The Street Seen: Inventing the Groceteria
Main Street at Bicknell
While in the mid-1910s, many places in the US are experimenting with self-service retail,1 Santa Monica is the birthplace in 1915 of the groceteria - the self-service of the cafeteria applied to the purchase of groceries.
On May 4, 1915, veteran Ocean Park retail grocer, Fred Ward,2 opens the Santa Monica Groceteria in the Dudley Building3 at 229 Santa Monica Blvd. Ward claims he has patented his idea and the name groceteria “in Washington.” A week later, two additional stores (105 Windward, Venice, and 169 Pier, Ocean Park ) are announced.
In October 1915, wholesale grocer D.E. Stanton,4 owner of Bay Cities Mercantile Company, claims the groceteria idea and name are his. By December 1916, Bay Cities Mercantile has 8 Groceteria Stores.
In 1917, Stanton claims he has patented the name “groceteria.”5 In 1918, he incorporates Groceteria Stores Co. of California.6 By July 1922, Bay Cities Mercantile has 30 Groceteria Stores in the Los Angeles area. Bay Cities Mercantile also operates meat markets in many of the Los Angeles area Piggly Wiggly grocery stores.
D.E. Stanton takes off all of 1922 to travel the world. His son E.F. Stanton7 runs the business.
By 1923, there are Groceteria 42 stores
In 1926, Bay Cities Mercantile’s Groceteria Store chain is renamed Humpty Dumpty8 - easy said and easy to remember. In 1929, McMarr9 acquires the 54 Humpty Dumpty stores. D.E. Stanton dies at his home at 202 Bicknell in 1930.10,11
Clarence Saunders’ Piggly Wiggly chain, established in Memphis in 1916, is often (but incorrectly) credited with introducing America to self-service shopping.
Frederick C. Ward (1868 – 1937). Born in NJ, Ward marries in 1898 Carolynn Adelia Davis (1873 – 1935). From 1903 to 1908, the Ward Brothers, Fred and David C. Ward (1872–1955), have a grocery store at 153 Pier Ave. In 1911, F.C. Ward opens a grocery store on Main St. By 1930, he has given up the grocery business and is selling real estate.
The Dudley Building, on the north west corner of 3rd and Santa Monica, is designed and built in 1905 by H.X. Goetz for T.H. Dudley. R.P. Davie (1867- 1936) acquires the building in 1922 and sells it to John D Rishell (1863 - 1941) of the Bay Cities Guaranty Building Loan Association in 1925.
Daniel E. Stanton (1863 – 1930). Born in CT, Stanton attends college prep Mystic Valley Institute. In Philadelphia in 1884, Stanton shoots and kills classmate Frederick T. Nash. The case is widely followed in the Philadelphia newspapers. Stanton escapes to South America but, in 1885, returns and turns himself in. Stanton pleads guilty to murder in the 2nd degree. After testimony to his good character and reputation, D.E. Stanton is sentenced to 7½ years in prison.
On being released in 1891, Stanton marries Mathilda W. Garthe (1856 – 1894) in New York. They take up school teaching positions in OR, and adopt Edward Durbin Stanton in 1893. After Mathilda dies, Stanton comes to Los Angeles. From 1900 to 1910, he is a schoolteacher and living alone. In 1910, D.E. Stanton is a salesman for downtown Los Angeles wholesale grocer McStay Supply Co. In 1912 he lives at 2105 Main St, where he operates wholesale grocer Bay Cities Mercantile Co.
The principles of self-service can not be patented. Despite Stanton’s claim that Bay Cities Mercantile owns the exclusive rights to the word groceteria, the grocerteria name quickly spreads. Seattle's first self-service grocery chain, Groceteria, opens in 1916. Toronto’s Loblaw Groceteria opens in 1919. In 1922, A. Anderson a former Bay Cities Mercantile employee, opens Venice Groceteria at 105 Windward.
Groceteria Stores Co. of California is incorporated in 1918 with directors Daniel E Stanton, Edward F. Stanton (son), and I.K. Stanton (daughter-in-law) with capital stock $25,000
Edward Feagler Stanton (1897 – 1972). Born in OH as Otho Edward Feagler, he is adopted (when ? after 1910 ?) by D.E. Stanton. In Ocean Park in 1917, he marries Isabelle Keller Stanton (1897 – 1958), and their son is Edward Feagler Stanton, Jr (1918 – 2011). The E.F. Stantons live at 210 Bicknell, but are divorced by 1927. After that, E.F. Stanton lives with D.E. Stanton at 202 Bicknell.
Bay Cities Mercantile’s Humpty Dumpty is not related to the Oklahoma Humpty-Dumpty grocery chain.
In 1929, Mac Marr Stores, a Pacific Northwest grocery chain with 413 stores, expands into Los Angeles. Mac Marr itself is bought out by Safeway in 1931.
In 1932, E.F. Stanton claims the groceteria idea originated September 12, 1914, and that the original store, the first self-service store in the entire world, was a few feet off Main Street at 204 Bicknell. E.F. Stanton attempts to re-start Groceteria with Store No. 4 at 204 Bicknell.
In 1932, the Santa Monica Evening Outlook (April 30, 1932) presents another garbled version of groceteria history.
Originator of New Store System Dies
Mrs. Mary Augusta Starr, pioneer resident of Santa Monica who died here yesterday, was said to have been the originator of the self-service plan of selling groceries. Together with her brother, the late D. E. Stanton, she operated a small store 12 by 16 feet in area, at the corner of Main and Bicknell streets in Ocean Park under the name of Groceteria. This later developed into a chain of self-service markets known as the Humpty-Dumpty stores, and then merged with the McMarr organization.
Mary Augusta Park Starr (1855 – 1932). Born in Connecticut, in 1875 she marries Vine Avery Starr (1851 – 1903). Sometime after 1905, she comes to Los Angeles. In 1910, she is a nurse at the McKenna Sanitarium at S. Central Ave and 56th St. In 1920 she lives in Santa Monica, and in 1930, at 718 Nowita in Venice.
Mary Park Starr definitely is the sister of D.E. Stanton but we are unable to find the genealogical connection. Our guess is that either Mary Park or D.E. Stanton or both are adopted.