The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Gang, here's some unhappy news, Tulsa's only Piggley Wiggley Store at Adm. & Harvard is in the process of closing. I guess they went bankrupt, They are looking for a new owner. I always liked that store it felt like stepping back into time into another era whenever  I  went in there. Most of the shelfs are bare now. Maybe if they find a new owner he will still keep the name. Fort Worth Texas had a Piggley Store (very much  like the one Tulsa has) on Hemphill street just south of Magnolia back in 1980 and that store has long since been gone & leveled. I lived a block away, shopped there- and I dated a girl who was a clerk there for a while. :-\

/kicking myself

I've driven by dozens of times and chuckled at it.   A couple months ago I drove by and thought I should stop before it closes, but didn't.  And now . . .

i worked at a parking lot BBQ stand in front of that piggly wiggly in 1986, was always a decent neighborhood store. sorry to see them going tits up.

there was another one on 15th street and quaker years ago,,then it became yeakey's grocery/sound warehouse records/ it is a camilles sidewalk cafe now

Somehow I also remember that location being a Sipes (when I was just a wee toddler of about 5).  I can remember Mom driving us up there in a 1958 BelAir and I remember the gas station (which the building still exists) as a Derby selling Ethyl for 0.429 a gallon.  This is before the IDL when I lived at 14th and Elgin (no longer exists).

The P W isn't closed yet, but it's getting there, they are clearing off the shelfs. I would not mind buying one of the store posters that feature the Piggley Wiggley logo if they would sell one of them to me..  I stopped in there Monday to buy some potato chips and they had only a few left on the rack. That's a part of Tulsa's historic past vanishing forever. :-X

You can buy Piggly Wiggly merchandise online:
http://www.pigglywiggly.com/cgi-bin/customize?merchandise.html

Wow, nice website.

I hope they raze that rat-infested shopping center after they close the PW.

So I guess it has come full circle and we can finally say the the Piggley Wiggley is NLSTP. (http://www.allwords.com/word-NLSTP.html)

Wasn't this location closed a bit after Buds Grocery closed? Or did Piggley Wiggley buy it before it closed?

Sorry slept since then.

It was a Harvest between Bud's and PW.   Don't remember if there was something between Humpty Dumpty and Buds.  Humpty is the first store I remember in that location.

I hate to see the smaller neighborhood grocery stores going away.  It is very annoying to me to park out in BFE and then walk a block once inside the store for some milk, bread or tp.

Oh I love the smaller stores and I hope someone buys this place, I used to live near there it wasn't a "bad" store.

This is the last grocery store in north Tulsa, isn't it?

So if they can't make it, why would another one open in the area?

North Tulsa is an area in crisis. Its going to become a little Detroit soon.

No.

Well??

Warehouse Market at 845 N. Sheridan and 6230 N. Peoria for instance.

I hate to see the historic P.W. stores close. They are part of our past, walking into the store is like stepping back to 1960 except for the prices.. The neighborhood around the Tulsa store is in bad shape. I think P.W. still has stores in other southern states like Georgia & FL. The clerk told me they are looking for a buyer of the closing store and if they find one he may keep the P.W. name.

Albertson's excuse for abandoning north Tulsa was the shrinkage (shoplifting and employee theft) was way higher than other units.  There's no moral obligation for a grocer to serve a geographic area, especially if that area doesn't show respect for having the convenience of groceries near by. 

Personally, I think that whole section of Admiral is ripe for a make-over (has been for the 25 years I've been driving along there), I simply don't know if it can attract economically viable businesses, other than pawn shops, low-rent furniture stores, car lots, and small engine repair.

Yeah that whole area is very grim, everything is boarded up, even the homes are falling apart. It's a sign of high crime.

Who remembers the PW on Admiral, between Sheridan and Memorial, later became a Price Mart, then a flea market, or maybe the flea market was before, it was called Flea For All,

and bonus points to whoever remembers that before it was Piggly Wiggly

We used to shop at Humpty Dumpty.

I guess the age of silly-sounding stores is over.

You've never been to that specific area in 20 years I'm betting.

I have.  Alot of homes over there are being built that are new.  Make sure you check it out the next time you visit.

It was origanlly a Bell-Scott

ding ding, we have a winner.

It was spelled "Belscot" if I recall correctly.

And the jingle went like this:

"Belscot, the together store."

More here (http://"http://www.groceteria.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=165")

According to this item on Tulsa TV Memories (http://"http://tulsatvmemories.com/gb032604.html"), the discount store / grocery at that location was originally called Jubilee City.

According to this (http://"http://www.tulsatech.edu/About/Board.aspx") there was one on Peoria, that Tulsa Tech bought for its Peoria campus.

According to their website, they still have six stores in Ok, including one in Collinsville.

saw one in Oologah yesterday... or was that in Collinsville and saw it on the way back from Oologah?  That's the bad thing about taking the "scenic" route lol

Thanks for the info, I did not remember Jubilee City. The liquor store in the parking lot was called Jubilee when I moved away in '98, used to do my business there since I lived right behind the UAW hall at Pine and Memorial.