....
Richmond had a few Safeway locations until the early 1990s. At least one became a Food Lion.
....
That was broader than just Richmond. They pulled out of "central Virginia" overall, including Charlottesville (which had several Safeways); I recall one of my college roommates was quite dismayed about it because he was loyal to Safeway as the chain he patronized at home in Connecticut. I distinctly remember his odd statement that he found it hard to "develop a shopping strategy" at the other Charlottesville-area grocery stores.
That is an odd statement. I only remember going to Safeway once or twice, because there were closer stores. The south side of town where we lived had a couple independent grocery stores that we frequented until they became victims of Wal-Mart building a supercenter. (As was the very briefly open “The Grocery Store”, an Aldi-like concept by Hampton Roads-based Farm Fresh.) North side of town had Food Lion, Ukrop’s, and Winn-Dixie. The Food Lion is still around, Ukrop’s is now Publix, and Winn-Dixie was a thrift store before it became an auto body shop.
There is a Safeway a few minutes' walk from our house (0.3 of a mile walking, 1.5 miles driving). I hardly ever go there because, first, I prefer Wegmans and I do most of our shopping there and, second, when I want to go to one of the grocery stores nearest to us I prefer to go to the Giant at the other end of the shopping center where Safeway is. I just plain prefer Giant to Safeway—maybe because my mom preferred Giant when I was growing up and seldom went to Safeway. My wife seems to feel the opposite, incidentally; she just went to that Safeway yesterday for her covid booster.
I remember "The Grocery Store" opening in Charlottesville in the old Safeway location at Barracks Road Shopping Center, but it didn't last very long at all and I don't remember what it became after that store closed.
The two Richmond-area Wegmans are far enough away that I never go to them unless I’m doing something else nearby and either want to get something from a grocery store at that time or am walking off a buzz.
Giant/Martin’s is another one that’s gone from Richmond. When Ahold (Giant) and Delhaize (Food Lion) merged, they closed a lot of overlapping stores and the Food Lion brand has been established in the area longer. Martin’s had entered when they bought Ukrop’s and had been around the area for maybe a decade then. About half the shuttered Martin’s stores became Publix, and the others are either still vacant or have been redeveloped into other retail.
I didn’t know Farm Fresh/The Grocery Store had ever expanded that far west. Nowadays they only have one store in Richmond (though in a very lucrative area as it’s right in the middle of Shockoe Bottom) and have been stably hovering around 3 Hampton Roads locations for years now. According to a 1988 Petersburg directory I have, they had a store in Petersburg at one point.
Friendly’s also pulled out of the area in the past few years. The most recent one to close was Chester, and that location is now a Zaxby’s.
Author
Topic: Chains Defunct in One Region Only to be Alive and Well in Others (Read 5170 times)