Efron Red & White Super Market
Type of Business: Grocery Store
Years of Operation: 1922 – 1966
Location: 308 Park Ave SE (currently the Aiken Arts Center Annex garden)
Family: Efron (Jake & Helen)
Jake Efron (1893-1968) came to Aiken from St Louis with his wife Helen in 1922 to help his mother Ida Surasky Efron with her Grocery & Dry Goods business. Ida had previously returned to Aiken to be with her Surasky brothers after her husband Morris Efron died unexpectedly in 1918. Jake took over the business, renaming it the Efron Red & White Super Market and moving it to Park Avenue. This store was the main super market serving downtown Aiken. Jake’s son in law (Sam Shanker) operated another food market on York St and the two businesses advertised together before Sam’s Market closed in the late 1950s.
The site of this business is currently the garden of the annex to the Aiken Center for the Arts. There is a small brass plaque on the site highlighting this history.
Adath Yeshurun archives (courtesy of Doris Baumgarten)
Aiken Standard & Review, 8-17-1949
Aiken Standard & Review 10-1-1958
efron’s market ad
Aiken Standard, 8-13-1964
brass plaque recognizing this history
The site of this business is now a garden of the Aiken Arts Center annex where this brass plaque recognizes this history