Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Weis Markets Address: 2304 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  1960 Closed:  1999 Later Tenants:  Emerald Food Market > Eagle Supermarket > Uptown Food Market Photographed:  August 14, 2022 A quick look at what used to be Uptown Harrisburg's largest supermarket, a 16,000 square foot former Weis that later became a series of independent grocery stores, Emerald Food Market, Eagle Supermarket , and Uptown Food Market . Today, it's split between a Family Dollar and a laundromat, but the distinctive tower is still there. Next door, we have a building I suspect is also a former grocery store, but a much earlier one than this. Come back tomorrow to check it out!

Original Grocery Tenant: Miles D. Fry Address: 3200 N 2nd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  by 1921 Closed:  by 1925 Later Tenants:  assorted independent grocers Photographed:  August 14, 2022 While walking around uptown Harrisburg, I spotted this house with the telltale box built out of the side of it. This is a classic design for old grocery stores, primarily built from around 1900-1930, as the owner of the grocery store would also own (and live in) the attached house, or sometimes house with apartments rented out. While this was not a grocery store in any recent history, it was in fact a grocery store in the 1920s. Between 1921 (the earliest record I can find online of this address) and 1925, it was owned by Miles D. Fry, then R.E. Hoverter in 1925. By 1930, the space had been taken over by Harry Loper, who ran a pharmacy at the corner store. (In 1932, the attached house advertised an apartment for rent.) And as recently as 2014 , the remnants of a Family Pharmacy sign were still visibl

Original Grocery Tenant: Kings Food Markets Address: 64 Mountain Blvd, Warren, NJ Opened: unknown Closed:  January 2021 Later Tenants: vacant Photographed: June 2, 2023 Very quick return today to the former Kings in Warren, NJ, which I extensively covered a while back here . There's no visible change inside, but a new tenant has signed a lease for the space, and it's confirmed to be a grocery store , although it's not been announced yet just who that is. While I certainly don't have any inside information, I can offer a few observations and guesses. I couldn't photograph it, but I could see it: just inside the entrance is a table with blueprints on it. Sadly I couldn't read what was on them, but that to me makes it likely the new tenant will be an independent or small-chain supermarket, like a Green Way (which has taken over Kings stores in Ridgewood and Maplewood ) or some Key Food affiliate. Any larger operator -- like Trader Joe's or LIDL, for insta

Original Grocery Tenant:  ACME Markets Address: 467 Allwood Rd, Clifton, NJ O pened:  2004 Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  Seasons Supermarket (2016-2023) Photographed:  May 22, 2023 Well folks, I attempted to get to the Seasons kosher supermarket in Clifton -- the former Styertowne ACME -- before it closed, after it abruptly announced its closure this spring. Rumors suggested it wouldn't actually close until mid-June but by late May it was empty and locked up. So unfortunately we will only get the outside pictures and a brief look in through the windows. The store opened in 2016 in a former ACME that was a bit over 10 years old at the time of its closure. The 55,000 square foot store was turned into one of the larger kosher supermarkets in the area. While Seasons says they lost their lease (which is true; this will soon be home to New Jersey's second Stew Leonard's), I think the real story is not that simple. Online reviews suggest selection was drastically cut back over

Buckle up, we're headed to the state capital! Harrisburg and its surroundings are our next location to stop by, or about 35 miles west of Pine Grove where we saw the  BG's  and  Berger's . It's not a particularly exhaustive look at the grocers in and around Harrisburg, but we will be seeing some very new and very old stores in the area. We're going to start by moving through the city north to south, then crossing the Susquehanna to the west to Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, and Enola, then one final stop about 16 miles north in Millersburg. (It doesn't make a lot of sense to group it with Harrisburg, but there's nowhere else I could really put it.) Once we're done here, we're back to the Coal Region, but there's a lot of fun stuff to see in this part of the state. Get ready and check out our first store on Monday here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 1213 E Broad St, Tamaqua, PA Opened:  1970s Closed:  1993 Later Tenants:  Ahart's Thriftway (1993-1999) > BRL Grocery Outlet (closed 2018) Photographed:  November 29, 2019 We're now just outside of Tamaqua, a town of around 7000 which these days has a Boyer's right downtown, where we're headed tomorrow. The town also used to have a second supermarket, built as an A&P that closed in 1993 and became an Ahart's Thriftway. Around 2000, the space became a BRL Grocery Outlet, a local chain of discount grocery stores also referred to as Buy Rite Liquidators. They also took a former ACME in Coal Township, seen here . BRL closed in 2018 and mostly cleared out the space, except for some assorted shopping carts and some refrigerator cases seen at the back of the store. It's lucky there were lights on inside! As you can see in the first picture, I was here after dark, so it was just good luck that we can actually see inside

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address:  431 Delaware Ave, Palmerton, PA Opened:  1947 Closed:  1963 Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  December 22, 2018 It's our final stop in Palmerton, a small town of around 5400. Today there's just one supermarket, the Country Harvest Family Market , which was previously a 1970s-era ACME. ACME moved there from this location just west on the main street through town, and Country Harvest may have been a move for the former Golden Key IGA between that store and this one. Though the former ACME today is religious offices, we can see the basic structure of ACME's storefront is still intact. Now from Palmerton we're headed about seven miles northwest to Lehighton, which has a small independent grocery store going strong right downtown just like Palmerton. Check it out tomorrow on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant:  Golden Key IGA Address: 493 Delaware Ave, Palmerton, PA Opened:  ca. 1960s Closed:  ca. 2010 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  December 22, 2018 A very brief look today at the former Golden Key IGA in downtown Palmerton! It's just kind of diagonally across the street from Country Harvest, and was owned by the same people who own Country Harvest. My guess is that when ACME closed, they moved in there but decided to keep the older store too, which lasted for around 10 years beyond the opening of Country Harvest. In fact, in the 2009 street view , you can catch a glimpse of the Golden Key IGA in business. Notice the shopping carts in the window! These days, the former Golden Key is a Chinese restaurant, which appears to fill only the front half or so of the 7,000 square foot space, but as of 2021, the Golden Key IGA sign was still up ! Just west of this store in the same block is another former grocery store, where we're headed tomorrow.

  Moving to the west of the Stroudsburg area (and please note that the map above is approximate...) we're in the Coal Region! This area is named for obvious reasons, given that the area to the southwest of the Poconos was and still is a large coal production area. We're making a lot of stops in this area, mostly heading west along US-209. We start in Palmerton, then through Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Lansford, Tamaqua, New Philadelphia, Saint Clair, Pottsville (the largest town in the area), and Minersville, before turning south to stop by Pine Grove. We then circle north on the northern side of INT-81 for Ashland, Frackville, Shenandoah, and Mahanoy City. When we're in Pine Grove, we'll be only 35 miles outside of Harrisburg, which is our next group of stores. But before then, we've got a lot of small towns in the lower Coal Region area with a lot of independent and small chain stores, starting with one over on  The Independent Edition  tomorrow!