Lucky's at Alma Plaza

This Web page is dedicated to — of all things — a former Lucky's supermarket located in Palo Alto, California. The supermarket, located near the intersection of Alma and East Meadow, dates from January 1956, and is today most likely the oldest and smallest in the Lucky Stores chain (once Peninsula-based, but now a part of Albertsons, based in Idaho).

The Alma Plaza Lucky's is special in many ways. One of the most interesting things about it is that, for whatever reason, it is in many ways "the supermarket that time forgot." Today, corporations such as American Stores prefer to build supermarkets sized at 50,000 square feet and above. (A prime example is the vast Lucky's recently opened at the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View, which happens to be just a couple of miles away from Alma Plaza.) They do this proclaiming customer convenience, and, of course, many of us do find it useful to shop in a vast store at times; the real issue, however, is that the corporate owners wish to include relatively high-profit-margin departments such as in-store delis, bakeries, etc.

For whatever reason, the Alma Plaza Lucky's escaped all this. It is still not far over 13,000 square feet in size, and looks much the same as it must have done when it was first opened. Especially notable are the rectangular Lucky's sign (once a trademark of all the chain's stores) and the store's generous glass area. The latter, echoing the architecture of the Eichlers and other '50s tract homes still found in South Palo Alto, brings "the outside in" to the store, making it quite different from the airless, artificially lit boxes that corporations build today. Palo Alto architect K.C. Marcinik stated, in a 1995 letter to the Palo Alto Weekly, that the store design was created by the renowned Raymond Loewy, who designed such things as the Coca-Cola bottle, the original double-deck Greyhound bus, the Studebaker Golden Hawk, and the Shell logo. Be this as it may, the store is a distinguished and important example of '50s architecture.

Architectural distinction aside, the Alma Plaza Lucky's fits into its surroundings in a way that a new monster store could never do. Visible from nearby cul-de-sacs, it nestles against the adjacent Stanford Villa apartments. Admittedly over-provisioned with parking space (obviously designed for Oldsmobile Ninety-Eights and Chevrolet Bel Airs, not Hondas), Alma Plaza also includes a doughnut shop, a pizza parlor, a shoe repair shop, and other small businesses. The plaza once also included a service station, which was demonlished approximately fifteen years ago. There are vacancies in the plaza, not for any underlying economic reason, but rather because American Stores has bought the entire property and is clearing tenants out as leases expire.

A leafy "back yard" to the Lucky's property insulates neighbors from noise that otherwise might be experienced when supermarket deliveries take place during the night. More important, there is a pass-through so that pedestrian and bicycle traffic can access the supermarket from Ramona Street directly behind it. This feature makes the center extremely useful to the young (such as children from nearby JLS and Fairmeadow schools) or elderly, who can shop without having to have a car and without having to brave busy Alma Street, which has been dubbed the "International Speedway" by Palo Alto police.

You can click on any of these pictures to load a larger (768 by 576) version

The Lucky's sign (last of its type?) is visible from a nearby cul-de-sac	Alma Plaza is surrounded by trees and all the parking places shoppers could desire	Lucky's is driving out the surrounding small businesses as their leases expire
To the immediate north of Lucky's, this arcade has housed small businesses for more than 40 years	The doughnut shop shown here was forced by Lucky's to close in March 1999	The Lucky's sign again, as seen from the north side
This photo shows the store's generous glass area	Both sides of the store have picture windows from top to bottom	The curved tile over the side door is a great detail. The Lucky Stores label you see here has now been ripped off.
Taken at the side rear of the store, this photo shows a Goodwill collection trailer and the pass-through to Ramona	The store parking lot easily handles cars such as this 1966 Chevrolet	Thanks to glass area and a peaked roof, the store interior is light and airy

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American Stores wants to demolish the Lucky's store and the small businesses that have nestled under its benign wing for more than forty years. Naturally, it wants to plant yet another Albertson's/Sav-on flag on the map, building as close to the edges of its property as the city will allow. It wants Palo Alto to pave the way by scrapping the city's limits on how big supermarkets can be. It wants to remove parking spaces, increase traffic at a corner that already backs up regularly during commute hours, destroy a piece of architecture that, incredibly, amounts to a living '50s museum.

And for what? Not because the current Lucky's isn't profitable: I'm told by a source within the supermarket industry that it is actually one of the most profitable (certainly per square foot) in the Lucky's chain. Of course, Lucky's also benefits from Proposition 13 tax breaks and the fact that it has owned the property for so long. The running costs of this supermarket must be minimal. However, corporations wish to stamp out nonconformity, so down the store must go!

If these things go as they so often do, commissioners will cave in to the corporate desire for a zoning change, saying that they "cannot stand in the way of private property rights" (though why not? That's what zoning does, selectively, wherever it is used). This will be kicked upstairs to the City Council, which will nibble away at details of whatever plan Lucky's proposes, scale certain details down, collect money from American Stores to "pay" for the parking spaces it eliminates or the traffic problem it causes, then declare victory and stand aside as a community asset is razed.

What should happen? First, any change in zoning should be denied. There is no compelling need for the city to change its rules for this supermarket, or any other. Enlightened planning suggests that Palo Alto should maintain its unique assets and physical amenities by, among other things, recognizing that we need service that can be walked to or biked to. Planners should also recognize that in an area where real estate prices are frightening, small businesses such as the Chinese restaurant and shoe repair shop in Alma Plaza need a place to exist.

If it is too much of an affront to American Stores' corporate ego to retain this nonconforming store, they could profitably lease the premises to a more enterprising retailer such as Trader Joe's (which does not already have a store in Palo Alto and would be welcomed by many). And the potential of the other retail units in the Plaza is rich given today's need for affordable office and retail space..

Author: Jonathan Angel
www.angel.org
Sincere thanks to the Palo Alto Weekly for its great online "morgue" of old articles
This page last updated 8/28/00