Purity Stores

Overview

Purity Stores is one of those Fort Bragg businesses that has become more than a place to buy groceries.

Its familiar red sign, compact supermarket, longtime employees, and generations of customers have made it an everyday Franklin Street landmark.

The present store opened in December 1955, but community memories place Purity in Fort Bragg even earlier, at the northeast corner of Franklin and Redwood streets.

Purity Stores once operated markets throughout California. Today, the Fort Bragg market is widely described as the last surviving Purity supermarket in the state.

Location

Purity stands at 242 N. Franklin Street in downtown Fort Bragg.

The low, broad building reflects the postwar supermarket era, when grocery stores were increasingly designed around automobile access, parking, larger aisles, and customers buying more groceries at one time.

Before the present store was built, residents remember houses occupying portions of the property toward Alder Street. Some were reportedly removed or relocated as the supermarket property developed.

The parking lot was later expanded farther toward Alder Street.

History

Purity Stores began as a California grocery chain and eventually expanded throughout Northern California.

Longtime residents remember an earlier Fort Bragg Purity at the northeast corner of Franklin and Redwood streets before construction began on the present supermarket during the mid-1950s.

The new store at 242 N. Franklin Street opened in December 1955.

One of its most remembered early features was a grocery-loading system designed for customers arriving by automobile.

After checkout, groceries were packed into cardboard boxes and placed on a roller rack. Gravity carried the boxes toward an outside loading area, where customers could drive up and have a box boy load the groceries into their car.

Children remember another attraction outside the store — a large mechanical horse.

Through the following decades, Purity became part of everyday Fort Bragg life. Local people worked there as teenagers, stocked shelves, swept floors, worked in the meat department, and in some cases received their first paycheck there.

Others remember employees who stayed for years and became as familiar to shoppers as the store itself.

The property changed gradually. Community memories place a large Victorian house near the Alder Street end of the block, and the parking lot was expanded in that direction during the 1970s.

Despite those changes, the store itself has remained remarkably recognizable.

Community Memories

Purity memories stretch across generations.

Some residents remember watching the present store being built. Others recall shopping there with their parents in the 1950s and 1960s or accompanying grandparents on regular Friday shopping trips.

Those trips were part of a larger downtown routine — groceries at Purity, banking, visiting the dime store, and stopping to talk with friends and neighbors along the way.

Former employees remember sweeping floors, stocking shelves, working in the meat department, and earning early paychecks there.

The old roller-rack grocery system remains one of the strongest memories. Groceries packed in cardboard boxes rolled toward the outside loading area, where a box boy placed them into waiting cars.

Children remember riding the mechanical horse outside.

Other memories focus less on the building and more on the feeling of the store: familiar employees, short checkout lines, fresh produce, easy shopping, and the likelihood of running into someone you knew.

That familiarity continues today. Many current shoppers still describe Purity as their preferred neighborhood grocery store.

Timeline

Before 1955 — Community memories place an earlier Purity market at the northeast corner of Franklin and Redwood streets.

Mid-1950s — Property along the present Franklin Street site was cleared or altered for construction of the new supermarket.

December 1955 — The present Purity Stores supermarket opened at 242 N. Franklin Street.

Late 1950s–1960s — Customers remember the roller-rack grocery loading system, box boys, and the mechanical horse outside.

1960s–1970s — Purity became firmly established as a longtime local employer and family shopping destination.

Mid-1970s — Community memories place expansion of the parking lot toward Alder Street.

Today — Purity continues operating at the same address and is widely described as the last surviving Purity supermarket in California.