The second store Smith's food king built in the Coachella Valley was located at North Sunrise and Vista Chino on former Indian reservation land. Planning for the store began shortly after the opening of the first store located in Palm Desert. The developer was Carver Companies and it was controversial due to public officials giving themselves developmental rights in Indian owned land. At a contentious planning city council meeting in December 1975, the original permit was approved.
The store was a standard 28,500 square foot conventional store plan that was typical before Smith's great awakening in 1977. Although Smith's had started building 38,000 square foot food and drug stores, this property had been in development for a couple years with the site not lending itself to a larger store with larger parking needs. The first store manager was Jim Pancoast. The grand opening was on December 6th 1977.
The store was a big success. In 1980, this store was #7 in profitability and #8 in increased sales for the California region.
Lucky's
Lucky's operated this particular location until 1996. The year prior, Albertson's opened a 50,000 square foot store up the street at 1717 E Vista Chino, which must have put a drag on sales. The original developer of the Smith's location, Carver, picked up additional acreage north of the store to build a replacement. Carver tore down some of the east-west facing small retail to create access to the new store from the shopping center. The new Lucky's was and is a beautiful 55,000 square foot store.
When Albertson's purchased American Stores in 1999, they sold the store up the street to Stater Brothers and rebranded the Lucky's store to Albertson's.
Today, the original Smith's location looks much as it did thirty years ago.
Urban Archaeologistics
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Wikipedia has a number of errors in its Smith's Food & Drug section
The corporate predecessor to today's Smith's Food & Drug Inc. was Smith's Management Corporation (SMC). SMC was founded in 1961 (Carlisle, 1992) as the holding company for the many subsidiaries of Smith's up until the company went public in 1989. Prior to the organization of SMC, Dee Glenn Smith, typically set up each individual store in an ownership structure separate from the others. This prevented one poorly performing store from bringing down the rest. At the time of the SMC founding, Dee Smith had six stores.
Dee's father, Lorenzo Smith was a prominent business man in Brigham City Utah. He operated Smith's Market, later Smith's and Son, from 1911 until his death in 1958. This small market at 499 E 500 S in Brigham City looks today much like it did when it was closed in 1961. (Box Elder..)
In 1982, Smith's had their 50th anniversary ad (Las Vegas Sun...). At the time, Dee Smith claimed the company started when he first worked in his fathers store as a child. He would help bag potatoes and sweep up after school. That founding date would have been 1932, not 1911 as stated in Wikipedia.
In 1982, Smith's had their 50th anniversary ad (Las Vegas Sun...). At the time, Dee Smith claimed the company started when he first worked in his fathers store as a child. He would help bag potatoes and sweep up after school. That founding date would have been 1932, not 1911 as stated in Wikipedia.
Lorenzo had been content to run his Brigham City store and mange his real estate assets. He did convince his reluctant son to join the business as a full partner in 1946. Prior to 1946, Dee Smith worked sporadically for his father while at the time either serving in World War II or trying different vocations. Dee conditioned his acceptance on his father allowing Dee to enlarge the store and engage in regular advertising.
The first store in Dee Smith's empire that grew to 6 stores by 1961, was the 1955 grand opening of the store located at 74 North Main.
My conclusion is that the Smith's as multi-store chain ownership was founded in 1961 by its founder Dee Glen Smith, not in 1911 by Lorenzo Smith. Apparently, Kroger agrees with me on the founder but still uses the 1932 date.
The first store in Dee Smith's empire that grew to 6 stores by 1961, was the 1955 grand opening of the store located at 74 North Main.
My conclusion is that the Smith's as multi-store chain ownership was founded in 1961 by its founder Dee Glen Smith, not in 1911 by Lorenzo Smith. Apparently, Kroger agrees with me on the founder but still uses the 1932 date.
Areas Served:
Smith's at one time or another has operated in a number of states:
Utah: Inception to present
Idaho: 1968 to present. The Boise stores were closed in 1989.
