RVA grocery store circa 1924

Not sure of the exact date but it is my wife’s dad in knickers pictured at his job. This may be a Sanitary store in Richmond’s Fan. Items on the rack next to him are marked Virginia. (There’s a ton of detail in the original size picture.) My wife can’t remember where the store may […]


Not sure of the exact date but it is my wife’s dad in knickers pictured at his job. This may be a Sanitary store in Richmond’s Fan. Items on the rack next to him are marked Virginia. (There’s a ton of detail in the original size picture.)

My wife can’t remember where the store may have been. She remembers her dad telling her it was near Monroe Park. It may have been the old Style building at 1301 Main Street (which I worked in) or somewhere on the 1400 block of Main.

It was “Sanitary Grocery” because everything was out of customers reach and a clerk would retrieve your goods. A very hygienic clerk I guess :-).

Via the always awesome Vintage Richmond.

There were Sanitary Groceries in Richmond at 15 E. Main Street, 23 N. Belmont Avenue., 2400 W. Main Street, 3012-3014 W. Cary Street, and 103 E. Main Street, among others:

The earliest I have found Sanitary mentioned in the Richmond city directory is 1916, with one location, with which they muddled through until the late 1920’s. They had 52 locations by 1931, 30 in 1941, and 22 locations in 1946. They became Safeways around 1942.

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Fan of the Fan

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