Retail Watchers

This was a Safeway originally. The story is somewhat incorrect as the store pre-dates March 1989. It was enlarged at some point, too. I don't recall if it was before or after Vons took over Safeway. Barstow is now down to 2 supermarkets, a Food 4 Less and a Stater Bros. plus Walmart. https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20190 ... ors-may-24

That store must have done okay over the years to have made it this long, and the interior with the lifestyle remodel actually looks okay.

Surprises me the Vons in Sun City is still open.

Albertsons seems to be the stronger of the two brands out in those parts.

I don't know when the the original Safeway (now Vons) in Barstow opened but it had to be in the 70's or earlier. I believe that when Vons bought the Safeway southern California division in the 80's there was a Vons across the street from the Barstow Safeway that they had to sell as part of the buyout. The Safeway became Vons and I think Hughes took over the old Vons store, but it closed some time after when Hughes was bought. I remember seeing both stores on one of my trips through Barstow on the way to Las Vegas.

The Barstow Safeway was a Super S if I remember correctly and built in the late 60's or early 70's. It had no competition in it's early years and despite that was never a very high volume store. It had a very low rent which allowed it to be somewhat profitable on low volumes for many years.

I'm actually surprised it lasted this long.

That explains the size of the store. It appears to have 18-20 aisles which is pretty massive for such an old store. It must be the grocery space plus the old drugstore space.

Did the F4L start as a Ralphs?

It's going to look so great having that building empty, now with the vacant Dollar Tree store which moved across the street in '17 taking the place of The Family Dollar.

Barstow leaders should pull their heads out of their butts and do something about the continual neglect and deteotlration of the Main Street/Route 66 business corridor. It's freaking depressing will all the shuttered businesses up and down that stretch. Not to mention all the human garbage plaguing that area.

I shopped at this Vons almost exclusively. Great. Now there's Food4Less, which is resembling a Mexican market more and more, on ghetto project housing boulevard and Stater Bros on the other end of town.

Is population growing or declining in Barstow?

At least Stater is still there..

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 29th, 2019, 10:20 pm Is population growing or declining in Barstow?

At least Stater is still there..

According to Wiki (take it with a grain of salt) it's stagnant;

1990 population 22,774
2017 population 23,916

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 10th, 2019, 11:45 pm That explains the size of the store. It appears to have 18-20 aisles which is pretty massive for such an old store. It must be the grocery space plus the old drugstore space.

Did the F4L start as a Ralphs?

No. The F4L was opened as a F4L. It also has a gas station. Pretty big lot.