Colonial Stores Grocery, 2638 Two Notch Road #220 (Midlands Shopping Center): 1970s 17 comments
Sometime recently, I mentioned how odd I had always thought it was that Trenholm Plaza had (and has) two grocery stores at which point Dennis reminded me that both the original Richland Mall and Midlands Shopping Center also had two each.
With that in mind, the last time I was driving by Midlands Shopping Center (and googling suggests it is still called that, though there is no longer any signage to that effect), this building caught my eye. It is obviously the other (non-A&P) grocery building there, though it seems to be used by DSS for some sort of job training now.
In his comment, Dennis pegged this one as a Colonial/Big Star, but I'm not so sure. First of all, it's not in the list of stores on the bottom of the ad here, and second it looks more like an old Piggly Wiggly facade to me. (Which would make sense since Midlands started as a twin of Trenholm Plaza). Anyone know definitively? If so, I'll update the post title.
UPDATE 6 Oct 2009: OK, based on comments changed post title from "Grocery Store" to "Colonial Stores Grocery". Definitely not a Piggly Wiggly.
UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- Here's some pictures with a better view of the murals described in the comments:
17 Responses to 'Colonial Stores Grocery, 2638 Two Notch Road #220 (Midlands Shopping Center): 1970s'
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Dennis
6 Oct 09 at 5:30 am
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This might have started as a "Colonial/Big Star," but I first recall it as a "Giant Food World" until the mid '80s. Then, I think it spent several years as a "Super Saver."
badger
6 Oct 09 at 8:21 am
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I was pretty sure it was a Colonial as well, so I checked my handy 1964 guide to shopping centers, which sure enough lists A&P and Colonial as the supermarket anchors of this center. Other tenants included Walgreen's, Rose's, Grant's. and Western Auto. It opened on 1 March 1960.
6 Oct 09 at 8:56 am
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I do remember it being a Giant Food World & a Super Saver.
Dave
6 Oct 09 at 9:08 am
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I don't doubt that it became something else later. Most Colonial stores of this prototype had closed by the mid 1970s. But it's a safe bet this was a Colonial to begin with.
6 Oct 09 at 9:22 am
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The "other tenants" I mentioned were other stores within the same center in 1964, not subsequent tenants in that specific space, in case that wasn't clear.
6 Oct 09 at 9:24 am
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Another note about this store -- the mural on the wall facing Two Notch was a project by Gunars Strazdins, one of my art professors at USC. He did several around town in this silhouette style. Those figures are real people from the neighborhood.
Dennis
6 Oct 09 at 10:09 am
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Wasnt Dodd's a part of Midlands Shopping Center also? I really dont remember it all that well since we lived on the Cayce side of town back then.. Or was Dodd's at TP instead? I think both Midlands and TP's heyday was back from the early to mid maybe late 60's, then they both started in on the decline and went downhill from there. Are there any pictures anywhere of both these places from the mid 60's when they were at the height of their popularity?
Del
6 Oct 09 at 10:28 am
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I remember it being a Colonial Store.
Tom
6 Oct 09 at 10:38 am
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Speaking of Dodd's, does anyone remember ( I do) when Dodds was on Assembly St. on the back side of the Wade Hampton Hotel back in the early to mid 60's? I dont remember when it closed or was torn down...anyone?
Del
6 Oct 09 at 10:43 am
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OK, I'll change the post title to Colonial. Wonder when it closed, as it's not in the The State ad from 22 Feb 73. As for "Giant Food World", wasn't that in the old A&P building?
Also, Del -- I would have to say Trenholm Plaza is thriving. Maybe it had a rough patch, but it has done very well over the years and now.
ted
6 Oct 09 at 11:47 am
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BTW to "Grocerteria", where do you get a book like that?
ted
6 Oct 09 at 11:57 am
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There was a Giant Food World near the corner of Two Notch and Beltline. Don't remember one at Midlands Shopping Center.
Also do not remember a Dodd's there. The Dodd's I knew of were at Forest Lake Shopping Center, Rosewood Shopping Center and in Five Points in the triangle between Saluda and Harden streets.
Dennis
6 Oct 09 at 1:14 pm
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I remember a giant food world at MSC. Then it was a Red & White and then it became something else called Super Saver or something like that. The same thing happened on Decker too.
Mr Bill
6 Oct 09 at 2:44 pm
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To ted, I found it in a thrift store in San Leandro, California for a dollar about five years ago. Maybe my best thrift store purchase ever. The full title is "Directory of Shopping Centers" by the National Research Bureau, Inc. I think it was a series.
6 Oct 09 at 8:38 pm
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Thanks!
ted
7 Oct 09 at 12:08 am
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There was a Dodds at the A&P strip mall where Colonial, Broad River and River Dr. meet.
Tom
7 Oct 09 at 5:58 am
ted -- definitely not a Piggly, 99.9% sure it was a Big Star, which means it began as a Colonial according to this history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star_Markets
We went to Midlands a good bit during my childhood and teens since we lived about two blocks closer to it than to Richland Mall. When I was very young it seemd like a very nice, busy shopping center. Always got my Blue Horse notebooks at Roses because it was cheaper than Woolworth's.
Roses and Grants both had old-fashioned lunch counters complete with uniformed waitresses and those balloons on an overhead clothesline with the price for your banana split hidden in them. Don't you know those waitresses hated that game?
Sometime in the late 70s, though, something changed and it began its descent into a ghost town.