I enjoyed working at Dan's Foods for many years through high school and college and a little beyond. I started as a bagger when Dan's was on the west side of 2300 East, moved with them over to the east side when they took over the Smith's store, went down to the 9th store for a bit, and returned to the previous store. I started back at a time where we had some customers with accounts that they would settle up once a month and paying with credit/debit cards was not a thing.
I was there for the transition from ten key checking to scanners. In fact, the 9th East store never got scanners-it was all ten key and we had to memorize all the codes and key in all the prices. I had both good and mediocre managers, good co-workers, and great hours. Dan's didn't pay that well compared to the other grocery stores at the time but they were the best at giving employees workable hours.
We also use to sell small quantities of staples like a single cube of butter, a six-pack of eggs, small packages of flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Dan's also used to have big sales during canning season with bottles, fruit fresh, pickling cucumbers, fresh local fruits and vegetables, and other supplies for great prices. They also had baking sales during the holidays with everything from spices to staples to candied fruit on sale. That's when I use to stock up on a lot of things.
I worked most of my time in the front end although I did work in hardware some and bakery once. It was interesting to see the changes when I'd come home for the holidays or summer from school and go back to work at Dan's.
The Customer Service counter changed a number of times during my tenure.
I still miss Snelgrove's ice cream. Red Button ice cream is a new company here in Utah and they have a Canadian Vanilla flavor that's close to the old Snelgrove's flavor. Plus they have a malted chocolate which is chocolate ice cream with a marshmallow swirl that we really like. Their sherberts are also very good along with other flavors.
http://www.redbuttoncreamery.com/ice-cream-flavor-list/
Most of the store was blocked off-especially over by the produce section. I didn't get any pictures over there because that whole half of the store was cordoned off.
Sorry for the blurriness of the photos. I did ask if I could take photos and that I was an old employee. No one was certain if I could take them or not so I tried to hurry and just get as many as I could take.
Now the Rite Aid across the street has also closed. Life is always full of changes.
Even the little dry cleaning business had to go. They tell us that Dan's is soon to be replaced with JoAnn's Fabric and DownEast Basics.
