Grocery Archaeology

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2305 Schoenersville Rd, Bethlehem, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: George's IGA Address: 2305 Schoenersville Rd, Bethlehem, PA Opened: 1973 Closed: early 1990s Later Tenants: King's (early 1990s-1994) > Weis Markets (1994-2021) Photographed: January 13, 2022 I visited the Westgate Weis right after it opened in late 2021, and mentioned that it replaced a much older and smaller store in the same mall. This roughly 35,000 square foot store was originally an IGA, then the King's Market of Westgate, later being acquired by Weis and converting in 1994. I visited the store one time, probably back in around 2015 or 2016. It had the Fresh Market decor inside and wasn't that bad, but the Westgate Mall was really sad. Although the new Weis seems to be driving a bit of new traffic to the mall, there's still a lot of vacancies in the mall. Here we can see the rest of the mall, looking down to the new Weis at the far end. Here's one of the entrances to the indoor hallway portion of the mall, which seems to

1529 Broadway, Fountain Hill, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: Bottom Dollar Food Address: 1529 Broadway, Fountain Hill, PA Opened: 2011 Closed: 2015 Later Tenants: subdivided Photographed: January 8, 2021 Moving on from the Allentown area to the Bethlehem area, we find this former Bottom Dollar Food location in Fountain Hill, a small town just to the south of South Bethlehem. The store was open for four years before closing with the rest of the Bottom Dollar chain in 2015. The roughly 18,000 square foot store is today divided between Dollar General and another space that was vacant at the time of my visit. On Monday we're headed into the south side of Bethlehem to check out a small supermarket that recently closed, over on The Independent Edition !

1165 MacArthur Rd, Whitehall, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: Bottom Dollar Food, Penn Fruit previously on property Address: 1165 MacArthur Rd, Whitehall, PA Opened: 2012 Closed: 2015 Later Tenants: subdivided Photographed: January 8, 2021 (If you've already seen this... looks like I accidentally scheduled it for 2/7 instead of 3/7. Whoops.) Here's an interesting little store in the Lehigh Valley suburb of Whitehall, to the north of Allentown. The store was built as a 20,000 square foot Bottom Dollar Food discount supermarket in 2012, but it was actually built on the site of a former Penn Fruit which until its 2012 demolition was remarkably intact. The store, as you can see in the picture above, still has its tall Penn Fruit sign, just with some new tenants advertised on it. Plus, the trademark slope over the main entrance is present still on the AutoZone. Here's a look at the old store prior to its demolition. Note that the Rent-a-Center portion of the building is still standing. And now for something

501 N 6th St, Allentown, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 501 N 6th St, Allentown, PA Opened: unknown Closed: unknown Later Tenants: Kim's Market (closed 2019) Photographed: January 8, 2021 Here's a grocery store in a mostly residential neighborhood of northern Center City that didn't make it. As we'll see, it's not the store, it's the building that didn't work. This is another one I'm sure has been a grocery store for many decades but was most recently Kim's Market, which closed in 2019. If we look at the notice on the front door, it warns that the structure is unsafe and needs to be razed or repaired. Admittedly walking under the front overhang and looking in the windows freaked me out just a little bit, but no building fell on me, so I'm fine. Classic corner grocer entrance door here. The store seemed to have the opportunity to vacate, leaving behind all the fixtures and a lot of signage, but taking all merchandise out... ...and we see that there had be

1841 S 4th St, Allentown, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 1841 S 4th St, Allentown, PA Opened: 1956 Closed: 1982 Later Tenants: Hersh's IGA (1982-1990) > subdivided Photographed: January 8, 2021 Just around the corner from yesterday's Superfood is this former A&P. It was constructed in the 1960s as an A&P centennial, then closed in 1982 when it was sold to Hersh's IGA. In 1990, Hersh's merged with Traub's IGA which was in what is now the Superfood, and closed this location. Traub's later sold to Valley Farm Market and then they sold to Superfood. Here's my source on that history. Don't forget the name Hersh's, by the way, we'll be seeing more of them as we pass through Allentown. A&P and ACME were direct competitors for a very long time and this location was no different, with a former ACME just up the street. That one, however, is still a supermarket, and we're going to check it out tomorrow on The Market Report !

1501 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: Food Fair Address: 1501 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA Opened: 1959 Closed: unknown Later Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed: January 8, 2021 You can spot this former Food Fair a mile away with its still-intact tower! The 19,000 square foot building was originally the Food Fair of the Parkway Shopping Center, closing by the 1970s. The mall later had a different supermarket tenant , but the store was short-lived and the mall is now without any supermarket anchor -- or any anchor, really, for such a large strip mall. A Redner's and a GIANT remain in the area, along with an independent around a mile east where we're headed on Monday on The Independent Edition !

1587 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: Shop Fair Supermarket Address: 1587 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA Opened: unknown Closed: by 2008 Later Tenants: NSA Supermarkets (ca. 2008-ca. 2012) Photographed: January 8, 2021 Our next two days of posts are in the same strip mall! The Parkway Shopping Center here in Allentown was once home to a Food Fair, which we'll be checking out tomorrow, but more recently had the Shop Fair Supermarket (no relation to the current chain ) later replaced by the Food Saver Market, affiliated at the time with NSA Supermarkets. NSA was the precursor to what today is America's Food Basket, and their banner Ideal Food Basket is preparing to open a store over in Bethlehem. This 22,000 square foot space is now a medical facility. Tomorrow we're headed to the other end of the mall for a look at its original supermarket anchor!

2919 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA

Original Grocery Tenant: ShopRite (closed 1992) Address: 2919 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA Opened: unknown Closed: 1992 Later Tenants: Food 4 Less (closed 2006) > Food Depot (2006-2007) > Bottom Dollar Food (2010-2014) Photographed: January 8, 2021 Today's snapshot is a building that's had quite a few grocery tenants over the years. It was constructed around the 1960s as a ShopRite, likely owned by Saker/Foodarama but I'm not certain of that, then closed by 1992. It became a series of discount supermarket, first Food 4 Less, then the independent Food Depot (unrelated as far as I can tell to the NJ chain ), and most recently Bottom Dollar until their closure. When I visited, the store was being prepared to be converted to an auto parts store. But the massive metal sign structure remains out by the street, not to mention still with its painted-over Bottom Dollar sign. Check out Bottom Dollar in business here , and before they opened here . We're about three and a

Coming Soon!

Welcome to the Lehigh Valley! This region encompasses Easton, Bethlehem, and Allentown of Pennsylvania, and into the Phillipsburg area of New Jersey. We are going to be on the Pennsylvania side this time around, working our way west to east. We'll be seeing a few places in Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, along with some of the smaller towns and areas like Center Valley, Whitehall, Hellertown, and Fountain Hill. This time around (and we've been here before , back in ancient history) we'll be focusing on some of the smaller corner stores, neighborhood markets, and former supermarkets rather than the chain supermarkets. Really the only big chains with any significant presence here are GIANT and Weis, and we'll be seeing one of each but a lot of the other, more interesting (to me at least) stuff this time through. We begin tomorrow with a former supermarket here on Grocery Archaeology! But wait, there's more. Here's today's special reports! Special Report: St