This section consists of a narrative history of Safeway. It is currently being rewritten and new pages are being added as they are completed. There is also the original (and somewhat incomplete and inaccurate) version of the history from the early years of this site. It will be removed when the new pages are complete. Photos and other material will also be added, so as long as this notice ...
Safeway crossed the $2 billion national sales mark in 1957, with 1958 stores in operation. Robert Magowan succeeded Ling Warren as Safeway’s president in 1955, much to the relief of many store managers who believed that 20 years was enough and that Warren’s ideas were wearing thin.
Ever since I moved to California, I’d been fascinated by the easily-discernable Safeway prototypes of the past half century, and Safeway is by far the dominant chain in San Francisco. So it’s only natural that my research should have started with this chain, and that its section should be the biggest and best developed on the site.
The locational shift in Safeway’s home turf of San Francisco is illustrative: In 1940, following the mergers and acquisitions of the 1930s, there were 123 Safeway locations in San Francisco This total was reduced to 43 by the end of World War II and to 35 by the beginning of the 1950s.
Safeway was perhaps somewhat conservative in the move to supermarkets; A&P closed or consolidated more than half its 15000 stores during the 1930s, while Safeway’s store count dropped by only about a quarter. The first Safeway supermarket units were also somewhat smaller than those of some competitors.