Old safeway store on 11th street

[Steve]

Wow, they turned it into a little big box store.

Perfect description.  That thing is double-butt-ugly.

[Hoss]

I may have my stores messed up but I think Sound Warehouse moved in there for awhile before it got sub-divided all out.

Yeah, that's what my Mother told me speaking to her last night...

[Hoss]

And within a few years, you can add to the list 15th & Yale (where Walgreens is today), 15th & S. Lewis (SW corner) and 31st & Sheridan in the original Boman Acres shopping center (approx. where the tacky bingo place is now.)  Safeways were everywhere through the 1960s and then began to disappear, all gone by early 1980s.

The 15th & Yale Safeway and the 15th & Lewis one were the 1960s "arch top" design like the 11th & Denver store was; the 31st & Sheridan was more conventional, built into the middle of the Boman Acres strip center.

Wasn't there one at 11th and Memorial also?  One of the 'arch top' designs?

Although it doesn't currently look like it now, I seem to remember one being there on the southwest corner of the intersection.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.147561,-95.886612&spn=0,359.98071&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=36.147354,-95.886661&panoid=yAt9bjRwVfC2kuLi0GssCQ&cbp=12,262.35,,0,-3.46

[dbacks fan]

Wasn't there one at 11th and Memorial also?  One of the 'arch top' designs?

Although it doesn't currently look like it now, I seem to remember one being there on the southwest corner of the intersection.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.147561,-95.886612&spn=0,359.98071&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=36.147354,-95.886661&panoid=yAt9bjRwVfC2kuLi0GssCQ&cbp=12,262.35,,0,-3.46

Yes that was a Safeway, and don't forget there was one on Denver just north of Edison that I think is home to the county election board. (My bad, I see it has been listed previously.)

[PonderInc]

I, too, was amazed by all the Safeway stores in the Beryl Ford Collection.

This one still exists at 18th and Boston:


I can't identify these, but I thought they were cool...







Oooh!  A "commercial use" right smack dab next to residential!  Call the zoning police!  (Oh, wait.  That was before zoning "fixed" everything...)


Mixed use, too!






Why is this one familiar...?


The churches are still there.


This one says 18th and Quannah (is that underneath US-75 now?)

[TURobY]

I, too, was amazed by all the Safeway stores in the Beryl Ford Collection.

Why is this one familiar...?

11th and Birmingham Place. Right across from BAMA.

[Red Arrow]

11th and Birmingham Place. Right across from BAMA.

I almost hate to notice but I did.  The mini towers with the roof sloping in four directions.  Nothing is new.

[waterboy]

My first job in high school was the 24hr Safeway at 3rd and Trenton. I believe its still there and was one of those arched designs. Lots of mosaic along the entry ways too. They were proud of their modern design buildings that provided more open space inside and the exposed laminated beams were impressive. Had to join the union to make 90 cents an hour (plus tips). My friends all worked at the Foodtown down the street a half mile. My job was bagger, carryout, floor clean up and sorting of returned pop bottles (ugh!)

Safeway was a well run chain but was done in by greed in the eighties. The cost of labor was deemed too high. This was before scanners. A good, experienced checker was expensive but absolutely essential. The unions protected their high wages. In response, Safeway closed the stores and sold them to another company called Homeland. All the employees were fired of course, then rehired at lower wages with a loss of benefits. Homeland was a mere reconstituted Safeway. Same owners, new name. The practice became a popular and effective way to lower labor cost and destroy unions. Of course a few years later the scanners and WalMart changed everything.

At least that was the story at the time. Safeway's only true competitors at the time were the Affiliated and IGA type operations which were private grocery stores (Yeakey's, Foodtown, Sipes, etc.) that used cooperative buying schemes to keep trucking, warehousing and food costs low. And of course, there was the Packard Cab of grocery operations, Warehouse Market. I really miss those stores and their personal touch. The managers/owners were onsite working and serving their neighborhoods. Their advertising was clever and helpful. WalMart doesn't measure up.

[Red Arrow]

A grocery chain in the Philly area called "Penn Fruit Co" also used arched roof design buildings in the 1950s.  I have no idea who the architect was.

[Conan71]

11th and Birmingham Place. Right across from BAMA.

I wish someone would rehab that building into new retail and some loft units.  It's a great example of Tulsa architecture.

[TURobY]

I wish someone would rehab that building into new retail and some loft units.  It's a great example of Tulsa architecture.

Not too long ago, there was someone looking at using the bottom for convention space and the top floors for boutique hotel. Haven't heard anything on that for about 6 months though.

[Nic Nac]

Thanks to everyone that has shared pictures and history in this thread!  I am blown away.  Great stuff.

[tulsabug]

Not too long ago, there was someone looking at using the bottom for convention space and the top floors for boutique hotel. Haven't heard anything on that for about 6 months though.

For what the owners of that building want for rent, it doesn't surprise me that every store in it left and no one is going in. We looked at renting out the corner where the Safeway was at about 13 years ago. It had been a body shop for years so the interior was in poor shape (though the patterned ceiling was still original and looked good). It had no central air (and I believe no heat). They wanted about $3000 a month for it - 13 years ago! Heck - I didn't ask (couldn't stop laughing at the guy on the phone when he told me what a great deal it was) but it was probably triple net too.

[waterboy]

I just spent 3 hours compulsively searching on the Ford collection. Found out that a Safeway once resided in the building right next to the old Lousiane that is now Pink. Apparently they later moved over to Boston Ave. Anyway, the Lousiane went through an awful face lift somewhere between 1939 and 1967 that totally ruined its facade. The building is now for sale btw.

The library search engine is strange. You find stuff by accident as much as by design.

[SXSW]

My first job in high school was the 24hr Safeway at 3rd and Trenton. I believe its still there and was one of those arched designs. Lots of mosaic along the entry ways too. They were proud of their modern design buildings that provided more open space inside and the exposed laminated beams were impressive. Had to join the union to make 90 cents an hour (plus tips). My friends all worked at the Foodtown down the street a half mile. My job was bagger, carryout, floor clean up and sorting of returned pop bottles (ugh!)

Safeway was a well run chain but was done in by greed in the eighties. The cost of labor was deemed too high. This was before scanners. A good, experienced checker was expensive but absolutely essential. The unions protected their high wages. In response, Safeway closed the stores and sold them to another company called Homeland. All the employees were fired of course, then rehired at lower wages with a loss of benefits. Homeland was a mere reconstituted Safeway. Same owners, new name. The practice became a popular and effective way to lower labor cost and destroy unions. Of course a few years later the scanners and WalMart changed everything.

At least that was the story at the time. Safeway's only true competitors at the time were the Affiliated and IGA type operations which were private grocery stores (Yeakey's, Foodtown, Sipes, etc.) that used cooperative buying schemes to keep trucking, warehousing and food costs low. And of course, there was the Packard Cab of grocery operations, Warehouse Market. I really miss those stores and their personal touch. The managers/owners were onsite working and serving their neighborhoods. Their advertising was clever and helpful. WalMart doesn't measure up.

When I lived in Denver I shopped at Safeway and it was the nicest non-Whole Foods/Central Market grocery store I've ever been in.  They are all over Colorado, is it the same Safeway that used to operate in Oklahoma and is now Homeland?  You know Homeland is okay, and I like that they're locally owned, but compared to Safeway, HEB, Albertson's, or even the newer Reasor's it's pretty subpar.