If you are thinking about the large Lucky on Balboa and the 805 freeway, I had heard the same thing. Then a friend who is a San Diego native told me that it was actually a Gemco. Sure enough, there's a 1973 Gemco ad in the Escondido Times-Advocate listing that store. A 1988 article states that the former Gemco would be redeveloped by Lucky into an "Advantage" supermarket. The Lukcy had 60K square feet of the Balboa space and the rest was leased to Sportmart, which became Sports Authority later on.storewanderer wrote: ↑September 10th, 2020, 11:03 pmThere was a store on I think Balboa in San Diego that was built as a Pavilions but then opened as a Lucky and operated as a Lucky (largely with Pavilions layout but with Lucky decor... so there was nothing upscale about it) until Supervalu replaced it with a new store. That was a late new store for Supervalu (it had the interior after the Premium Fresh and Healthy interior) and after its brief time as Haggen ended up going to Ranch 99.Bluelightspecial wrote: ↑September 10th, 2020, 10:19 pm Before Safeway bought Vons back in the 90's, Vons was planning to expand Pavilions into San Diego including most of the stores you listed. When Safeway came in they nixed the expansion.
FWIW, the "Memco" store (Gemco's midwestern cousin) in Niles, IL became a large Eagle Food Center. That did not last too long (there were four Jewel stores and a Dominick's within a couple of miles of the Eagle - what were they thinking?) and became a Sports Authority.
Albertsons has converted a VONS in Carmel Valley to Pavilions. I think it opened in 2017 or 2018. While I agree Solana Beach could support a Pavilions, that VONS building seems a little beat up. If they did a conversion they would be wise to replace the building. Mission Hills would also be a great fit for Pavilions.