Grocery Archaeology

Original Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 1507 Lititz Pk, Lancaster, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1982 Later Tenants:  Rea & Derick (1983-1991) > CVS (1991- ) Photographed:  August 20, 2019 We should all be able to tell right away who the original tenant here on Lititz Pike north of downtown Lancaster was! The 19,000 square foot pitched-roof store was built as an ACME in the 1960s. I'm surprised that the facade hasn't been renovated more since CVS has been here, but it's still looking a lot like it once did as an ACME. JoshAustin610 provides some more detail on the history of this store location, noting that it closed in 1982. There's no more ACME here, but there is a Weis about 3/4 of a mile west, a Whole Foods about 1/4 of a mile west, and a GIANT slightly less than that to the north. The latter is where we're headed tomorrow on The Market Report !

  Welcome to the Lancaster, PA area! Coloquially referred to as  Pennsylvania Dutch Country , the area's Amish population has made it well-known as a tourism and agricultural area. We're going to be taking a look at some of the supermarkets in this area, which are a fascinating variety. We're going to start in Downingtown to the southeast, which is roughly equidistant (30 miles or so) from the city centers of Philadelphia and Lancaster, a small to midsized city of about 60,000. Then we're headed northwest to Morgantown, through New Holland roughly halfway between Morgantown and Lancaster, and then into the city of Lancaster itself. From there, we'll be making a northward trek through Lititz, Akron, Ephrata, and then finally Denver. Denver brings us within about 10 miles of Reading, PA, which will be our next group. It's going to be a really interesting group here, with a sampling of Philadelphia suburb-style supermarkets in Downingtown, country supermarkets with...

Original Tenant: Shop n Bag Address: 2134 Street Rd, Bensalem, PA Opened:  1960s/70s Closed:  ca. early 1980s Later Tenants:  Food Check (1980s-late 1980s) > Staples (1988-2003) > Office Depot (2006-2010) > Bottom Dollar Food (2011-2015) > Jerusalem Furniture (2016- ) Photographed:  December 28, 2021 An obvious former Bottom Dollar Food location here in Bensalem has become a furniture store for the past five years or so. Check out the full history here and here . The 21,000 square foot store has a lot of similarities to the Cinnaminson location we saw not too long ago. There's also a Redner's a little under half a mile west, and an Amazon Fresh coming soon about a quarter of a mile southeast, not to mention a GIANT about 3/4 of a mile north and other assorted markets closer, so there's a lot of competition around here. Tomorrow, we continue our westward trek, this time moving about five miles northwest to our next stop in Feasterville-Trevose on The I...

Original Tenant: Pathmark Address: 500 Lincoln Hwy, Fairless Hills, PA Opened:  1994 Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  Funzilla Photographed:  January 6, 2020 We arrive at the former Fairless Hills Pathmark, another 1990s build store of roughly 60,000 square feet. Pathmark moved from an original Supermarkets General-owned ShopRite that converted to Pathmark in 1968 across the parking lot in 1994. These days, I believe the store has been subdivided with the bulk going to Funzilla, an indoor playground trampoline thingy. As we see, the facade has not been renovated in any way other than paint and new signage. Up next we're heading to the south a little bit to go over to Bristol, right on the river. Check out our next store on The Independent Edition !

  I try to gather my stores into groups that make sense geographically, but in this case the only thing I could come up with is stores clustered around the interstate, route 276, between Morrisville and Audubon! We will be starting on the eastern side in Morrisville and making stops in Fairless Hills, Bristol, Bensalem, Feasterville-Trevose, Horsham, Dresher, Ambler, Lafayette Hill, Conshohocken, Norristown, West Norriton, and Audubon. It's a lot of stops, so we'll be spending a little more than a month passing through this area. It's a total distance from east to west of roughly 40 miles so it's not too long but it is a significant enough distance that we will be moving from Philadelphia suburbs to the beginning of more rural areas to the west of Philadelphia. And once we're done with this, we'll be on to the Lancaster area! Tomorrow, we begin over on The Independent Edition for the first post.

Original Tenant: A&P (possible) Address: 123 S Easton Rd, Glenside, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Fine Wine & Good Spirits Photographed:  July 22, 2021 We're here in the middle of the small town of Glenside, PA, to check out this building that I suspect was previously a grocery store. Of course, I don't know that for a fact, but JoshAustin610 lists an A&P at 132 S Easton Rd in Glenside from 1953 to 1964. Well, I don't see any building at 132 that's obviously a former A&P, but especially given this building's apparent similarity to the American Family Market in Narberth (a former A&P), I think it's possible 123 was incorrectly transcribed at some point as 132. That said, 136 S Easton Road also looks a fair amount like a former A&P, and the building where 132 would be appears to be much newer than the 1950s so it's possible either 136 was the A&P, or 132 is long gone. Either way, this building looks a lot ...

