Grocery Archaeology

  This December... step back in time with Grocery Archaeology! During our winter break, don't miss a collection of old photos, ads, postcards, and more related to grocery stores here on Grocery Archaeology! Regular posting will resume on January 1st with jumping into the start of New York State, but in the meantime, enjoy this historical collection and then some time off for our winter break. Enjoy!

Original Grocery Tenant: Grand Union Address: 111 Hulst Dr, Matamoras, PA Opened:  1993 Closed:  2001 Later Tenants:  Grand Union Family Markets (2001-2004) Photographed:  February 3, 2021 Yesterday we saw a former Grand Union that has remained a supermarket since, and today, we're going to check out one that closed almost 20 years ago. The Westfall Town Center was originally built with a 115,000 square foot Kmart and a 40,000 square foot Grand Union. The latter was subdivided in 2004 with multiple tenants including a movie theater, and the former was subdivided in late 2021, with 73,000 square feet of it going to ShopRite. That replaced the now-closed Montague store  just two miles east across in New Jersey. Tomorrow we're headed to the other supermarket in Matamoras on The Market Report , which is also our last Pennsylvania store!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 5684 PA-115, Blakeslee, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  Ahart's Thriftway (open by 1976) > Ahart's Market Photographed:  October 15, 2023 Time for a little bonus post! A commenter on a Flickr photo says this 15,000 square foot was originally an A&P, but by 1976, it was Ahart's Thriftway. By 1998, it was still a Thriftway, and the following year, the newer location had been opened across the street. I'm not clear whether it opened as a Thriftway and later switched to Great Valu, or if it has been a Great Valu since it opened. Now for a look at what's next door... A 45,000 square foot former Jamesway at the other end of the strip mall is now a somewhat strange indoor flea market, but it definitely has signs of its Jamesway past, including the fact that the flea market sign is a banner over the old Jamesway sign. In the bathrooms, we have a more explicit indication... The strip mall is now mostly

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 24 Main Ave, Hawley, PA Opened:  1950s Closed:  1994 Later Tenants:  Insalaco's (1994-1995) > Dutch's Market (1995-2006) > IGA (2006-2014) > Dollar General (2015- ) Photographed:  December 18, 2019 and May 28, 2023 Hawley, PA is a delightful quaint little town on the shores of Lake Wallenpaupack, a very interesting manmade lake (where you can also take a beautiful boat tour). This 13,000 square foot store was built in the 1950s by ACME and then closed in 1994, but here's where it gets interesting. Insalaco's was apparently here for just a year, opening in 1994 and closing in 1995. Dutch's Market, which has another location in Greentown which we'll be touring in a few days, was here from 1995 to 2006, at which point the store closed and was sold to the owners of the other supermarket in town, the Lake Region IGA. It operated as an IGA until 2014 (after it was beginning to close in 2011, but extended briefl

Original Grocery Tenant: Giant Market Address: 1199 Texas Palmyra Hwy, Honesdale, PA Opened:  ca. 1972 Closed:  1993 Later Tenants:  Insalaco's > subdivided Photographed:  May 28, 2023 This 25,000 square foot store was built as a Giant Market at the eastern end of the Route 6 Mall at some point around 1972 before becoming an Insalaco's. Insalaco's then moved to a former Kmart, before ultimately becoming a Weis . As AFB pointed out a few months ago (which I didn't know), there were actually four  Giant chains at one point or another. Giant-MD and Giant-PA, of course, both of which are now owned by Ahold. There was also a chain in the Binghamton area, mostly acquired by Weis; and yet another (which I didn't realize was separate from the Binghamton chain), based in Scranton and at its peak, with 25 locations. In 1971, the Scranton-based Giant Market grew from 20 to 25 stores with the acquisition of five Food Fair stores. The chain declared bankruptcy in 1983, and

  Welcome to the Poconos! The Poconos are the mountains running between Stroudsburg and the Wyoming Valley. We're going to start to the east of Carbondale in Waymart, where we'll see a store that recently changed ownership. Then we'll roughly continue east along route 6 with some stops to the south in Greentown, Daleville, Blakeslee, Mount Pocono, and Mountainhome, then moving east to the Port Jervis area for Milford and Matamoras. Believe it or not, then we're completely done with Pennsylvania! Of course, not nearly all of the grocery stores in Pennsylvania, but just the relatively few stores I've actually been to and have pictures of. There's a lot of wilderness in this area, with state forests and game lands surrounding us, so we'll be seeing a lot of small stores in small towns. But it means a lot of interesting stuff, including lots of independent stores! We're going to begin with a store in Waymart tomorrow on  The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant:  Garcia's Market Address: 824 Pittston Ave, South Side, Scranton, PA Opened:  1999 Closed:  ca. 2014 Later Tenants:  vacant, now demolished Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's store is a small former grocer on the south side of Scranton. The roughly 1,000 square foot space held several tenants over the years -- a furniture store in the 1940s, a florist in the 1960s, and a hair salon in the early 1990s -- before becoming Garcia's Market in 1999. Garcia's opened a second store diagonally across the street at 901 Pittston at some point, which later became a Super Natural Produce. We're going to check that store out tomorrow on The Independent Edition ! And very important... yesterday we took a look at the brand-new SuperFresh in Middlesex on The Market Report! Don't miss it, and check it out here !

