This store was built in the late 70s, and if the "serving Toppenish since" sign inside is to be believed, opened as Safeway in 1986. I'm not sure what it was before that, but it definitely has a bit of an Albertsons look to it with that trapezoidal facade! That being said, I have seen some Safeways that were built with a similar look, so it's possible that this was redone at some point -- the one low-quality aerial image from before 1986 (1981 to be specific) isn't of much help.
The trapezoidal facade aside maybe, this very much looks like something Safeway would have built in the late 1970s-mid 1980s with their Super Stores here in Texas. Our stores would have had river rock walls, but maybe that wasn't done everywhere. The front parking looks very much like a Safeway thing! That is strange if this wasn't originally a Safeway, but then I suppose a lot of grocers, especially out west, were probably copying each other.
ReplyDeleteThe raised front end inside with the air vents on the fascia of the lower part blowing onto the front end looks very much like a Texas Safeway thing, but I've never seen the slanted fascia like that! Ours were, AFAIK, always at a 90 degree angle. Again, maybe this is just a case of western grocers just copying each other and maybe putting small changes into standard designs of the time. Either that or maybe Safeway significantly altered this store at some point. Maybe both are possible.