Friday, May 15, 2015

Safeway's Florida Experiment: Save and Pack


Save 'n Pack
     Since Safeway is now a part of Albertsons, I thought this post would be an interesting little piece of obscure Florida supermarket history to do a post about. For the longest time I thought Safeway was the only major supermarket chain who was able to resist the Florida temptation. However, according to some recent comments over on The Safeway and Albertsons in Texas blog, it turns out I was wrong. Safeway did have a small Florida operation back in the late 80's and early 90's called Save and Pack. Save and Pack was supposed to be a branch of the current Northern California Safeway division called Pak n' Save, a price impact, somewhat warehouse style chain similar to a hybrid of Aldi and Sam's Club. The Florida stores were also supposed to used the name Pak n' Save as well, however, due to a copyright dispute from now-defunct Jacksonville based supermarket Pic N' Save, Safeway was forced to flip their name to Save and Pack for their Florida operations. The Florida Save and Pack stores were more similar to that of a Sam's Club, but without the membership fee. While offering a large selection of discounted foods, Safeway wanted to focus more on non-food items at their Save and Pack stores due to how far away this division would be from Safeway's distribution centers in the west and northeast. The first Save and Pack store opened in Jacksonville in 1984, but most information from there gets fuzzy. What I do know is there were 9 Save and Pack stores in total, 8 in Florida and one in Alabama (locations are listed in the table below). However, when all of these stores closed and what happened in between is a bit of a mystery. I found out that two stores were closed in 1987 due to unprofitablilty (Casselberry and Pensacola), however I think the remaining stores made it into the early 90's. Kash N Karry bought the three Tampa Bay area Save and Pack stores in 1992, along with the name, which is when I believe Safeway finally left the state, however I don't know for sure if the other stores made it that far. Kash N Karry did continue to use the Save and Pack name for their own warehouse style stores throughout the state until those were finally discontinued in the late 90's, although those don't count as Safeway locations since they were opened and operated by Kash N Karry. Anyway, here is the location table and a short history of each location, similar to how my Albertsons table is set up:
   
Store NameStore NumberAddressShopping CenterCityStateZIPCountyInfo
Save and Pack32012525 N. Dale Mabry HighwayTampaFL33607HillsboroughA former Gold Triangle store. Save and Pack moved in here in 1985, and this location was sold to Kash N Karry in 1992, where it continued to operate under the Save and Pack name for a few years after the sale. Building was later torn down for a Sweetbay Supermarket (Now Winn-Dixie) in the early 2000's.
Save and Pack 3202204 E State Road 436Oxford SquareCasselberryFL32707SeminoleOpened March 1986 as the 7th Save n' Pack store in Florida and the only one in the Orlando area. Closed March 22, 1987 due to unprofitability before the closure of the rest of the division. After Save and Pack closed this location became Builder's Square #1526, which closed with the rest of the chain in 1999. Currently an Old Time Pottery store.
Save and Pack32055301 Norwood AveNorwood PlazaJacksonvilleFL32208DuvalOpened 1985/1986ish in a former Woolco store. Exact closing unknown. Currently the Norwood Flea Market.
Save and Pack32064335 W Fairfield Dr Fairfield CrossingsPensacolaFL32505EscambiaOpened 1985. Closed March 1987 before the rest of the division. Entire shopping center later torn down for a Lowe's and other smaller stores in the early 2000's.
Save and Pack320730535 US Highway 19 NSeabreeze Plaza Shopping CenterPalm HarborFL34684PinellasOpened 1985. Sold to Kash N Karry in 1992, where it continued to operate under the Save and Pack name for a few years after the sale. The building later became home to a Waccamaw Home Furnishings store, which closed with the rest of the company in June 2001. Building torn down for a new Publix, which opened in September 2003.
Save and Pack320811612 N Nebraska AveSave & Pack Shopping CenterTampa FL33612HillsboroughOpened 1986. Sold to Kash N Karry in 1992, where it continued to operate under the Save and Pack name for a few years after the sale. Currently a Flea Market.
Save and Pack32XX9400 Atlantic BoulevardRegency Park Shopping CenterJacksonvilleFL32225DuvalWhat I believe was the first Save N Pack store to open in Florida and Safeway's first store of any kind in Florida, which opened in 1984. Later became a Kroger Welcome Warehouse style store after. Currently divided between Hobby Lobby (previously Rhodes Furniture) and Books a Million.
Save and Pack32XX8102 Blanding BoulevaedCrossroads SquareJacksonvilleFL32244DuvalOpened 1985. Later became a Kroger Welcome Warehouse style store, then Food World, then Publix. Currently a Floor and Décor store.
Save and Pack32XX3725 Airport BoulevardMobile Festival CenterMobile AL36608MobileOpened 1986. Became a Kroger Welcome Warehouse style store after, which closed in the 90's. Now Academy Sports.

