Yakima’s Oldest Grocery Store – A Step Back in Time

I'm old enough to remember when the price of a carton of eggs used be less than $4 for a carton of 12, and when there used to be a giant-sized grocery shopping cart in front of the grocery store on Summitview Ave in Yakima's West Valley neighborhood. That buggy was as tall as a house!

When I first moved to Yakima in 2002, our radio station deejays would do a live broadcast during the winter to bring awareness to helping the homeless, the unhoused, and the transient, and also, it was a food drive fundraiser. We literally froze our buns off living outside in front of the store. I had no idea I was literally freezing my buns off in front of a historic Yakima grocery store!

Before I reveal the oldest grocery store in Yakima (if you haven't already guessed by now), I want to know what you picture in your mind when you imagine what Yakima must have looked like in the 1950s.

If you're not old enough to have those memories, you don't have to wonder anymore because they have been preserved by Beachhouse Videos on YouTube.

This is a still from a live video of somebody driving down Yakima Ave in the 50s.

The City of Yakima sure was all decked out for Christmas during the 1950s.

This is how the Capitol Theatre in Yakima used to look in the 1950s!

Wray's Marketfresh IGA is arguably Yakima's oldest grocery store. They even have a sign on the front of the building touting its glorious age. According to my research, the 5605 Summitview Avenue location of Wray's officially received its permit to operate by the Washington State Department of Revenue on Tuesday, March 1, 1955.

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