Thursday, January 24, 2008
Kenna Holm
Central Market–Safeway–Dixon Market
After talking about the littlemomandpop stores a few weeks ago, I thought maybe it would be fun to talk about the big grocery stores of yesteryear.
Remember Central Market? It was right in town between the old library that’s on the corner and the place where Roe’s Bakery was .
Roy Rodgers (not the movie star cowboy) owned Central Market and it was quite the grocery store. My mom worked there as a clerk when I was small and I remember Fern Lucas also was a clerk. Fred Robertson was the assistant manager and Art Daley worked in the meat department. Now I’m sure there are others who worked there but I can t remember who.
As you walked in the push doors (no automatic sliding doors) doors you went to the left through a turn style to get into the store. It seemed between theturn styleandthe check out counters, it kept the front end pretty closed in and easy to watch. They only had 2 check-out counters. The grocery carts were different than we have now. They were not as nice but they did the trick. They were shallow and the basket could be lifted off. As you came up to the check stand, the checker would lift the basket over the counter and take the items out and punch the price into the old fashioned cash register. I remember it was really hard on the checkers backs having to lift them up and over the counter..
The fresh fruit and veggies were along the north wall and there wasn’t the variety of things we have now. They had aisles of canned and packaged foods. The meat department was at the back of the store. No prepackaged meat in those days. You chose what you wanted and the butcher cut and wrapped while you waited.
There was no bakery in the store like we have today. They carried a good line of groceries but nothing like today. We didn’t know any better. There was not all the fast foods and microwave able foods. I think we are maybe lazy now and don t like to cook like in those days, I know I don’t.
One incident I recall was , it had stormed and I guess the roof was weak and a big piece of the ceiling fell one day landing on a Mrs. Payne. She was hurt but recovered okay.
I remember when mom worked there and it was inventory time, Roy would let the workers family come and help and he would close and lock the doors at 6 p.m. (those were the days when the stores only stayed open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and we would then count everything he had in the store. It was fun for me because he let us have whatever we wanted to eat as we worked. Roy was a great guy.
He then built a new store in about 1959 where NAPA stands now and the name was changed to Roy’s Market. He had a larger line of products and it had a small bakery that carried baked goods from Roe’s Bakery. It even had a large parking lot where down town it just had parking in front.
Later Ray Angus bought the store from Rodgers and it went on for many more years. Then there was Safeway. It was on the opposite end of Main Street from Central Market. It was at 100 South Main on the west side of the road.
From when I can remember (with a little help)those that worked there were LaVee Curtis, Bob Menlove, LaVar Clayson, Ron Mayer, Rose Sullivan, Jual Daniels, Carl Butler, and a Morrison fellow . Bruce Walton (the Onion King) was the manager. Those working in the meat department were, Cliff Voorhees and Glen Thatcher.
It was kind of like Central Market in as much as when you came in the front doors, to the north was theturn styleto get into thestore and the checkout stands were straight ahead as you came in the store doors. The produce was on the north wall and Ron Mayer was the produce manager. They had lots of aisles with food and in the back was the meat department.
When my husband and I first got married we went into Safewayto get some groceries to start out with and I remember we spent $20.00 and thought that was a fortune. Now I can go in for milk and come out with $100.00 worth of groceries and not have much to eat.
It was on Main Street for several years and I think about 1958 they built their new store where the American Beauty Academy is now and V&S Variety used to be.
They tore down the Dew Drop Inn (a little cafe owned bythe Brereton’s) and built a nice new larger Safeway. Bruce Walton was still the manager and then later Lloyd Shelley came in as manager.
They had many of the same workers plus added alotmore. Laveestayed on working, Estelle Porter worked for a lot of years, Bob Menlove stayed on and several others. In the late seventies the Payson store was closed.
The other larger grocerystore in town was Dixon Market. It was located right across from where the Daley Freez is now. Doug Dixon owned and operated it. They tore it down several years ago and put in the car wash by the service station.
I can t tell to much about it because I for one didn t ever go up there to shop. That will make a good article for another Remember when. The store closed after Douglas Dixon died in 1972.
I would love someone who knew more about it to call and let me know. Ican remember the prices in those were so low to side of what they are now. I can remember hamburger going on sale for 5 pounds for $1.00. Sugar was like $7.00 for 100 pounds, Miracle Whip was 49 cents. But then our wages were small too. I even remember a 6 pack of Coke was only 25 cents. Boy am I telling how old I am.
Main Street in Payson used to be so fun to go and shop. There you could park (with two way traffic) on either side of the street (actuallydepending on which way you were driving) and walk all over town and get anything you wanted including your groceries. Oh remember when..
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