# Have you eaten at a store lunch counter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773 "2014-05-19T21:26:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/81 "2014-05-21T04:27:37Z")
When I first started working in San Francisco in 1980, there was a large Woolworth’s on the corner by the cable car turnaround at the foot of Powell Street (where The Gap is now). They had a lunch counter, and I ate there occasionally. Tuna melt, club sandwich, that sort of thing. Much, much earlier, back around 1960, I believe I used to occasionally eat at one of the downtown stores’ lunch counters in Portland, possibly S H Kress or something similar. But I have only the haziest memories of it (I would have been only somewhere around 10-12 years old at the time). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/82 "2014-05-21T04:36:30Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Here’s a picture of the [u-shaped](http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%202/kresgejpg3.jpg) counter I mentioned. That really packs them in. There was a counter like that in Center City in Philadelphia in the 70s. I’d eat lunch there when I had to work on Saturdays. During the week it was constantly packed and I couldn’t get there early enough to get a seat. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/83 "2014-05-21T04:49:08Z")
Yes, but not since I was a kid, which would have been in the 60s – at a Wollworth’s, and a local dime store with s food counter. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/84 "2014-05-21T13:48:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Here’s a picture of the [u-shaped](http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%202/kresgejpg3.jpg) counter I mentioned. That really packs them in. ISTR being in a Friendly’s like that, early '80s. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/85 "2014-05-21T13:54:18Z")
Grew up in Boston suburb in the 80s, never saw one. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/86 "2014-05-21T14:54:19Z")
Both Woolworth’s and Kresgee’s as a child. Inexpensive and good. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > ISTR being in a Friendly’s like that, early '80s. I ate at Friendly long before the “s” was added. And “Friendly’s” still grates on my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/87 "2014-05-21T15:24:22Z")
The [Rexall in Vienna, Va](http://www.viennarexall.com/) used to have a lunch counter. The store is still there but alas the lunch counter is long gone. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/88 "2014-05-21T15:41:15Z")
Wise’s drug store in Gainesville, FL, but they closed in 2009. There’s actually a good article [here](http://www.standingalone.biz/Wises.html) about the rise and fall of that family owned drug store with a lunch counter. These days my kids like the food at Target. Chacun à son goût. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/89 "2014-05-21T15:48:37Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Yeah, the Rexall brand pretty much fell off a cliff in the 1970’s, and by the time I got there in 1977 the Corner Store had gone independent. When I went to Elizabethtown College in PA in the early-to-mid-nineties, they had a Rexall in town with a lunch counter. I remember being surprised because I thought they’d gone the way of the dodo (both Rexall and drugstore lunch counters). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/90 "2014-05-21T16:04:39Z")
I ate at a drugstore lunch counter in my hometown. I loved the grilled sandwiches. The cook had a brush he dipped in melted butter and wiped the bread with. They were so good. There was a similar drugstore across the street from my University. It wasn’t as good, and very few students ate there. It closed in the early 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/91 "2014-05-21T16:11:38Z")
My Grandmother treated me to lunch once at a Woolworth’s in downtown Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/92 "2014-05-21T16:26:22Z")
Only if the IKEA cafeteria counts. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/93 "2014-05-21T18:15:35Z")
At Woolworth’s and various drugstores. Remember how yellow the turkey gravy was? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/94 "2014-05-21T21:28:40Z")
At the local Rexall at the end of high school. Almost every day after school. I remember the Woolworths counters, but I don’t recall ever eating at one. (I’ve been around a while. Sigh.) ---
**Author:** ![danhanegan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@danhanegan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danhanegan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/95 "2014-05-22T04:52:33Z")
My local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Mount Olive, North Carolina. A cafeteria style arrangement with nearby tables. Basic American staples like meat loaf, fried chicken, and the like. Surprisingly good, large portions, attractive pricing. A favorite with shift workers from the local plywood mill and pickle plant. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/96 "2014-05-22T05:09:51Z")
> [@danhanegan](#): > > My local Piggly Wiggly grocery store… I recall, when I was very small, a lunch counter in our local Safeway grocery store. My Dad and I would do the grocery shopping on Saturdays, and we’d stop at the lunch counter on our shopping trips. We never ate anything–Dad would have coffee and I would get a Coke–but it was a lunch counter, definitely. I had forgotten about supermarket lunch counters–thanks for reminding me. Otherwise? I had a few meals at Eaton’s Cafeteria in Toronto, in the Eaton’s department store in the Eaton Centre; and a couple at Kresge’s, just sitting at the counter. Kresge’s beat Eaton’s, at least in the hot roast beef sandwich and fries department. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/97 "2014-05-22T05:11:03Z")
There was one drug store in my hometown that had a lunch counter. My sister worked there for a while so we stopped in from time to time. More recently, just last fall I ate several meals at the lunch counter at an [Exito](http://www.exito.com/) department store in Colombia. It was _comida tipica_, nothing fancy. Chicken and rice served with arepas was the normal fare. No burgers or fries at all on the menu there. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/98 "2014-05-22T05:38:30Z")
> [@danhanegan](#): > > My local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Mount Olive, North Carolina. A cafeteria style arrangement with nearby tables. Basic American staples like meat loaf, fried chicken, and the like. Surprisingly good, large portions, attractive pricing. A favorite with shift workers from the local plywood mill and pickle plant. Where I live, it’s fairly common for supermarkets to have restaurant areas where you can order food over-the-counter and sit down (or take out). In addition to the basic American food items you mentioned, there are typically Asian entrées, soups, deli-style sandwiches, a salad bar, and pizza. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/99 "2014-05-22T13:26:40Z")
Does the Costco “Food Court” count? I’ve never actually gotten food there, but I always stare at it from the checkout line. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773/100 "2014-05-22T17:33:43Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Does the Costco “Food Court” count? I’ve never actually gotten food there, but I always stare at it from the checkout line. I like popping in there for a sausage & kraut, but it’s no 1950’s style dime store lunch counter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-eaten-at-a-store-lunch-counter/688773.md?page=6)