It was almost 65 years to the day of the grand opening of Super Valu – which later became Super Grocer and Pharmacy – that the iconic store burned down.
Friends of the Richmond Archives posted a full-page ad from the Richmond Review that ran on Jan. 28, 1959 advertising the store’s grand opening the next day.
Super Valu was opened by the Owens family, and pictures of Joe, Ray and Bill Owens appear in the ad.
On the first day, the "new modern" Super Valu offered 500 free food hampers to its first customers, and five “oven-ready” turkeys were given out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
A new Hotpoint dishwasher was also raffled off, won by Mrs. John Emery, explained the Friends of the Richmond Archives Facebook post.
“The store stocked Japanese imported foods and was fitted with the latest thing in the grocery industry, change computing cash registers,” the post reads.
Super Grocer and Pharmacy burned on Friday, Jan. 26 and has since been demolished.
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