famous grocery stores – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

Super A Foods from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

It’s not every day a location is featured in back-to-back Oscar frontrunners, but such was the case with Glassell Park’s Super A Foods! The small mid-century market made appearances in both 2018’s A Star Is Born and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Neither movie wound up locking down the Best Picture prize, but Super A Foods became a household name among fans, not to mention a popular stalking venue, nonetheless. I had long been familiar with the grocery store thanks to its cameo in the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads and even blogged about it in 2011. It sure has come a long way since then, though, so I figured it was definitely time for a redo and ran right out to re-stalk it.

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Built in 1967, the one-story grocer was designed by architect Robert H. Peterson and originally housed a Food Fair market.

In 1975, Super A moved in and never looked back. The chain, which today boasts 8 outposts, was founded in 1971 by Lou Amen, who sadly passed away two weeks ago at the age of 90 after miraculously recovering from a case of COVID-19. He was still actively working for the family-run company until just a few days before his death.

Per the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Glassell Park Super A Foods “is significant as a largely intact example of a postwar-era grocery market.” The building features fabulous mid-century detailing including glazed glass, a geometric sign, and a canted ceiling.

That roofline, though!

It is at Super A that Pussycat (Margaret Qualley) and other Manson Family members dumpster-dive for food toward the beginning of Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. The segment was shot on the market’s west side, along Cypress Avenue.

The signage visible behind the women in the scene is authentic to the store, painted there long before filming took place.

The James Dean mural the group walks by upon leaving Super A is not, though. It was created specifically for the shoot on the western side of S & S Pharmacy, directly across the street from the market.

Sadly, the mural was painted over after filming wrapped and there are no vestiges of it left today.

As I mentioned above, Super A was also featured in Crossroads. It is at the supposed Alabama store that Lucy (Britney Spears), Mimi (Taryn Manning), Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Ben (Anson Mount) make a pit stop for snacks during their road trip from Georgia to California.

And in A Star Is Born, Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) stop by Super A for frozen peas after Ally gets into a bit of a scuffle, punching someone at a bar. While sitting in the market’s parking lot nursing her swollen hand, Ally begins to write “Shallow,” the song that eventually makes her famous. Of the location, cinematographer Matthew Libatique told radio station KPCC, “If a grocery store can possibly be cinematic, it’s this one.” He also considered the site pretty central to the movie. As Libatique expressed to LAist in a 2018 interview, “It was meant to root [Ally’s] existence on the Eastside of Los Angeles. It was very important for [production designer Karen Murphy], as a designer, to make sure the character had an identity through her environment.”

Yellowcard’s 2003 “Way Away “ music video was shot at the market, as well.

And in 2019 Cuco filmed his “Keeping Tabs” music video at Super A.

The Glassell Park Super A Foods is not the chain’s only claim to fame. The former Eagle Park outpost at 2245 Yosemite Drive, which today houses a Sprouts Famers Market, made several appearances in the 1981 comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman.

The Eagle Rock store was also featured in Travis’ 2007 “Closer” music video.

And the 2008 comedy Over Her Dead Body filmed a couple of scenes at the Highland Park Super A, located at 5250 York Avenue.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Super A Foods, from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is located at 2925 Division Street in Glassell Park.

October 7, 2019October 11, 2019

The “Scream” Grocery Store

I love a good grocery store locale (as evidenced here, here, here and here)! My dad worked in markets throughout my childhood and I spent a lot of time with him at “the office,” which is where my affinity stems from. So even though I had already blogged about Pacific Market, the Santa Rosa bodega that cameoed in horror favorite Scream (which my aunt and uncle, who live in the area, stalked on my behalf back in 2008), I still had to hit the place up when I traveled to Sonoma County in October 2016. Going through my photos from that trip in preparation for this post made me a bit misty-eyed. While in town, I dragged my mom, aunt, two uncles, longtime BFF, and her boyfriend to every.single.locale. featured in the 1996 flick. Oh, how I wish I could do it all over again – especially the visit to Pacific Market, where my stalking resulted in a free bottle of champagne! But more on that in a bit.

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Per newspaper ads, the property that currently houses Pacific Market has been a grocery store since at least as far back as 1950, at which time it was known as Pohley’s Market.

