Jacksonville History: Setzer's & Pic N' Save Drugs

[Coolyfett]

You know you're a Jacksonville native when you give directions that end in '... Down near where the Pic N Save used to be'.  I do that a lot. 

ha ha that classic I used to do that all the time!! Moms used to go to the one on Blanding & the one on McDuff Ave...does anyone remember Premier Foods??? Back in day right there.

[thelakelander]

A few old Setzer's and Pic N' Save buildings still around.

517 South McDuff Avenue


1950 San Marco Blvd


919 King Street


4128 Herschel Street

[Mike D]

The Setzers in San Marco Square later became a Pic N' Save.  Seems like it was there well into the '90's, or at least the 1980's.  I always kind of liked Pic N' Save...you never knew what you were going to find and, as I recall, the food in their cafeteria/snack bars was pretty good.  However, I did not know about the racist tendencies of the place.  If that's the case, it's just as well their time has gone.

[Bativac]

The Setzers in San Marco Square later became a Pic N' Save.  Seems like it was there well into the '90's, or at least the 1980's.  I always kind of liked Pic N' Save...you never knew what you were going to find and, as I recall, the food in their cafeteria/snack bars was pretty good.

My dad worked there in the mid to late 70s. In later years, before Pic 'N' Save went away, dad would tell me horror stories about the terrible, disgusting conditions the food was kept in, and health inspectors being literally physically thrown out by Setzer. A shame the chain failed, in some regards, based on the neighborhoods they served... But all things considered, maybe it was time for them to die.

[Coolyfett]

Seems they got what was coming to them...Time always tells the story.

[ben says]

Does anyone have a 1980's/1990's picture of San Marco's Pic N' Save?

[BackinJax05]

Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for less!

They've been gone for almost 20 years now, and I still cant get that damned jingle out of my head.

[duvaldude08]

Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for less!

They've been gone for almost 20 years now, and I still cant get that damned jingle out of my head.

Wasnt there another saying Pic N save, have it your way" Or something like that?

[blfair]

My dad worked there for over 20 years, all the way to the bitter end. He may have been one of the last employees actually, as he helped shut down the distribution center.

When I was a kid that was basically the only place we shopped other than the grocery store. We didn't even speak the name "Wal-Mart". I remember when they had Richard Petty in the stores for an autograph session and my brother and I had VIP access... 

My favorite ex-Pic 'N Save location is the Sandalwood store. It's now Subaru of Jacksonville. If you look carefully in their parking lot you can see where they tore down part of the old store and just left the slab behind, and turned part of the structure into an overhang out front. There are spots in the parking lot where there used to be columns that they cut out.

[Ocklawaha]

I think there was a Setzers at Kingsley and Park in 'downtown' Orange Park back when that was the intersection of a 2 lane federal highway and a divided 2 lane Kingsley with a yellow flashing like over the center! Pic-N-Save also had stores over at 103Rd and Blanding. The Pic-N-Save flagship stores tended to be in newer locations such as the really large (about the average Wal-Mart size) stores on SR 434 in Longwood, FL. I bought a nice little microwave oven at that Longwood Store back in the 1980's and then, overnight it seemed, they were gone.

[Jaxson]

I remember going to Pic N' Save to buy notebook paper for a bargain and to buy other affordable school supplies.  I also remember going with my family to the Pic N' Save buffet on San Jose Boulevard back in the day.  I also remember my junior high school classmates teasing our peers about shopping at Pic N' Save even though we all knew that somebody was going there on a regular basis.  I think that the undoing of Pic N' Save was not just Wal-Mart, but the failure of the Setzer family to overcome their own internal challenges...

[BackinJax05]

Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for less!

They've been gone for almost 20 years now, and I still cant get that damned jingle out of my head.

Wasnt there another saying Pic N save, have it your way" Or something like that?

I dont think so. "Have it your way" was Burger King's tagline for many years.

Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce.
Special orders dont upset us.
All we ask is that you let us HAVE IT YOUR WAY. (or something like that)

Yeah, I watched alot of TV when I was a kid.

[BackinJax05]

I remember going to Pic N' Save to buy notebook paper for a bargain and to buy other affordable school supplies.  I also remember going with my family to the Pic N' Save buffet on San Jose Boulevard back in the day.  I also remember my junior high school classmates teasing our peers about shopping at Pic N' Save even though we all knew that somebody was going there on a regular basis.  I think that the undoing of Pic N' Save was not just Wal-Mart, but the failure of the Setzer family to overcome their own internal challenges...

Oh God! You brought back a terrible flashback: For several years, the evening of the 1st day of school meant a pilgimage to the Town N Country Pic N Save (both of them) for school supplies for the year. The 1st one was a small store. The 2nd one was HUGE, and had a restaurant. 

There was also a Pic N Save on Lone Star Road, about a block east of Townsend Blvd. It was a big store with a restaurant, too. As I recall, Pic N Save restaurants weren't bad - but hardly 5 star dining.

[cindy394]

It is ironic that the perception among immigrants to the black community is so racist- especially since many stores and businesses profited in those neighborhoods that blacks primarily lived and to which most immigrant families lived themselves until they could afford to leave. The jewish and the middle eastern communities were also (still?) excessively racist in my experience. The writer's story about a Setzer family member demanding a pool be drained and washed out ( if true) is an example of this extremist and appalling view. I have heard many members of Jacksonville's middle eastern family members use the word abd or abid to describe blacks, which actually means "slave". Perhaps they are trying to distance themselves from the perceived caste in our society of the poorer classes of which they themselves were not so long ago.

[duvaldude08]

I remember going to Pic N' Save to buy notebook paper for a bargain and to buy other affordable school supplies.  I also remember going with my family to the Pic N' Save buffet on San Jose Boulevard back in the day.  I also remember my junior high school classmates teasing our peers about shopping at Pic N' Save even though we all knew that somebody was going there on a regular basis.  I think that the undoing of Pic N' Save was not just Wal-Mart, but the failure of the Setzer family to overcome their own internal challenges...

You must never EVER buy clothes from pic n save or you are asking to get bullied