Colorado: 1985-87. Two stores in Montrose and Glenwood Springs. Both sold to Safeway.
New Mexico: 1977-Present.
Texas: 1979-1999. Stores outside of El Paso were sold in 1986 to La Tienda. The El Paso stores were traded to Fleming Foods in 1999 for 7 Furr's stores in New Mexico.
Wyoming: 1983-Present
Oregon: One store in Ontario in the early eighties. Since sold to Albertson's.
Montana: 1999 to present
Arizona: 1987 to 1999 except for the stores along the Colorado river.
California: 1972-1984 and then 1991-1996.
Nevada: 1972 to present.
Smith's has never operated in Washington or Tennessee. This error in Wikipedia was due to a careless reading of Kroger's annual report.
Smith's 2nd entry in Southern California was "entirely unsuccessful."
This is debatable. There's the story in the newspapers around this time and then the story the people in the stores heard. The second version is hearsay and hard to substantiate , but it bears consideration.
Stories in the Deseret news in 1996 painted a picture of a company drowning in debt. Smith's was expanding fast in both Arizona and California through the 90's. In Arizona, Smith's and Smitty's were hard fought competitors with top market shares. A story in the Arizona Republic commented on how the entrance of Smith's into the Phoenix market drove prices down. "When Smith's comes to town, prices go down" was the catch phrase.
It wasn't clear that Jeff, Richie or Fred Smith had children that wanted to run the company. Dee Smith put in some grueling hours building the company and each one of his sons from the time they were teenagers matched that work ethic.
Deal maker extraordinaire Ron Burkle, via Yuccaipa Holdings, in 1996 owned as many stores in California as the government was going to permit. Rumor is that there wasn't anyway he was going to be approved to buy more stores in this market. Burkle had been on a buying spree throughout the 90's. Burkle also owned the Smitty's chain in Arizona. His real genius was to buy grocery chains and make them appealing buys to other chains. He made a ton of money doing this.
Jeff Smith was ready to retire and Ron Burkle had a plan. Buy Smitty's and give Yucaipa 14% of Smith's stock . Ron Burkle would step in as CEO of Smith's. Down the road, everyone cashes out when Fred Meyer buys Smith's. The PROBLEM was those darn California stores! They had to go in order for Yucaipa to step in.
The region in Southern California, just like in the case of the Lucky's purchase in 1984, was marginally profitable. Most of the stores were doing monster volumes. Whether Jeff Smith could have hung on paying down debt and making California acceptably profitable while doing battle with Smitty's in Arizona is debatable. If the past is a guide, Smith's usually prevails if the desire is there.
Carlisle, H. M. (1992). Fulfilling a dream: the Dee Smith story. Salt Lake City, UT: Press.
Food King Grand Opening, Oct 19, 1961, Box Elder News Journal.
Dee Smith Interview, August 23, 1982, Las Vegas Sun.
Carlisle, H. M. (1992). Fulfilling a dream: the Dee Smith story. Salt Lake City, UT: Press.
Food King Grand Opening, Oct 19, 1961, Box Elder News Journal.
Dee Smith Interview, August 23, 1982, Las Vegas Sun.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Smith's Food King #203 - 73-411 California 111, Palm Desert California
The first new construction Smith's in Southern California. (A new store in Goleta, Ca. had opened around the same time but it's construction had already begun under Jordano's ownership.)
Store Grand Opening - November 20, 1974
This store was built in what is still today an upscale retail development, El Paseo Square. Prior to Smith's launch of their superstore concept in the late 70's, most new stores clocked in at 28,000 square feet as is the case with this location.
Shortly after the grand opening, this store along with the three Oxnard stores were in a test market for what Smith's called their E.S.P. (Extra Special Pricing) program.
This store operated as a Lucky Food Store until the nineties when a much larger replacement store was built down the street. The building then housed an Office Max for a number of years. Most recently the building has been extensively remodeled for upscale apparel retailer, Sack's 5th Avenue.