It has gone through several different grocer iterations in the years since – as well as a few renovations, I’m sure. When the Scream cast and crew descended upon the area in the spring of 1996, the shop was known as Town and Country Market.

The upscale store was known for its fine wines, gourmet foods, and other specialty items. A former ad for the place I found on Newspapers.com touted Town and Country as a spot “Where old-fashioned courtesy and relaxed shopping are yours at supermarket prices.”

Town and Country became the third store in the Pacific Market chain when it was acquired by the Mohar family in 1997, a year after Scream was filmed on the premises. Initially established in 1948 by Stan and Mary Mohar, the grocery company was light years ahead of its time as far as healthful eating was concerned, dedicating an entire section of each outpost to organic produce from the start! Unfortunately, with the purchase came some renovations, which I’ll cover further down.

The Santa Rosa outpost was subsequently sold on two more occasions (first in 2012 and then again in 2016), each time retaining the Pacific Market name. The latter sale occurred just prior to my visit, during which I had the good fortune of meeting the new owner, who could not have been nicer! Turns out, he had no idea of his store’s cinematic history and was thrilled to learn about it! As I filled him in on Pacific Market’s role in Scream and where filming had taken place, I couldn’t help but relish in his enthusiasm over the cameo and had to throw out a few suggestions to honor it, such as stationing a Ghostface mask in the freezer aisle so that its reflection could forever be visible in the glass doors. I am unsure if he implemented the idea, but it’s genius, right? As our chat wound down, he asked me what I like to drink. I told him champagne (of course) and he promptly grabbed a very nice bottle off the shelf and gifted it to me – which was the first time any of my stalkings ever resulted in free bubbly!

In Scream, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) head to what was then Town and Country Market to buy party supplies for the soiree Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) is hosting to celebrate classes being canceled due to the murder of two fellow Woodsboro High students. Sadly, the part of the store the girls walk by at the top of the scene was extensively remolded after filming took place, with the side window and wooden patio railing removed, as you can see below.

This was done to allow for a new entrance (pictured below) to be built at the corner of the market, one that would be more accessible to the surrounding wraparound parking lot.

As such, the southeast tip of the building was essentially blown out and diagonally-situated doors installed in its place. (The support beam visible below marks exactly where the demolished corner used to come out to.)

The store’s original main entrance, which was situated on the south side of the market and which Sidney and Tatum walked through in Scream, is just a set of windows today.

Completely framed in, the windows are situated behind seasonal displays and grocery cart storage and semi-obscured from view.

The bulk of the Scream scene takes place inside Pacific Market, in aisle 5 to be precise – the freezer aisle (dun dun dun!) – which Tatum and Sidney walk the length of.

It, too, has been remodeled, unfortunately. The freezer aisle used to be zigzag in shape. It was in the shorter section, where the aisle zagged off toward the front of the store, that Sidney grabbed popsicles and ice cream and announced she was “sexually anorexic.”

Today, the freezer section is one straight line with an open refrigerated display case situated in the spot where Sidney and Tatum perused frozen desserts. Though I don’t have a photo taken from the same angle shown in Scream, the area where the girls were positioned is pretty much right where the woman in blue is standing below. Because the freezer aisle pretty much ends where the new front doors stand, I believe the alteration was made to accommodate for their construction.

It is as the girls leave the aisle that Ghostface’s reflection becomes visible in a freezer case door – as I said, dun dun dun! (I accidentally took the photo below from the wrong angle, but as you can see the freezer doors have also since been swapped out for new ones.)

It is not at all hard to see why Wes Craven and the rest of the production team landed on the store as a location for Scream. Pacific Market is the perfect little neighborhood grocer. And while the segment shot there is short, it is significant as it not only encapsulates the idyllic small town nature of Woodsboro, but the naivete of the teens at the center of the story who are out buying ice cream and Tostitos for a party celebrating school being cancelled due to the murder spree ravaging their town! Talk about a juxtaposition! (The song that plays at the top of the scene is also perfection, btw.)

I really could not have timed my visit to Pacific Market better as the fall decorations adorning the store only added to its homey feel. I mean, if that’s not the perfect slice of Americana pictured below, I don’t know what is!

And yeah, had to do it!

