Cutting a 1,000 pound cake at Big Bear Store, Big Bear Store, Don Taylor. A five-tier cake stands next to a towering display of cake mix inside the Big Bear Store on February 17, 1949. A teddy bear sits on top of the enormous cake made with Swans Down Instant cake mix. The Big Bear grocery store was celebrating its first anniversary with many promotions including free Wood's coffee and slices of this enormous cake. The cake was 5-ft. by 8-ft. at its base and rose to a height of over 5 1/2 feet. Even more enticing to shoppers was the chance to win valuable prizes--inside the cake were encapsuled prize slips which entitled winners to a $400 television set, free coffee makers and free shopping bags full of groceries from Big Bear. The store was managed by Don Taylor. (TNT Ad - 2-17-1949, p. 5; TNT 2-17-1949, p. 25, article only)

Big Bear Stores (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1940-1950; Cakes--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Cutting a 1,000 pound cake at Big Bear Store, Big Bear Store, Don Taylor. Two young men stand with the enormous cake made with Swans Down Instant cake mix and Medosweet milk created especially for the first anniversary of the Big Bear grocery store on February 17, 1949. The cake was 5' x 8' at the base and stood over 5 1/2 feet high. It took over 120 pounds of icing to cover the cake. Inside the cake were prize slips in capsules which entitled the winner(s) to a $400 television, free coffee makers and shopping bags full of groceries. The woman shopper has already decided to try the cake mix as she holds a box in her hand and has another box in her cart. (TNT Ad - 2-17-1949, p. 5; TNT 2-17-1949, p. 25-article only)

Big Bear Stores (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1940-1950; Cakes--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Aerial view of West Coast Grocery, St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company and Tacoma Iron and Steel. The Union Pacific freight depot is across from West Coast Grocery on the Tacoma tideflats. TPL-5528

West Coast Grocery Co. (Tacoma); Union Pacific Railroad Co. (Tacoma); Aerial photographs; Storehouses--Tacoma; Business enterprises--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Snowflake Cracker & jelly display at Franlkin Food Stores, National Biscuit Co. Customers were urged to try Snow Flake Crackers, first box 25 cents and Jelly, 12 oz. 21 cents. Behind this display of crackers and jelly are boxes of Softasilk cake flour, Bisquick and Occident Cake Bake. Canned goods are displayed in the background. Franklin Food Stores grocery and meats main location was 117-23 No. G St. and had branches at 1123 So. K St., 1101 Market St., 602 So. 38th St., and 5252 So. Washington St.

Franklin Food Stores (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1940-1950; Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1940-1950; Crackers; Preserves--Tacoma;

Nalley's display at the new Safeway store at 84th and Pacific included Tang salad dressing at 49 cents per quart; shoestring potatoes, 2 cans for 31 cents; Banquet Dill pickles, 43 cents for 24 ounces; Lumberjack Syrup, and spaghetti with meat, 28 cents per can.

Safeway Stores, Inc. (Tacoma); Grocery Stores--Tacoma--1950-1960; Nalleys, Inc. (Tacoma)--Products

Display of Crescent spices at Manleys food fair at Fircrest. Crescent Manufacturing Co.

Grocery stores--Fircrest--1950-1960; Merchandise displays--Fircrest; Spices; Manley's Food Fair (Fircrest);

A display of Del Monte canned fruit, green beans and tomato catsup has been created at the end of one of the aisles at the Big Bear Store in Tacoma. Large cans of Del Monte peaches were 25 cents each and pineapple was four for 98 cents. Del Monte advertised an upcoming "All-Star Revue" to be seen on NBC-TV.

Big Bear Stores (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960; Food--Tacoma--1950-1960; Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Two men complete the display of Trend soap at the Midland Thriftway Market (Thriftway Food Stores) by adding a sign announcing, the "Largest Trend display in the World." The store was located at 5402 South Tacoma Way. Ordered by the Purex Corporation.

Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960; Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1950-1960; Thriftway Food Stores (Tacoma);

The Frank Thomas, Sr., family established their small grocery store in University Place 46 years ago. The Thomas brothers, Al, Frank and Joe, grew up helping their mother run the business, working every day including Sundays. They opened up an ultra-modern full scale supermarket in September, 1951, as a Red & White Food Store in University Place. Their two full page ads on September 12, 1951, offered prizes, free balloons and merry-go-round rides for children, and free coffee and cake for all customers. View of showcase of fresh refrigerated fruits and vegetables including squash, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. Red Tokay grapes were listed in the ads at two pounds for 25 cents; Danver yellow onions at 3 pounds for 10 cents. Stacks of Coca Cola bottles are positioned next to the display counter and there are several elaborate floral arrangements on the shelf above the produce. Photograph commissioned by Consolidated Service, Seattle. (TNT 9-12-51, A-6, A-10, A-11)

