LaGrange #5 - LaGrange, GA
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| Courtesy Vintage Aerial - LaGrange #5 Sing Store - 1988 |
LaGrange #5
Sing Food Store | Deli
LaGrange, GA 30240
Revisited: July 9, 2022 | Original Publication: June 4, 2022
Scroll Down for the MTC Post on Piggly Wiggly #401 | Former Winn-Dixie #1807
Finally, a post about Sing's last widely-used prototype: the 1980's rectangle! So far, I only know of six of these stations to be built by Sing Oil Company (with one additional planned station being built out after the merger), but I have only ventured inside two of them. That being said, one of the six stores is now a used car lot (which happens to be one of only five 1990 Sing stations whose land is not currently used for a convenience store / gas station, meaning 51 locations still operate as such. Also, I found a really cheesy video which makes it look like the inside still features many of Circle K's fixtures and neon lights.), one has been torn down, one is in BFE Louisiana, and one is in Jacksonville, FL, where I have not yet found a reason to visit. That being said, if anybody reading this finds themselves in Jackson or Columbia, MS, Bogalusa, LA, Jacksonville, FL, rural South Alabama, or Waycross, GA, feel free to reach out to me!
Update: I recently came across a new resource called Vintage Aerial. I haven't quite figured out the source of their pictures, but they have a plethora of photography centering around rural homesteads and businesses. Most pictures are from the 1980's and list their source as "State Aerial Farm Statistics" but it seems to me like the pictures could have been used by tax appraisers since aerial photography is much faster than traveling to sparsely constructed buildings in rural America. Needless to say, I found several vintage pictures of rural Sing Oil Company stations, all of which I had only seen a modern perspective of. I was very excited, and the picture I added at the top of the post was the one I was especially thrilled about. Not only does it showcase this station within a year of its construction, but it also reveals that Sing changed their awning style on the 1980's rectangle stations to coincide with their new logo rollout in 1986.
I also discovered two previously-unknown Sing stations just by spotting the diamond logo on a road sign. I'm sure many others exist which I am unaware of, but I was surprised to see those dealer stations still pumping gas well into the 1980's.
Anyway, back to the current station in view. As my name for the prototype suggests, LaGrange #5 was built in 1987 as the fourth convenience store (that I have found) in LaGrange and the fourth station I know of to use this prototype. The later stores of this floorplan also added the window we see above in the side wall of the station for customers to look out over the parking lot as they munched on a deli sandwich. I believe the white door, however, was added later by McDonald Oil Company (Summit), who acquired the LaGrange Sing Stores from Amoco in 1993. McDonald Oil seems to have sold their convenience store business, including Summit #32, to Hop-In in 2019, which is why this location now features the red and white awning branding. For the most part, the store would have looked like this when Sing left it in 1990.
Thank you, random man in a white T-shirt, for holding the door open for us! Stepping inside, we are immediately greeted by the cashier counter and a hot food case. Although the hot food case looks much to modern to be from the 1980's, I believe it is positioned in the exact spot Sing would've put one! Even better, this store still has Sing's original red and grey Formica cabinets and product pegboards (thinking about the pictures from my Bradfordville post, I think film would have been displayed here).
This floor tile is almost certainly original to this building's 1987 construction, too. It seems to have held up pretty well!
Taking a few more steps back, we can get a better overview of the middle of the store and the cashier / deli counter. Although I am shocked to say it, this store is probably laid out entirely the same as it was in the 1980's. The cabinet and cooler to my right are obviously a new addition, but everything to my left and in front of me seems to be in its original placement.
That being said, I was also shocked at how much more spacious this store was than LaGrange #4, or a number of other former Sing Stores I have seen.
Turning to our left, we see more of Sing's original cabinetry (some of which is covered up by those Hunt Brothers Pizza graphics) and a variety of things I had no intention of buying from this convenience store. I also want to note how this store still had a white cutting board inset in the red Formica counters behind the register. Although this is a neat customization (I imagine Sing included to help with their sandwich cutting workflows), it seems like a really old piece of commercial kitchen equipment to continue to have behind the counter.
I'm also glad I didn't want coffee (which I don't drink) because both coffee machines look to be out of order. However, at least the Coke fountain still works! Just past the Coke and ICEE machines is a hallway to the restrooms and storage area. I'm not sure if Summit inherited the green and gold "Restrooms" sign from BP or if they made it themselves, but it looks quite old as well.
On the left side of this shot, we see the edge of the customer dining area. I believe Sing would have used booths here instead of the tables we see today, but it makes sense for Sing to have used this layout as well.
