The beginning
Raley’s Supermarkets, West Sacramento, Calif., celebrated its 80-year anniversary Monday, marking the anniversary of the first store opened by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville, Calif., on Feb. 16, 1935. It was the area’s first store with a parking lot — hence, the “drive-in market” signage.
Complete food store
This is the original Placerville store, but with different signage, later in the 1930s.
Whatta sale!
A 1935 ad for the original Raley's in Placerville looks particularly attractive from the perspective of 2015.
Innovative meat case
Thomas Raley was always considered an industry innovator, as shown in this 1947 photo of him standing in front of a meat case at a store in downtown Sacramento.
His right-hand man
Tom Raley stands in front of a store in Nevada in 1973 with Chuck Collings, who served for years as the chain’s president and COO.
The founder
Tom Raley, pictured in 1988, started with a single store in 1935. Today the company operates 128 stores in Northern California and Northern Nevada and is run by his grandson, Michael Teel, as president and CEO.