[6] White Front traced its origin to the opening of a small Los Angeles self-service grocery store on Central Avenue near 77th Street by a 23-year redhead named Harry Blackman just a few weeks before the stock market crash of 1929.

[7] A 1934 article in the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record showed that Blackman's grocery store, White Front Market, was located at 7710 South Central Avenue[8] and a 1940 ad in the Los Angeles Times also showed the market was still at the same address six years later.

He later branched out and start selling other small household appliances in his grocery store, such as toasters and steam irons.

[12] By 1954, the company changed its name to White Front Stores and started to carry other items besides appliances such as furniture, jewelry, carpeting, luggage, cameras, and silverware.

[21] With a large infusion of cash from its new parent Interstate, White Front was able to rapidly expand throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area and into the rest of California.

[23][24] Celebrities at the grand opening included the California attorney general Stanley Mosk and actress Marilyn Maxwell.

in East Los Angeles in October 1961 by converting an existing building that was previously being used as the general offices and also as a warehouse.

[27] Grand opening celebrities included were actors Keenan Wynn, Mark Stevens, Gail Davis and Greta Thyssen.

[28] The sixth White Front store was opened on Orange Show Road in San Bernardino in October 1962.

[29] Celebrities included were actors Johnny Weissmuller, Greta Thyssen, Alan Mowbray, and Gail Davis.

[31] Celebrities included were actors Greta Thyssen, Alan Mowbray, Keenan Wynn and Gail Davis.

Celebrities attending included actors Jayne Mansfield,[38] George Jessel, Marvin Miller, Troy Donahue, and Gail Davis.

[46][47] Celebrities included were actors Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay, Gail Davis, and Marvin Miller.

[49] Celebrities included were actors Mamie Van Doren, Marvin Miller, Rick Jason, and Gail Davis.

The 17th White Front store was opened at Florin Road and Stockton Boulevard in South Sacramento in September 1965.

Celebrities included were actors Carol Channing, Jayne Mansfield, Marvin Miller, Rick Jason, and Gail Davis plus the musical group Liverpool Five.

[58] Celebrities included were actors Jayne Mansfield, Rick Jason, Marvin Miller, and Gail Davis plus the Jerry Gray Orchestra.

[70] Celebrities included were singing star John Gary; comedian Pat Paulsen; and actors Rose Marie and Lainie Kazan.

[73][74] Celebrities included were singer Bill Medley of the The Righteous Brothers; comedian Charles Nelson Reilly; plus actors Richard X. Slattery, Barbara Stuart, Dick Gautier, Warren Berlinger, Elizabeth Allen, Ann B. Davis, Bill Mumy, Susan Saint James, and Jay Silverheels.

Although there exists newspaper articles that reports the April 1970 land purchase for the site of the future 120,000-square-foot White Front store on California Avenue in what would be the Bakersfield Plaza shopping center in Bakersfield,[87][88] no verifiable newspaper articles can be located to verify when the grand opening of this store had actually occurred.

[93] White Front entered the Seattle/Tacoma market on October 19, 1967, with the North Seattle location in a 155,000-square-foot building and a parking lot with a capacity for 1,000 vehicles.

[100] According to a December 14 article in The Seattle Times, the company stated that "the five stores hadn't begun to turn a profit".

[101] While the company was quiet about the closures, local factors including the "Boeing Bust", could have played a role in the downturn of the chain in the area.

[citation needed] In an article published by The Seattle Times (on June 16, 1972) General Manager Walter Craig, explained that the stores had yet to make a profit in the Northwest but wanted to retool the stores for the customer base by adding more lights, widening aisles for better traffic flow, repainting the exterior of the building, and restriping the parking lots spending $250,000.

The grand opening ceremony featured game show host Allen Ludden of Password, actress Ann B. Davis of The Brady Bunch, recording artist John Gary, and then little known singer Neil Diamond performing with the Seattle-based rock band Springfield Rifle (most store openings were promoted by Hollywood stars).

[opinion][citation needed] White Front closed their Thousand Oaks store in early November 1972.

The search for new potential replacement tenants in some communities was hindered by the glut of vacant big store sites created by the Recession of 1969–1970.

Other large retailers that closed stores in this period included G.E.M..[119] J.C. Penney obtained four vacant former White Front sites (in Concord, Fremont, South San Francisco, and Sunnyvale) plus two vacant former G. E. M. Membership Department Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area in early 1974 to introduce their The Treasury discount chain to the West Coast.

[127] The Target store in San Bernardino, California sported the archway across its facade for many years until a recent remodeling.

[citation needed] A number of independent local pharmacies continue to carry the White Front name in Costa Mesa and elsewhere, having inherited it from their former host stores, but are otherwise unrelated.