Overwaitea Victoria St opens Apr 23 1969
April 24, 2026
April 29, 1965.April 29, 2026.
Same day.
Sixty-one years later.
And at 9 a.m. that morning in ’65… the doors opened at Spruceland.
Not just another grocery store.
Something new.
19,384 square feet of it.
171 feet of produce.
64 feet of meat counter.
46 feet of bakery.
Rows and rows — 612 feet — of dry goods.
Frozen food had its own space too… 1,176 square feet, sitting at 14 degrees under glass lids. For a lot of people, that alone felt pretty high-tech.
About 30 staff working.
And for a city that was growing fast… this place matched it.
But here’s the thing people remember most—
You didn’t rush through it.
You kind of… wandered.
Kids got balloons.
People took their time.
It felt like something you went to, not just something you did.
And then there was the part that really told you things were changing.
Not the shelves.
What happened after.
They’d carry your groceries out to the car.
And if you didn’t want to carry them at all?
Delivery.
25 cents… as long as your order hit $5.
Same day, if you called before 4.
Think about that for a second.
In 1965, in Prince George… you could shop, go home, and have groceries show up at your door before supper.
That wasn’t normal yet.
That was the future sneaking in early.
And then there’s the part that’s still here.
The building.
Or at least… a piece of it.
That swooping roof.
Back then, Safeway was starting to build stores that looked different on purpose. Bigger, cleaner, a bit more style to them. Rooflines you could recognize from the road.
If you know where to look — behind Spruceland — that roof is still there.
trish at pg-designs dot ca
