The Return of '3's A Crowd'

[Lucky, grocery store, 3's a Crowd, cheap-ass bastards]

"Bay Area grocery consumers, brace yourselves for a double-take.

Reviving a brand name that will stir memories - and perhaps restore the loyalty of consumers with a nostalgic bent - Save Mart is restoring the Lucky name next week to 72 Bay Area supermarkets it purchased from Albertsons.

Starting at midnight Sunday with a San Francisco supermarket, Save Mart will systematically shut down about eight Albertsons stores a week and conduct 48-hour makeovers - something like "Trading Spaces," only on a 50,000-square-foot magnitude.

Cosmetic changes will give stores a retro-Lucky decor. The chain will cut the majority of prices for its 45,000 to 50,000 items to reflect Lucky's boast of "everyday low prices." Workers will stock new product lines on the shelves and don Lucky uniforms. The chain will revive its "Three's a crowd" promise to open up checkout counters if lines back up."

By Mark Schwanhausser
Mercury News
Article Launched: 07/18/2007 01:35:13 AM PDT