Grocery Archaeology

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 Independ

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