A. J. Bayless was a chain of successfully run grocery stores and one of Phoenixs earliest super markets during the post WWII era. With 48 locations during the late 1940s Mr. Bayless placed his stores in newer suburbs including one at the corner of Camelback and Scottsdale Rd. His familys grocery business started with his grandfather opening a chain of drug stores in Tennessee during the early 1900s. It continued with A.J.s father J. B. Bayless opening his first store in Phoenix at corner of Grand and Van Buren in 1917. J.B. owned 18 stores until retiring in 1930. That same year A.J., who had been working in his fathers stores since high school, opened his first first grocery store that same year at the age of 21. He did not enharit his fathers business but rather established new grocery stores outside of downtown. Throughout the depression and the War yeas the struggling stores donated to local food banks and charities and was one of the larger employers in the Phoenix area. In the late 1940s A.J. was introduced to some of the top real estate developers in Phoenix and strategically placed his rising chain of grocery stores near the newer suburbs. In 1959 he opened his largest store at 35th Avenue and Bethany Home Road near West Plaza a few miles from Central Plaza, the largest retail area at that time. With gleaming bright lights, wide isles and new frozen foods supermarkets became Americas central point for the suburban lifestyle. A. J. Bayless was known for made-from-scratch bakery items, a full-service butcher shop, and fresh local produce. In the 1960s the chain lost many of their loyal customers through competition by consumers choosing to drive on newer freeways outside of their radius of their neighborhood to new supermarkets. In the late 60s A.J. stepped back from his business because of declining health and at the age of 57 died from a tumor in late 1967. The family slowly sold off the stores to its competitors and in 1983 filed for bankruptcy. Bashas, another family owned Arizona based grocery store bought several of the A.J. Bayless locations and today the corporation runs Bashas, Food City and AJs Fine Foods. The AJs Fine Foods stores were established in 1985 with the idea of bringing an upscale gourmet market experience to the Valley something A.J. Bayless would of been proud of. Today there are 11 AJ Fine Food locations carrying on the tradition and name synonymous with quality established so many years earlier.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 05:40:32 +0000
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