I'm not sure what my intent was with this picture, but it seems to be the only view of the back right corner of the store I got (maybe somebody was lurking on the back aisle). We can also see that the walls of this store were painted yellow, and the fluorescent strip lights were changed out since Sing left.
Looking down the middle of the candy aisle, we can see the register counter off in the distance.
Indeed, that is a bud {neon} light! Looking at the drink coolers along the back right wall of the store, I spy some original Sing molding on the wall that has been painted yellow. This originally would have been the dividing line of the blue stripe which ran around the perimeter of the store.
Sneaking a peek out from the front aisle of the store, we get a better overview of the cashier counter layout, and the seating area off in the distance. I also see the chairs for some nice gambling bingo machines on the left!
Turning around, I noticed this section of brown paint in the front right corner of the store which somebody forgot (or didn't bother) to cover up with the newer yellow paint. I'm not entirely sure how Sing would've left this store, but the grey color I saw in former Columbus #4 seems pretty convincing to me! With that being said, it looks like there is some grey paint visible around the edges of the brown, which would lead me to believe that the brown was older. I don't know if or why Sing would have originally painted the brown, but maybe somebody else can come up with a better theory.
Our last shot in this store looks down the front wall from the front right corner. Here we can see a section of freshly-mopped floor and a few of the household items which were for sale.
I may sound like a broken record, but again we see Sing's signature vacuum light pair out in the parking lot. Both of these look to still have the original light fixtures attached, and are completed by an Amoco "air" sign.
I also believe the canopy is mostly original to Sing Oil Company. It looks like Summit added an extra pump on the left side, but I'm almost certain this station has always featured multi-product dispensers, like we see today.
We'll take one last look at the station from my street view, and one look from the Troup County Tax Records, before we take a look at Google's street views.
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| Courtesy Troup County Tax Records - Summit #32 - March 25, 2020 |
Street Views
Aerial Views
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| Historic Aerials - 1981 Future site of the LaGrange #5 Sing Store |
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| Google Earth - January 1993 LaGrange #5 Sing Store, shortly before sale to McDonald Oil Company |
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| Google Earth - February 2011 Money Back / Summit #32 after recent canopy addition and new Pegasus Parkway alignment |
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| Google Earth - November 2020 Current Hop-In Convenience Store; former LaGrange #5 Sing Store / Summit #32 |
This Little Piggy Went to Marketplace
This little piggy went to Market{place}, this little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy ate a roast beef sandwich, this little piggy had none.
And this little piggy cried, "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home!
That
little nursery rhyme always takes me back to when I would visit my
grandmother, as I can picture her reciting it as we would pull up to her
house. (Although most versions online simply read "roast beef," I feel like I always remember her adding "sandwich" to that line.)
If you don't yet see the connection, it happens to be very fitting for this post, as former Winn-Dixie Marketplace #1807 is very much so alive and well, even though Piggly Wiggly #401 now resides at 1861 Roanoke Road. What is even more interesting about this store is how Winn-Dixie moved out of the space in 2005, following their recent bankruptcy. That was almost 17 years ago!
While I was on my adventure in LaGrange, a stopped by Publix to get a
chicken tender wrap (Gasp, shocker!) for lunch. A local managed to see
me eating my sandwich and commented how they, too, enjoyed the Lakeland,
FL chain's deli. Consequently, they also mentioned how good the subs
were at the local Piggly Wiggly. I never managed to give one a try, but I
was in for quite the surprise upon my visit to one of LaGrange's two
Piggly Wiggly stores.
The Store
Piggly Wiggly #401 / Former Winn-Dixie Marketplace #1807
Sawmill Place
1861 Roanoke Road Suite A
LaGrange, GA 30240
The Pig-Dixie, as I like to call it, opened during the height of Winn-Dixie's supermarket domination in 1997. At the time, the chain spanned across the Southeast (and beyond) and seemed to think they could continue building Marketplaces everywhere. That obviously wasn't true, as the Jacksonville, FL based chain is now a shadow of its former self; although, it is luckily showing some signs of a rebound. I'm sure if you are reading this post, you know all-to-well about Winn-Dixie already, so let's dive on in to one of the stores they left behind when they abandoned the larger North Georgia market in 2005.
The front of the building seems to still feature a number of WD's secondary signage, including the "Seafood" lettering to the left as well as the "Deli - Bakery" signage to the right. The "pharmacy" sign looks to have been added later, whenever Holmes Pharmacy moved in around 2018. Although it is not as common as some of the other Marketplace façades, I have seen this architectural design used for other Winn-Dixie stores from this era.
Stepping up to the front door, we see a typical WD inverted trapezoidal setup, featuring the original swinging doors, along with the iconic "Entrance" sign above.
