In Concord, California, where I grew up, during the 1950s the Western Auto store was located in the Foskett & Elworthy building, which was the first brick and masonry building in town:
25. Foskett & Elworthy Building | ConcordHistory.Com
For many years before that the building housed the only bank in town, and then a succession of retail stores after the bank was bought out.
My brother and I would go there to buy wagons, but not bicycles because we didn't think Western Auto's bikes were a particularly good value. Same as to Sears's "J.C. Higgins" brand. We would instead buy our 3-speed English "lightweight" bikes at the Pay Less drug store in Oakland, which imported British brands such as Hopper and Vulcan and sold them for $28.50. When the bike needed repair that we couldn't do ourselves, we would go to a "real" bike shop around the corner and down the street from the Western Auto Store.
Anybody remember Western Auto's brand name for wagons, trikes and bikes? I think maybe it was "Radio Flyer", but am not sure.
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