Thomas Bros. Foodliner (University Place); Grocery stores--University Place--1950-1960; Merchandise displays; Food--University Place--1950-1960;

In November of 1951, local coffee roaster Wood Coffee Company had an aisle-long display of their one and two pound coffee cans at the Big Bear grocery store in Tacoma's Stadium District. Big Bear was celebrating its redecoration with specials such as Wood's Coffee for 75 cents a pound or two pounds for $1.49. The Wood Coffee Co., located at 1517 Commerce St., was founded by John Wood, Sr., in 1905. Three years after John Wood, Sr. died, in 1951, the Wood Coffee Co. was sold to the Mello-Cup Coffee Co. of Seattle. (TNT 11-7-51, p. 11- ad for Big Bear)

Big Bear Stores (Tacoma); Wood Coffee Co. (Tacoma); Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1950-1960; Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Produce is displayed along the windows at the A-G Food Store at 56th and Yakima (also South 56th and Park). A-G Food Stores were celebrating the opening of two new stores, this one and another at 72nd and South Oakes. Two long shelving units run the length of the store through the middle and more shelves line the walls along the left and at the rear. Two check-out counters are seen with scales located next to the cash registers. The meat counter is seen in the foreground. (TNT, 10/12/1951, p.A-2)

Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960; A-G Food Store (Tacoma); Cash registers; Scales;

Thriftway supermarket in the new Villa Plaza Shopping Center. Several Del Monte products on sale including six bottles of ketchup for $1.00, seven cans of canned corn for $1.00 and tomato sauce at 13 cans for $1.00. Thriftway advertised "Where Every Customer Is Important!" The Villa Thriftway, managed by Kenneth Gies, was a member of Associated Grocers. It had its own bakery and seafood market in addition to regular departments. Villa Plaza officials had planned a one-stop shopping designation for their Lakewood shopping center to include grocery, pharmacy, clothing, banking and automotive needs to attract the growing number of suburbanites. 50 acres of free parking proved a powerful lure for thousands of shoppers. (TNT 8-7-57, B8,9-alt. photograph)

Villa Thriftway Food Stores (Lakewood); Grocery stores--Lakewood--1950-1960; Signs (Notices); Villa Plaza Shopping Center (Lakewood); Shopping centers--Lakewood--1950-1960;

Albertson's Food Centers were starting to expand in the Tacoma/Pierce County communities. There were two Albertson's outside city limits: one in the Lakewood Square shopping center and the other in University Place. View of Lakewood Square's Albertson's Food Center also shows the trend of placing supermarkets in shopping centers; customers could then combine grocery shopping with additional browsings and parking would not be a problem. A Montgomery Ward outlet and a Singers store can be spotted close by. Albertson's followed the practice of posting specials on the storefront windows with apple pies selling for 49 cents, chickens at 33 cents a pound, TV dinners for 59 cents, and pork roasts for 29 cents a pound. Sepia photograph ordered by Loveless Brothers, Inc. , investment brokers, of Olympia.

Albertsons Food Center (Lakewood); Supermarkets; Signs (Notices);

The Park 'N Shop Supermarket. The Park 'N Shop was owned by John Bussanich and Otto Marth. It had a distinctive dome style roof, a corner entrance and lots of parking. A refrigerated trailer outside holds ice. A delivery truck for Archway cookies is parked outside. At the forefront of one stop shopping, the store offered drugs, dry goods, groceries, meat, vegetables and prescriptions. This aided the busy housewife whose stops in earlier times would have included the butcher, green grocer and pharmacy.

Park- N- Shop (Parkland); Supermarkets; Grocery stores--Parkland--1950-1960;

The sign for Highland Hills (originally Highland Hill) Shopping Center. The parking lot was still under construction; the Grand Opening was scheduled for December of 1956. The shopping center was built to serve the growing population of the West End, including University Place and Fircrest. Located on 6th Ave. near Peal, the center would be convenient to these areas. The first tenant was the Big Bear Store, which opened in 1955. The center would house 21 stores in a modern layout with a pedestrian mall in the center and 5 acres of customer parking. The angled roofline created visual interest. (TNT 10/28/1956, pg. C-17)

Big Bear Stores (Tacoma); Supermarkets--Tacoma--1950-1960; Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960; Electric signs; Highland Hills Shopping Center (Tacoma); Highland Hill Shopping Center (Tacoma); Shopping centers--Tacoma;

