Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Alabama Photos: Kwik Chek in Montgomery

In going through some papers at mom's recently, I found the small recipe collection below; I've included a few sample pages. The "Kwik Chek" name was vaguely familiar, so that sent me to the research farm known as Google. As luck would have it, I turned up some Kwik Check photos in the Alabama state archives digital collections.

The site has quite a few black-and-white and color photos taken from 1954 until 1966 at Kwik Check stores in Montgomery. Most are interior shots. I've chosen just two and included them below.

Since mom' house is in Huntsville, I presume the recipe booklet came from a store there. The pamphlet is 5.5" x 3.5" and has 16 unnumbered pages. Products on the back cover are promoted in the booklet, as shown in the recipe for "Barbecued Potatoes" that mentions Mazzola Corn Oil and Reynolds Wrap. 

Several copies of this pamphlet are up for sale on Amazon and eBay, each with a different store listed at the bottom of the front cover. The one on Amazon lists the publisher as the National Broiler Council, which makes sense given the emphasis on chicken. Their logo is on the back cover of the pamphlet. The date stated for the Amazon copy is 1972. A couple of the entries on eBay claim the 1950s and 1960s. Who knows? No date is given in the booklet I have. 

I came across a 2009 blog post that places the Kwik Chek chain in "Winn-Dixie's Family Tree". Kwik Chek seems to have begun in the Tampa and Miami areas and expanded beyond Florida during its lifetime from the 1950s into the 1970s. Winn-Dixie retains the "Chek" image in it's logo and Chek brand of sodas. 




Montgomery store located at 2252 Mt. Meigs Road on 1 August 1955
Photo by John E. Scott

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History 



Interior shot taken by John E. Scott at the Montgomery store in the Normandale Shopping Center on East Patton Road 27 October 1960

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History






















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