Portion of a Roth’s Market ad for its downtown Torrance grand opening. Torrance Herald, Aug. 3, 1950, Page 5. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
In 2014, while doing research on another topic, I was surprised to see an old newspaper ad promoting the Southern grocery chain Piggly Wiggly’s new location in downtown Torrance.
So surprised that I wrote a whole article on the transplanted store, which opened during the 1920s and was taken over by and became a Safeway in 1934.
More recently, seeing a reference to another chain, the New York-based Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., known informally as the A&P, also having a store in downtown Torrance got me thinking about all the different grocery store chains that once operated in the South Bay and Harbor Area over the years.
What follows is an informal and non-comprehensive look at some of them. (Apologies for the reliance on ads and photos reproduced from newspapers, but photos of many of these locations are hard to come by.)
For an area that hasn’t featured a large grocery store in years, downtown Torrance has had more than its share of them in the past.
The Torrance A&P operated during the 1950s at 1330 El Prado. It was replaced in 1961 by a local retailer, Norley’s Market. (The long-lived A&P chain closed its last store in the U.S. in 2015.)
The Quality Super Market did business at 1325 Sartori Ave. during the 1930s. It was later replaced by the Torrance Men’s Shop clothing store.
These and other stores from the era were smaller than the giant supermarkets we think of today, but they were pioneering the concept.
The big boom in supermarkets came in the post-World War II era.
Roth’s Market made a big splash with its opening at 1321 Post Avenue in Torrance in August 1950. (8/3/50 TH) It also had stores in Hawthorne (105 S. Hawthorne Blvd.) and Inglewood (310 E. Manchester).
In December 1957, the Torrance and Hawthorne Roth’s locations had become part of the larger Fox Markets chain. Fox became Food Fair after that national chain bought them out in 1961.
The groundbreaking for JIm Dandy’s store at Torrance and Crenshaw boulevard. Torrance Press, Sept. 27, 1951, Page 1. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
Several other larger supermarkets arrived in the greater Torrance area during the 1950s.
Jim Dandy, anyone? The regional chain grew quickly during the 1950s, beginning with its first South Bay store at Torrance and Crenshaw boulevards in 1950. It followed up with stores in Hermosa Beach (2510 Pacific Coast Highway) in 1954, Lomita (northwest corner of Western Ave. and Lomita Blvd.) in 1956, and a second Torrance store at Hawthorne and Sepulveda in 1958.
The new Jim Dandy market at Torrance and Crenshaw boulevards readies for its grand opening. Torrance Herald, July 17, 1952, Page 16. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
Jim Dandy itself was acquired shortly thereafter by Lucky Stores, which would go on to become a major supermarket player in the following decades. (The The Jim Dandy locations mentioned above became Lucky stores in the early 1960s.) Lucky itself was bought out by Albertson’s in 1998.
We wrote about Clark Markets, which opened in 1954 at PCH and Hawthorne Blvd. in the shopping center now anchored by Best Buy, in 2014. Clark also had locations in Manhattan Beach and Gardena. The Torrance store later became a Food Giant, which operated stores throughout the South Bay during the 1960s and 1970s. (Read this post to find out what happened after that on that street corner.)
Foods Co. opened stores at 174th and Crenshaw in 1957, and PCH and Crenshaw in Torrance in 1959. Shoppers Markets had opened a branch on a different corner of the PCH and Crenshaw intersection a year earlier in 1958.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitching great Don Drysdale helped out at the re-opening of the Certi-Bond City Super-Market at 501 S. Arlington Ave. in Torrance to the public in 1960. Certi-Bond was a supermarket/department store originally opened in October 1959 for labor union members only, and operated solely by members of the AFL-CIO.
The San Diego-based Big Bear Foods chain opened a market at the busy Sepulveda and Hawthorne corner in 1962 (3860 Sepulveda).
Executives prepare for Thriftimart’s opening in Harbor City in 1957. Torrance Herald, Dec. 19, 1957, Page 33. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
The Eastern chain Thriftimart had a store at Sepulveda and Palos Verdes Blvd. in west Torrance that opened in 1956, and another at Western Ave. and Palos Verdes Drive North in Harbor City that opened in 1957. It later added a Hawthorne location at 5005 W. El Segundo Blvd.
Grocery chain founder Joseph Hughes, second from left, at the groundbreaking for the Hughes Market at Hawthorne Blvd. and Crest Road in RPV. Palos Verdes Peninsula News, Oct. 25, 1967, Page 3. (Credit: Palos Verdes Peninsula News)
Joseph Hughes had been working to expand Thriftimart’s presence in Southern California when he decided to go out on his own, opening the first Hughes Market in Granada Hills in 1954. Hughes had several South Bay locations, including a major store at Hawthorne Blvd. and Crest Road in Rancho Palos Verdes that opened in 1968. It’s now a Ralphs, as is the former Hughes Market at Crenshaw and Rolling Hills Road in Torrance.
Onlookers check out floodwaters near the Redondo Beach Mayfair Market during a heavy storm in 1953. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)
Market Town opened locations in Hawthorne (423 S. Hawthorne) and Gardena (15017 Crenshaw). Mayfair Markets operated a store that anchored the Redondo Beach Triangle shopping center (290 Hermosa Blvd.) for more than two decades after it opened in 1950.
Shopping Bag had a store at 101 PCH at Calle Mayor near South High in Torrance during the 1950s. That store and other Shopping Bags continued operation as “Vons
Portion of Vons and Shopping Bag ad from the Torrance Herald, July 14, 1960, Page 8. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
and Shopping Bag” after Vons took over the chain in 1960. The former Lucky store at Indian Peak Road and Crossfield Drive in Rolling Hills Estates became a Vons and Shopping Bag in 1963.
Eventually, all the chain’s stores became known as simply “Vons.”
The Market Basket chain operated markets throughout the Los Angeles area, including one at 1501 S. Hawthorne at 182nd St. in Redondo Beach, which opened for business in 1961. It later also opened a store at 129 Lomita Blvd. in Wilmington.
McCoys Market opened a branch in Wilmington at 23806 South Main St. (at Sepulveda) in October 1961. The small chain had several other stores in the Long Beach area.
After the 1970s, the supermarket landscape was mostly ruled by larger players (Safeway, Albertson’s, Lucky, Ralphs) and occasional out-of-state interlopers (Fazio’s, Smith’s Food King, Haggen), though a few of the smaller chains were still hanging on.
A&P ad. Torrance Herald, Nov. 9. 1950, Page 15. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
“Lucky Stores, Inc. history,” “Hughes Markets, Inc. history,” Funding Universe website.
Palos Verdes News files.
Torrance Herald files.
Food Giant ad for its 190th St. store grand opening in Torrace. Torrance Press, Sept. 8, 1958, Page 3. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