Even my aunt got in on the fun!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my aunt and uncle for originally stalking this location for me back in 2008, taking me to stalk it myself in 2016, and then re-stalking it for me again this past weekend. When I sat down to edit my photos for this post, I realized I hadn’t taken any that matched what was shown in Scream, so I asked if they might head out there to snap better comparison shots. They happily obliged and sent me all that appear in this post. (For those counting, that’s their third stalk of the place – and no, they’re not fans of the movie in the slightest.) I honestly can’t thank them enough!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pacific Market, aka the former Town and Country Market from Scream, is located at 1465 Town and Country Drive in Santa Rosa. You can visit the store’s official website here.

April 7, 2011April 6, 2011

The “Crossroads” Grocery Store

Special Note – I attended a taping of Ellen yesterday afternoon and ended up being ON the show as one of her game contestants. 🙂 🙂 🙂 The episode will air today, so tune in! I absolutely CANNOT wait to see it! And now, on with the post . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I sent fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, on a mission to try to track down all of the as of then not-yet-found locations which appeared in the 2002 movie Crossroads. At the top of my list was the supposed Alabama-area Super A Foods grocery store where Lucy Wagner (aka Britney Spears) and her friends, Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), and Ben (aka Anson Mount), made a pit stop during their road trip from Georgia to Hollywood in the flick. I knew from watching the movie’s DVD commentary with producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis, and writer Shonda Rhimes (who I just discovered was the same woman who created Grey’s Anatomy!) that the grocery store was located somewhere in the L.A. area and I had tried in vain to find it several times without any luck. I had also enlisted the help of my dad who, as I have mentioned before, used to work in the grocery business, and while he did have a few Super A stores that he previously consulted for, he sadly did not recognize the one that appeared in Crossroads. So imagine my surprise when Chas called me shortly after watching the movie to let me know that the grocery store was the first location he had managed to track down. Amazingly enough, all he did was input the words “Super A Foods” and “Los Angeles” into the Google search bar and the Crossroads store was the first entry that popped up! Not kidding! So, I dragged my dad right on out there to stalk the place the very next morning. Yay!

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I am VERY happy to report that the exterior of the market still looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did in onscreen.

In real life, the “Alabama’s Finest Meat & Produce” sign that was put in place for the filming reads “Carniceria”.

I was BEYOND excited when I discovered that the children’s mini merry-go-round machine that appeared in the movie was actually there in real life! So incredibly cool!

Some filming also took place inside of the Super A Foods market. In the DVD commentary, director Tamra Davis mentions that the shoot was an all-night event and that it was one of the hardest days of filming due to the fact that everyone was beyond exhausted. She also mentioned that more than a few squabbles took place that night.

Sadly, the interior of the store has since been remodeled and looks quite a bit different today than it did when Crossroads was filmed back in 2001.

The signs that appeared in the background of the scene have also since been changed, but the new ones are, thankfully, quite similar – in shape at least – to the old ones.

Crossroads was filmed in Super A Foods check stand #1, but as you can see in the above photographs, that area is much more modern now than it was in the movie. Such a shame!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out his extensive Crossroads filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Super A Foods which appeared in Crossroads is located at 2925 Division Street in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles, just southwest of Eagle Rock.

June 3, 2010April 30, 2013

Killarney Market from Michael Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet” Video

Now don’t laugh, but the primary reason behind the Grim Cheaper’s and my trip up to the Pacific Northwest this past weekend was so that I could stalk the spot where Michael Buble filmed the music video for his hit song “Haven’t Met You Yet” – Killarney Market in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sure, we also wanted to sightsee, spend some time in Seattle and Canada, and visit with our good friends Kerry and Jim who live in the area, but, all kidding aside, the main purpose of our trip was to stalk that grocery store. Yes, we traveled over 1,000 miles to see a supermarket! You see, ever since I first watched the “Haven’t Met You Yet” video back in early October of last year, I promised myself that I would one day get up to Vancouver to see the Michael Buble grocery store in person. That day came much sooner than expected, though, thanks to my fiancé’s boss, who recently presented us with Virgin America gift certificates as an early wedding present. Well, let me tell you, my first thought upon seeing those certificates was, ‘We’re going to Canada, Baby!’ And, sure enough, we did! Thanks to fellow stalker Kerry, who completely organized the trip and drove about four hours out of her way to pick us up at the airport, not only did I get to stalk the Michael Buble grocery store, but a slew of other Pacific Northwest locations, as well, which I will be blogging about over the next few weeks. Anyway, upon landing at the Sea-Tac International Airport at around 5 p.m. this past Friday evening, Kerry, her husband Jim, the Grim Cheaper, and I headed north to Vancouver, British Columbia. And bright and early the following morning we hit up Killarney Market to finally do some “Haven’t Met You Yet” stalking. YAY!

