BY TOM BUSSELBERG

Associate Editor  

BOUNTIFUL — Smith’s stores have long been a place to get groceres and other needs throughout Davis County.

Whether it’s Smith Food & Drug stores or the only Smith’s Marketplace in Bountiful, the 80-year-old business has been a main shopping spot in Davis County for decades.

Betty Lou Lawson may be the best-known and beloved face of Smith’s in South Davis, having worked for Smith’s and its predecessors Warshaw’s and Fred Meyer for a combined 50 years. 

The 80-something Bountiful resident, who was named the Davis Clipper Bountiful Mother of the Year, has been working in cosmetics and the floral shop for the last few years.

Smith’s has had two stores in Bountiful since at least the 1970s, said Beverly Perkes Nowak, author of “The Heart of Bountiful Businesses.”

Those stores were at 845 N. 400 East and 2135 S. Orchard Drive in the old Grand Central building, which was replaced by a “super store” in the early 1980s. 

Ironically, Grand Central built its new store at the current location of Smith’s Marketplace. 

Smith’s moved to its 2399 S. Main location in Bountiful in 1990, when Skaggs Alpha Beta left the state. Clearfield was also the home of an early Smith’s, said the chain’s public relations director Marsha Gilford. 

 That store and one in Roy City were closed about 1990 and a super store opened in Sunset, between the two cities. 

Since that time, stores have opened in Syracuse, Layton and Farmington. 

For decades, Smith’s has operated a distribution center/regional office and milk/bakery operation on Sugar Street in Layton.

Early owner Dee Smith started with 25 stores in Utah in 1976. Today, there are Smith’s grocery stores stretching from Southern California to the Phoenix area and north to Idaho. 

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com 

Read more about Smith's Food & Drug history in the county in the Aug. 16 edition of the Clipper.