Then and now: The Y before it was outlet stores

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Inks brothers of Sacramento had grocery stores at various times in Bijou (now CVS), Al Tahoe (now market and Video Library), and Tahoe Valley (now Factory Stores at the Y).

The 1966 photo (courtesy Bob Rockwell) shows Inks at the Y with the distant Lampson’s Trading Center sign above the Cornet 5-10 store. Just beyond the Cornet store (but not visible here) was a popular watering hole called Tahoe Tropics, on roughly today’s Subway site.

A much earlier Lampson’s Trading Center also included a market, bank, real estate office, U.S. Post Office, and a two-pump 76 gas station.

The 1973 photo (mine) shows the razing of the complex which was replaced by the Lampson Plaza with a sparkling new (but short-lived) Lampson’s Market.

That space became a sizable Thrifty Drug Store, but it closed, too.

Approximately 1980, with the sudden popularity of “outlet stores,” Lampson Plaza became rebranded as today’s Factory Stores at the Y.

The color photo (mine) today is about where the 1966 Inks’ market was, while the newer-built 1970s Lampson’s Market and then Thrifty Drug Store each were located in the wing most-recently vacated by Adidas and about to become Big 5 Sporting Goods.

— Bill Kingman