    We are moving out from Philadelphia into lower Montgomery County! The space between the Philadelphia area and the Allentown area (the Lehigh Valley) is mostly filled by Bucks and Montgomery counties. We are beginning with a look at the southern part of Montgomery County with Elkins Park and Cheltenham/Wyncote right on the Philadelphia border, then moving north to Glenside and Jenkintown. This is a pretty short group, so we're going to spend two weeks in this area before beginning to head west farther into Pennsylvania. On Monday, we're going to see an Asian supermarket over on The Market Report , so head over there to check it out!

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 301 W Chelten Ave, Germantown, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  ca. 1976 Later Tenants:  ShopRite (ca. 1976-ca. 2003) > The Fresh Grocer (ca. 2003-2011) > subdivided Photographed:  July 2021 Not a great picture, but a quick shot of the former Fresh Grocer in Germantown. This store, just a block west of Chelten Market , was originally a 1950s-era Penn Fruit before being sold to some ShopRite owner in the late 70s (probably in 1976), which closed around 2003. The Fresh Grocer opened shortly thereafter and then closed in early 2011. The 33,000 square foot store was subdivided into several smaller stores, including a Dollar Tree. At the same time, Save-A-Lot built a new store behind this existing building with a roughly 17,000 square foot footprint. Interestingly enough, at least initially, the Save-A-Lot was relocating from 5753 Wayne Ave and would be, like the closed Fresh Grocer, owned by the Burns family . Interes...

  It's time to move on to our final group of stores in Philadelphia! Again, the map in the graphic above is approximate, but it gives you an idea. We're in northwestern Philadelphia, starting in Germantown which is about five and a half miles outside of Center City. From there, we move into seriously suburban Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill in the far northwestern corner of the city. Germantown has a small business district area, where we'll be seeing three stores (plus one out in East Germantown). Mount Airy has a few scattered supermarkets and so does Chestnut Hill. It's not a very long group -- it'll only take up about two weeks before we move on to our next round of Philadelphia suburbs. But there are certainly some interesting things to see around here. Head to The Market Report on Monday for our first stop in East Germantown!

Original Tenant: Penn Fruit Address: 6150 N 5th St, Olney, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1940s Closed:  by 1979 Later Tenants:  CVS (ca. 1985- ) Photographed:  July 2021 Quick stop here just west of yesterday's H Mart . This roughly 13,000 square foot building has been a CVS since at least around 1985, and according to JoshAustin610 , it was built on the site of a demolished Penn Fruit. Looking at Historic Aerials, we can see that there's been a building here since at least 1948, but I can't find any evidence that the building was demolished at any point. In fact, there's a pretty clear progression of the building staying exactly as it is and being expanded several times. The original structure appears to be a 6100 square foot Penn Fruit with a 2400 square foot smaller store next to it. An addition of roughly 3200 square feet was built out on the other side of the property, towards the parking lot. If you look carefully, you can actually see the seam between the Penn F...

Original Tenant: Food Fair Address: 766-776 Adams Ave, Lawncrest, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  by 1980 Later Tenants:  car dealership > Strauss Auto > STS Tire > Advance Auto Parts Photographed:  July 2021 We're starting out in Lawncrest with a few drive-by photos of this former Food Fair store on Adams Avenue at Roosevelt Boulevard. I got lucky with a very beautiful sunset sky as I was going by on a summer evening. Unfortunately, I don't have much more information on this store's history, beyond the fact that it appears to have opened in the 1950s and closed by 1980. Not sure if it ever was a Pantry Pride, but it doesn't seem to have been. Once it closed, it was a car dealership building before becoming an auto parts store. The store looks to have been originally around 15,000 square feet and later expanded by roughly 4600 square feet. If I had to guess, I would bet that that was done after Food Fair closed and not by Food Fair. In the first ...

  Starting next week, we are onto our second-to-last group of Philadelphia neighborhoods. (Remember when I told you I don't have a whole lot of coverage in this city? In just 18 more posts we'll have seen all of my Philadelphia stores.) We begin in the southern part of Lawncrest near Roosevelt Boulevard for three stores, then checking out some independent stores in central Lawncrest. Once we finish those, we're crossing the Tacony Creek to Olney for two chain supermarkets and a former supermarket there. Monday will be our first stop here on Grocery Archaeology!

Original Tenant:  Penn Fruit Address: 5147 Frankford Ave, Frankford, Philadelphia, PA Opened:  1955 Closed:  1978 Later Tenants:  Holiday Thriftway (ca. 1979-2016) Photographed:  July 2021 There are a few supermarkets out there, current and former, that are absolute classics that every supermarket fan knows about. This is surely in the top 5 best-known current and former supermarkets in this area (maybe the east coast?). In 1955, the Penn Fruit company built a roughly 16,000 square foot arched-roof supermarket at Frankford and Pratt in Philadelphia. To them at the time, it was not a particularly remarkable location -- just another store of the type they were building across the region at the time. The Penn Fruit closed in 1978 and was replaced shortly thereafter by Holiday Thriftway, which had a few locations around Philadelphia at various times. And at some point, it was expanded to just under 28,000 square feet with an additional 6,000 square feet of retail i...