Why No Safeway in Nanaimo?

[BigMac]

If memory serves me right?......?? I believe Safeway was in the building where Thrifty Foods is now, long time ago.......???? Sears was at the other end, in the casino building. Sears automotive was where Wendy's is now, used to work there!!!

[nanaimoite]

the only reason Safeway was in Woodgrove (Toys R us) was because they bought the Woodward's Food Floors in 1988, Safeway ended up closing most of the Mall locations in B.C. and Alberta a few years ago, I think the only Woodward's / Safeway mall location that is still in operation is Oakridge mall in Vancouver.

[G-Naz]

Safeway actually had a long history in Nanaimo. First attached to Sears when Sears first went in at Harbour Park. When Harbour Park expanded into a full mall, Safeway built a new store (Sears expanded taking over their old space, people walking through the Sears store may remember how the floor all of a sudden had a different sound, that was the transition from the Original Sears building into the old Safeway) Thrifty Foods/London Drugs occupies what was the Safeway.

At Terminal Park, the Save On Foods (formerly Overwaitea) was a Safeway with the trademark curved roof. At this time, the Liquor store was an Overwaitea. How odd, 2 grocery stores in the same parking lot, but it's true.

When Country Club Mall was opened, Safeway abandoned Terminal Park (the building was falling apart) to move to Country Club. Overwaitea took over the old Safeway building and renovated it. The provincial liquor store took over in the old small Overwaitea location.

Safeway operated at Country Club for a number of years, then changed the focus of the store to one of Bulk Foods, changing the name to Food Barn ( a dismal failure).

When Safeway took over the Woodwards Food Floor at Woodgrove, they abandoned the Country Club location. The Country Club location remained vacant for several years. Woolco would use it as storage ( I worked for Woolco then, used to build bikes in the empty grocery store)

Overwaitea then took over the Country Club location, doing a huge renovation on the store and expanding.

It seems that Safeway made one poor decision after another in Nanaimo, leaving locations where the following store has thrived. Thrifty's once and Overwaitea twice!! I guess you could say Overwaitea three times as Save On opened by Woodgrove as well

[Bathtub in Bohemia]

Safeway did indeed shut down in Nanaimo due to being unionized. In my memory, they were likely busy enough to be profitable, but I guess just not profitable enough.

[nanaimoite]

Nanaimo already has two large independent grocery chains, Quality Foods and Country Grocer, if you look at other smaller cities in b.c. There isn't any large local chains, just the usual players, Save On foods, SafeWay, Super Store. In many ways we are lucky we have strong local players, as it gives us better choices.

[Spence]

Safeway in Nanaimo goes back well beyond Harbour Park and it's shared premises with Sears. According to it's website Safeway first ventured into Canada in 1929. I show a Safeway store in Nanaimo at 2 Victoria Cr. in 1937, and have them moving from there to 490 Wallace(Diners Rendezvous) between 1937 and 1946. From there they moved to the shared premises with Simpson Sears sometime between 1953 to 1958. That building housed both for many years until Harbour Park was completed in 1967. As G Naz correctly remembers, Sears took over the entire building when Safeway moved to the other end of the mall, where Thrifty's is today. Not sure if Simpson Sears existed in Nanaimo until they occupied that building in the mid 50's, can't find any record of same. G Naz also pointed out the "Marina Style" Safeway store that existed at Terminal Park, another example of California architecture that doesn't cut it on the "wet" coast. This store was built in the early 60's presumably to compete with Overwaitea, which was an original tenant. This era was the start of Nanaimo's population begining its northward migration. I was surprised that Overwaitea also was around in 1937, located at 166 Commercial an then at 135 Commercial, I recall them there in the sixties. They moved to a new(ugly) green building on Gordon St, that had Walls and Bradshaw on the Commercial Street level. Building burned down in the early 80's. If you lived in the outlying areas, chances are you didn't come into town for groceries. Super Valu was located on Haliburton at Needham, Harewood Plaza, and on Townsite right across from Brechin School. That building is now a funeral home. The owner of the Super Valu built a new modern store, that today is Janitors Warehouse. Anyone recollect the gorcery store anchor in Northbrook mall when it opened in 1966 as Nanaimo's first mall? I recall Stedmans or McLeods was the other anchor store! Northfield has the Red Patch grocery at Bowen and Northfied, and where Chase River shopped??? IGA was truly the Independant Grocers, a couple were around in 1960, 4th and Bruce and Stewart and Rosehill. When I figure out how, I will attach an image of the grocers section of Nanaimo's 1946 yellow pages. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[All Ages Music Concerts]

Nanaimo already has two large independent grocery chains, Quality Foods and Country Grocer, if you look at other smaller cities in b.c. There isn't any large local chains, just the usual players, Save On foods, SafeWay, Super Store. In many ways we are lucky we have strong local players, as it gives us better choices.

I think Thrifty's is a good runner up in the independent grocery chain. I do not do all my shopping there but they have some good sales and discounts on their meats. Their customer service is superior to most grocery stores. Their accumalation of points that converts to $ discount off the next bill is really a plus. I shop at many different outlets and I do not think Nanaimo needs anymore grocrers.

I have even looked at Walmart but they are a waste of time and energy in the food department. Really; many grocery stores have great in store specials/discounts.

As I just told my son today! I will bring the food to his house this xmas as I have been stocking up for the last couple months on great and fabulous deals. I could open a grocery store, lol.

[G-Naz]

I don't think Thrifty's could be classified as independent. They are owned by grocery giant Sobey's based in Ontario. Previously when the Campbell family owned them, then yes.

Spence, thanks for the reminder of the two older Safeway stores. As for Overwaitea, I recall seeing pictures of Commercial St with their signature "Tea Pot" sign hanging over the sidewalk. The original (small) Terminal Park store also had this Tea Pot sign.

You are correct about Northbrook Mall with Super Valu at one end (Thrifty's now) and MacLeods Hardware at the other end. My parents still have some spare Christmas Light bulbs (the frosted round ones ) with MacLeods price tags on them.

[Spence]

I see by another post that you played rep hockey in Nanaimo Minor Hockey Assn. Chances are we shared an ice surface at on time or another. I was born in 53, so I take it you are a fair bit younger than myself. If we did share an ice surface I would have been one of three unpopular persons wearing a striped shirt.
Thanks for the posts on grocery stores, and being older I can remember physically the Overwaitea just past Charlie Yorks. When they moved to Gordon Street, House of Stein, Kelly's records stereo outlet moved into the building. My dad bought his first quality stereo system from there, took his whole pickup box to haul it home.

[G-Naz]

A referee eh Spence? I was born in 71, not sure how long you wore the stripes for. In another thread I mentioned how Cliff McNabb was my first hockey coach. Can you believe he used to be a ref as well? Actually, I think for a while he coordinated the officials for Nanaimo Minor Hockey.

Anyways, back to grocery stores. My family has a little history with groceries in Nanaimo. Before I was born, my Dad worked at the Terminal Park Safeway, as well as Overwaitea and Vic's Foodliner. Vic Dixon was my brother's Godfather. My brother has been with Overwaitea/Save On for over 20 years, getting his start at the Rutherford Store. For a time I worked at the Terminal Park Overwaitea (1991-93). At that time it was the busiest Overwaitea/Save on Foods in all of BC. Apparently, the person who made the decision to move Safeway out of that location got fired for making that decision.

I don't believe it was unionization that put Safeway out of Nanaimo, their employees had been unionized for quite a number of years before they left town completely.