Leamington A&P – Early 1970’s

View Comments

• There's something nice about shopping in a small grocery store, rare as hens teeth these days. Bonus points for the Eatons catalog outlet next door.

• cool photo John small coutry stores like that even though they are part of a larger chain always seem to give better more personalized service,Years ago i visited a friend up north in a small town called Massey Ontario this was a town probably smaller than Leamington,they had a SEARS Catalog store there that doubled as the Greyhound station I talked to the clerk/ticket agent and she told me people order stuff from the catalog in the office and the Greyhound Bus would deliver the goods via Greyhound express from Toronto while they stopped to pickup bus passengers

• I remember shopping there with my grandparents when I was a kid. Late 50's--early 60's. It had the old wooden floors that quite fascinated me at the time. I don't know how long it was there or what it was before being the A & P.

• check out the prices back then on the sign to the left of the door pork roast 39cents a lb

• The picture is after a remodal of the exterior, from the early fifties or before, the storefront was a shiny black material from the the cement foundation to the roof, with A&P in large red letters on it. The A&P on Ottawa St. had the same finish.
  In the fifties these was the most popular grocery store in Leamington, even thougth their was a Loblaws store more than twice as big with a parking lot across Queen St. I worked in this store in 1956 & 1957, Jim Laurie was the store manager, Dave Lamarsh meat manager and Russ Carder the fruit department.
  It was a good store with a great staff.

• Linda, that was common for old grocery stores (wooden floors) so much nicer than the crappy peel and stick tiles!
  I worked on the bingo hall in downtown Windsor a few years back and pulled up SEVEN layers of floors back to the original wood one (when it was a grocery store), it could have been beautiful. You could still see where all the shelving was. It was pretty neat.

• One of the problems with the old wood floors was every month or so you had to oil them,it was like scubbing a floor, pour on oil and spresd with mop till it soaked in. This was so it would not squeak.
  Looking back you wonder how much of a fire hazard this would have been.

• I remember that the Dominion store on Ottawa Street closed in the 70's? because the wooden floors were considered unsanitary.

• As I recall the wooden floors not only squeaked, but were dull and warped too. (Just like the wood sidewalk over on Erie south in front of the old Van's Luggage shop). The veg/fruit section was on the right side when you entered. I remember going there as a small child with my mother in the late 50's, early 60's.

• Its strange to think that A&P in Leamington is now in the fourth location since 1960, now the third one on Erie St. S. and Talbot St. store is gone replaced by a bank.