Store Grand Opening - November 20, 1974
This store was built in what is still today an upscale retail development, El Paseo Square. Prior to Smith's launch of their superstore concept in the late 70's, most new stores clocked in at 28,000 square feet as is the case with this location.
Shortly after the grand opening, this store along with the three Oxnard stores were in a test market for what Smith's called their E.S.P. (Extra Special Pricing) program.
This store operated as a Lucky Food Store until the nineties when a much larger replacement store was built down the street. The building then housed an Office Max for a number of years. Most recently the building has been extensively remodeled for upscale apparel retailer, Sack's 5th Avenue.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Smith's Food King - Antelope Valley
Back in 1981, Dee Smith made his last purchase of a group of stores before he passed away in 1984. This was the original purchase of 6 Market Basket stores and undeveloped sites in August and the purchase of two more stores in September.
Through the newsletters in the Dee Glen Smith Special Collection at USU and the Lucky's takeover ad on October 7th, 1984 it was fairly obvious where most of the Market Basket locations were. The Lucky-LA Times ad did not mention the two Antelope Valley stores.
During a recent trip to visit family, I had an opportunity to visit the Palmdale Public Library Special Collections and get the address's.
The Palmdale store was located at 25th and Avenue R. This site is now a vacant lot next to the high school. An October 1973 LA Times article announcing the construction of Market Basket had lead me to suspect this location.
The Lancaster location still exits as a partitioned Dollar store and other shops. It was located 10th and E Avenue J.
Below is the article in the Antelope Valley Press announcing the changeover to Lucky Food Stores.
An anomaly of the Lucky's 34 store buyout is the former Market Basket-Smith's Food King on Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa. It appears Lucky didn't want the site and Smith's closed it just before the transfer on September 30, 1984.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Smith's must have run out of store numbers in Nevada !?!?
Smith's general numbering scheme background
If you added up all the locations across the Western United States where Smith's Management Corporation or it's successor Smith's Food & Drug has opened and closed stores, that number would approach 400. Since the early 70's, the number of active stores has bounced around but averaged a bit over 100 stores. The number scheme until Kroger bought out Fred Meyer was roughly but not always as such:
0-199 Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Colorado
200-299 California from 1971 until the Lucky's buy out in 1984
High 300's Nevada
Low 300's Arizona
400-499 New Mexico
500 Texas
600 - Unused
700/800 California 1991 to closure of all stores in January 1996.
Purchase of Nevada Pantry Pride stores in 1972
It made sense that to avoid too much confusion and maybe provide the employees a sense that they weren't just eaten wholesale, Dee Smith simply added a three before the existing store numbers. There were ten Las Vegas stores at the time of the purchase. Pantry Pride had one store in Henderson. Due to the fact that a new Skaggs \ Albertsons combination store was built directly behind the Pantry Pride, Dee had no interest in that store. We probably will never know what it's store number was. The rest were:
360-3681 Maryland Pkwy (next to Wonder World)
361- 1221 E Sahara
362- 22 E Oakey
363- 2021 Civic Center
364- 1034 W Owens
365- 3830 W. Sahara (Next to Wonder World)
366- 3065 N Las Vegas Blvd
367- 2897 Las Vegas Blvd N (Former Tobler's Food City not Pantry Pride)
369- 2925 E Sahara (next to Kmart)
370- 2909 W Washington (next to Kmart)
Dee knew these stores were all tired out when he bought them. It was his market entry business plan to try to make them profitable until he could close them and built a replacement store. There's a great article in the Las Vegas Sun in 1982 about this practice.
The replacement stores built from 1975 to the 1990's were
368- 3459 S Jones
371- 232 N Jones
372- 4962 S Eastern
373- 3750 E Flamingo
374- 350 N Nellis
375- 574 N Eastern
376- 6115 W Tropicana
377- 850 S Rancho (Still open)
378- 1941 N Decatur
379- 4910 E Tropicana
380-2710 N Green Valley Pkwy
381- 849 S Boulder Hwy (Still open)
383- 4440 N Rancho (Recently closed)
384- 2275 Las Vegas Blvd N (Recently reopened as a Smiths 306 after being two other banners. 306 was the store number of the Peoria AZ Smiths)
385- 2211 N Rampart
359- 232 N Jones (Remodel and enlargement of 371)
Smith's decided with the building of a new and smaller store at 8555 West Sahara around 1996, to start reusing the closed stores numbers.
