Here we have a photo that hearkens back to the days when we had grocery stores that displayed their fruit and vegetables out on the street. Shopping Bag was a chain of grocery stores that began with a little store on Wilshire Blvd in 1930. This location was at the southwest corner of Honolulu Ave and Market St, Montrose, north of Glendale. The billboard appears to be advertising Honey-Meel Bread, whose slogan was “Tastes Better Toasts Better.” At the bottom, there appears to be a reference to the Lone Ranger, whose radio show started in 1933, so perhaps Honey-Meel was a sponsor? So I’m dating this photo circa mid-1930s.
This is what the southwest corner of Honolulu Ave and Market St looked like in September 2022. Even though the market building is gone, it’s a nice corner with that beautiful green shade tree.
I grew up in Tujunga, just a stone’s throw north of Montrose, which is still a small, quiet and quaint foothill community. We shopped at the Shopping Bag market in La Crescenta when I was a boy. That store was located on Foothill Boulevard and is now an Orchard Hardware Store. There were several Shopping Bag markets serving the foothill areas all the way east to Monrovia.