Then and Now: Reichert’s Food Center

Mon., March 23, 2026

1953: The Old National Bank purchased the 13-year-old building on the southeast corner of Crestline Street and Sprague Avenue so the bank could expand the branch and use the parking area on the corner for its customers. The bank’s East Side branch had been there since 1941. Reichert’s Food Center, which had also been there since 1941 and was Alex Reichert’s only venture into grocery stores after running meat markets, closed shortly after this photo was taken. After the store left, there were series of restaurants and service businesses there. (Spokesman-Review Photo Archives)

By Jesse Tinsley jesset@spokesman.com (509) 459-5378

Reichert’s Food Center opened at 2110 E. Sprague Ave. in 1941.

Real estate investor H.B. Gillingham tore down three smaller structures to build the Gillingham Block at the corner of East Sprague and Crestline Street in the East Spokane business district in 1940.

Just west of there, the 1932 Pay’n Takit grocery store had changed its name to Safeway, representing the growing grocery behemoth that would soon dominate the industry.

In 1941, Gillingham’s first tenants were a branch of the Old National Bank’s and Reichert’s Food Center, an independent grocery.

Alexander Reichert was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, around 1885 and came to the U.S. as a child. His family eventually lived near Sandpoint and moved to Spokane around 1924. He trained as a meat cutter and opened a meat market at Main Avenue and Washington Street downtown. His sons, Robert and Eugene, later worked in the business.

Before modern grocery stores, most shoppers bought from independent sellers of meat, vegetables, dairy, bakery or other goods.

By the 1920s, entrepreneurs were gathering stores into chains to maximize wholesale purchasing and distribution at scale.

Reichert’s little store allied with the Independent Grocers Alliance, which was first founded in 1926. IGA offered wholesale buying and shipping as well as group advertising rates.

Both chain stores and group alliances like IGA inspired antitrust laws. In 1935, legislators in Olympia proposed a licensing fee of up to $250 on stores that allied together out of fears of price fixing. Retailers fought back, the proposal failed and large chains became the norm in retail businesses.

Despite the trend toward conglomeration, IGA still serves several thousand stores across the United States with its logistical distribution network.

The Reichert store was in business until 1953. Reichert, who died in 1967 at the age of 82, was a charter member of the East Spokane Kiwanis and the meatcutters union.

Since around 1988, the Evergreen Club, first organized by the Spokane Community Mental Health Center, has offered vocational and rehabilitation services at Crestline and Sprague. Club members and staff work together to operate the Mary Sue’s Bought Before Boutique thrift store. The site is now overseen by Frontier Behavioral Health.

Jesse Tinsley can be reached at (509) 459-5378 or at jesset@spokesman.com.