If you added up all the locations across the Western United States where Smith's Management Corporation or it's successor Smith's Food & Drug has opened and closed stores, that number would approach 400. Since the early 70's, the number of active stores has bounced around but averaged a bit over 100 stores. The number scheme until Kroger bought out Fred Meyer was roughly but not always as such:
0-199 Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and Colorado
200-299 California from 1971 until the Lucky's buy out in 1984
High 300's Nevada
Low 300's Arizona
400-499 New Mexico
500 Texas
600 - Unused
700/800 California 1991 to closure of all stores in January 1996.
Purchase of Nevada Pantry Pride stores in 1972
It made sense that to avoid too much confusion and maybe provide the employees a sense that they weren't just eaten wholesale, Dee Smith simply added a three before the existing store numbers. There were ten Las Vegas stores at the time of the purchase. Pantry Pride had one store in Henderson. Due to the fact that a new Skaggs \ Albertsons combination store was built directly behind the Pantry Pride, Dee had no interest in that store. We probably will never know what it's store number was. The rest were:
360-3681 Maryland Pkwy (next to Wonder World)
361- 1221 E Sahara
362- 22 E Oakey
363- 2021 Civic Center
364- 1034 W Owens
365- 3830 W. Sahara (Next to Wonder World)
366- 3065 N Las Vegas Blvd
367- 2897 Las Vegas Blvd N (Former Tobler's Food City not Pantry Pride)
369- 2925 E Sahara (next to Kmart)
370- 2909 W Washington (next to Kmart)
Dee knew these stores were all tired out when he bought them. It was his market entry business plan to try to make them profitable until he could close them and built a replacement store. There's a great article in the Las Vegas Sun in 1982 about this practice.
The replacement stores built from 1975 to the 1990's were
368- 3459 S Jones
371- 232 N Jones
372- 4962 S Eastern
373- 3750 E Flamingo
374- 350 N Nellis
375- 574 N Eastern
376- 6115 W Tropicana
377- 850 S Rancho (Still open)
378- 1941 N Decatur
379- 4910 E Tropicana
380-2710 N Green Valley Pkwy
381- 849 S Boulder Hwy (Still open)
383- 4440 N Rancho (Recently closed)
384- 2275 Las Vegas Blvd N (Recently reopened as a Smiths 306 after being two other banners. 306 was the store number of the Peoria AZ Smiths)
385- 2211 N Rampart
359- 232 N Jones (Remodel and enlargement of 371)
Smith's decided with the building of a new and smaller store at 8555 West Sahara around 1996, to start reusing the closed stores numbers.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
A Look Back at Smith's Food & Drug #378 Las Vegas NV
Smith's Food & Drug (1980's)
This store and center were built by Maury Abrams of Encino California. Abrams built many if not most of the Las Vegas Smith's from the late 70's to early 80's.
This 40,000 sq. foot super store opened in 1981. Sales at this store and it's sister at Tropicana and Nellis (379) were disappointing. For much of the 80's, the stores both averaged $150k per week. Prior to it's closure, the expanding Las Vegas population had pushed 378 to a very profitable $250 a week.
The store had an older façade with windows lining the front wall. The interior had the original super store layout with a long non foods drug wall across the back. Walking the perimeter of the store right to left was the bulk foods department, small service deli serving only cold meats. A service meat counter and then a long aisle with deli items on the left and packaged meats on the right. The back of the store was the dairy case, drug wall and pharmacy. The left side was the produce department and then a separate liquor department.
What does the Lease really say? Responsibility of Continuous Occupancy.
