OK, here's what I know about Foothill Blvd. grocery stores
For the second time in the last few months, I found myself making an online post about the history of grocery stores on Foothill Blvd. in Upland, California (north of Ontario).

Let's start with Vons. When I moved to California in 1983, there was a Vons on the southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Foothill Blvd. Several years later, this Vons was closed, as Vons restrategized and opened a Pavilions down on Mountain Avenue near Interstate 10 (wiping out an Ole's, a DMV, and a Chevron in the process). I believe that the theory was that the yuppies would drive home from Pasadena or whatever and stop at Pavilions on the way up the hill to San Antonio Heights. Well, something happened between theory and reality, because Vons decided to open a Vons again. However, the old site was apparently too small, so they opened one on the northwest corner of Euclid & Foothill. Both the Vons and Pavilions still exist as of today - I was certain that the recent grocery strike would result in the closure of the Pavilions, but I was wrong.

Now let's move west, to San Antonio and Foothill. There's a grocery site west of San Antonio, and one east. As of 1983, the one on the west was an Alpha Beta. The one on the east was (if I have the order correctly) a Ralphs. Eventually, Ralphs closed this store and concentrated on a property in northwest Ontario which held a Giant (since closed) and a Food 4 Less (recently closed). The new tenant east of San Antonio was Lucky. You may recall that Lucky's spokesperson was Stephanie Edwards, who would lecture us on why double coupons were evil. Anyway, that Luckys eventually closed (either before or after Albertson's bought Lucky - I can't remember which). Meanwhile, Alpha Beta was taken over by another grocery company, resulting in the Alpha Beta on the west side of San Antonio becoming...a Ralphs. The extremely wise Upland City Council, in their drive to "beautify" Route 66, put some improved Route 66 signage up in front of the Ralphs, which then promptly closed down. So, in the 21 years since I arrived in Southern California, the intersection of San Antonio and Foothill has gone from two grocery stores to none.

Stephanie Edwards appears on television once a year for the Rose Parade. I can tolerate her in small doses, as long as she doesn't push any Key Buys.

And if you want to read about the late Rosalie "Blue Roof" Kamansky and her views on a certain restaurant chain, you'll just have to go here and scroll down to the comments.