Thriftway

Moniteau County, Missouri

Cal's Thriftway

Est. by Bixler's in 1936; Became Goff's in 1944

Bought by Calvin Gerlach in 1972

From the July 23, 1936 California Democrat:

OPEN GROCERY STORE

Bixler's Cash Grocery Occupies State Bank Building, Cafe Moved

William Bixler of Tipton has opened a grocery store in California this week in the State Bank Building. The store is to be operated under the name Bixler's Cash Grocery.

Mr. Bixler formerly worked with a brother, Dan Bixler, who has operated a grocery store in Tipton for the past four and a half years. For the past year and a half he has been in the grocery and meat business in Kansas City.

A complete line of fresh meats is included in the Bixler Store which also has a complete line of canned goods and other staples.

Earl Dorzab has been employed by Mr. Bixler as clerk. The announcement advertisement of the store is in the week's Democrat.

Brownie's Cafe, operated by Mr. and Mrs. S. Brownfield, has been moved to the Affolter Building. The Brownfields have been in California for about five years.

From the February 9, 1939 California Democrat:

Bixlers Buy Wagner Market

Remodeled Uptown Market Opens Next Week -- Geo. Wagner Sells Meat Here 20 Years

Dan and Wilson Bixler purchased the Wagner meat and grocery market the latter part of last week. This is the fifth store for the Bixler brothers. They opened their second store in the downtown section in the State Bank Building July 1936. They have stores at Tipton, Clarksburg and Sedalia. Bixler brothers expect to install a new modern meat counter and Mr. Wagner is putting in new shelving for them. He will remove the large ice box and some other fixtures.

To Have Formal Opening

Bixler brothers have announced that they expect to have a formal opening next Friday and Saturday February 17 and 18. The store will not be closed at any time however.

This new Bixler store will be called Bixler's Uptown market. Dan Bixler will probably be in charge a great deal of the time. Eldon Lehman of the Excelsior community, has been manager of the downtown Bixler store since it started. The Bixler stores have a good reputation for the courtesy their clerks show their customers. Watch the Democrat for their opening announcement.

Mr. Wagner lacks but two months having been in business here 20 years. In April, 1919, he opened his shop in the room now occupied by the Uptown Cleaners where he operated about seven years. He then moved in his present location, having purchased that building.

His first venture in meat markets was in Sedalia where he engaged in business for himself in 1906 before he had reached the age of 20 years. In 1909-10 he operated a market in Warrensburg and was employed in markets in Sedalia from 1910 to 1919, with the exception of a few months during which he was the M. K. & T. railway shops.

Mr. Wagner has conducted a high class establishment here, specializing in the best kinds of foods. In recent years he added a complete stock of groceries.

From the August 24, 1944 California Democrat:

Bixler Sells Local Store

R. L. Goff, Linn Merchant, to Re-open Local Establishment in Short Time

R. L. Goff of Linn bought the Bixler grocery and meat market in California last week. The stock was invoiced Friday and the store has been closed since that time.

Mr. Goff has rented the store room in which the establishment is located from J. E. Williams and will reopen it for business within a short time.

Mr. Goff has a grocery and market in Linn, where he and his family will continue to live. He will place in charge of the local store Quentin Thompson, one of the employees in the Linn store. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and their 1-year-old son, Richard, will move to this city.

The California store will handle groceries, meats, fruits and vegetables.

The Bixlers have been in business in California the past eight years. Wm. Bixler, brother of Dan Bixler, now in the armed forces, opened their first store here in the State Bank building. At one time Dan and William Bixler had a total of five groceries, two here, one at Clarksburg, one at Tipton and one at Sedalia, all of which they now have closed out or sold. For several years Dan, whose home is in Tipton, has been devoting most of his time to the appliance business.

From the March 1, 1956 California Democrat:

Plan Building Super Market

Will be Located on Highway 50

Construction of a new super market to house the Goff Food Store will be started on highway 50 west as soon as the weather breaks according to Robert Goff.

A contract was signed last week between Mr. Goff and Otis Brown of Jefferson City, who is having the building constructed by the Major Brothers Construction Co. Mr. Goff says the Jefferson City construction company will sub-let part of the contracts and use as much local labor as possible.