Several first generation super stores built in the late 70's and early 80's, 373 (E. Flamingo), 374 (S. Nellis), 376 (W Tropicana) 378, 379 (E Tropicana), 380 (Green Valley) and 381 (Henderson) were built by Maury Abrams. Smith's third generation 70-80k square foot stores built in the 90's were nothing like the older super stores. The primary factor in expanding the stores square footage is often a zoning formula dictating the number of available parking spaces per the size of the project. Smiths replacement stores 351, 354 and 355 were built directly across the street from stores 373, 374 and 376 as the center couldn't expand parking. This decimated the older shopping centers viability as they lost the major anchor tenant. Abrams investments were turning very sour, very fast. Plans were on to close and replace the Henderson store when lawsuits filed by another developer (Smith's 368, W. Spring Mountain) and Abrams started showing results. Smith's enlarged and remodeled the existing store 381 (Boulder Hwy) rather than shutter it. This center did have enough parking to accommodate a 15k square foot store increase. I'm sure Smith's would have preferred to continue developing the SW Boulder Hwy \ Lake Mead project, though it had its critic as well. One of the suits was reportedly, and take this with a grain of salt, worth a million dollars in the early 90's.
In 2015, after Kroger, Smith's successor, closed the existing Food 4 Less, they purchased the property from Abrams successor LLC as the covenants now required Smith's to maintain continuous occupancy, which Kroger no longer wished to do.
Here is some good reading on this topic.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i. do?id=GALE%7CA8366468&v=2.1&u= naal_asum&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w& asid= fbf4b2be6f4d0643e4b111eb828958 4c
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i. do?id=GALE%7CA8688590&v=2.1&u= naal_asum&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w& asid= deeb241623096fca9bd2ac7a8d994b e5
In 2015, after Kroger, Smith's successor, closed the existing Food 4 Less, they purchased the property from Abrams successor LLC as the covenants now required Smith's to maintain continuous occupancy, which Kroger no longer wished to do.
Here is some good reading on this topic.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.
Pioneer Market and Buy N' Save (1990's-1996)
This was Smith's answer to being forced to reopen the store after it was closed prior to the grand opening of store 383 (Rancho and Craig). The store was closed for around 7 months and reopened as Pioneer Market. The Smith's Las Vegas district office ran a Las Vegas Sun weekly ad for this store and converted from Smith's to Pioneer stores 362 and 379. This concept at 378 and 379 was only worth 30k-40k a week versus the Smith's numbers of 250k a week. 362 was sold to Ed Myers (Myers Market) in 1992. 379 had it's own unique history as a J&J Market and a Food Giant as well as a Pioneer Market. It closed for good in 1996.
The spread of Costco in the 90's had Smith's worried. They reacted by taking an aisle in their stores and putting up warehouse racking calling the Costco size groceries the Big Deal section. Smith's then experimentally went a step further, recycling the Buy N' Save name, which had been used in Northern Utah on 5 discount concept stores, creating a mini (in theory only) Costco. 378 and store 22 on Wasatch Blvd in Salt Lake were the prototypes. The trial flopped and Smith's eventually closed the store for the 2nd time. The store only managed mid thirties per week as a Buy N Save.
Price Rite Grocery Warehouse and Food 4 Less . (Late 90's-2015)
When Smith's bought the bankrupt Megafoods stores in Las Vegas, they brought in a fresh team to run the stores. Those managers had started the Furr's Warehouse concept in Albuquerque. The Price Rite concept was an immediate success. So much so that by the time Kroger bought Smith's, there were 10 stores across Las Vegas, Phoenix and New Mexico.
In 1996, Price Rite passed on vacant store #379 (Tropicana and Nellis) but did a full remodel on store 378. They removed the windowed front and brought the store out about 6 feet. Reportedly, the new store 554 did mid 300k a week.
The Price Rite success came to end when Kroger transferred the stores to Ralph's Food 4 Less division.
Food 4 Less never really caught on the same as Price Rite and the Las Vegas stores all closed in December 2014. Interestingly, this location was never mentioned in any press releases about the closures. Most likely because Kroger wasn't allowed to close the store unless they bought the property.
