Remember This? Buttrey Food & Drug

If you grew up in Great Falls, Havre or a lot of towns in between, the grocery was Buttrey’s. Wikipedia’s history of the chain runs like this.

Frank A. Buttrey opened a small store selling clothes and groceries in 1896 in Aldridge, a short-lived mining town in Park County. In 1902 he moved to Havre and opened a dry goods and general merchandise store, and the business was incorporated as F.A. Buttrey Co. in 1909. In 1921 the stores spread along the Hi-Line. In 1922 Buttrey put Montana’s first radio station on the air, KFBB in Havre, which moved to Great Falls seven years later.

The grocery side became its own company in 1935. In 1954 Buttrey Foods moved its home office and warehouse from Havre to Great Falls. Jewel bought the grocery chain in 1966, and in the years that followed came the Buttrey-Osco combination stores, the logo a lot of people picture from the 1980s. The old F.A. Buttrey department stores, which were not part of the Jewel deal, closed in 1976.

In November 1995 the first Buttrey Big Fresh opened in a remodeled Great Falls store, with bigger food departments, an espresso bar and a food court. Albertsons announced in January 1998 that it would buy the chain for $134 million. By the time the deal closed that October, Buttrey had 44 stores in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. Thirty-five became Albertsons within days, and 15 stores were sold off to Smith’s and SuperValu to satisfy antitrust concerns.

That was the end of the name. The buildings are mostly still around, under other signs.

Remember this place? Tell us what you remember.