Sac Foods history

Sutter hired his first beer brewer in 1845, and the beer industry started nearby in the Old Tavern, in the building Biba’s inhabits today.

Q: What were the favorite foods of Gold Rush-era Sacramento, circa 1850? Were these favorites locally grown, or shipped from elsewhere?

One, at 1916 9th Street, was housed in a former Cardinal unit.

Safeway was showing a tendency toward more outlying stores along Stockton Boulevard and J Street, and would have 11 locations in Sacramento by the end of the 1920s.

Interestingly, neither of these stores made the transition to Safeway, which had six locations by the 1928 merger.

Five Safeway-owned Piggly Wiggly stores had been converted to Safeway branches by 1935, with the remaining four closed or sold.

1937) has found itself in an area without many nearby grocery options.

1941), the Putney Food Co-op is a fresh and modern full-service grocery store with a wonderful coffee bar and made-to-order cafe.

Safeway had, by 1960, abandoned almost all its inner-city stores in the region surrounded by Broadway, Alhambra Boulevard, and the two rivers, with a single newer store on Broadway the lone holdout.

Lucky Stores had by 1965 completely absorbed the Cardinal chain and consolidated its two operations down to only six stores.

Since 1972, Isla Vista Food Co-op has been an oasis of good food supporting predominantly young people with options for healthy, responsibly produced food.

About the Winners: Among large-format food co-ops, the new store design of the longstanding Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op (c.1973) is a remarkable achievement.

But they helped us make sure everything got there on time.” There was a big party when the store opened on December 18, 1976.

There is a record of the Policy Meeting’s original vote to incorporate in 1977.

Several people remember clearly that in February 1978 the Policy Meeting re-affirmed this decision and authorized Incorporation Committee to pay the filing fees and file the incorporation papers.

The Blue Mango restaurant, a workers’ collective, opened in October (Co-op Month) 1979.

As might be expected, many of the same people were involved in both, as well as in the founding of local co-ops and Farmers’ Markets. It took us until February 1981, two-and-a-half years, to work out the “merger” and become incorporated.

The bad news hit early in 1982: though everything looked like it was going well, and sales were continuing to increase, the Co-op was losing money.

The information packet and ballot for the Pavey’s move was mailed out to members early January 1984, with ballots due the 23rd.

VFC began as a natural foods buying club organized by a small group of individuals who worked together to provide their families with healthy foods and in the fall of 1995 they opened their first store.

Two close-in stores, one at 530 23rd Street and one at 4830 J Street, are still open today as Albertstons units, following its 1999 acquisition of Lucky Stores.

In 2016, the co-op opened a brand new store with 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space.