actually supported their families on wages from these stores back in the 60s and 70s.

I always enjoy tuning into your channel when I just want to relax and go back in time. I'm so glad you're on KZfaq. I live in Canada and I haven't heard of a lot of these food chains, it was interesting to learn about them. Safeway up here in Canada is not doing too well and was suppose to be closing their stores but so far they have closed some but still have a pretty large presence in the Province of Manitoba where I live. They are quite expensive though but they do offer a nicer shopping experience than some of our "no frills" type stores. Superstore being one of them which is Canadian owned by the Weston family. I also enjoyed seeing those gas guzzling cars no wonder people had to shop at the discount grocery stores.

I'm from Ohio and we used to have a popular grocery store called Big Bear. One of my first jobs in 1987 was at a newly built Big Bear "superstore". There weren't any Walmart's or Meijer's around in those days and grocery stores stuck mostly to selling groceries, but "superstore" just meant it was bigger. Big Bear used to give orange 'Buckeye Stamps' that you would paste in books and then you could take the books to their sister store, Hart's (a department store) and redeem them for merchandise.

I LOVE these videos so much! This particular video is so sad for me… I work for a Kroger store, called QFC. QFC has been bought out a few times, and is now a very successful chain in the PNW, it’s sad to see stores that started out strong and then went under 😔

Lot's of memories of A and P, only store in my small town as a kid,wandering around as my Mama shopped ..later working there during high school.

There are Big Stars in Farmerville, La. , Red Bay, Russellville and Florence, Al, Greenwood and Belmont Mississippi . There may be others. They are not directly connected to the original Big Star, but kept the "look" I love this channell! It takes me back to simpler times!

I remember A & P's in Pittsburgh. They were gone well before their nationwide extinction.

My childhood memories of Dominick’s stores during the late 90s early 00s was my mom getting so much groceries and at good prices & then going on Fridays to get a box of pizza either pepperoni or Italian sausage for like $5 -$7 if I remember correctly… and just walking down the aisles with my mom waiting for us to finishing paying so we could take our fresh pizza to eat at home ! Oh the memories!! ☹️😢 I shed tears when years later I moved from the town where the dominicks store was located & to come and find out it was gone years later ! And up until now, I once in a while pass by the empty building that once was such an awesome grocery store! 😢🪦💔

I have fond memories of shopping at the A&P with my father, their Spice Bar was to die for

Around 1963 I worked in the office of a meat packing facility in Georgia. We got a lot of orders from A&P. They had a very impressive letterhead at the time, like engraving on currency. "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company". Wish I had saved some of them.

In the area I grew up in, only one supermarket is still there after all these years -Shoprite. Used to love going shopping with my mom at the Pathmark (now an IPlay America),sitting in the loud metal cart then scooting off to the record and toy aisles when I got bored. We had an A&P nearby as well which also closed years ago. I can still remember the aisles,the products,most out of circulation by now or different packaging etc.. Loving the work you put into your videos,always takes me away from this world now,even if it's briefly.

The store I miss the most from my youth is Woolworth. I so enjoyed their lunch counter.

The grocery store I miss the most is Cub Foods. I remember the huge candy section with all of the candy in the clear plastic bins. Then they would hand out samples on Sundays. Good memories.

Boy do I remember Food World and Bruno’s here in Alabama. Once converted to Belle Foods it was all downhill from there. It lost its down home feel and service.

Being in S. Calif, many of those regional brands I did not know. The one that affected me the most was Alpha Beta.

I knew I wasn’t losing my mind when I told someone my mom grocery shopped at Kohl’s in the 80’s when we lived in Milwaukee. I was only 7 at the time but remembered that name! Good stuff, man. Love the vid.

Thank you for walking us down Memory Lane.

Ah, Bi-Lo. I remember when it first opened in my town in 1995. It was one of the first stores to close, probably around 2006 (I think). Funny enough, I'd work in that same building years later, after it sat empty for a decade.

Our family loved Alpha-Beta Markets and shopped there exclusively through the 80's. I remember the competition in our area was Market Basket, The Mayflower, The Boys Market and Lucky. There were tons of grocery stores through the 60's and 70's thar are long gone...

We shopped at Big Star and Piggly Wiggly growing up. We also had a Kmart Foods

A&P was the store we usually went to when I was growing up in Toledo, that was my parents favorite store. Sad to hear it's gone.

In California we had a few chains as well! One was Fry's Supermarket that eventually changed business and became an electronics company! What I got a kick out of the most about it was that they kept the sign font and the little happy grocery bag character then became a happy microchip! Haha!! There was also a localized chain called PW Supermarkets which the name came from the owner and not an abbreviation of "Piggly Wiggly" or "Pink and White"!

