Grocery Archaeology

    We're now back in the northeastern corner of the state of Pennsylvania, for the southern part of the Wyoming Valley! The valley roughly stretches 30 miles southwest to northeast, with Wilkes-Barre in the southwestern part of the valley and Scranton in the northeastern corner. We're going to look at the area around Wilkes-Barre first, starting in Mountain Top (which, yes as you can assume, is not actually  in  the valley) and then through Nanticoke, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre itself, Luzerne, Plains, Pittston, and Duryea. GIANT and Weis are the two big chains present in this area, although regional favorite Gerrity's is present too, as well as quite a few independents and former supermarkets that we'll be checking out! Tomorrow is our first store in Mountain Top on  The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant:  independent grocer Address: 380 Bucknell Ave, Johnstown, PA Opened:  1892 Closed:  1924 Later Tenants:  A&P (1924-1939) > ACME Markets (1939-1950s) > Tioga Street Market (1950s-2017) Photographed:  January 14, 2023 Here's another snowy Johnstown shot from our contributor, who grew up around the corner from this store. We're at the corner of Bucknell and Tioga here in the Westmont section, to see a roughly 2,000 square foot store that opened in 1892 as an independent grocer, later purchased by A&P in 1924 before closing in 1939 and becoming, believe it or not, a very early ACME in the same year. ACME moved to the Bi-Lo location I mentioned in yesterday's post in the 1950s and it became the Tioga Street Market, which finally closed in 2017. There has been talk of reopening the store, but no progress that I can see. Tomorrow we have one more store in Johnstown, a snapshot of a recently-closed store over on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: Quaker Market Address: 443 S 5th Ave, Clarion, PA Opened:  1968 Closed:  1972 Later Tenants:  Comet Food Warehouse (1972-2019) > Faller's Furniture (2023- ) Photographed:  July 1, 2023 Hope you had a great weekend! Today we're taking a look at the former Comet Food Warehouse in Clarion, PA, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. It was previously owned by a company called Jefferson Grocery, whose Clearfield location we saw on Friday. This store closed in 2019, following struggles with everything from road closures to union issues (a case was brought to the NLRB in 2017 and closed in 2018 regarding this store). Here's more coverage on the store's closure. The store opened in 1968 as a Quaker Market, a chain or independent I know nothing about. Quaker closed just four years later when the store became a Comet Food Warehouse (store #12, in fact, and I have read elsewhere that Jefferson owned 13 stores in total at their peak). Today, the s

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 3055 Park Pl, Clearfield, PA Opened:  1963 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  CVS > Buck's Pizza Photographed:  June 23, 2023 I think this is the first time we've seen a former ACME that's now a pizzeria! (Although we did see a former A&P become a pizzeria up in Elizabethtown, NY .) The unmistakable pitched-roof design tops this 11,500 square foot store opened in 1963 replacing an older store at 110 E Market St that appears to have opened around the 1930s. While I'm not clear on when ACME closed or who occupied the space thereafter, I do know that it became a CVS, which eventually moved to a new-build store closer to the street, and the space is now a large pizzeria, with a church apparently taking up the back half. Sadly, it doesn't look like there's any suggestion of the high ceiling inside. By the way, we're looking at this store from across the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, though we're a

Original Grocery Tenant: Hall's Market Address: 491 E Sycamore Rd, Snow Shoe, PA Opened:  ca. 1990, 1948 in previous location Closed:  2020 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  July 2, 2023 I stopped for gas and a bathroom at the Snow Shoe, PA exit along route 80, and stumbled upon this sadly vacant 20,000 square foot carcass of Hall's Market. Having been in business since 1948 and here since 1990, Hall's was a fixture in Snow Shoe, a tiny town of around 700. The store closed in 2020 (paywall) after an electrical fire destroyed most of the building's interior, and while the owners originally planned to reopen, those plans were ultimately scrapped. But the sign remains out on the street, and interestingly enough, the convenience store at the nearby Sunoco seems to have expanded their grocery selection, likely to attract customers who would otherwise have to leave town and travel about 13 miles east to a Weis in Bellefonte for a full supermarket. Tomorrow is a look at

  I admittedly haven't spent a whole lot of time in the western part of Pennsylvania, but we are going to nevertheless take a little bit of time to look around this part of the state! On the map above I've placed the large cities (Erie and Pittsburgh) for reference, but we're going to be spending our time in Snow Shoe, Clearfield, Clarion, and Johnstown -- the first three along the I-80 corridor in northern PA, then Johnstown roughly 1/3 of the way from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, I've never been to Johnstown, but I have a friend from there and we have a quick look at two interesting stores from there thanks to them. We're going to start in Snow Shoe, with a look at a former supermarket (the only grocer in town) here on Grocery Archaeology tomorrow!

Original Grocery Tenant: Dushore Market Address: 220 Water St, Dushore, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  2021 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  August 17, 2022 The small town of Dushore, PA has a Hurley's IGA today, but not that long ago had a second store in town. The Dushore Market was here until 2021, changing ownership in 2019 and I'm not sure how long it was in business before that. A commenter on Flickr notes that the store was originally a furniture store. A sign celebrating Dushore's 150th anniversary in 2009 remains on the side of the building, a nice piece of town memorabilia. Inside, the store hasn't changed much since it was in business... We can get a really good look into the supermarket from the big windows in the front. Produce and maybe dairy was in the first aisle, meat and deli on the back wall, and frozen on the left side of the store. At around 5300 square feet, this store is about 3000 square feet smaller than Hurley's. We can see the insi

Original Grocery Tenant: Forksville General Store Address: 22 Bridge St, Forksville, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Big Mike's Steaks & Hoagies Photographed:  August 18, 2022 Today's post is not a very long or detailed one, but what's now Big Mike's Steaks & Hoagies was previously the Forksville General Store, and Big Mike's bought the place around 2005. Over time, it appears to have been slowly transitioning from general store to restaurant. The steaks in question, by the way, are cheese steaks. This is one of the only businesses in Forksville, a borough of just 110. It does have a post office , though. There are some historical relics left over from the general store, such as these door handles for Sunbeam Bread. Big Mike's is known for great and big subs (or hoagies, as I should call them). I had a hoagie at Big Mike's and it was fine, but not special. It sure was huge though. The general store, located just next to the Fo

Original Grocery Tenant: Orlie's Market & Deli Address: 4 S Main St, Muncy, PA Opened:  1962 Closed:  ca. 2014 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  August 19, 2022 Orlie's Market & Deli in Muncy was a corner grocer in business going all the way back to 1962, but finally closed around 2014. Unfortunately, it looks like the 3500 square foot space has been vacant since then. It also looks like Orlie's was owned by the same folks as Orlando's, the Italian restaurant next door on South Main. Muncy doesn't have a grocery store downtown anymore, but there is a Weis about a mile and a half outside of town. There's also an independent supermarket about four miles northeast in the next town, where we're headed on Monday on The Independent Edition !