U-Save: A Complete History of Florida's Other Supermarket

Florida currently has these big-name supermarkets including Publix and Winn-Dixie. Former Florida supermarkets were Albertsons, A&P, and Kash n' Karry. But there is the other supermarket that was in Florida - U-Save. U-Save once had a total of 30 stores in the areas of Tampa, Fort Myers, and towns located in South Central Florida. U-Save lasted until 2011, when the chain went into it's demise.

An example of a former U-Save supermarket, currently Hispanic chain Bravo Supermarkets.

Another former U-Save supermarket, located in Riverview, Florida.

U-Save was founded in 1923 as B&B Cash Grocery, founded by Charles & Charlotte Bever in Avon Park, Florida. B&B opened more stores throughout south central Florida, due to the first location's success. In the 1940's, the chain's first expansion was formed in Fort Myers. During the 1960's, with Charles and Charlotte's son running the company, the name was changed from B&B Cash Grocery to U-Save.

While the U-Save chain had a decent amount of stores located in Tampa and Fort Myers in the later years, one of the keys to success was opening modern stores throughout Florida, including Moore Haven in Glades County, FL. U-Save was the only grocery store in that town.

Now that we are in the 2000's, stores like Save A Lot and Walmart Supercenter began to open new locations, and later on, Aldi. In 2010, the Bever family went out of the grocery business and sold all remaining U-Save stores to this (Russian?) man named Oqab Abuoqab. He operated a number of Bravo stores throughout Florida. In October 2011, U-Save closed all stores due to Florida's Department of Labor.

Even though that there are no more U-Save stores left, the parent company continues to operate as a real estate company, called B&B Corporate Holdings. The company also owns Handy convenience stores located throughout Florida.

(This post was written on the same day as Albertsons Florida Blog's version)