Original Grocery Tenant:  A&P Address: 3516 Birney Ave, Moosic, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1969 Later Tenants:  A-Mart (1969-after 1971) Photographed:  August 12, 2020 Today's snapshot is the former A&P of Moosic, where we visited a store that's held a parade of different banners, ending up with The Fresh Grocer , just down the street. As we can tell in the above picture, the roughly 17,000 square foot store was a centennial store when it opened in the 1960s, then became an A&P-owned A-Mart Discount Foods location in 1969, which was in business at least through 1971 (although I can't find any ads that list the location after that year). After A-Mart, I'm not sure if there was another grocer here, but it eventually hosted a variety of other tenants including a mattress store and a car dealer, which it remains today. I mentioned the ShopRite in Moosic a lot in the Gerrity's post, and tomorrow we'll see the ShopRite just before it opened on The Market

    Moving on to the northern part of the Wyoming Valley! This time we're looking at stores in and around Scranton, ranging from Moosic to the southwest of the city, into the city itself, and then to the northeast of the city through Peckville, Archbald, Mayfield, Carbondale, and Forest City. It's a relatively brief survey of the area, but we'll see a fair number of stores in the time we're here which will be a little less than a month. With around 76,000 people, Scranton is the largest city in this part of Pennsylvania, and the seventh-largest in Pennsylvania overall. Like the Wilkes-Barre area, we'll be touring quite a few Gerrity's, but there are also a lot of independents in this area. Lots of exciting stuff is coming soon, starting with a Gerrity's tomorrow on  The Market Report ! Also today... two special reports over in Manhattan! Wegmans - Astor Place, Manhattan, NY SuperFresh - Two Bridges, Manhattan, NY

Original Grocery Tenant: Kunec's Market Address: 302 Maffett St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  by 1946 Closed:  by 2017 Later Tenants:  vacant Photographed:  December 22, 2018 At the corner of Maffett and Hollenback Streets in northern Wilkes-Barre sits this 1800 square foot store. Unfortunately, Kunec's Market closed by 2017 after more than 70 years in business. The store was open by 1946. I think by the end, Kunec's was mostly a deli and butcher shop, but it appears it was once more of a full grocery store. The store closed by 2017 but then in 2018 was condemned. Despite that, by 2022, it was still standing but further deteriorated. It's possible that the apparently hand-painted Kunec's Market signage was original to the store's opening, if likely restored later. Like Harry's , I wish I could've gotten to this store when it was still open, but I'm glad I got there soon after it closed. All I can do is keep visiting grocery stores, especially interes

Original Grocery Tenant: Big V ShopRite Address: 675 Kidder St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  1990s Closed:  2001 Later Tenants:  vacant, half now Ollie's Bargain Outlet Photographed:  December 22, 2018 I mentioned on one of our recent Gerrity's posts that Wakefern used to have a presence in the Wyoming Valley, actually as early as 1981 (not sure if they were here before that). I believe most of that presence was driven by member Big V, which also had a large presence in the Hudson Valley of New York. For a quick recap, they attempted to leave Wakefern around 2000, trying to simultaneously convince Wakefern they were going off on their own to avoid paying the penalty to leave while also having very public negotiations with Stop & Shop to sell the chain to them. Wakefern rejected their argument, required they pay the penalty to leave the coop, and that bankrupted Big V. Wakefern bought back most of Big V's assets (one store went to Stop & Shop), but some stores just

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 500 Scott St, Wilkes-Barre, PA Opened:  by 1962 Closed:  1970s Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  December 22, 2018 Today's snapshot is a not-particularly-good picture of a former A&P to the east of downtown Wilkes-Barre. The 12,000 square foot store was built between 1959 and 1962, making it one of the earlier centennials. It was definitely closed by 1985 but most likely by the previous decade. Here's a better look at the store. Interestingly, a little grocer called La Isla Fresh Market has opened in a tiny sliver of the old A&P (or actually maybe in what used to be a bank next to the A&P?). But tomorrow we have a much more in-depth look at a larger former supermarket very close to this store right here on Grocery Archaeology!