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.

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.