Today’s photo comes from Shane, who sent us his Walker Power Building concepts a few weeks ago.
This photo was taken by his grandmother and it shows the A & P that was located at Talbot road and Queens avenue. The building is long gone and a modern RBC stands in its place.
Thanks to Shane for sharing this picture with us. We don’t visit the county all that often. If you’ve got anything to share like this old photo, sent me a message, I’d love to feature it.
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.
How many locations were in Leamington altogether? If there have been four locations altogether, this one on Talbot and Queen would have had to been the 2nd one, as it has moved twice since then. It was in County Fair Mall where FreshCo is until 2000, then it moved to its current location south of Walmart before it changed to Metro.
The first A&P was at 35 Talbot St. E, the second location was on Erie St.South on the west side,later it became a carpet store when A&P opened in the mall with Zellers, the fourth site is the present location. The Erie ST.westside location was opened in 1960. Jim Laurie, Dave Lamarsh and Wayne (Pat) Hartley moved to the new store, the Talbot St. store remained until the mall location opened.
I worked at Talbot St. Erie St. westside, and in the ninties at the mall location for a reline.
Before the county mall location they were located on Erie Street South, where the Shopper’s Drugmart currently is.
Does anyone remember the X-ray machine in the shoe store that let you check how well the new shoes fit. I had a lot of fun playing with that as a kid.
@Douglas Hutchins: Is not that a Dangerous thing to have played with? Radiation can do most serious damage to a person’s deoxyribonucleic acid including that of the genitalia. It can cause sickness!
Ron, sure now it is. It was fine, then. Like cigarette’s.
Cigarettes*