This section consists of a narrative history of Safeway. It is currently being rewritten and new pages are being added as they are completed. There is also the original (and somewhat incomplete and inaccurate) version of the history from the early years of this site. It will be removed when the new pages are complete. Photos and other material will also be added, so as long as this notice ...
Ever since I moved to California, I’d been fascinated by the easily-discernable Safeway prototypes of the past half century, and Safeway is by far the dominant chain in San Francisco. So it’s only natural that my research should have started with this chain, and that its section should be the biggest and best developed on the site.
Safeway Stores divisions from 1932 as noted in Uno Animo, the company’s employee magazine.
Safeway was perhaps somewhat conservative in the move to supermarkets; A&P closed or consolidated more than half its 15000 stores during the 1930s, while Safeway’s store count dropped by only about a quarter. The first Safeway supermarket units were also somewhat smaller than those of some competitors.
Safeway Division The districts noted “also Piggly Wiggly” have stores listed as being in the Piggly Wiggly Division as well as stores in the Safeway Division. Safeway and Piggly Wiggly seem to have operated side by side in many districts with no distinction between the two names; the organizational structure seems to have been based on a “critical mass” of each brand. For example, if a ...