Nalevykin Food Store, 204-33rd Street West, ca. 1940. Photo Credit: Local History Room - Saskatoon Public Library - A-1482
HOMEtown Reflections The Changing Landscape of Saskatoon’s Grocery Stores Part 2 of 2 Rise of the Supermarkets Although chains like Safeway and OK Economy arrived here in the 1930s, the modern, supermarket style of grocery store that we’re all familiar with is a product of the post-war boom. It’s a child of suburban sprawl
56 | Fall 2021 Saskatoon HOME
By: Jeff O’Brien and of the automobile, as people forsook the cozy inner city neighbourhoods for the wide open spaces of Greater Suburbia. The automobile meant grocery shoppers weren’t limited to how far they could walk and how much
they could carry, or to the availability of home delivery. Home refrigeration also boomed after World War II, which would have reduced the need for frequent trips to the grocery store. Finally, the new suburbs were overwhelmingly residential.
While neighbourhood planners did set aside space for commercial activities, they were fewer and farther between than in the older neighbourhoods. But it didn’t matter. In these new, post-war cities, the automobile was becoming