I should explain here that there are quite a few reasons why I wanted to stalk Killarney Market so badly, the most obvious of which being that I absolutely LOVE Michael Buble. More than that, though, I also absolutely ADORE the “Haven’t Met You Yet” video, which centers around Michael doing some shopping at a local grocery store. While in the freezer section picking out some microwavable TV dinners, he spots his dream girl (who is played by MB’s real life fiancé Luisana Lopilato) standing just a few feet away from him. He approaches her and the two sing and dance their way through the store, eventually winding up in the parking lot, marching band in tow. The video ends with Michael standing in the check-out aisle, belting out his song, eyes closed, before realizing that the whole scenario had been imagined. As he leaves the grocery store, slightly embarrassed, the girl he had envisioned in his daydream brushes past him. MB stops for a moment to stare after her and then continues on his way. “Haven’t Met You Yet” is an incredibly fun-spirited romp that makes one want to get out of their seat and dance, which is a big part of why I loved it so much. But the fact that it was filmed in a grocery store made the video even more special to me, as my father managed supermarkets throughout my entire childhood. To me, the video felt a little bit like home. 🙂

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I am very happy to report that Killarney Market looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in Michael’s video – minus the ticker tape and marching band, of course. 😉 I am also very happy to report that the Killarney employees could NOT have been nicer to us and literally almost fell over when they heard that we had traveled all the way from Southern California to see their store. They were happy to answer all of my silly questions about the filming, which took place over the course of two nights in September of 2009, and they let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted. YAY! And while the employees that I spoke with weren’t exactly sure of how the grocery store premise of the video came to be, they did tell me that Killarney’s Market was specifically chosen as the “Haven’t Met You Yet” location because it reminded MB of a store he had shopped at as a child. So cool! (Note – my parents just gifted me with a new, hi-tech camera and I haven’t yet figured out exactly how to use it, so, sadly, my pictures of the market didn’t come out as well as they should have.)

One of the employees even showed me a picture on his blackberry that he had taken with Michael during the filming. So, I, of course, had to snap a photograph of it. 🙂 I can’t tell you what I wouldn’t do to have my picture taken with MB like that!!! Sigh!

Another of the employees ended up taking us on a little mini-tour of the specific locations used in the video, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever!!!! 🙂 The areas of the store which appeared in “Haven’t Met You Yet” include the freezer section (Aisle 6), which was both where Michael first spotted Luisana;

and where the two danced atop the freezer cases;

the meat counter adjacent to Aisle 1, where the butcher got jiggy with it;

Aisle 7, where the mattress floated down the aisle;

Aisle 4, where the marching band played;

the front of the store where the grand finale began;

the front parking lot where the grand finale ended;

Check-out counter Number 3, where MB got caught day-dreaming;

the side entrance of the store, where he walked by Luisana at the end of the video;

and the shelf where Michael sat throughout the video, which is located in the middle of Aisle 1. Apparently, the managers of Killarney’s weren’t too excited about the prospect of MB sitting on one of their shelves during the filming as they were worried it might collapse, so producers ended up having the shelf reinforced and tying metal wires to the singer to guard against him falling. I so love that Michael’s shelf was left a bit lower than the adjacent shelves, as it appeared in the video.

I cannot tell you what a thrill it was for me to finally be able to stalk the “Haven’t Met You Yet” grocery store! It was definitely the highlight of my entire trip! You can watch the video by clicking above and you can see some FABULOUS behind-the-scenes pictures of the filming of the video on the Killarney Market Facebook page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Killarney Market from Michael Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet” music video is located at 2611 49th Avenue East in Vancouver, British Columbia. You can visit the market’s official Facebook page here.