In the 1970’s in Fullerton, Ca. There was an Alpha Beta and within a block, on the same side of the street, would be a Lucky’s. If I remember right they were both open 24 hours a day… I’d come from Oregon where, at the time, grocery stores didn’t stay open very late & none were open 24 hours a day.

I live in SC and the first grocery store I remember is the Colonial Store. We always shopped there. It was downtown in my city. But grocery stores started being built in another busy section of town. After the Colonial Store closed years ago, the downtown area no longer has a grocery store.

Grew up in Indiana and remember Marsh grocery stores and for a while Cub Foods. Both are long gone. As I remember there was an Eavy’s superstore in Fort Wayne. It had a huge cornucopia as its marquee.

Your videos are like a time machine, should be shown at schools. They bring lots of interesting info and photo collection with a nostalgic feeling. I guess that even being before our time it remind us that nothing lasts forever. Fantastic work, thanks

I am from Greenville SC I went to the 1st BI LO store opened, with my parents when it was Called Wren Syracuse , and when it was named BI LO we went first week opened. I was 7, and later I worked at number 14 In Travelers Rest SC When I was a Teen, Was the best grocery store in SC and NC for years.

I've lived up and down the east coast and have heard of only a few of these. In New Jersey where I grew up, we shopped at Pathmark, Acme, ShopRite, Finast, and A&P.

I remember growing up in Raleigh, NC in the 70's. We had Big Star and A&P. I believe Harris Teeter showed up in the late 70's and bought out the Big Stars. I had a paper route when I was 16 and I had a paper box out side of the A&P. I always loved smelling the ground coffee at the registers as I changed out the daily papers.

I remember a good many of those stores from childhood, travels, and more recent local ones although we rarely shopped in them. A&P in WV, Colonial in Virginia, and Bi-Lo in NC to name a few. I had thought Winn Dixie was gone but it looks like they're still in FL.

I remember Alpha Beta . In our town when I was growing up they built one next to a Vons grocery store. Suzanne Summers' husband did the tv commercials for Alpha Beta

I very much miss shopping at Dominick's with my parents when I was little. We still talk highly of some of our fond memories from shopping there to this day.

Finast, Pathmark, and Waldbaums are a few other stores I remember going to.

Although only in Florida if not mistaken, I was hoping to see U-Save Grocery in the video. Started in the early 1920s as B&B grocery. I used to play the Super Mario Bros and Punch Out arcade games among others there back in the late 80s

There was an Alpha Beta in the town where I lived most of my life. They also had a restaurant called Alphys in the same parking lot. Atfer hitting the discos, we’d go there to have Heavenly Breakfast.

Thank you for all this new information. Growing up an army brat overseas I have never heard of these stores.

In Canarsie Brooklyn in the 1960's, 1970's, and the 1980's we had A&P, Associated, Bohack's, Danza's, Food Fair, Key Food, Pantry Pride, Scaturros, and Waldbaum's. Thanks, and another GREAT Video!

Such an awesome video!

I remember the days when I would actually go through a checkout counter in my local grocery. Those days are over. Everything is so expensive now that I only buy enough to go through self-checkout. I remember having my favorite cashiers, and it was a small opportunity to socialize a bit. And being able to check out the pretty ladies in the line didn't hurt. It's a different world now, and I'm not exactly sure how it happened.

We had a Big Star in my town when I was a kid in the 70s/80s. I loved that store so much. It got taken over by A&P and then almost all the smaller grocery stores here got run out of business by Walmart. I miss all the grocery stores we used to have. Big Star, A&P, Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, Bell’s, and some smaller, local grocers. They’ve ALL been chased out by the mega-chains now, so all we have left is Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Ingles, and ONE local store that’s had to close all its locations but one and is hanging on by a thread.

I remember shopping at Alpha Beta all the time back in San Diego in the 80s and 90s. They had double coupons.

Really enjoyed your video! We didn't have no skaggs near us but, remember seeing one in OKC. Never heard of any of the one's you showed but, remember Safeway, Winn Dixie and there was Piggly Wiggly in OKC. There was Safeways and Winn Dixie's near us.

So many more...Pantry Pride, Bohacks, Path Mark...

I remember going to Alfa Beta as a child growing up in Southern California.

Up in Massachusetts there was a supermarket named Angelo's. Also a supermarket Finast which stood for First National

I was born in 1956 in Milwaukee. I grew up with Kohls!

So out west here there was Safeway, Albertsons, Buttery and Skaggs, which all share some common history and have consolidated under Albertsons which is a nationwide concern. How about a history of them? And please do Gambles-Skogmo! No retail history of mid century middle America would be complete without them