There was only one big grocery store on each side. Balboa Commy was two stories, and THE place to shop for everything. Always felt grown up when I went with my mom.
I don’t think it is either. This looks like a tiny store. And it must be before it opened for business because it is too clean for any other time. Also looks like widows are open and fans are on so it is before air conditioning.
Never called “the grocery store”…this is the “Commissary in Balboa. More like a department store than a grocery store. Here, we purchased practically all our needs…at adiscount. We used a book of folding scrips to pay. I think they were issued in denominations of: $5, $10, and $15 books. Each Canal Zone town had their own Commissary. Ours in Pedro Miguel was a smaller wooden structure.
Final note…the wheeled carts weren’t there in the early 50’s.
Like most of the other comments, this picture reminds me of the Balboa Commissary. The picture may have been made in the mid-1950’s since I would go as a child with my mother to the commissary at that time. I remember stairs just inside and on either side of the entrance of the building. These went to the second floor where women’s clothing was sold. These stairs and check-out area would have been behind the photographer. Refrigerated food was at the back of the store toward the right side as shown in the photograph.
You may be able to locate a magazine cover photograph that shows children looking at the display windows a the front poach area of the building.
9 Comments
John Schmidt ( BHS 50 )
I believe it is Balboa Commy
Edie
This is the interior of the Balboa Commissary.
Mickey Walker Fitzgerald
There was only one big grocery store on each side. Balboa Commy was two stories, and THE place to shop for everything. Always felt grown up when I went with my mom.
Judy MacDonald
Hello yes this is the grocery store in Coco Solo .
Barbara T. Hudson
I don’t think it is either. This looks like a tiny store. And it must be before it opened for business because it is too clean for any other time. Also looks like widows are open and fans are on so it is before air conditioning.
David Hilliard
Looks to me like the Balboa Commissary
Ray Crucet
Never called “the grocery store”…this is the “Commissary in Balboa. More like a department store than a grocery store. Here, we purchased practically all our needs…at adiscount. We used a book of folding scrips to pay. I think they were issued in denominations of: $5, $10, and $15 books. Each Canal Zone town had their own Commissary. Ours in Pedro Miguel was a smaller wooden structure.
Final note…the wheeled carts weren’t there in the early 50’s.
Laura Kosik
Was there a clothing store upstairs? I vaguely remember that as I think the clothing store closed in the late 70s if I am correct.
Robert Dryja
Like most of the other comments, this picture reminds me of the Balboa Commissary. The picture may have been made in the mid-1950’s since I would go as a child with my mother to the commissary at that time. I remember stairs just inside and on either side of the entrance of the building. These went to the second floor where women’s clothing was sold. These stairs and check-out area would have been behind the photographer. Refrigerated food was at the back of the store toward the right side as shown in the photograph.
You may be able to locate a magazine cover photograph that shows children looking at the display windows a the front poach area of the building.