Point Loma’s Food Basket With Roots in the 1950s Began a Tradition of Having a Neighborhood Grocery in Point Loma

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special to the OB Rag

Before Jensen’s Finest Foods became a familiar grocery stop in Point Loma, the neighborhood market at Catalina Boulevard and Talbot Street was known as Food Basket.

A grocery store at 955 Catalina Blvd. has been part of the Peninsula’s commercial landscape since the 1950s, and its history reflects both the growth of suburban San Diego and the importance of neighborhood markets.

Editor Frank Gormlie recalled:

For years during the 50s and 60s, my family lived right across Catalina from the large Food Basket and the store dominated the little mall it sat in. It wasn’t our main shopping outlet because my mom had access to the Navy Exchange on 30th Street, but we used the cavernous Food Basket for everything else. I was usually sent on an errand on my own to buy something every week — and would use it as an excuse to go its bakery for a Bear Claw. In the 60s, it was the first store where I ever used a shopping cart and the first store where I tried riding a shopping cart down the aisle. (I got pretty good at it too!)

A 2016 account in the OB Rag reported that the grocery building was constructed in 1950. A 2010 city of San Diego planning report, however, dates the existing shopping center to 1953. The property’s leasing agent, Steve Avoyer, told the Peninsula Beacon in January 2016 that the location had been a grocery market since 1952. The dates are not necessarily contradictory: the building, shopping center, and beginning of grocery operations may reflect different milestones.

By 1956, Food Basket had attracted the attention of San Diego Magazine architectural critic James Britton II. In a May 1957 commentary, Britton recalled his earlier criticism of the supermarket’s design, saying it downgraded the appearance of an otherwise handsome neighborhood. He suggested the building style of Point Loma Lumber Company would have been more appropriate.

Britton also described the market’s exterior as having what he called a “pastel brashness.” His remarks offer an amusing glimpse of how even a neighborhood supermarket could become part of San Diego’s architectural debate.

Food Basket was also part of a much larger grocery story. The San Diego-based chain was acquired by Lucky Stores in 1956. A September 1988 Los Angeles Times article about the grocery industry recalled that Gerald Awes had opened his second Food Basket in San Diego in the early 1950s. John Mabee was the store manager, while S. Donley Ritchey worked as a young bag boy. Awes and Ritchey eventually rose to become chairmen of Lucky Stores.

A 1958 San Diego city directory identifies the Catalina location as Food Basket No. 5. Historical city directories and telephone books also document Food Basket at 955 Catalina Boulevard in 1959, 1965, 1970, 1974 and 1980. Food Basket stores operated as a division of Lucky Stores for much of their existence before eventually being converted to the Lucky brand after 1980.

Over the years, the Point Loma property continued as a grocery store, later operating as Albertsons and Fresh & Easy. Fresh & Easy replaced Albertsons at the site in 2008.

When Fresh & Easy closed its Point Loma location in 2015, the vacant property became the focus of a neighborhood campaign. Residents opposed a proposed CVS pharmacy and wanted another grocery store, arguing that the location was important to people who depended on a nearby market, including students at Point Loma Nazarene University.

A petition attracted nearly 3,000 supporters. The Peninsula Community Planning Board also backed efforts to bring grocery shopping back to the site.

The campaign eventually succeeded. Jensen’s Foods opened at the Catalina and Talbot location on Dec. 9, 2016, after a major remodel. The opening drew residents who had followed the effort to keep a grocery store in the neighborhood.

More than seven decades after the building first appeared, the grocery business at the corner continues a tradition that began with Food Basket. The names have changed, but the location’s role as a neighborhood market has endured.

Sources:

OB Rag — Point Loma Community Planners: Don’t Let the Tempo Slow on Jensen’s (June 1, 2016)
City of San Diego — Planning Commission report (2010)
Peninsula Beacon — January 21, 2016
James Britton — Architectural commentary
Los Angeles Times — September 13, 1988
1958 San Diego City Directory
Groceteria — San Diego Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1925–1980
OB Rag — Jensen’s Foods opens in Point Loma (Dec. 9, 2016)