Then and now: Low Cost Food Market

During the 20th century, Spokane and the rest of America went through a revolution in retail marketing. Skaggs drugstores, Safeway and the Bon Marche were part of the expansion in chains of grocery, drug and department stores.

Section:Gallery

Sun., March 15, 2020

Longtime retail entrepreneur Roy L. Stone opened his first Low Cost Food Market, pictured here in 1951, at Division Street and Baldwin Avenue in Spokane with 14,200 square feet of floor space and a parking lot which can accomodate more than 150 cars. Stone had previously owned a chain of Stone’s Food Stores which he sold in 1946.

The Spokesman-Review Photo Archive
The former Low Cost Food Market built in 1951 at the corner of Baldwin Avenue and Division Street has been the home of Mountain Gear, which closed recently. The supermarket was part of a trend in the 1950s toward larger and larger grocery stores.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review