Wow does this place feel like a Marketplace! Other than a few minor signs, this place looks like it is straight out of 1997!
Stepping forward a bit, we see a few pallet drops of promotional items to our left and right, with produce off in the distance. I'm not entirely sure what the octagonal floorspace and matching light would have been used for previously, but I wonder if it was a cut fruit station? Regardless, those pink florescent lights are a classic 1990's Winn-Dixie relic!
Across from the octagonal island, along the front wall of the store, is the "Wall of Value." I'm going to assume this lettering dates back to WD, since I have seen other stores use similar text and font, but I could be wrong.
Looking back over the front end of the store, we see Winn-Dixie's iconic section of dropped ceiling over the register lines, with the customer service desk off in the distance. This store also featured a Post Office branch to the right of the door, which could occupy the space formerly used for WD's photo processing.
I'd imagine that most of the produce fixtures in this store are original, judging by how well they line up with the overhead light fixtures (and based on the fact that Piggly Wiggly did minimal work when they moved in). We can see the remainder of this store's grand aisle off in the distance, which includes floral, specialty cheeses, and the deli.
In case you haven't noticed, Piggly Wiggly also managed to keep all of Winn-Dixie's major department signage in place! All they did was cover up the WD logo with a pig and swap out "America's Supermarket" for "Piggly Wiggly".
I would like to note one odd thing about this store's Marketplace package; contrary to most stores of this era receiving a bright pink and teal version of the package, this store's primary color looks to be more of a blush. Could this be the actual Rose and Teal version of the package?
Between the produce department and the deli was this floral and gift section. Judging by the light fixture and the floor color, I'd imagine this department was left largely unchanged.
Some would theorize that Piggly Wiggly went through the effort to paint all of the formerly bright pink walls this muted blush color, but I personally think that is way more effort than what actually changed in this store. The fact that the blush color runs behind all of the departmental wording on the diamond signs makes me think it would be way too hard to paint around all of those letters; furthermore, the smaller diamonds which are placed in the white section of the wall also use the same blush color. I believe that the majority of this store is original to 1997 – just look at how the floor tiles even match!
Next up, is the "Wall of Special Values" in the back right corner of the store. It seems to me like this cooler was just being used as an extension of the pre-packaged deli section.
The special values are followed up by hot dogs and sausages under the "Luncheon Meats" sign.
Then, along the back wall, is the deli. Between the floral island and the deli, was a section of booths for customers to dine at. Although I'm not entirely sure how Winn-Dixie treated this space, I do know those booths remind me a lot of ones I have seen in Sing Stores.
Oddly enough, I have also never seen one of these "Cheese World" signs before. It seems like every visit to an old Marketplace granted me one more sign for my collection! I would like to point out that this sign features the traditional pink color I have seen in other Winn-Dixie stores, so I'm not sure if that should be used as evidence toward Piggly Wiggly having repainted the store, or simply because WD already had this sign made for the other package.
I would like to point out how this store's sister Marketplace down in Eufaula, AL also uses the same blush color for the top section of the trim, but uses the brighter pink for the bottom bar of trim. Oddly enough, this color was part of an original Marketplace color palette! With that being said, if anybody finds themselves in Eufaula, you should photograph that store!
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| Courtesy Google Maps (Crystal Lumpkin) - March 2019 |
Wow, I can't believe I missed how this store still features some of Winn-Dixie's silhouette posters in the Deli! I guess I was too busy looking for pita chips, and the lights behind most of the service departments were turned off. If you zoom in to the picture above, look on the section of wall above the scale and you will see him. If I didn't know better, you could've easily convinced me this picture was taken in an active Winn-Dixie store! I wouldn't be surprised if the meat and seafood counter we see below also features a "Beef People" print somewhere behind the counter.
Speaking of the butcher counter, it is located conveniently to the left of the deli on the back wall of the store.
You might've heard me rant about this before, but I can't stand grocery stores with a split aisle setup! Unfortunately, this is one more trait the LaGrange Pig-Dixie inherited from its predecessor. On aisle 2, you'll find Jell-O and fruit juice, in addition to some vintage Marketplace aisle signs.
Zig-zagging through the aisles, we now find ourselves on aisle 3 looking toward the back of the store, surrounded by candy and pasta. Oddly enough, the photo on this aisle sign seems to have held up pretty well compared to some of the others I have seen.