American Wholesale Grocers. Nighttime view of exterior of new IGA Foodtown store located at Park Ave. and Airport Way. The supermarket shares the same strip mall with Devereaux Realty, Ruth's Cafe, a beauty and barber shop and a drycleaning plant. The entrance to the grocery store is to the right. The variety section may have had its own entrance to the left of the brick wall. Each IGA was independently owned and operated, but affiliated with IGA, the second largest retail food outlet in the country. (TNT 8/16/1955, pg. 7-10)

IGA Foodtown (Parkland); Grocery stores--1950-1960; Supermarkets;

American Wholesale Grocers. Exterior of new IGA Foodtown store located at Park Ave. and Airport Way. A planter box and flagstone paving lead to the entrance of the store. The 20,000 square foot building was built of concrete block and roman brick with large plate glass windows across the north side. A large modernistic marquee extended over the northwest corner and a raised planting area with flowering and evergreen shrubs included two oriental trees that extended through the roof. (TNT 8/16/1955, pg. 7-10)

IGA Foodtown (Parkland); Grocery stores--1950-1960; Supermarkets;

Sib's Thriftway. The 52nd Thriftway store to open in Washington and Oregon was on No. 26th & Pearl in the Westgate addition. Sib Carstensen was the operator. The store was one of the largest supermarkets in the Northwest. The market sold food, magazines, comic books, housewares, greeting cards and some drugs. It featured a 1,000 car parking lot with 10 feet available between parked cars. The store was the crown jewel of the Westgate Suburban Shopping Center. When all of the stores in the center were complete, they would represent an investment of over one million dollars. The market opened with a three day Grand Opening, with free orchids, coffee & cookies and rides on the merry-go-round ponies for the kiddies. (TNT 9/2/1953, pg. C-1)

Sib's Thriftway (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1950-1960;

The new South 56th and Pacific Tradewell supermarket carried a wide variety of coffees in 1953. A coffee aficionado could either grind his own coffee beans, with a machine provided by the store, or buy a pre-packaged, already ground can. View of long row of coffees includes Folgers, Chase and Sanborn, Postum and Tradewell's own brands. Photograph ordered by Tradewell, Inc., Seattle.

Tradewell Stores, Inc. (Tacoma); Supermarkets; Coffee--Tacoma; Grinding machines;

The newest and largest supermarket in the Puyallup Valley celebrated its grand opening on May 19, 1954. The Piggly-Wiggly, located at 10th & East Main in Puyallup, was the first Piggly-Wiggly built in the past 22 years in the Pacific Northwest. Owned and operated by veteran groceryman, C.A. ("Chic") Hogan, the 10,600 square foot store was made of Roman brick with huge glass front windows. It was built by Strom Construction. Hundreds of gifts ranging from TV sets, bikes, corn poppers to three lively cocker spaniel puppies would be awarded. The new Piggly-Wiggly was one of 800 stores in the chain operating in 38 states, Alaska and Hawaii. It was noted that food cost savings would be achieved due to the supermarket's vast purchasing power. (TNT 5-18-54, B-1) TPL-9808

Piggy-Wiggly (Puyallup); Supermarkets; Grocery stores--Puyallup--1950-1960;

The staff of this Safeway store probably had a lot of fun dressing up for the supermarket's "Country Carnival Days" promotion on June 30, 1958. The men wore bow ties and striped vests topped off with jaunty derbys while the women checkers, in bonnets, wore "buttons and bows." There is even an old-fashioned policeman with truncheon handy to keep order. Photograph ordered by the Retail Clerks Union.

Safeway Stores, Inc. (Tacoma); Publicity photographs;

Topper Supermarket. By the 1960's, supermarkets were offering not only groceries but also department store shopping as ladies blouses, men's shirts, underwear and socks could readily be purchased while also searching for tonight's dinner. View of Topper Supermarket, an I.G.A. store, shows a "soft goods" selection next to the ice cream section. Although the supermarket in this January 27, 1960, photograph is listed with a Tacoma location, it is believed that the Topper IGA was located in Fife at 1406 54th Ave. E. and owned by Daniel & LeRoy Herron. It was built on the site of the old Century Ballroom and destroyed by fire on January 4, 1964. Ordered by The James Co.

Supermarkets--Fife; Topper Supermarket (Fife);

View of Manley's parking lot taken from across the street. Cars fill the parking lot of Manley's Supermarket on Steilacoom Blvd. on a clear August, 1960, day. They were probably drawn to the supermarket due to the many sales including 10 lb. of C & H sugar for 89 cents, bag of potatoes for 45 cents or bananas at 10 cents. The store's "Chefs Hat" also featured barbecue and a delicatessen. Manley's had celebrated its grand opening on August 24, 1960, at the brand new Thunderbird Shopping Center. The supermarket along with the adjoining Ludwig Pharmacy would be the first occupants of the shopping center, located on a 48-acre tract of land which once housed an airport and golf course. The site, at Hipkins & Steilacoom Blvd., was chosen because of the potential economic growth in that area of the county. The 15,000 square foot supermarket was a concrete block and glass structure heated by natural gas. (TNT 8-23-60, p. 5)

Manley's Supermarket (Lakewood); Supermarkets--Lakewood; Parking lots--Lakewood; Signs (Notices);

ca. 1938. Ben's Economy Groceteria and Mosier's Meat, 764 So. 56th St., Tacoma. The store was built around 1937. In 1951, it became Fagerholm's Associated Grocers (AG) Market.