Smart N Final +
Construction is progressing on a new Smart & Final Plus store. The planned grand opening is August 2015. Smart& Final has no relationship to Kroger (Smith's).
In the end, Smith's 378's successor, store 383 closed this year. Incidentally, 383 is another Abrams property. Great locations like 1941 N Decatur seem to live very long lives as grocery stores!
FYI - So you might ask, why is there a Smith's 378 in Reno? Beginning in the mid 90's with the then new Smith's 371 at 8555 West Sahara, they simply started reusing store numbers from closed stores. That might be my next post, where was it originally and where is it now. Stay tuned.
FYI - So you might ask, why is there a Smith's 378 in Reno? Beginning in the mid 90's with the then new Smith's 371 at 8555 West Sahara, they simply started reusing store numbers from closed stores. That might be my next post, where was it originally and where is it now. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Food 4 Less Las Vegas - Say Adios!
Management said
today it is converting six locations in the valley to Smith’s Food & Drug
stores — both brands are owned by Kroger Co. — and closing eight others as it
exits the Las Vegas market.
The conversions and
closures will take place by early next year. Food 4 Less employs 900 people
locally, and all will have job offers at Smith’s after the changeover, the
company said in a news release.
Some of the stores
had been underperforming for some time, and the decision to leave the market
was “just a business decision,” Food 4 Less spokeswoman Kendra Doyel said. She
declined to go into further detail.
There are currently
30 Smith’s stores in the area with 3,500 employees.
“We are delighted
that Food 4 Less associates from both the converted and closed stores will be
able to continue their careers with Smith’s,” Jay Cummins, Smith’s division
president, said in the news release.
The following stores
will be remodeled as Smith’s: 3013 W. Craig Road; 4001 S. Decatur Blvd., 3602
E. Bonanza Road; 2255 Las Vegas Blvd. North; 4965 E. Sahara Ave.; and 8180 Las
Vegas Blvd. South.
These Food 4 Less
stores will close: 2271 N. Green Valley Parkway; 2545 S. Eastern Ave.; 1955 N.
Nellis Blvd.; 120 S. Rainbow Blvd.; 1301 S. Boulder Highway; 3250 E. Flamingo
Road.; and 3864 W. Sahara Ave. The eighth store was not listed.
The closures will
all occur early next year, except for the store on West Sahara, which is slated
to close next month.
Food 4 Less will
still operate stores in California and Chicago, the company said.
Staying open as Smith's (supposedly)
3013 W. Craig Road
|
|
4001 S. Decatur
Blvd
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|
4965 E. Sahara Ave
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2255 Las Vegas
Blvd. North
|
|
3602 E. Bonanza
Road
(Opened originally as a PriceRite. Was supposed to be a Smith's before they started thier warehouse chain, PriceRite)
|
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8180 Las Vegas
Blvd. South
(Opened originally as a FFL)
|
Closing Down (probably to become a Cardenas, La Bonita, Super One or swap meet)
2271 N. Green
Valley Parkway;
(Opened as an Albertsons, Raleys. Somewhat close to 3 Smith's)
|
|
2545 S. Eastern
Ave.
(Opened as an Albertsons, Raleys. Not a Smiths type area.)
|
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1301 S. Boulder
Highway
(Opened originally as a FFL. Too close to Smiths 381)
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120 S. Rainbow
Blvd.
(Opened as an Albertsons, Raleys. Somewhat close to Smtih's at Jones/Vegas)
|
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1955 N. Nellis
Blvd
(Opened as an Albertsons, Raleys. Too close to Smith's 355)
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3864 W. Sahara Ave
(Opened as an Albertsons after demolishion of a very old Smith's. Too close to Smiths DI\Decatur)
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`
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1941 N. Decatur
(Smart & Final + August 2015)
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3250 E. Flamingo
Road (Opened as a FFL, then Megafoods, PriceRite. Too close to Smiths 354)
|
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