What does a Marketplace aisle sign and skin share in common? Too much UV exposure can lead to painful results. The sign for aisle 5 depicts my mental vision of these old Marketplace aisle signs, which always includes a grossly-faded stock photo. As I mentioned before, I'm still shocked how some of the graphics, like those for aisles 3 & 4, did not suffer the same UV damage. Were they printed on UV resistant paper? Is the sign for aisle 5 perfectly aligned with the florescent light for optimal fading? Did somebody replace some of these stock photos at some point? I have no clue!
I honestly don't blame Piggly Wiggly for embracing the old Marketplace décor because it seems like it would be much easier to maintain a cohesive package than to try and create something from scratch. I also think they have done fairly well with the store because it still looks better than many current Winn-Dixies I have been to! Likewise, the neon for the meat & fish department was still fully functional!
We'll take one last look at the back right corner of the store before we move on.
I understand what Winn-Dixie's intent was for including these various stock photos on the aisle signs, but it seems like it would've made more sense to include a picture of cleaning products on this aisle rather than broccoli and carrots! Is there a new vogue trend to pair your corn with a glass of motor oil? Are Tide Pods the healthy snack Tik-Tok wanted us to think they were? In all fairness, Piggly Wiggly could've shuffled the aisles around at some point in the last 17 years. At least the category signs match the product being sold on the aisle!
Stepping over to aisle 8, we see more cleaning products, complete with a matching stock photo! I would like you to see if you can spot something interesting about this picture (I'm sure there are multiple things, but I'm going for something obvious this time).
Taking a look down aisle 7, we can get a better idea of the split aisle setup I mentioned previously. I believe this middle aisle ran across the entire store. As we can see, half of aisle 7 is used for cleaning supplies while the other half transitions into cosmetics.
Off in the distance, we can also see Winn-Dixie's original "Health & Beauty" sign, with the pharmacy and customer service desks just beyond that.
Now that I'm looking back through my photos, it seems that this meat picture (the same one we saw on aisle 5) seems to be the prime suspect targeted by those pesky ultraviolet rays. They must have some beef with Winn-Dixie! It would make much more sense had this bleached out picture been displayed in a Food Lion! (In all honesty, I have nothing against neither Food Lion nor Winn-Dixie)
I took this picture on the front half of aisle 10, which seems to be this store's version of SEG's modern "Dollar Shop" (hence why all of the category markers are blank). Off in the distance, we see the pharmacy counter which seems to be operated by a local third-party. I will note that the wall around the pharmacy seems to have been painted whenever they moved in, in addition to Winn-Dixie's original pharmacy sign being altered. I do wish they had not completely painted over the bottom section of trim, because I think it looks distasteful to see molding painted the same color as the surrounding wall.
Returning to the rear actionway, we see the packaged meat section of the store. I believe the department sign on the wall to the left originally read "The Beef People", so it makes sense why this would've been taken down.
This store's dairy department was located in the back left corner of the store and continued along the left wall. I find it funny how Piggly Wiggly even adopted WD's strategy of storing Styrofoam coolers on top of the refrigerators!
Taking a look toward the left wall, we see more dairy products and their appropriate signage.
Past the dairy is the "Beverage Center" which is home to beer and wine. Although Winn-Dixie wouldn't have placed these neon signs above the coolers, this aisle seems to remain largely the same as they would have left it.
Wow, another functional neon sign! We find the bakery in the front left corner of this store, which seems to have a large chunk of square-footage devoted to it.
After we round the corner and pass the pharmacy, we return to the check lanes and customer service counter.
Before we depart, we can't forget about visiting the Frozen Foods department! In typical Winn-Dixie fashion, we see two freezer aisles separated by a coffin cooler in the middle of the store. Just like a number of other pictures I have shared, if this picture doesn't scream "Marketplace!" then I don't know what does!
Thank You for Shopping at America's Supermarket Piggly Wiggly!
The sun was really being uncooperative with me trying to take exterior shots of this building! Anyway, here is a larger overview of the store and adjacent shops.
And a glimpse of the road sign facing US 29.
This store also received a drive-up Synovus ATM in the parking lot fairly recently. For those who don't know, Synovus originated just down I-185 from LaGrange as Columbus Bank & Trust (CB&T) in Columbus, GA. They still have a neat Mid-Century style building in Downtown Columbus, as well.
Now that we have completed our tour, do you think this store was painted blush-pink by Piggly Wiggly or by Winn-Dixie? Let me know your thoughts, or if there is something blatant which I forgot to mention!
Also, make sure to check out my recent posts over on My Florida Retail Blog covering Food Lion #2829 / Former Super BI-LO #5704 and Winn-Dixie #446!
Until next time,
- The Sing Oil Blogger
Additional Resources:
Sing Parcel ID: 0713A000062
Piggly Wiggly Parcel ID: 0711A000085A
Troup County Property Records