The building is expected to be completed about 90 days after work is started. It will be 60 by 120 feet in size of concrete block with a brick veneer. The structure will have a flat roof with steel beams so that there will be no posts in the interior of the store. It will have all new fixtures and in addition to being air conditioned it will have a 22 foot refrigerated self-service produce counter, a 33-foot self-service meat department, a 24-foot frozen food display, a new type of dairy case, automatic checkout counters as well as many other innovations. The front will be mostly plate glass.

The new building will be located on a 175 by 200 foot lot recently purchased from Chas. Kitchell. It is east of the Putnam Chevrolet Co. and will have about 25,000 feet of parking which will accommodate from 60 to 75 cars at a time.

Mr. Goff says he believes the new store will help create more business for California. All of the surrounding towns have modern food stores, according to Mr. Goff and a lot of people are going to other towns to do their shopping. With a modern store here he believes more folks will come to California.

In addition to the store here Mr. Goff also owns stores at Linn and Centralia. He purchased the present business, which is housed in a building belonging to Hugh Williams, in 1944 from the Bixler brothers.

Mr. Goff is married and lives at Jefferson City. He has two children, a son Gene Marlin, who is a freshman at the University of Missouri, and a daughter, Darlene, who is a freshman in high school.

From the August 9, 1956 California Democrat:

New Goff Store Opening Today

Located In Modern Building on Highway

Goff's new supermarket on highway 50 west will open today. The doors opened at 8 this morning and will close tonight at 9. The store will keep these hours every Monday through Saturday.

The new supermarket operated by Robert Goff is 60 feet wide and 120 feet long. It is made out of concrete blocks and brick. The inside is tastefully decorated in cool shades. The walls are a light green and many of the cooling units are yellow. the asphalt tile on the floor has a cream background with yellow and black flecks to tie in with the color scheme.

All equipment is modern. The three checkout counters in the front are automatic to eliminate long waiting in line. These are the first automatic counters in California.

The whole store is air conditioned. The unit is 15 tons. Other refrigeration includes 92 feet of cooling space in the store. There are 33 feet in the self-service meat counter, where meat is selected and wrapped to fit individual needs. 16 feet are devoted to dairy products. They are kept in a new triple shelf counter, also the first of its kind in this area. It permits easy reach of all the dairy products similar to that on all other counters.

There are 32 feet of cooling space for frozen foods of all kinds. The last 22 feet are for produce. The produce counters are the new rear loading type that can be restocked from the storage room by sliding open the mirror in the back of the counter.

In addition to this there are also two large walk-in refrigerators, one for meat and one for produce.

Next to the large room where all the merchandise is displayed and sold is the storage room. All stock is brought here first where it is unloaded through a side door. Then it is set on a conveyor which runs the length of the room. When it reaches the pile where it belongs it is taken off and stacked until it is needed, when it is put back on the conveyor and travels to the end of the room. There it is put on the marking table and priced and then out into the carts which take it to the section where it belongs in the store. Also in this room is the produce processing section.

Another room in the building is the compressor room where the machinery and compressors for all the refrigeration are kept. This room has an exhaust fan which goes on automatically when the temperature rises over 95. There is then a small room where all trash and refuse will be placed until it is picked up.

There is approximately $25,000 worth of groceries in the store. 15 people will be employed there. It has over 300 feet of counter space besides that in the coolers.

Construction of the building was begun in early March by Otis Brown of Jefferson City, who owns the building with Mr. Goff leases. There is parking space for at least 65 cars.

Mr. Goff started in the grocery business in 1934 when he opened his first store in Linn. Then in 1944 he opened the Goff store in California. He opened his third store in Centralia in 1950.

Mr. Goff was born in Osage City, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Goff. He attended grade school there and then went to high school in Jefferson City.

He married Miss Dorothy Langkop in 1933 and they have two children, Gene, 19. and Darlene, 15. The Goffs live in Jefferson City.

Part of an article in the California Democrat that spotlights Cal's Thriftway:

Cal's Thriftway is owned by Calvin and Charlotte Gerlach. . . Calvin Gerlach started out working for Thriftway in 1952 as a "carry-out boy" he later became manager for three years before purchasing the store in 1972 from Tom James.

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