Have you heard the legend of the Safeway on Larchmont Boulevard? The tale is often told by neighborhood natives when locals today express the deep desire for a grocery store on the Boulevard. Yes, there was a time when Safeway, Jergensen’s and other markets all thrived on Larchmont!
Above you can see a picture of the store in its prime…on the site that is currently occupied by Rite Aid. There’s a parking lot full of station wagons in place of the section of stores that currently exists to the south – including Crumbs, Pickett Fences, Hans Custom Optik, Larchmont Beauty and Starbucks. To the north you can see the building that’s currently home to Louise’s and Yogaworks…with the Baskin Robbins sign hanging proudly.
There’s a great website dedicated to the history of film locations called Dear Old Hollywood. This week the site profiled an old episode of Qunicy M.E. that was filmed on Larchmont in the ’70s. Kind of fun to check out – and it’s where we discovered that the Safeway was not just a myth! And there’s a Bob Hope movie called ‘Eight on the Lam‘ memorializing it.
What would you look for in a market on Larchmont?
Yeppers a Safeway, which was so great to have, I shopped there all the time. Then Safeway became Pavilion & guess it was too small & closed. And they opened up on Western Ave, just south of the old fire station.
The Larchmont store front became a Quinns, a health food store & it was (kinda) useful for food shopping. Don’t recall what was there in between Quinns closing & Rite Aid opening.
Yes,
I vividly remember Safeway, Jergensen’s, and many other grand and convenient shops. So when the new local yocal’s who didn’t grow up here say “we don’t want Larchmont to change,” I say, “sorry, it already has, you just weren’t here.”
This is what Larchmont needs–a good small market, deli, meat shop–anything other than more fast food chains.
Yes, many residents would welcome a meat shop like McCalls in Los Feliz.
GRAMMAR NOTE to author and one poster: “kinda” and “kind of fun to check out” are sloppy, unprofessional grammatical applications. “Kind of” is not an adverb meaning somewhat. “A pigeon is a kind of bird” is the proper use, meaning “a type of”.