The Shopping Bag store on Glenoaks. Photo from the Burbankia website.
Rex England 1968
If you have a SUPER memory, you might recall that the Shopping Bag store was on the corner of Glenoaks and Irving, and near Currie’s Ice Cream and J Scott Drugs. And if you happened to have gone into the store in 1967, you might have had Rex England bag up your groceries for you. Rex started out as a bagger in the Burbank store, then became a meatcutter. In addition to working for the Burbank stores, he also worked at the Glendale, Sunland and La Crescenta stores before he moved to Grass Valley, CA (near Sacramento) in 1978. The Shopping Bag grocery chain was acquired by Von’s in 1960, and at that time it was their sixth largest competitor. The merger was challenged by the FTC on antitrust grounds, and the chain was eventually sold to Fisher Foods. Read the whole story here.
Rex England is retired and enjoys the outdoors.
Rex continued as a meat cutter at the Lucky Supermarkets in Grass Valley for three years, then in 1981 he went to work for a family-owned market that has the old-style meat market with over the counter service. He retired in 2003, where he now enjoys the outdoors with his wife, Lynn — skiing, hiking, white-water rafting, jeeping and cycling. Most of all, Rex and Lynn have enjoyed their numerous dogs over the last forty years of marriage.
Rex’s wife, Lynn, just retired after 36 years in the local medical community. Rex writes that they have been married since 1974 and that Lynn was a 1968 graduate of Villa Park High School in Orange County. They never had children but have always shared their home with two or three rescue dogs.
Thanks for writing, Rex! It was great to hear from you!
Burbank High Class of 1968 
Walked (rode my bike, later drove) to that store many times since we lived a couple of blocks up on Orchard Drive. Had a neighbor that worked at Curries, and hate to think about how much I spent buying baseball cards (and what they would be worth today; had a complete set of ’59 Dodgers). In high school I worked at the Union 76 station (next to Shopping Bag) that was owned by Jill and Jack Fishel’s (BHS ’69) dad, Ed. Basically, that was the area I grew up in, and have many fond memories.
I remember Rex as always being a really nice guy! Soft-spoken and nice to everyone.
I was a box boy at Shopping Bag also, but I can’t remember the year (’66 thru’70 at some point) so I wonder if Rex and I were co-workers during that time. I always thought that Rex would work for his Dad, who was a truck-driver I think. I once saw him load up a whole bed of stuff and was very impressed with his work ethic.
Steven.. You have me confused with someone else. My dad worked for Lockheed until he retired. I don’t recall us working at “The Bag” at the same time but then there’s a lot of things I don’t recall anymore. I did work there with Rick Cook and Gordon Scott, both class of ’69. Glad to hear your doing well.
I have many memories of the Shopping Bag and the stores around it. I lived down Winona Ave., near Washington School. My family moved three times duing my school years. All the moves were literally a stones throw away from each other from Lamer Street to Myers Street. Shopping Bag and Curries was the get away for my friends and I.
I worked, occasionally, doing clean up and box assembly at the donut shop wedged between the drug store and Arnold’s Five and Dime. A fair amount of my lawn mowing money was used to purchase model kits, baseball cards, ice cream, etc., at those places.
I don’t know of that Shopping Bag location, but I lived right around the corner from the location at Town Ave & Arrow Hwy (Vassar St.) Pomona, California in 1968. What I remember and miss most about the store was the little square pink, white coconut and caramel candy for a penny. Wow! Seems like a world ago 😦
Great memories of this store (later a Fazio’s) when our family lived in the neighborhood. Too, I remember well the doughnut shop and Arnold’s Five & Dime.