Woodland Scenics IGA Grocery

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Red Owl Food Store from the 50's

When I was a kid, this Grocery Store, Red Owl was very popular in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is based in Minnesota. Michigan built the Mackinac Bridge and every thing changed in Michigan. Red Owl is still in the U.P., but they are now a modern super market.

I would like to use a Ameri-Towne structure and built the structure you see in the photo below or some kind of kit bashing with the IGA Grocery Store from Woodland Scenics.

  Click photo to enlarge.

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Miller Engineering has a animated IGA sign for that store.

http://www.microstru.com/Window_signs.html

Those stores are real Americana!  Love the old S & H Green Stamp signs too.  Brings back a lot of good memories.  I have to incorporate some of this nostalgia into my layout.

Art

Some Red Owls for Gary. A little history; Red owl was headquartered in Hopkins, MN, 15-minuets from me. Founded in 1922, it was initially owned and operated by a private investment firm affiliated with General Mills. First store was located in Rochester, MN.

Miller has a S&H window sign too!

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These Miller Engineering Window Signs • Are a big plus for most structures.

  Click photo to enlarge.

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That looks like the one that was in Marquette, MI

#6, Remember this everyday service...

#7, Red Owl ala Walthers...

#8, Southdale Mall, Edina, MN...

#9, Minneapolis, 1940...

#10, An unlikely event...

It still exists. At least at my local Kroger grocery, they still offer to help bring your stuff to the car. Which can be handy if you're by yourself and end up with more than one cart full of stuff.

A picture of my IGA. I'm going to order the IGA window sign from Miller engineering & place it in the right side window.

Nice idea Spence.  It should look spectacular.  

There was an art in packing groceries in paper bags, heavy items on bottom, usually can goods, topped by cereal, etc. boxes, bread, eggs on top. Everything squared up so the bag wasn't to heavy nor tipped over for the customer. Also with this service, shopping carts weren't left on the lot to damage cars, or the carts by cars.

Wednesday was the day the IGA delivery by semi came in,7PM. Started unloading truck which were in back. The cartons, boxes came down rollers and had 3 employees open the boxes. They then came down rollers into store were we would put them on pallets. Each pallet marked for a aisle. After truck was unloaded, we re-stocked shelves, moving older stock forward also. Those days, there was no recycle, so empty cardboard boxes were taken to back were we had an incinerator and burned them. We always finished around 1AM. Home, bed, and wake up for school at 6AM. Store hours were 9AM to 9PM, except Sundays, were hours were 9AM to 1PM. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years we were closed. Other Holidays reverted to Sunday hours.

I did a lot of job as a kid/in college, but never worked at a grocery. It must have been interesting it is own way, and boring beyond words in others - another load of lettuce, oh boy!

I have the WS "Doors" factory. Hope to acquire many more. Don't have any grocery stores yet... Good suggestion.

(Are they paying you a commission?)

Yes!

The presentation of the merchandise is now very poor,

and the style of dress is more, um "casual"?

Dept. 56 also made a Red Owl store that is good looking.

I wish there was an easy way to remove the snow from it.  I love Christmas but I don't want it Christmas on my layout all year long.

Art

Got my IGA store yesterday from Mr. Muffin. Nice structure and evokes fond memories when the local IGA was a fixture in many a New England town.  By the way, I do like the Miller Enegineering S&H and IGA window signs, but they are the more modern logos--this structure is firmly set in the 1950's, IMO.

The only IGA I saw was asupermarket in Montreal. It was in a downtown mall:Alexis Nihon Centre at the Atwater metro. In Canada supermarkets anchored malls even big ones.

Just bench tested the lights. They look good.

Art,

You could turn the snow on your Red Owl store into dirt piles with a little paint and brown ballast. Maybe put a crew repairing a water leak, or adding a wheel chair ramp, out front.

Len2 - That's a good idea, thanks.

Art

Your being kind with the word, "casual"...