Grocery stores--Tacoma--1930-1940; Ben's Economy Groceteria (Tacoma); Mosier's Meat Market (Tacoma);

ca. 1905. George Davis capitalized on the budding growth of Bismarck by opening a neighborhood grocery store. The Tacoma Eastern Railroad Shops brought jobs to this Tacoma community, centered around McKinley Avenue and East 64th Street. As a consequence of the First World War, the area named for German chancellor Otto Von Bismarck was changed to Hillsdale. The Davis family included George, wife Minnie, and children Robert and Earl, most likely the people on the grocery store deck in this 1905 photograph. Bicentennial project #75346-39.

Grocery stores--Tacoma--1900-1910; George D. Davis Grocery Store (Tacoma);

ca. 1915. An eye-catching pig and his master, made of Washington lard, occupied one of the display windows of the Queen City Market, 1115 Broadway, circa 1915. The lard appears to have come from the Carstens Packing Co., local meat packers. The Queen City Market had opened in March of 1914 in the lower level of a three story building next door to the Horgan-Parker department store. They offered for sale a wide variety of fresh fish, poultry, butter, eggs, and assorted groceries. (TDL 3-1-1914, p. 3-article on store opening)

Queen City Market (Tacoma); Grocery stores--Tacoma--1910-1920; Window displays--Tacoma--1910-1920; Swine;

This display of canned and bottled products was provided by Anderson's Market in July of 1930. This is believed to be Anderson's Public Market, located at 1104 Market St. A cash register is located between boxes of Nucoa and cans of Pabst Malt Syrup. Anderson's was celebrating its 20th anniversary on July 12th with free hot dogs, chicken noodles, hot coffee and Hires' root beer for customers. Many enticing specials were being offered including 16 oz. cans of Del Ray Chicken Ravioli for 20 cents, Del Ray complete chicken dinners for 27 cents per package and 45 cents for cans of Pabst Malt Syrup. G56.2-109 (TNT ad- 7-11-30, p. 9)

Anderson's Public Market (Tacoma); Merchandise displays--Tacoma--1930-1940; Cash registers;

ca. 1938. Jackson Brothers Meat Market in the newly modernized Manning's store. Left to right, Elmer Jackson, Mike (last name not identified), Walter Jackson and Edwin Jackson. The meat market at Manning's had been in operation several years before 1926 when Edwin Jackson and Aug Fauss became partners and proprietors of the New Tacoma Meat Market. Edwin's brother Walter was working for them at the time and a few years later, Elmer Jackson was also cutting meat at 1102 Commerce. In the 1930s, it became Jackson Brothers Meat Market; they specialized in quality meat and sold Swift Co., Carsten's and Rath's meat products over the years. The Jackson Meat Market remained here until the building was razed in 1972.

Haering's Grocetorium celebrated the opening of its newest store, Store No. 4., in July of 1921. The latest Haering's, built at a cost of about $4,500 by P.C. Walesby, was located at the corner of E. 63rd and McKinley in the Hillsdale neighborhood. It was a one-story brick building, both fireproof and ratproof, and contained two store rooms. Nicolaus Haering (standing in front of the telephone pole) founded the successful chain in 1913. The stores were among the first in the Northwest to feature "help yourself service" (self service), on a cash only, no delivery basis. Skeptics became regular customers, drawn back by lower prices. The chain eventually operated 12 stores in the Tacoma area. G56.2-090; TPL-6349 (TDL 6-12-21, B-5-article)

Grocery stores--Tacoma--1920-1930; Haering's Grocetorium (Tacoma);

Tacoma's seventh Safeway Store opened at the corner of 6th Avenue and Pine Street on October 10, 1941 shortly before this photograph was taken. The new store, which replaced the Safeway at 2603 6th Avenue, had its own parking lot which provided 1 hour free parking for Safeway shoppers. The corner of 6th and Pine had just been re-designed to eliminate the 6th Avenue "jog", solving a problem which cause a bottleneck at that corner.

Grocery Stores--Tacoma--1940-1950; Safeway Stores, Inc. (Tacoma);