Grocery Archaeology

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 220 E Diamond Ave, Hazleton, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  after 1976 Later Tenants:  Dollar General Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Just a few doors down from yesterday's Mi Tierra , we see this 15,400 square foot Dollar General, the building of which was originally occupied by A&P. It appears that the A&P was built as a roughly 9,000 square foot barrel-roof building in the 1950s before closing at some point after 1976, probably in the 80s. I'm not sure if there was another grocery store here between A&P and Dollar General, or what else was in the space during that time. Up next we're headed towards West Hazleton, about a mile and a half northwest from here, for the Boyer's in town on The Market Report !

Original Grocery Tenant: Heritage ShurSave Address: 601 S Poplar St, Hazleton, PA Opened:  2007 Closed:  2018 Later Tenants:  none Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Our first store in Hazleton is in the southern part of the city, and is unfortunately a grocery store that closed some time ago. You can still make out the word Heritage that remains on the roof, and Heritage Fresh Foods (a ShurSave affiliate) previously occupied some of the building. Before that it was the Pocono Market Faire, and originally an industrial building. The Heritage supermarket opened in 2007 along with a dollar store as part of the supposed reinvention of the location, with a buffet and restaurant later opening and subsequently closing less than a year later in 2011. What amounts to an indoor amusement park was also planned, but as far as I can tell, never constructed in the 170,000 square foot building. Today, the building is mostly vacant. Now we're heading into the downtown area from the...

  Welcome back from summer break! We are back in the Coal Region now, where we  left off  before the Harrisburg area, and in fact our first stop is just under 10 miles from Mahanoy City. Most of our time in this part of the Coal Region will be spent in and around Hazleton, with a few stops outside the city in White Haven, Freeland, Conyngham, and Berwick, from east to west. Hazleton has an interesting mix of supermarkets, ranging from little independent grocers that have been in business for a long time to newcomers from outside the city, and we'll be seeing eight interesting current and former stores in Hazleton before checking out the others. We'll be spending just under three weeks here, and then we're headed north. Head over to The Market Report tomorrow to check out our first stop just to the south of Hazleton!