Gateway grocery stores

[jax-native68]

I am a Jacksonville native, and some of my earliest memories are of Gateway shopping center/Mall.  I lived here until I was about 4 years old and didn’t come back until the mid-1970s.  I vaguely remember 2 grocery stores in the Gateway area.  I don’t have any real early memories of Pantry Pride so I think that it must have moved to Gateway sometime after 1975. But I do remember a Big Star and another store, but I cannot remember its name.  I know that either this store or Big Star gave out S&H Greenstamps and the other one gave out Top Value stamps.  Does anyone know the name of this other grocery store?

[duvaldude08]

Welcome was one grocery store. It was located in the building that is now the Norwood Flea Market. Is that the one you are talking about?

[jax-native68]

Welcome is a recent arrival.  I remember a grocery store that emphasized bulk quantities sold from self-serve bins that took the Woolco space in Norwood Plaza sometime the 1980s, but I don't remember its name and I think it closed after a short while.  A similar store was located on Blanding Boulevard in the late 1980s in the shopping center where Harbor Freight is located now but I never really paid any attention to its name.

If I remember right the store that had the trading stamps was gone by the time I moved back to Jacksonville in the mid-1970s. I don't have any memories of it after I came back to town.  Not being able to remember the name is driving me crazy.  I am only in my mid-40s and my family doesn't have any history of dementia or Alzheimers, but I had a bout with congestive heart failure in 2008 and since then I have had trouble remembering things from my childhood.  I’m hoping somebody can tell me the name of this grocery store so I can say ‘yea I remember it now”. 

[I-10east]

LOL, I wouldn't call Welcome's arrival 'recent', as it was a while ago. Your supermarket description sounded like Welcome to the tee, a Norwood Plaza supermarket that focused on bulk items, and it closed down very shortly. Maybe some old head will come up with the name of the supermarket, although I been here in Jax for a decent lil' while (since 86') I betcha Lake knows the market, as he's spot on with his info. Stay healthy.

[AmyLynne]

I dont know about the one on Norwood... But the bulk bin store on Blanding was Welcome. It was in the middle of the shopping center that sits behind Shoguns.

[jax-native68]

LOL, I wouldn't call Welcome's arrival 'recent', as it was a while ago. Your supermarket description sounded like Welcome to the tee, a Norwood Plaza supermarket that focused on bulk items, and it closed down very shortly. Maybe some old head will come up with the name of the supermarket, although I been here in Jax for a decent lil' while (since 86') I betcha Lake knows the market, as he's spot on with his info. Stay healthy.

The store I am talking about did not have bulk merchandise and it was here in the early 1970s.  The store with bulk items didn't arrive until after the Woolco went out of business in the mid-1980s.

[duvaldude08]

LOL, I wouldn't call Welcome's arrival 'recent', as it was a while ago. Your supermarket description sounded like Welcome to the tee, a Norwood Plaza supermarket that focused on bulk items, and it closed down very shortly. Maybe some old head will come up with the name of the supermarket, although I been here in Jax for a decent lil' while (since 86') I betcha Lake knows the market, as he's spot on with his info. Stay healthy.

I agree Welcome was closed down in the 80's. Thas not to recent. Welcome was the last thing there before they open the flea market. Growing up in this area I remember that vividley.

[lowlyplanner]

You might try the old City Directories at the downtown library. 

Sort of like a reverse phone book, they go through every street and tell you what was located at each address.  I think they go up through the mid-1970s.

They're an amazing historical resource.  Really old ones (from the teens) tell you whether a person was white or black, and later ones tell you whether the house or business had a telephone.

[jax-native68]

You might try the old City Directories at the downtown library. 

Sort of like a reverse phone book, they go through every street and tell you what was located at each address.  I think they go up through the mid-1970s.

They're an amazing historical resource.  Really old ones (from the teens) tell you whether a person was white or black, and later ones tell you whether the house or business had a telephone.

It may come to this.  I am driving myself crazy trying to think of the name of this grocery store.

[Debbie Thompson]

Pantry Pride?  There was one at Philips Mall.  There was probably one at Gateway.  And if that's not it, thanks a lot, Jax Native, because now I"M going crazy trying to think of it.  LOL

[jax-native68]

Pantry Pride?  There was one at Philips Mall.  There was probably one at Gateway.  And if that's not it, thanks a lot, Jax Native, because now I"M going crazy trying to think of it.  LOL

I remember the Pantry Pride now that I think of it.  I remember it being located in a seperate building on an outparcel when I was born and then it moved to a storefront in the main building at Gateway a few stores down from Murphy's sometime after I came  back to town in 1975.  But Pantry Pride is not the store I am thinking of.

[Debbie Thompson]

Dang.  I thought I had the mystery solved.  :-)

[Jaxson]

Daylight?
Big Star?
IGA?

[jax-native68]

Daylight?
Big Star?
IGA?

Big Star is one of the stores that used to be at Gateway, but there was another one as well in addition to Pantry Pride.  Neither Daylight, nor IGA ring any bells.

[Jaxson]

Was it Piggly Wiggly?