Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: Kinsley's Market Address: 1471 US-209, Brodheadsville, PA Opened:  1990s Closed:  1998 Later Tenants:  Kinsley's ShopRite (1998-2012) Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Kinsley's Market was a longtime supermarket in the small town of Broadheadsville, PA (population 1700), dating back to the 1950s around the area. Check out this history from the Pocono Record. By the 1990s, this 50,000 square foot barn-themed market was constructed, joining the Wakefern co-op in 1998 and becoming a ShopRite. The store closed in 2012 when a massive 95,000 square foot store was constructed just around the corner from this one. Here's a look at the store before it closed. Josh says there the store became a ShopRite in 2001, but Wakefern itself says that the store joined in 1998. These days the store is an outdoors/sports supply store. A 70,000 square foot Weis is also directly across the street from this store, a relatively new construction having opened as a Mr.

Original Grocery Tenant: Village ShopRite Address: 51 N 3rd St, Stroudsburg, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  2019 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  November 29, 2019 I grew up largely shopping at ShopRites owned by Village Super Market, whose stores we've seen around the Union, Essex, and Morris county areas of New Jersey, so coming to visit a store that looks and feels a lot like what I was used to growing up -- but all the way out here in Stroudsburg -- was a little strange, but pleasantly nostalgic. This ShopRite opened in the 1960s and, I believe, was owned by Village Super Market for its whole life. It was expanded out to around 47,000 square feet, with its latest renovation happening probably around 2000, and closed in 2019 when it was replaced by a store just outside of town constructed in a former Bon-Ton in the Stroud Mall. You can see a former department store at the back of this strip mall, too. Looking in through the windows here had the same feeling as Morris Plains ,

Original Grocery Tenant:  ACME Markets Address: 250 S Courtland St, East Stroudsburg, PA Opened:  1970s Closed:  ca. 1990 Later Tenants:  Mignosi's IGA (1990s) > CVS (2001- ) Photographed:  November 29, 2019 You can't miss that pitched-roof building, even if it's hidden by a new boring CVS facade! This CVS is built around an original 17,500 square foot ACME, later expanded to around 24,000 square feet. It looks like the CVS might take up only the space that was the original ACME, and the rest has been repurposed. This ACME closed around 1990, and was a Mignosi's IGA for around 10 years (same owners as the current Foodtown of East Stroudsburg ) before becoming CVS in 2001. In the back, we can definitely tell this building was an ACME! I didn't spend too much time looking around but the bones are definitely fully intact. Tomorrow, we're moving on to a very new store here in East Stroudsburg, which is just about a block south of here, on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: Mr. Z's IGA Address: 221 Skyline Dr, East Stroudsburg, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  1996 Later Tenants:  subdivided Photographed:  May 30, 2021 This store is a bit hard to see given the cars and the general lack of visibility in this mall, but the building roughly in the center-right of the picture above is a 26,000 square foot former Mr. Z's IGA. We've seen a few in this area, and the chain was purchased by Weis Markets in 1992. Here's an older picture (much closer up) with some more history. Four years later, this store closed as Mr. Z's moved across the street to the location where the Weis is currently. We'll be taking a look at that store on Monday on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: Mr. Z's IGA Address: 2610 Milford Rd, East Stroudsburg, PA Opened:  ca. 1980s Closed:  2008 Later Tenants:  Weis Markets (2008-2018) Photographed:  January 15, 2021 Today's post is a quick look inside a former Weis, originally a Mr. Z's (see here for some background). The 30,000 square foot store made it to 2018 but some combination of its poor location and the opening of a Price Chopper close by probably led to this store's demise. I was here not too long after it closed, and it seemed there was still quite a bit inside the store although key fixtures had been removed and likely repurposed elsewhere. We can't get too good a look inside, but this is what we'd see if we entered the foyer. It looks like we're looking at the customer service counter. And this area was likely where the registers were, given the marks on the flooring. Although a few Weis locations have closed in and around Stroudsburg, there's still one each in St

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 5224 Milford Rd, East Stroudsburg, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  May 31, 2021 I'm gonna start this post by saying this probably was never a supermarket. But the vacant anchor space of this strip mall certainly looks like it could have been. One small problem: the 20,000 square foot space was built after the rest of the strip mall (sometime around 2010), and seems to have been vacant since. Here's a better look at the building itself. It's possible, I suppose, that the building was intended to be a supermarket that canceled at the last minute. But it's most likely that this one was just a case of wishful thinking. But there is an open and fully functional supermarket just half a mile down route 209, towards Stroudsburg. Check it out tomorrow on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 438 Blue Valley Dr, Bangor, PA Opened:  ca. 1960s/70s Closed:  1996 Later Tenants:  Ace Hardware (2006- ) Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Welcome to Bangor, PA! We're just across the street from what's considered Pen Argyl , but very close. You've probably already figured out why we're checking out this store; the Capitol Ace Hardware is housed in a 15,000 square foot, former pitched-roof ACME. According to JoshAustin610 , ACME closed in 1996 and the space was vacant until Ace opened up about 10 years later. I assume the Mr. Z's across the street (later Weis, linked above) was the final nail in this store's coffin. But it seems to do quite well these days as a hardware store. Oh, and while I'd never write a blog about them, I do love independent small town hardware stores. Ace Hardware's entrance and exit are definitely left over from ACME, and we can see the remnants of the so-called "magic carpets&