Grocery Archaeology

  Having completed the Harrisburg area, we're now headed off to summer break! We've got three weeks off from regular posting, during which time we might be checking out some updates and other notable news, but on July 17th we're back and resuming our visit to the Coal Region. Lots more to come (and to be honest... I didn't have a lot of time in the spring to write, so this is also to help me catch up writing)! In the meantime, enjoy the weather and the beach, or however you might be spending your summer and I'll see you soon!

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 429 N Enola Rd, Enola, PA Opened:  1960s Closed:  1983 Later Tenants:  SuperFresh (1983-2002) > ShurFine (2002-2017) Photographed:  August 15, 2022 Quick look today at a former supermarket in Enola, PA, built actually as a Centennial A&P and later converted to SuperFresh in 1983 before closing in 2002. A ShurFine operator opened later the same year and closed in 2017, the same year the new Weis opened about two and a half miles west. The 30,000 square foot store has been split between a Family Dollar and a PennDOT facility. That's all for Enola, and our final store in this area is about 16 miles north along the Susquehanna River, tomorrow on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: ShopRite Address: 1717 River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ Opened:  1990s Closed:  June 15, 2023 Later Tenants:  TBA Photographed:  June 16, 2023 The new ShopRite of Fair Lawn opened yesterday and on Thursday night, this little ShopRite on River Road closed in preparation for the new store. The 49,000 square foot store was built in the 90s on the site of a former Stop & Shop and was replaced with the new store in a former Pathmark. There was clearly some confusion over this move, given that in the 10 or so minutes I spent photographing the store, at least half a dozen people attempted to shop here, such as the person seen in the blue shirt above. There was some work going on inside, likely to remove any remaining merchandise or fixtures, and the workers occasionally turned people away. We don't get to see too much inside the store, but if you want to see what it looked like when it was in business, check out my previous post here . The carts were ...

Original Grocery Tenant: ACME Markets Address: 250 Reily St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  1940 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Midtown Harrisburg is home to this 10,000 square foot building today housing the Midtown Cinema, but originally a 1940-built ACME. The building's facade was recently renovated, and here's a look at what it used to look like. The building is long and thin in the style of ACMEs of that era. I don't have a closing date for this store, and I also don't know if it relocated somewhere nearby or just closed. There's a grocery store just a few blocks away from this building still in operation today, and we'll be checking it out on Monday on The Independent Edition !

Original Grocery Tenant: unknown Address: 2300 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  unknown Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  assorted non-grocery tenants Photographed:  August 14, 2022 Now I'm not sure that this building ever contained a grocery store, but what's now the Emerald Chinese Restaurant at Emerald and N 3rd in Harrisburg has some of the markers I look for in early 1900s grocery store buildings. The sign and awning have some similarities to early grocery stores, but I think more important is the windows along the left side wall of the building that look a lot like windows that run down the side of grocery stores elsewhere. On the other hand, I'm sure that tomorrow's stop was a grocery store -- come back to check it out tomorrow as we move towards downtown Harrisburg!

Original Grocery Tenant: Weis Markets Address: 2304 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  1960 Closed:  1999 Later Tenants:  Emerald Food Market > Eagle Supermarket > Uptown Food Market Photographed:  August 14, 2022 A quick look at what used to be Uptown Harrisburg's largest supermarket, a 16,000 square foot former Weis that later became a series of independent grocery stores, Emerald Food Market, Eagle Supermarket , and Uptown Food Market . Today, it's split between a Family Dollar and a laundromat, but the distinctive tower is still there. Next door, we have a building I suspect is also a former grocery store, but a much earlier one than this. Come back tomorrow to check it out!

Original Grocery Tenant: Miles D. Fry Address: 3200 N 2nd St, Harrisburg, PA Opened:  by 1921 Closed:  by 1925 Later Tenants:  assorted independent grocers Photographed:  August 14, 2022 While walking around uptown Harrisburg, I spotted this house with the telltale box built out of the side of it. This is a classic design for old grocery stores, primarily built from around 1900-1930, as the owner of the grocery store would also own (and live in) the attached house, or sometimes house with apartments rented out. While this was not a grocery store in any recent history, it was in fact a grocery store in the 1920s. Between 1921 (the earliest record I can find online of this address) and 1925, it was owned by Miles D. Fry, then R.E. Hoverter in 1925. By 1930, the space had been taken over by Harry Loper, who ran a pharmacy at the corner store. (In 1932, the attached house advertised an apartment for rent.) And as recently as 2014 , the remnants of a Family Pharmacy sig...

Original Grocery Tenant: Kings Food Markets Address: 64 Mountain Blvd, Warren, NJ Opened: unknown Closed:  January 2021 Later Tenants: vacant Photographed: June 2, 2023 Very quick return today to the former Kings in Warren, NJ, which I extensively covered a while back here . There's no visible change inside, but a new tenant has signed a lease for the space, and it's confirmed to be a grocery store , although it's not been announced yet just who that is. While I certainly don't have any inside information, I can offer a few observations and guesses. I couldn't photograph it, but I could see it: just inside the entrance is a table with blueprints on it. Sadly I couldn't read what was on them, but that to me makes it likely the new tenant will be an independent or small-chain supermarket, like a Green Way (which has taken over Kings stores in Ridgewood and Maplewood ) or some Key Food affiliate. Any larger operator -- like Trader Joe's or LIDL, for insta...

Original Grocery Tenant:  ACME Markets Address: 467 Allwood Rd, Clifton, NJ O pened:  2004 Closed:  2015 Later Tenants:  Seasons Supermarket (2016-2023) Photographed:  May 22, 2023 Well folks, I attempted to get to the Seasons kosher supermarket in Clifton -- the former Styertowne ACME -- before it closed, after it abruptly announced its closure this spring. Rumors suggested it wouldn't actually close until mid-June but by late May it was empty and locked up. So unfortunately we will only get the outside pictures and a brief look in through the windows. The store opened in 2016 in a former ACME that was a bit over 10 years old at the time of its closure. The 55,000 square foot store was turned into one of the larger kosher supermarkets in the area. While Seasons says they lost their lease (which is true; this will soon be home to New Jersey's second Stew Leonard's), I think the real story is not that simple. Online reviews suggest selection was drastically cu...

Buckle up, we're headed to the state capital! Harrisburg and its surroundings are our next location to stop by, or about 35 miles west of Pine Grove where we saw the  BG's  and  Berger's . It's not a particularly exhaustive look at the grocers in and around Harrisburg, but we will be seeing some very new and very old stores in the area. We're going to start by moving through the city north to south, then crossing the Susquehanna to the west to Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, and Enola, then one final stop about 16 miles north in Millersburg. (It doesn't make a lot of sense to group it with Harrisburg, but there's nowhere else I could really put it.) Once we're done here, we're back to the Coal Region, but there's a lot of fun stuff to see in this part of the state. Get ready and check out our first store on Monday here on Grocery Archaeology!