     Information on these stores was pretty scarce, so if you have any corrections or additions to add in about any of the stores in the table above, please let me know! I'm pretty sure there were only 9 stores, but you never know, there could have been another one floating around out there somewhere that escaped my radar.

     And in other news, I have three more Albertsons posts in the works to go up (if all goes as planned) by early June - Two short ones, or "Quick Glimpse" posts as I call them, and one regular store post, which we haven't had in a while. So stay tuned, more to come soon!

Until next time,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger 

11 comments:

  1. For whatever reason, this article lists Casselberry as the first Save and Pack store in Florida: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-09-23/business/0330160276_1_safeway-stores-perishable-items-grocery

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    1. EDIT: (and I agree with l_dawg2000, it's stupid Blogger doesn't have a comment edit button!) Another article I found on the same site said it was (somehow) a "miscount," and Casselberry was not, in fact, Safeway's first store in Florida. I thought that contradicted your information!

      ...that was probably the website you used in making this post too, wasn't it?

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    2. Yeah, I used that article, and I think it was the first one I found about Save and Pack as well since information is rather scarce about them. It would make things easier if Blogger had a comment edit feature, but there's lots of thing about Blogger that I wish I could change.

      Casselberry may have been one of the first sites picked for Save and Pack, but I'm pretty sure it was the 7th to actually open since its opening didn't happen until 1986, and I know a few others had 1985 build dates. There was another article that mentioned something about one of the Jacksonville stores being the first to open in 1984, and Jacksonville seems like a more logical place for Safeway to enter the state than the northern suburbs of Orlando.

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  2. Hi Albertsons Florida! I have changed my blog name to Retail Recognition, but at the same address, so please update it.
    Thanks :)

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  3. Albertsons is spending an estimated $10 million to convert the three remaining Albertsons stores in Florida to the Safeway banner.
    http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/3-florida-albertsons-being-remodeled-into-safeway-grocery-stores/2260933

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  4. The Regency Park and Crossroads Save & Packs were bought by Publix in December 1988 and became Food World. The Crossroads store was a Publix by May 1990, and its license was "null and void" (i.e., closed) as of September 1999. Haven't found any info on the Regency Park store, but when I do, I'll reply back here.

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  5. From what I've gathered, the Dale Mabry and Nebraska stores (along with Palm Harbor before 1994) were the only Save and Packs run by KnK until 1999, when Delhaize switched 16 Food Lions over to to the Save n' Pack banner instead. The 18 Save n' Pack stores operated until late 2000 when 13 were closed and 5 switched over to Kash n Karry, including 4 of the aforementioned Food Lions and the 2525 Dale Mabry location. Around 2002, however, the Dale Mabry store was replaced by a brand new Kash n Karry (not quite Sweetbay yet) on the same site.

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  6. Hi there... Save and Pack store 3208 is now being renovated to become a charter school. The same charter school company is renovating the old Cooks and Sweet Bay stores in Columbus Plaza in Tampa.

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  7. Thanks for this - I was reading about Pak n Save and that triggered a memory, I remember going to the one in Palm Harbor when I was growing up. I LOVED packing our groceries, though I'm not sure how my parents appreciated my packing skills back then.

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